Grouse Mountain

The three ski areas in North Vancouver - Mt Seymour, Cypress Mountain and Grouse Mountain apparently all agreed weeks ago that they would finish the ski season on April 15th. Since that decision there has been further snow falls, leading to a snow pack on Grouse Mountain of nearly five meters.

When we got back to Vancouver after the Spring Break, Paula and Kerrie went up Grouse, Kerrie decided to take a Snow-limousine tour of the mountain and
talked Paula into going with her.

The kids then did the snow-limo tour the next weekend as an introduction to skis and to the runs on Grouse Mountain. They did a 30 minute tour which cost C$50 each. The guys that took the kids took them on an extra run because they had gone down the runs faster than anyone they had taken in the previous 3 weeks. They said it was great fun.

Gibson's Landing to North Van

We stayed at "Camp Too", at Soame's Point with Betty, Bruce and Patty. Betty lives right on the beach with a view across the water to the Sea to Sky Highway and Cypress Mountain. Looking to the left about a kilometer away was the Langdale ferry terminal. It is a beautiful place to live. A couple of kilometers away is Gibson's Landing, the setting of the TV series - "The Beachcombers".
It was drizzling rain on and off, so we headed into Gibson's to have a look around. We all took off in different directions to explore the town. Some headed to the shops, while I headed for the the harbour area. I can imagine that this would be a hive of activity in the summer. There are harbourside restaurants and oyster bars that are pretty quiet at the moment, and a great little sheltered harbour.
After lunch we decided to brave the weather and take a hike to the top of Soame's Hill. Bruce, Patty, Bridget, Daniel and I got into our wet weather gear and headed for the hill. The start of the track was in rainforest with spruce, birch, fir and cedar trees. As we climbed the ferns became fewer, and the top was more exposed and rocky. On the way up the breeze picked up and we were hit by a hail storm. Bruce suggested that a hail storm usually comes at the end of a storm and is followed by clear weather. As we got to the top the blue sky was appearing and we got some reasonable views down the coast and across to Vancouver Island.
Paula and Kerrie had a great time chatting with Betty, who is 84, and was brought up in Churchill, Manitoba. That is on the shores of Hudson Bay and in polar bear country. Her father had been a fur trapper. She had some great stories to tell, and photos and relics to show. She also invited us to come back and stay, and suggested that the kids could even go there by themselves if they wished. All they would have to do is catch a bus to Horseshoe Bay, jump on a ferry, and then walk from the ferry terminal along the beach to her house. Maybe they will take her up on the offer in the summer. We needed to head off so we caught a late afternoon ferry back to Horseshoe Bay to complete an interesting, albeit quick circular trip around Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. At least we know some places that we would like to get back to again when we have more time.

Campbell River to Gibson's Landing

We left the house on Quadra at about 10 am to catch the ferry to Campbell River which is on the 50th parallel. We stopped near the port to have a look around and also to get some lunch. When I was walking around the wharf I spotted a large troller that had been mentioned in an article that I had read in the local paper. Apparently about a week earlier the captain of a tug boat had been lost overboard while they were on their way back into port. The story of his rescue by the Pacific Faith is here. I also saw something like a mink running along the wharf.

We had a couple of hours until the next ferry from Comox to Powell River so we took it easy and drove down the coast road. On the way we went through Ocean Grove and also saw the Lorne Hotel. The names remind me of home. After a quick drive through Comox we headed towards the ferry departure area. We had a wait of about an hour, and then a crossing of around 1.5 hours to the mainland to Powell River. The crossing was a little bumpy, but not too bad.

We arrived at Powell River a bit later than expected and had to rush down the coast to make the next ferry connection from Saltery Bay to Earl's Cove. This part of the BC coast is only accessible via the ferries. There is no access across the mountains. We had arranged to have dinner with Bruce and Patty, at Bruce's mum's house in Gibson's Landing, and if we missed the next ferry we wouldn't be there till very late. We ended up making the connection with about 10 minutes to spare, but didn't see much of Powell River.

Victoria to Quadra

We decided to drive around the harbour to have breakfast at a marina I remembered from last time we were here. I remembered a sheltered harbour with houseboats, and a house that was covered in all sorts of marine paraphernalia. By following my nose, which must have been how we found it last time, we finally turned a corner and the harbour opened up in front of us. Taking another turn towards the water we saw the "Shell House", and it brought back memories for the kids. We stopped and wandered around the house taking photos, and then headed across to the restaurant on the harbour for breakfast. Inside there was all sorts of maritime photos and real stuffed fish, trophies of past expeditions. It was a nice breakfast as we looked out over the houseboats and the harbour wondering whether it was going to rain again, or snow. Luckily it cleared for us to walk around the marina, but it was still quite cold.

When Bridget came over with her school acouple of weeks ago, they went to Parliament, the Royal BC Museum, and Craigdarroch Castle. She had said it would be a good place to have a look at, so we headed for the castle before heading north. It was situsted a few kms away from the city centre on the top of a hill that would have afforded a great view in all directions - towards the city, ocean and mountains. The view is still good, but there are lots of buildings and roofs in view.

Craigdarroch Castle is a beautiful historic Victorian-era mansion, built in the 1890s by wealthy BC coal baron Robert Dunsmuir. Rising 87 stairs up through the 4 1/2 stories, there are 39 rooms, most of which are furnished lavishly in the 1890s–1900s period. With over 20,000 square feet of space, the house and gardens are being restored exactly as they were originally built. It is an amazing building and wood features throughout the castle. The tender to build the castle was won by a Chicago firm. They prefabricated the building and shipped it in 5 railcars across the continent. RObert Dunsmuir never saw the completed castle. He died just months before it was completed, but his wife went on to live there for another 18 years. It was worth the visit.

We then headed north towards Chemainus. It was a town that relied heavily upon the wood and forestry industry. In 1983 the sawmill closed and 700 people out of a population of 400 lost their jobs. They decided to beautify the place and painted murals all around town. It is now world famous for it's murals. Take the mural tour here. It now relies heavily on tourism and has hundreds of thousands of people visiting each year. We spent a couple of hours wandering around before again continuing up the island.

To get to Quadra Island we had to first travel to Campbell River, and then get a ferry. By the time we got to Campbell River it was getting dark and everyone was hungry, so we stopped at a White Spot for a meal. We then got some groceries before taking the 9:30 pm ferry across the passage. This is a 1 1/2 km stretch of water that seperates Quadra from the mainland. It is also a stretch of water that all the cruise ships and liners use to cruise the Discovery and Inside Passage tours. The ferry crossing only took about 15 minutes. We then found our way in the dark to our accomodation. The ESL teacher at Kerrie's school had said that her parents-in-law had a place that had just been built up on Quadra, and made arrangements for us to stay there while they were visiting in Vancouver. We have never met, but may catch up with them later in the year. It was extremely kind of them, and we planned to stay for two nights.

Quadra Island is the largest of the Discovery Islands. We explored the island the next day heading north for a walk out to Bold Point. Travelling south we went to Herriot Bay, and then down to Cape Mudge home to the We Wai Kai band of the Laichwiltach People, part of the Kwakwak'awakw First Nation, and the lighthouse. We headed back to the Herriot Bay Inn for dinner.

Victoria - Capital of BC, on Vancouver Island

We went out looking for somewhere to have breakfast, so we drove into towards the harbour area. We parked the car at the wharf and walked up towards Bastion Square. We found a great little place called The Blue Carrot. We all got a cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and potato pieces for $7.95 each. Pretty good value.

We then headed towards the Royal BC Museum. We purchased a 12 month family pass, as we hope to get back a few times during the year, and then spent a couple of hours going through the exhibits. The First Nations exhibit is very interesting. As we left the museum we walked through Thunderbird Park where there are about a dozen totem poles.

One of Daniel's memories from 2001 was eating at the Old Spaghetti Factory, so we headed across the road for an early dinner. As we were eating it began to snow. The tourist books say that, "in February, the local Victorians can be found at the sidewalk cafes, and counting the blossoms." Well not this year, and this was mid March. It was nice sitting inside, watching the snowflakes fall on the bowling green next door, and the roofs and trees nearby.

After having an early dinner we were trying to decide what to do with the rest of the evening. We decided to go to the movies and watch Slumdog Millionaire. When we arrived in town this morning we parked down by the wharf. We paid for a ticket through till 6 pm. I headed down to get another ticket for the evening, or move the car, while the others decided to walk to the theatre. When I got to the car park it was about 6:15 and the parking attendant was booking cars that didn't have an evening ticket. Luckily our car was quite a way away from the pay booth, and this was where he had started. I got to the car ..... luckily no ticket, got in and decided I would find parking closer to the theater. Afterall it was after 6 pm. and most of the street parking was free. Kerrie had already seen Slum Dog Millionaire, so she went to something else while we all enjoyed it.

There are some really interesting shops around the city and it is fun just walking up and down the streets window shopping. On the way to the car we passed a few shops that we thought would be good to come back to tomorrow, and then we headed for the motel.

Spring Break - off to Victoria

It looks like we are in for a couple of days of rain. The snowline on Grouse mountain is just a couple of hundred metres up from here. We are going to Vancouver Island and taking one of the other Aussie teachers with us. Kerrie is from Melbourne and we have worked out that we have some connections through people that we both know. Her AP is a friend of mine from Wangaratta.

We went out to Coquitlam to pick Kerrie up and then headed for the ferry terminal at Tsawassen. We got there at about 12:30 pm. and purchased a Circle Pac Pass which gives us a 15% discount as long as we go in a circular direction. We intend to spend two nights in Victoria, then head up the island. We have 2 nights on Quadra Island, and then head across to the Sunshine Coast for a couple of days.

We went and had some lunch at the terminal and waited for the 2:00 pm. sailing. The trip from Tsawassen to Schwatz Bay takes about an hour and a half. It was a very cold and windy trip. We went up to the top deck to have a look around. Even in the freezing cold and blasting wind the trip is very scenic.

As were getting close to the island some of the crew began to come up to the top deck. It was raining and the wind was extremely strong. I was standing under shelter when one of the crew appeared next to me reaching out to grab the railing. She said that if she had missed grabbing the rail she would have been blown down the deck towards the back of the ferry. I looked out at the deck from where she had come and saw another crew member coming up on deck. I went to the rail in case she might need help. They had to cross about 10 meters of deck to get under cover, but as I was watching she was blown off her feet and along the wet deck to slam into a fixed metal seat on the deck. She hit two of the legs and looked hurt. I went over to help. She was rubbing her head and had also hit her leg. She was having trouble moving and the wind was blowing a gale. I tried to help her to her feet, but she couldn't, so I grabbed her under the arms and dragged her back to shelter. All the time the first crew member was watching. She called on her radio for assistance and to say how dangerous it was on the open deck and that it should be closed. Announcements came over the speakers saying that because of the danger from the wind and rain that the top deck was closed. When other crew members arrived and they had a look at her leg it was pretty bad. Her shin had hit the metal leg and there was a huge open wound about 6 cm round where open flesh and bone. I left my details as a witness and headed back downstairs for the last few minutes of the trip.

We drove to Victoria, found the motel that we had booked, unpacked and headed off for a quick tour of the city. We drove through town, along the coast, and then back to the harbour area. We stopped at a wharf where there were quite a few interesting looking houseboats, wandered around town for while and then found a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Pretty good value.

Festival du Bois at Maillardville

We decided to go to a music festival that we had heard about. The music was supposed to have a Franco-Celtic influence. We headed out to Maillardville, which is near Coquitlam, parked the car near IKEA, and walked about a km. to the entrance. It was $12/adult and $8/student. We went into the main tent where there were a variety of stalls and music on the stage. There was food and drink available. We stopped for a while at one of the stalls where they were playing music and making maple syrup toffees on sticks. It was interesting watching the smooth out a flat bed of crushed ice and ladel out a stream of syrup onto the ice. As the syrup began to cool on the ice, they got a flat stick and waited until the syrup was sticky enough to adhere to the stick. They then wound it up on the stick and kept it on the ice to harden. They tasted pretty good. We wandered around to a few other tents, played bingo in the Scout's tent, where Paula won a dynamo type wind-up torch (flashlight). We also played along with some people dressed in period costume to find the sender of a letter. We were given clues to find the people who would give us the next clue. We had to look for a C19th bus driver, a policeman, a nun and a bride in a wedding dress. All a bit of fun.

We went and got some food and sat in the main tent to listen to some of the music. It had just started to snow. When we left after about an hour, there was about 2 - 3 cm. of snow on the ground and it was still coming down pretty heavily. We had to walk back to the car through the snow. We were cold and wet by the time we got there. It snowed all the way home and continued to snow during the night.

Snow shoeing

Daniel wasn't feeling very well, so Paula Bridget and I decided to go up Grouse Mountain and use a couple of the complimentary passes for snowshoeing. We took the 4 minute ride up in the gondola, crossed over to the rental hut and each got a pair of snowshoes. They have aluminium frames that strap over your own shoes and have metal teeth under the ball of your foot. We headed off to the snowshoe park area and followed some of the trails. It was fun to walk on the fresh snow and not sink up to your knees. Bridget had fun climbing slopes and attempting to slide down, until she hit something and ended up with a bruised behind.

When we got back down the mount we went to have a look at the wolves. There are three wolves kept in a large enclosure underneath where the gondola passes. Two were white and one grey. One of them began howling as we watched. Beautiful looking fur.

LAN Party #3

I attended the 3rd LAN Party. This was again at Sutherland High School. There were 4 breakout sessions. I went to the one with the creator of Edmodo, which is a micro-blogging tool. It looks like it might have some useful applications for education.

After the Skype session, we had dinner with an Irish theme for St Patrick's Day, which is later in the month. I ended up winning a webcam as a lucky prize winner.

Ice hockey and ice cream

It was Daniel's birthday and the BCETA (British Columbian Exchange Teachers' Association) had organised a night at the hockey. The Vancouver Giants were paying the Chilliwack Bruins at the Coliseum. We had third row seats, so we were petty close to the action. The Giants have been doing well this season and it continued with a 3 - 1 scoreline at the end of the game. At one stage the Giants actually had 3 players in the penalty box. The game is played in 3 - 20 minute periods. During the breaks there were blimps flying around the stadium dropping prizes, mascots in crazy cars shooting t-shirts into the crowd, and people from the crowd being slung across the ice on a plastic disk like a rubbish bin lid from a huge slingshot, to see if they could knock down 5 large pins - sort of like ten-pin bowling, but the ball is a person. The puck travels pretty fast - up to 165 kph, and some of the guys are pretty big, and hit pretty hard. They wear padding, but still hit the ice, the perspex sheets and each other pretty hard.

After the game we went to La Casa Gelato ( http://www.lacasagelato.com ). This is an ice cream shop that has 218 flavours of icecream on display. There is music playing and people going from one end of the shop to the other tasting the flavours before makking their choices. There are flavours of every kind: garlic, wasabi, rice, curry, balsamic vinegar, as well as many more common mixtures and blends. So you could come for a curry and rice, and follow that with white chocolate and raspberry, or mango and guava.

Burlington

Paula had spoken to friends from Burlington, which was where we lived in 2001, and we decided to head down to WA in the USA for the weekend. We packed sleeping mats and sleeping bags and headed for the border. It is not worth crossing at the Peace Arch, which is the main border crossing, because it is always busy. . There are several smaller less frequented crossings so we headed inland to Abbotsford. We only had to queue for about 30 minutes. We decided to continue on the back roads, rather than head for the main highway. As we were heading away from the border we could see a few eagles in the bare branches of the trees. As we turned a corner of the road near the Nooksack River we could see several large shapes in the trees ahead. As we got closer we could see more, and counted about 14 eagles in the 3 trees just off the road.

As we got closer to Burlington, Paula and the kids were trying to identify places and things that they knew. It was mid afternoon and we were hungry, so we headed to a favourite haunt from the past - Costco. Here you could get a large slice of pizza for $1.99, and a hot dog with a never-ending cup of soft drink (pop) for $1.50. We wandered through the store tasting the samples, bought a few things, and headed off to our friend's house. They had moved to this house about 4 years ago, so Paula and the kids had not seen it. They live a few kms. out of town , near Allen Elementary, the school that I taught at in 2001.

When we arrived we were greeted by Ian and a friend, who had been practising baseball, and Lucy and Olivia, who were inside. Roger and Patty were in Seattle visiting her brother who is quite sick with cancer. They arrived home a couple of hours later, and there were greetings and hugs all around. Bridget and Lucy headed off at about 9:00pm into Burlington to play "Fugitive". Kids get dropped off a couple of kms. away from a destination and have try to get there without being tagged. Apparently they did pretty well. They almost made it to the destination. We had some wine and beer (probably too much) as we chatted past midnight.

Olivia and a friend who had also stayed the night wanted to cook pancakes for breakfast. Lucy had a volleyball tournament on at the high school, and Ian was heading off for baseball training. We decided to head to the high school to have a look at the volleyball, and then drove out to where we had lived. Bridget and Daniel wanted to try and find the house by themselves. As we got closer they began to recall the drive through the golf course and every corner we turned brought back memories.

We knew that Terry and Carol were not home, but we still stopped and walked around the house, out the back to the golf course, and up to the balcony. They went to the big tree out the back and recalled climbing it. They used to climb to about 5 or 6 mts. above the ground. They wanted to go across the road and surprise Father Richards. We headed up the walkway and Paula and I stayed out of sight. They knocked on the door and waited ...... footsteps, and then he opened the door. He looked at them and they looked back, not saying anything, but huge grins on their faces. Then he realised who they were and was very surprised. He invited us in and we stayed and chatted to him and his wife for nearly two hours.

Bridget wanted to get back home in time to watch the Oscars at 5:00pm, so we headed for the border. We stopped for a while and had a bit of a walk around Edison. Some of the teachers from Allen now teach there, and some of the kids we know go to the school. It is an interesting small town with some great old wooden buidings, and antique, or collectible shops. I can just imagine the saloon with horses tied to a rail out the front instead of the motor bike.

Luckily there was only about a 10 minute wait at the border, and we arrived home just in time to see Hugh Jackman come on stage as the compare of the Oscars.

Enrolling at school

After talking to people at school and hearing some of the stories that they related about families they had known, enrolling their kids in the district, I was not confident that they were going to be enrolled at Handsworth, our closest local high school. When they had gone through customs they had to state the school they would be attending and were told that if anything changed they would have to return to Immigration and get their paperwork and Visas adjusted. I had sent enrolment applications to the District Office back in November and was hoping that it would all work out.

We dismiss students at 2:50pm, so I headed home to pick them up and all head down to the office. We arrived just before 4:00pm, but by the time we reached the particular room it was past 4pm and they were closing. I mentioned who we were, and why we were there, and we were ushered in. I had been emailing the office and they had the kids applications all ready to go. All they needed was photocopies of passports, Visas, Birth Certificates, School reports, immunisations etc. We had everything with us - copies were taken and we were told that we would be notified as to which school they would be admitted to. According to their ages, Bridget would be placed in year 10 and Daniel in year 8. Here elementary schools go from K - grade 7, and high schools from grade 8 to grade 12. Daniel had been a bit worried about going to year 8 at a new school, but when he realised that it was the first year at high school here, it eased some of his anxiety.

It would be crazy to put Bridget in year 11 when she had just completed year 9 in Australia. Apparently year 11 is a harder year than year 12, and it would mean that she would complete the second half of year 11 and the first half of year 12 while we are here. We prepared to try and reason with the counsellors at whichever school they got into.

There was no call on Friday, so we waited until Monday morning before ringing the District Office. We were told that they had been accepted to Handsworth. This was a start in the right direction. It is only about a 10 - 15 minute walk, compared to any alternative which would have meant a bus, or car trip. We were advised that it would be OK to go to the school. They had both packed bags with folders and pencil cases etc. the night before. We drove down and went to the office. They had the paperwork there so Paula stayed with them while I headed off to my school. They spent time that morning choosing classes, and after explaining Bridget's situation she was placed in year 10, and Daniel in year 8, as we had hoped. They all then walked home and waited for Tuesday for their first classes.

Daniel had been introduced to Michael, another recent enrolment from South Africa. They are in most classes together. He is also learning French for the fist time. Last year he had 6 months of Chinese, then 6 months of Italian and now French. At least he has Bridget and Paula to help him. Bridget has done French for the past 3 years and is also doing it here. On Bridget's first day they had a PE class outside, in which they played soccer. At one stage, just after the ball had landed, a bald eagle swooped down and attacked the ball. It tried to grab the ball a couple of times before flying away. No one had seen this sort of thing before. It seemed like they had a reasonable start at school.