Friday, Saturday June 1st and 2nd, 2012

The contractors are done by noon on Friday.  Jérémy and Danielle have purchased a new stove yesterday.
Today we are moving the old and new stoves.

The old one go to "Habitat for Humanity".


And protecting the new stove during transport.  Jérémy sure keeps me busy!


I forgot to take a photo of the new stove in the house???

The "gang" come for a visit shortly after dinner.  We went for a nice stroll.  Always fun to have them around!
  

After the walk, we have a nice campfire and told lies all evening long!!!

Saturday morning Michèle and Julie went garage sale hopping while I did a deep cleaning of the roof.
I even washed the inside of the air conditioner covers and the vent covers.
It sure was needed.


A busy day!

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Sunday June 3, 2012

Another grey day!
Will it rain (again) today?

I go for a walk to Air Force Beach while the tide is low.


As I am walking on the seaweed covered rocks, I noticed some very small crabs.
Three of them are in the photo below.


A close up of one, very angry, crab!



After lunch, the weather is still uncertain with heavy clouds.  We decide to go for a car ride to Campbell River.
A nice smile on our way!


Campbell River is north of Comox and the 50th parallel goes right through town.


Once back, the sun is actually out and shinning!  The temperature is still only +14.
Forecast for the week coming up, cloudy with 40% chance of rain.
I cannot wait to have more then three days of temperature above +22.

This is an evening of TV...

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Monday, Tuesday June 4 and 5, 2012

Monday is a laid-back day.  Jérémy came after his dental appointment.  We went for a nice walk on Air Force Beach.

Tuesday is another laid-back day.  The sky is covered with clouds, but still nice at +18, we even have some moment at +20.
I spend my day at the fire and playing around my web page.


With my Michèle.

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Wednesday June 6, 2012

WOW!  The sun is out and the temperature is warm (so far).
On our way to Mount Washington and the snow.
  

We have some coupons for a cheap breakfast at A&W.  We spoil ourselves.


Very little traffic on the road to Mount Washington.  We take our time.


Every so often we come across a new road signs that makes you go, hummmm!


Once at Mount Washington, it cooled off by seven degrees.
We are at more than 1,000 meter above sea level.
  

The ski center is a lot bigger than what you see in this photo.


Just love this little lake.


Having fun!


The view to the east.  The mountains you see in the distance are on the mainland.  On the right photo, the light brown patch on this side of the water is the Comox base.
  

I was surprise to see this logging truck.  I guess they are still logging on the island.  We go down the mountain very slow.


We come back home by a different back roads.  Got to see something different, get a different taste of the local  area.
We start to smell something awful, like poop!  Not cow poop, but human poop!
And then we see this sprinkler with the brown water...


Surprise!  We heard that they may have some wild turkey on the island.
We see two of them, here is the prettiest.


We got a new resident at the campground.


Some more permanent residents.


Jérémy's little family came for a short visit after dinner.

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Thursday, Friday, June 7 and 8, 2012

Thursday is a gray day with high wind and light rain, boring day.
  

Friday is a lot better with sunny sky.  We end the day with a nice fire and a good book.
  

We got a call from Jérémy telling us he will be coming for dinner tomorrow with the whole gang.  Super!
That will be fun because Danielle's aunt is here for a visit.

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Saturday, June 9, 2012

They all arrived at 4 pm.  Jérémy, Danielle, Gabriel, grandmother Colleen, Great-grandmother Julie, Corrine (aunt) and York, her husband.

Michèle takes Gabriel right away.  He is totally passed out.


After a few beers, a few of us went for a walk.


Grandmother Colleen.  The four generation, Danielle, Colleen, Julie and Gabriel.
  

Great grandmother Julie.
  

Our cooks.  Danielle finds the BBQ pretty hot!


Jérémy got his quadcoptere with him and flies it for 15 minutes.
If you would like to see some of the video he took with his FPV airplanes, search "Bomerang 5891" on youtube.com.


From L to R, York, Corrine, me, Michèle, Julie and Jérémy.  Danielle, Colleen and Gabriel are missing.


What a nice afternoon and early evening.  Great people, lots of fun, got to meet Corrine, Danielle's aunt, and her husband.
We had lots fun!

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Sunday to Tuesday June 10 and 12, 2012

I have to catch up with my wood splitting.  We burnt a lot yesterday.


A little about the fire wood I have.
The military bought a used buffalo from Africa.  They are turning it into a training aid.  When the aircraft arrived, it was all crated up in big 4 X 6 and 4 X 4 pieces of lumber.  Jeremy got a whole lot of wood that was going to the dumpster.  Jeremy had already cut up a lot of it before we got here and when we arrived, I helped him cut the rest.  We cannot use this wood for cooking because it was sprayed with insecticide.  It sure burns nice and it stacks easy!

Monday we are at the laundromat.
What was suppose to be an easy activity turned into quite an experience.  One of the top 10 in my life.
A man walked in with his dirty laundry, nothing special with that. He takes the washing machine next to me and in the process, kind of block me in the back.  No worries.  Only one problem, he stinks!  Then he takes out his dirty laundry and it stinks even more.  Now it really stinks and I am starting to gag!  I think I am going to puke!  I manage to get away from him and go to our other machine towards the back.  Even at more than 3 meters away, I can still smell him!  I go to the front of the store where the doors are open it feels better.  After a few minutes, I notice the employee have open the back door to create a draft and take away some of the smell.  Very rare that something makes me gag, but this one was the top.  I even forgot to take a photo.

That was our Monday.

Tuesday morning and the rain is falling gently.  Gray sky, low clouds, even the light is gray.  We don't move this morning.
Jeremy and Gabriel stop for a quick visit in the afternoon.
  
  

Gabriel has cramps in his little belly, then it stops,  we have a nice "gift" from him!
We love being grandparents.

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Wednesday June 13, 2012

Jérémy and Danielle invited us for a nice hike at Nymph Falls.


This river comes from Comox lake and is regulated by BC Hydro.
  

Danielle patiently waiting for us while we are taking photos near the falls.

  

Just like the lake, the water is crystal clear.


Gabriel has some problems with his little tummy.


We love them!


Look like arms!


Nice little hike and the weather turned out OK after all.

Back at the campsite, I was taking the recycling out to the big can when I saw this slug, must have been 3 inches long, with fangs!!!  Have no fear, I got the recycling done, even with this monster looking at me.


I had this BBQ for a long time and I know I have to buy a new one soon.
Today, I let the BBQ on for a little while to burn off the grease.
Well, the handle fell off, actually, melted off.  Time to go shopping.


Another good day with the one we love.

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Thursday June 14, 2012

One thing is sure, if we wait for good weather to travel, I think we would wait forever.
We are off to Victoria.  It is raining when we leave Comox.


We head south and at North Cowichan, we take the highway 18 west to Port Renfrew.
Part of the road is a logging road, even paved, it is still narrow in many places.


One of 15 single lane bridges we crossed.


A few kilometers before Port Renfrew, we stop to see a big spruce tree.  It is more than 80 meters high.
First a photo of ourselves.


Here it is in all its glory.  200 years old and still solid.
On the right photo, a collage on 3 photos to give you a sense of how tall it is.
  

Pretty Michèle !!!


Next stop is the botanical beach park.


On our way to the beach.


When the tide is low, you can see all kinds of sea life in the tidal pool left behind, from starfish to little fish.
It turns out the high tide was just a few hours earlier and still pretty high.
  

You really need good shoes to walk on the rocks.
  

At Port Renfrew, we left highway 18 to take highway 14 to Victoria.  We assumed we would be traveling  by the ocean for some of the way.  Well we sure did see a lot of trees, but very little ocean.

Once in Victoria, we went to the information center and booked a room for the next two nights.  We chose the Dalton Hotel & Suite, about 7 blocks from the parliament building.
  
We got the room at $100.00 a night.  OK, but do not get misled by the photos from the web site.  If you pay more, you get the nice room, not that our room was bad, just cheap!

We still have a few hours before sun down, so we visit Chinatown.  The oldest Chinatown in Canada and the second oldest in north America after San Fransisco.
  



A view of the Victorian harbour and the Parliament building.


The Empress Hotel, built between 1904 and 1908 by the Canadian Pacific Railway.


They look like raisins, but they are California Lilacs.


The British Columbia Parliament Building.  Open in 1898 at a cost of $400,000.00.


We had a very good dinner...


On our way back to the hotel, who do we see?
A Dark Vader playing violin!


A busy day and tomorrow promises to be even busier.

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Friday June 15, 2012

We are up and we have to make the best of the day.  Got a lot to see in Victoria.

On our way to the information center, we notice the downtown area has free WIFI.


We decided to take the guided bus tour.  It is an hop on - hop off tour.  The whole tour takes about one hour and a half.  A bus goes by every thirty minutes.


I am just surprised to see double decker city bus.


First stop is the Parliament building.  Here is the legislative chamber of BC.


Second stop is at the Craigdarrock castle.  Built in the early 1890, it has four stories and more than 20,000 square foot.


I have never seen a round radiator, they even had a quarter round radiator.


A nice curved door.


Looking up the staircase to the fourth floor.
Pretty much the whole house had the paneling you see here.


A very modern bathroom for its time.  Even toilet paper.


Hummm!  What is this dish used for?
Do you know?
I will tell you at the end of this day.


A view from the top floor.  The mountain range you see in the distance is the Olympic range and it is in Washington state.


Our next stop is at "Mile 0" of the Trans-Canada highway.


The other end of the Trans-Canada highway is 7820 kilometers east.


Hiding!


By 2 pm, it is time for lunch at Fisherman's Wharf.


Barb's is in the top 10 seafood place by the ocean in North America.


The Fish & Chips are good, but not as good as the one from Bowpicker in Astoria.

There are a few more restaurants on the wharf and with food comes wild life.
These seals are not afraid of human.
They even come to get bait fish from your hands.


Fisherman's Wharf also has about a dozen floating houses.
Many are for sale and they are  asking over $290,000.00 for the little house.


I guess, he is a diver and wanted to show his treasures, I hope he took the batteries out of the cell phone.


We head back to our room for a short rest.
One of the bar has a very neat advertisement sign by its door.
I love it.


Later on, we head backdown towards the harbour to the IMAX theater and watched Rocky Mountain Express.
We were a little disappointed.  If you like steam locomotive, great, but very few breathtaking scenes you expect from IMAX.


Nighttime at the harbour.
The Parliament illuminated.
  

WOW!  What a busy day.  Back in our room sometime after 10 pm.

Now the answer to the question about the dish.
It is a cheese dish.
Back then, the cheese was cut like a piece of pie and placed side way on the plate and covered.

Until next time.

Life is good...