Vancouver

Some friends of mine, Brad and Mel, are going to Washington to vacation over the BC holiday. I was originally going to send this to them, but I think it 's appropriate to share the wonders of Washington with all who can google. So here's what can be done in Anacortes...

Camp at Washington Park - this is just outside of Anacortes proper and offers seclusion with quick city access.

or Camp at Fort Ebey, which even has potential surfing although this is a 45 min drive from Anacortes.

Definitely visit Deception Pass for the views. But you could go mountain biking in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands, with over 50 miles of trails and even stop by Heart or Little Cranberry lake for a dip. Even if you don't mountain bike, a cruiser can be rented here and you can hit the ferry and tour the islands. Although if the ocean is your thing... Saddlebag island is about a 2 hour paddle away by kayak, which can be rented here.

If you like climbing, Mt. Erie offers a lot of crags that have lots of routes! Plus you can take a dip at Erie, Heart, Whistle or Campbell Lakes.

I'm probably leaving out lots of stuff, but defiintely stop for a beer at the Brown Lantern and ask the locals about more stuff to do!

Dori Luthy and Briony Morrow are having a show starting August 22nd until the 31st and the opening is on Aug 26th (a friday) at the Bayview Corner. A show opening in South Whidbey is always a good time so if you're looking for some culturin', get on over there.

Duane, Dori and I went to go see the Celebration of Light last night. It is the first night of 4 days of fireworks here in Vancouver. Three countries compete by creating a musically synchronized fireworks show launched from a platform in English Bay. I'm sure it was a really good show, but we never quite made it. Instead we met for a beer before hand at the Cat's Meow. By the time we finished the fireworks were over. Then we took the AquaBus across False Creek to Duane's new place, The Discovery building. We finished the night with Duane's Ultimate Doritos Nachos and watched Dark City. Good times.

Well, it's been 3 years, but in under a week I'll be working again. For real. Not the "working" that I did at school....

Sometimes, when I walk into the bedroom and Doriis sleeping it will disturb her enough to make her speak, but not wake up. It can be really funny. I even try to carry on the conversation sometimes. This morning, Dori elicited the same response from me and I said:

"Anxiety... is somewhere between enthusiasm and a heart-attack."

Apparently, years ago, certain dances used to be referred to as "belt buckle polishers". :)

BTW, I updated the Honouring the Mother post.

Dori and I have finally been getting out! We made it to the Celluloid Social Club for some movie screenings. Some really great shorts, including a documentary from Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier when they were still in film school at VFS. The screening was held at the ANZA club. So we got a membership. This makes us official members of the Australian New Zealand Association. If you ever want to go have a beer that the ANZA lounge look us up. Tonight we just got back from the Indigo Girls. It was a an amazing show with Sara Bettens opening for them. What a great crowd and show!

I got back from SD on the 14th and left on the 15th to Tofino, BC. This is a wonderful surf town on the West ("Wet") Coast of Vancouver Island. Ann, Dori, Keiko and I went for 4 days and 3 nights. I found surfing to be wonderfully fulfilling. It is the natural thing to do in the ocean.

So I was talking to Dori about this post. Apparently, I may have left some details out that explain this better. This is a picture of Mt. St. Helens and the current lava dome that is growning in the center. Compare it to this picture when it first started erupting.

http://www.pnsn.org/NEWS/PRESS_RELEASES/MSHphoto.jpg

It seems so significant to me that we are able to witness a mountain being born. This is one of the few geological processes that creates such a massive change in such a short time. Wind, water and fire come no where close to moving such a large amount of material and creating new formations on Earth. The beauty of this eruption is the feeling of birth, where the mountain is growing from inside the remains of a mountain past.

I didn't get a chance to post this picture when I wanted to so this is a "retro" post!

This is the hay equipment that I spent the most time on. This is a called a "sweep" and is used to buck the raked hay into buckloads, which are swept into the hay stack for the stacker. The perspective of this picture doesn't show the 14 foot teeth that stick out in front of this old contraption. This is the vehicle that I learned to drive a standard.

I'm heading home. It's so strange to leave "home" to go home, but where you live and where you're heart resides, may be two different places.

Here's one last photo of a two pitch climb I did in the Black Hills.

Well, actually just crappy old Ford pickups. I've been having a great time seeing Emily and Aaron (sp?) , plus hanging out with Jesse. Jesse and I would always work on our cars together, so my pickup kindly made it possible to hang out with Jesse for a day. The water pump decided to stop pumping water. Oh well. That brings the bill up to $550 US for pickup repairs on this trip. That's not entirely fair tho. The tires were well overdue for replacement. When I pulled them off the metal belts were sticking out. I guess that's getting the full mileage out of them, eh?

I'm off to the ranch to help prepare wedding decorations and stuff. Zack and Fiona get married this coming Monday at 6pm.

Four more days until I'm back to Vancouver and then off to Tofino!

Here's some of what I've been doing. I went backpacking in Lander with Doug:











Then I came back and went 4-wheelin' with Keith:











This one is for Dori, she loves the Midwest skies:

I drove from Rapid City to Lander, WY a couple of days ago. Wow. What a trip. If you have never driven across the states here, drive I-90 and drop into Yellowstone and then make sure and drive through Lander and out Hwy 16. It was one of the most beautiful drives I have done.

I also did a great backpacking trip up in the mountains. They're called the Wind River Mountains, but the nickname "The Winds" is catching on. The mountains are all below 14k, but they are amazing.