ocean

Although I often talk about home being Calgary, I'm actually from the far east coast of Canada (not the farthest, mind you). My hometown is Halifax, Nova Scotia, and recently I've been able to make it back more often than in the past. It helps that my sister lives there now, as does my dad, and my 92 year old grandmother that I've written about before also lives in there on a farm she's been at since she was about two years old. So the draw of close family is strong.

Halifax is also an amazing little city. It has a whole bunch of universities and with thousands of students living there it's got a pretty great arts and culture scene, some decent restaurants, and perhaps best of all, practically nowhere to buy expensive things. I love that!

So, though I grew up in Calgary during junior high and high school, Halifax, slumping down to the Atlantic Ocean, is still home. And while I lived in Calgary, my dad lived in Mississippi or England, so I've had bedrooms next to both sides of the Atlantic and along the Gulf of Mexico.

I would love to go back to Mississippi, as my sister has been lucky enough to do a few times, but I know that everything has changed since I was last there. We lived right on the coast in a little place called Pass Christian, and nothing was left in the wake of Katrina. Well, some cement ("see-ment"?) pads and pool copings, but that's about it. My dad had already moved to England years before, so the foundations that are left were no longer ours when Katrina hit, outside of the memories that all of the images of the devastated coast brought back.

And now I live by the Pacific, which is not at all like the Atlantic. In Vancouver we're protected by Vancouver Island, which means we rarely see waves. The ocean laps the beaches here, at best, but I still appreciate the way it changes every day. You'd never know that the two images of the ocean from this post and one a couple of days ago were taken at almost the same spot. Today was warm-ish and bright and sunny and I discovered a beach by my office that I never knew about before. It's for dogs, but I still like it.

I think it might be hard to ever go back to living land-locked...but then again, the Rockies are pretty spectacular. What kind of natural places do you visit in your part of the world?

business time

It's been a bit all business, all the time around here (and in my life in general as both my day job and Sadie have ramped up a few notches in the past few weeks). There are still packed boxes in our new apartment and my to-do list just keeps getting longer, no matter how much I accomplish in a given day. I'm sure you know the feeling. It's just a busy time of year.

So today I just wanted to share one small thing. This is the view I have from my lunchtime walk Monday - Friday. From my office on the North Shore we have an amazing view of Burrard Inlet, the Port of Vancouver, downtown Vancouver, and more. Turn around and there are the North Shore Mountains. It's a beautiful place and on days like these, when I'm insanely busy and a bit stressed and the sun is shining (in November in Vancouver?) I have to take a walk to soak some of this in. I thought you might want to take a look, too. That right there is the Pacific Ocean, friends. What did you get up to this weekend?

camping times

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Jeff and I are going camping this weekend with some friends and some dogs. Ever since I read the Bon Appétit feature on the Pacific Northwest I've been trying to make a camping trip to the Washington coast happen.

Quite a few years ago Jeff and I had a Washington camping adventure with two friends of ours. We went down to camp and search out a natural hot springs that we had read about. It was supposed to have a beautiful view from the hot pools and be well-maintained, though not commercialized. We drove down to Washington late in the evening, probably with no clue about how far we had to go and definitely without any idea about where we might camp. We stopped at a gas station for provisions: beer and cigarettes, if I remember my early twenties correctly. We forgot firewood.

I remember sitting around a single mini maglite flashlight in "candle" mode at a picnic table in a closed campground with Laura, Rosie, and Jeff. It must have been winter or late fall, because there were no other campers in the park at all. We all slept in a four-man tent that we had rented from the outdoor equipment store Jeff and I worked at in Vancouver.

In the morning we followed the directions we had to find the road to walk into the hot springs from. We followed a rough trail off a slightly less rough road and located the power lines that were meant to guide us through what appeared on first look (and second pass) to be completely impenetrable bush. Thwarted repeatedly by our inability to locate the markers meant to guide us to this hot springs paradise, we eventually turned back towards the car. Down the highway we passed a ranger station and decided to stop in to ask about the elusive hot springs. Turns out we had been on the right track, but the hot spring pools had been dismantled and the trail purposely destroyed by the landowners who were sick of risking litigation from hot springs users. Damn American tendency to sue! We would stick to Canadian hot springs for years thereafter. And there are some good ones.

It was kind of like this, but not really:

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Where do you go camping in your part of the world? We mostly stick to mountains and forest, so I'm looking forward to this coastal excursion.

being outside

Life has been busy, and when we haven't been busy we've been outside soaking up the amazing autumn weather in our part of the world, or getting soaked by rain that is starting to show up more frequently in Vancouver. For the next three weeks Jeff, Lola, and I will be travelling to some amazing places. Can't wait to share them with you here. How is your fall going? Or is it spring where you are?

other mountains

Debris. Iona Beach, British Columbia. These were made of the most amazing collection of driftwood, docks, rope, railroad ties, lumber...they're beautiful. I can see a Sadie photoshoot happening here in the near future.

fresh air: hornby island part two

The second part of our day on Hornby Island involved a hike (really more like a leisurely walk) at Helliwell Provincial Park. I had to share so many photos of the later half of our day because it was amazing. The hike starts with a nice forest approach that leads to insanely beautiful sweeping ocean views. Mountains and islands, green cliffs, and miles of ocean make it impossible to avoid stopping to take a photo every two steps. The trail leads around a point on the island and into an old growth Douglas Fir forest. Look at the size of some of those beauties. Do I recommend visiting Hornby Island? How could I not! We also found a deer skull (which we brought home) and finished with a really delicious meal and pint at the local pub while we waited for the ferry back to Denman. This was such a great day, I hope you don't mind me sharing so many of my photos. By the way, can anyone ID the flower near the top of this post? One more island vacation post to come tomorrow, thanks for taking the time to look, read and comment!

earth day at wreck beach

Emily and I went to the beach that's on campus today. It was a nice reminder of why I came to Vancouver and UBC in the first place. It was also Earth Day at a nude beach, so the hippie element was well-represented. One dude appeared to be building a nest, another group of guys had a system of reflective tarps set up to get maximum tan coverage (our theory). It was warm and sunny and beautiful.