Insta-update

It's been a while since I've blogged. I don't really have any desire to update with a long post, since I am most definitely not a writer. However, some photos that I've taken are kind of cool, so.. that's what's going up.

Home made blueberry pies and tea at R's grandparents.

Fireworks at R's birthday in July

Beautiful reflections in False Creek

Windmills near Tumbler Ridge

Flying home from the Peace in August

Borrowed lens on a beautiful camera.

Trip over the new Port Mann!

And more of the Port Mann

Cloud bank leaving Vancouver for the Peace, again.

Sunset at Iona beach

Monday night bike ride!

Fall sunrise and sun flare

That's a quick life update. I'll try and post some photos from our long hike this summer sometime, too.

Hike: Norvan Falls

Today we headed to Norvan Falls, in Lynn Valley.

R and I are planning an overnight hike in mid-September, and in order to prepare for that we decided to pack our big backpacks with our sleeping bags, tent, stove and some other stuff.

 The view at the "Third Debris Chute." Gorgeous day!!

 The bottom of the falls, where M went swimming.

 The falls.

 

Lunch - Hawaiian chicken with rice. Pretty good, actually. It did take quite a while to cook though (says 13 minutes, I'm not sure how long we left it) and they are pricey. We're going to work on making our own for upcoming trip.s

Lunch!

 Random suspension bridge. I believe this was a rebuild of a small wooden bridge. I guess it's a busy enough trail that they need it.. but it seemed a bit overkill to me. The other three really enjoyed bouncing on it though :)

Length: 13.5 km
Time: 5 hours (including ~1 hr lunch and meandering on the way down)
Difficulty: Easy

Hike: Ripple Rock

This past weekend R and I headed to Campbell River on Vancouver Island for a weekend of camping with my family.

On Saturday, we headed to north to hike to a viewpoint of Ripple Rock. The history of this place is pretty cool -- a huge explosion to destroy two rocks? Cool in my books! The straight where the rocks were is VERY narrow, even now, without the rocks. The tide was insanely fast too, which looked like fun for the boats playing in the narrows.

 Suspension bridge that R LOVED because he could bounce everyone on it.. my sister, not so much love.

 View of one of the beaches. Such a clear, hot hot hot day.

 Another 'viewpoint.'

 And another. Gorgeous.

 Somewhere near where the whirlpools are is where Ripple Rock was.

More whirlpools. So pretty!

Location: 19km north of Campbell River on highway 19A.
Time: 2.5ish hours, not walking super fast.
Total length: 8 km, although it felt a bit longer.

Hike: Brohm Lake

We went camping up near Squamish this weekend, and decided to go for a walk/hike somewhere. I'd noticed the Brohm Lake Interpretive Forest signs, and thought it might be a nice place to take a look at least. It was about a minute up the highway from where we were camping, so if it didn't look nice, really not a big deal.

Although the trails aren't long, there are plenty, with lots of options. We started by walking around the lake, along the way finding a red-naped sapsucker which we watched for a while. Then we headed up to the Tantalus viewpoint. It was pretty hot by this point, having started hiking around noon, it was closer to 1:15 by the time we started the uphill part. It was well worth it though - and what a gorgeous lunch spot!! We ate, and sat in the sun (shade) for a while just reading. Very enjoyable, I must say!

After that, we hiked down a bit further, towards a large marsh that's visible from the highway. I was extremely disappointed in the lack of wildlife though - no birds at all, only some potential amphibian eggs.

After that, we headed back to our campsite. I would recommend this to someone who wants a break from a long drive, or even somewhere to eat lunch. It was goregous and the trail were really well maintained!

Winter Adventures

Last week (well, technically, the week ending today) was reading break for us UBC-ers. The group of us decided to head to my parent's cabin at Green Lake for a winter get-away. We were expecting snow and needing lots of wood to keep the fire going. What we weren't expecting? -35C weather. Up north, cold and clear nights mean really cold weather, but also the most beautiful contrast of sky/snow.

Ahh, the north.

Home, sweet chilly home

So beautiful!

Snowshoe tracks across the lake

 

The top of Bald Island - D, myself, R

While it was pretty chilly, the five of us did have a good time. Definitely had some amazing food, tons of marshmallows, and snowshoed to a few islands. We decided to cut our trip short by a bit, and three of us headed to Kamloops for a quick overnight, before heading back to the coast.

Now it's time to finish studying for an exam, while fighting the cold that just hit this afternoon. Lovely.

Chinese New Year

Gung hei fat choy!

Today was the annual Chinese New Year parade in Vancouver. R and I went for the parade and then wandered around in Chinatown. It's been years since I've been down there, and it was kind of fun feeling like a tourist in our own city.

Cool dancers at the parade.

One of the many dragon dancers.

 After watching the parade for almost an hour and a half, we walked into a Chinese tea store, and ended up getting served teensy tiny cups of tea from a teapot that would make less than half of my regular mug. She got 8 cups out of it. It was an interesting little ritual, but I kind of prefer my tea black and in large quantities. From there, we wandered through several bulk stores and got some tea. It's so much cheaper than David's tea, but not quite the same..  We ended up wandering back to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and park, which I haven't been to since the end of grade 7. It was a dreary day, but still beautiful!

The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese park.

From the garden, we ended up wandering to the old Woodward's. I have this picture on my phone, but I wanted a normal-sized version. Both my Dad and grandpa used to work at the old Woodward's, and Dad used to tell us stories about it. They make fantastic peanut butter.

The original Woodward's W on the left, and the new one on the right.

Lovely adventure in the misty rain aside, school is getting to be hectic.. but there is finally an end in sight! May 30th is my official graduate date! Let's just hope I have a job before then...