July 2016

My grandparents live in Comox.  It's far enough away that you don't pop over for a meal, but close enough that you don't plan a major vacation around it.  We were thinking of coming over for Victoria day, but by the time we got around to reservations, it was impossible so we fell back to coming on Canada Day.  I haven't been in Comox for Canada day (ever!) so I was surprised at some of the activities.

We arrived Friday night so Saturday morning we went to the Canada Day Parade in downtown Courtenay.  It's been a long time since I've been to a parade.

After the parade we tried to go to Lewis park to the where food tents and activities had been organized.  Big mistake - 45 minute lineups for everything.  Instead we went to the deli at the grocery store and then went to the beach for a bit of play.

The fireworks show was really well done - this wasn't the local fire department launching a single shell at a time.  I was particularly impressed with the floating fireworks - they had fireworks floating on the ocean burning for at least 30 seconds while the fireworks burst overhead.  I hadn't seen that before.

Long weekends are almost magical - on a regular weekend we arrive Saturday morning and leave Sunday afternoon - roughly 24 hours on the ground.  We arrived Friday night and didn't leave until Monday after lunch - two whole days in town.  The valley has a lot of beaches so we decided to visit a few.  I'm a big fan of Kai Bay when the tide is out (lots of sand) so we took a trip down in the morning with the low tide.

 

I enjoy taking photos, but sometimes mixing photography and kids turns things into a death march.  I've discovered that getting up early and doing the photography thing on my own is often a productive way to get some photography in without making everyone else operate on my schedule.  This time I decided to go up to Mount Washington to see the sun rise in Paradise meadows.

We had five kids at the party of roughly overlapping ages - thankfully Gabi and Eric had planned some kids activities.  The big balloons were a hit - we went into the courtyard and played five kids keep two balloons in the air.

 
After some outside play time and a pot luck dinner we had some cake.  
 

 
  The kids stayed inside and played with the balloons.  I can't say it was all exactly peaceful.

Boundary Bay is an amazing beach in the Lower Mainland - we don't visit often enough.  The bay is huge an so close to flat that the beach extends for kilometers when the tide is really out.

Being my first bike race, a few things surprised me.  First - the crowd isn't that deep.  The course is a little over a kilometer long so there is probably 2km of front row seats - more than enough for the crowd that showed up to see the race.  Second - they are biking fast!  I bike to work, but the speed on display was really impressive compared to what I see day to day.

Helen gets two weeks of summer vacation.  We spent one week camping, we decided to spend another week in Victoria to visit Grandma and Grandpa. 

Nara heard of the grouse grind and wants to run up it.  She has no idea what that kind of ascent feels like so I thought I would take her out for a little climb to see if she is serious about climbing mountains.  In Victoria, Mount Doug has an access road to near the peak that is closed overnight until noon so that people can walk up and down the mountain without having to worry about cars.  We drove to the base and started walking.

 
I walked up, but I walked briskly.  Nara hard to run to keep up from time and she did feel it - she was sweaty and stopped for water a few times on the way up.  She caught her second wind when she saw the parking lot at the top of the mountain and ran much of the trail to the peak.  It does seem more like an accomplishment when you walk all the way to the top under your own power.
 

The kids seem to have a love hate relationship with the petting zoo at Beacon Hill.  They have good memories of the place so they are excited to go when we offer, but they seem to forget that goats aren't tiny and they have a mind of their own and they don't always do what you want.  We arrived for the stampede (which I still haven't taken a good of) and wet in to pet goats after.

Claira still doesn't like the loud calls from Peacock's but she is getting more tolerant.  This time of the year there were some chicks which the kids really enjoyed seeing.

We went to McMinn Playground a few times this trip.  The playground has two sets of equipment - one set for toddlers, another for older kids.  We often take the bikes or a wagon over because it is a bit of walk from home.  The kids then run all over the equipment and sometimes they are a little short of energy getting themselves up the hill back home.  That said, the next time we suggest we go to the playground, they are quick to go out the door.

 
Another morning we went out in the morning at low tide where there is more sand to dig and play in.  Of course the car gets full of sand, but that's part of the fun isn't it?

I've wanted to take a photo of the Milky Way for a while.  In the winter I tried to see the Northern Lights but when they weren't there, I tried for the Milky way.  At this latitude, you can't see the Milky way in winter - it doesn't clear the horizon.  A few weeks ago I was in Shuswap lake - again tried.  The moon rose shortly after the sunset and again I couldn't see the Milky way.  (It was also partly cloudy which didn't help).  A week later and the window of sun down, moon down was longer and I could reasonably see the Milky way if I could find some place dark.  I did a bit of research - drive out past Sooke (I went to French Beach) and the light pollution is quite low.  So my Dad and I drove out at 11pm (after refilling the car's fuel tank) and the milky way was surprisingly bright.

After seeing the Seals and Sea Lions, we moved around to see a solitary male (they say) Sea Otter.  I didn't know they lived this far down the island, but sure enough, there was a single sea otter wrapped up in the kelp trying to have a nap.  Everyone one the boat was snapping away with their cameras.

I was really impressed with the Pigeon Guillemots flying about.  They have vibrant red feet and seem to land on the largest island.  There is no place around Vancouver (that I know of) where these birds live.

After Race Rocks, we went to the coastline in the direction of Sooke.  We saw some eagles in the trees and flocks of seabirds.  Finally we turned back to the open ocean and drove after some humpbacks.