Next up Houston, British Columbia - population 3600. Three hours west of PG and home to THE WORLD'S LARGEST FLY ROD (A personal favourite this one). The rod and reel are 6oft long and weigh 800lbs. The fly measures 21 inches and the pattern is a Skykomish Sunrise for all you officionados out there.
Just saw this in today's Guardian online with an article on nurses pensions. Made me laugh. You wouldn't believe how often things like this pop up on TV medical shows. 
Last week we decided to take a rather low key and impromptu road trip on Highway 16 to Prince Rupert, a port town on BCs Pacific Coast 717km west of PG. We stopped off at various towns on the way to see what there was to see and without great expectations rather enjoyed ourselves.
Every year the City holds a summer art event fundraiser when various private gardens are opened to the public. Local artists and musicians then provide interesting exhibits, demonstrations and entertainment at each venue. This year we had the opportunity to try wooden block printing (above) and learned how to do hand weaving. We purchased some nice pottery, jewellry and an original framed photograph. We played bocce in one garden and dodged the resident geese and ducks in another. We had such a good time and even managed to avoid the flash thunderstorm with a well timed lunch at a favourite restaurant.
One of of our hikes in the Wells Gray took us to an early, now abandoned, settler pioneer ranch. We saw how the early settlers lived. Life must have been pretty hard for those folks particularly in the winter. We were also intrigued at the promise of viewing a cone shaped mineral spring on the hike. When we finally got to it I was rather underwhelmed by its small size (I was expecting something a little more impressive) but nonetheless found it of some educational benefit. 
Last week we mananaged to get away to a lakeside cabin just south of Clearwater in the Thompson-Nicola Valley. The weather was good and we spent some days visiting the stunning Wells Gray Provincial Park. This park is packed with interesting volcanic and glacial geological features including many spectacular waterfalls. Helmcken Falls (above) is my favourite. Only 5 minutes walk from the car park, you'd think the viewpoint would be crammed with tourists but the place was virtually empty.
The Dominion Day festivities continued at the historical site of Fort St James. FSJ was an important early fur trading post for northern BC. Traders and trappers travelling via the coast, rivers and lakes brought furs and other wares to Northern/Central BC using FSJ as a gateway. The fort itself became an important trading post for the Hudsons Bay Company, a retail establishment still trading today with department stores in nearly every major town in Canada as "The Bay".
At the last minute I was saved from being on call on the National Holiday July 1st (Dominion Day) by a kindly locum and so we decided to visit Fort St James that day. It's a small town of historical significance on Stuart Lake about an hour and three quarters drive from PG. We arrived in time to watch the Canada Day parade complete with floats, mounties, firetrucks and various prominent interest groups in the town. Lots of people on horses went by and then someone with a shovel cleaning up after the horses. We waved our Canada flags smiling enthusiastically at the road side and they threw lots of sweets at us as they went past. This seemed wrong on so many levels but I'm assured no children were injured by either flying lollipops (known as "suckers") or crushed under the wheels of cars as they scrabbled around on the ground after loose penny chews. If only the same could be said of their teeth. Thankfully our children were limited in their haul by the size of their pockets. I think I saw one kid who had brought his own bucket.
Last year we sponsored a student nurse we know to visit a well drilling project in Northern Uganda with a Prince George based charity called the Northern Uganda Development Foundation. This year she invited us to their annual fundraising dinner. There was loads of fantastic African food (far better food than I expect most native Northern Ugandans normally eat) as well lots of photo slides and information on the work of the NUDF over the last year (visit http://nudf.org/ for more info). One of my work colleagues is there in Uganda drilling wells or such like at this moment. We also met some new people on our table including Chris and Kathleen (above). Kathleen works as the travel agent for the University here which involves organising trips to some of the most remote and inaccessable places in the world. I good person to know methinks.
In case you were wondering, Fathers Day in Canada is actually on the same day as in the UK but I've been so busy lately with various things I keep forgetting to blog about them. This year I received (in no particular order of favour) a painted rock and a handheld GPS unit (V is holding the GPS in the second photo in case you were having trouble telling them apart). We have since been having various degrees of fun, frustration and travail - depending on the amount of bushwacking required - locating caches around Prince George and further afield. It's good healthy exercise provided you don't sprain an ankle and the kids love swapping the treasures they find.
