PGYO Tour 2013 - Smithers

This years Youth Orchestra Summer Tour visited the towns of Smithers and Burns Lake. 4 hours to the west of Prince George, Smithers sits on the Bulkley river and between Hudson Bay Mountain and the Babine Mountain range. At the Bugwood Bean cafe you can sit outside and enjoy the scenery as well as a great cup of coffee.

Scouters' Retreat - Camp Friendship

Last month I spent a weekend with other Scout Leaders from across northern British Columbia for training and a little R&R without our cubs for a change. There was lots of fishing, canoeing and a chance to hone our outdoor skills. We slept in relatively luxurious Walden-esque cabins like this one.

Nass Lake, outside Terrace, BC

The weather was gorgeous and I spent a lovely evening in the Nass Valley northwest of Terrace.

Lakelse Lake, Terrace.

I had a great opportunity to locum for a week in Terrace, BC recently. The surrounding area is absolutely stunning.

Guess who?

Guess who is turning 13 this weekend?

There's gold in them there hills

There's a chill in the air today and memories of summer are fading fast. We had a lovely visit from my brother and his family in August. We went to Barkerville for a day, a restored gold rush town now living museum. The cousins panned for gold (with success!) and I bought my own pan from the general store. Now I can sneak out by myself and secretly pan for gold at the local river. Gold fever has struck!

Fishing Stuart Lake

While we were in Fort St James, some friends came over from PG and our hosts took us out for a days fishing. We beached up for a picnic lunch on one of the deserted islands. My fishing buddy M had a ball as he caught more fish than anyone else by far. A nice day was had by all and a nice distraction from the sailing.

Sailing camp

What a great summer it's been here in BC. The first week in August, the family headed up to Fort St James and Stuart Lake for sailing camp. The kids enjoyed a week of sailing Optomists, I had fun in my Laser, the weather was good and there was plenty of wind (most days). Win!

Mighty Haleakala

On our last day we visited the Haleakala National Park and drove up to the crater of  the now dormant volcano. We were fortunate enough to experience a clear day at the 10,000ft summit and the views were amazing. Haleakala and Maui were formed by the active hotspot/volcano that produced the Hawaiian island chain as the Pacific tectonic plate slowly drifted westwards over 28 million years. This hotspot is still active under the ocean 35 miles east of the Big Island and will eventually form a new Hawaiian island many years into the future.

Big Cat Adventure

We took a trip on a large catamaran which took us to a secluded bay and marine reserve. There we snorkeled over the reef with tropical fish, moray eels and (did I already say?) sea turtles. They gave us a delicious lunch and we enjoyed a great days sailing on the tramp.

Aloha Maui

Just got back from a fab week on the Hawaiian Island of Maui. I was on a conference in the mornings and the family came for a holiday. We have never been to Hawaii before and it was great. Lovely beaches, sunshine every day (it was hot though) and lots to do. We went snorkeling over the coral reef and swam with wild green sea turtles. We went sailing on a catamaran, went body boarding in the surf (I failed at this miserably) and visited the crater of Haleakala, the largest dormant volcano in the world. We went to a Luau and of course spent lots of time at the beach and round the pool. Oh and yes,  the conference was very informative too.

Maiden Voyage

Woo hoo! Took D and my new Laser out for the first time on Tuesday at West Lake. The wind wasn't up to much (probably a good thing for a maiden voyage) but when we got going we had a blast!

New Laser visits Mount Robson

 Last week I drove my trailer over to Edmonton to finally pick up my shiny new Laser. The distance there and back was about 1500 km and the journey took 8 hours each way. It's a beautiful trip though, especially driving through Jasper and the Rocky mountains. It's always nice to stop at Mount Robson for a break as they have a nice cafe there and if you are lucky (I wasn't this time) you might just see the beautiful mountain top peeking through the clouds.

PGYO tours McBride and Valemount

Last weekend I spent a lovely couple of days on tour with the PG Youth Orchestra. In McBride (300km east of Prince George), the kids joined with local fiddlers and played some open air concerts (here outside the Feed Store) and a formal evening concert. We spent a lovely Sunday morning in the tiny hamlet of Dunster (popl. 400) before heading to Valemount for another formal concert. the whole weekend was excellent fun and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves too. McBride and Valemount are two beautiful small towns nestled in the mountains. In the late 60s and early 70s many US based "hippies" dodged the Vietnam war draft by hiding out here. Many never left and to this day, their colourful cultural legacy persists.