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Published: July 25th 2011
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Tree on Stump
Goldstream Park, Vancouver Island Well it appears that i have to write something because the chief writer has said so, we are definitely on the homeward trek now as we head down the west coast of the USA so I guess its about time I did something other than sit around waiting for food and beverages to be brought to me..
After a misty ferry ride over from Horseshoe Bay and spending a few days couped up in the van getting used to the rain again, we finally ventured out into the Goldstream Provincial Park on Vancouver Island for some much needed walking (due to sitting around waiting for food and beverages I expect), wonderful sights and sounds all around and very much like home. Although not the time of the year for the salmon to do their thing and leap their way down the river, we did learn quite a bit about them and how it seems like a bit of a aste to have close to 300000 tonnes of salmon rot beside the stream once they have finished doing their thing and they die exhausted! However, this waste of perfectly good salmon ensures that the ecosystem remains balanced, with the bears, eagles and
other wildlife getting a good feed before winter sets in and the resulting composting giving the forest some much needed omega 3 and fish oil! There are also many bald eagle that frequent the area. Got a back view of one flying into the trees. Their nests are enormous and they add to them every year until sometimes the tree will collapse under the weight. From Mt Malahat we then made our way down to Victoria for a quick walk around the Capital city of British Columbia, under an increasing blue sky. It was good to see the sun again! Quite a lot of British influence in this city so quite different to the rest of our USA/Canada trip, then it was off to Vancouver to visit with Shelley's brother and his family. We took the ferry again, this time from Swartz Bay to Tsawassen, and its a pretty trip through the various islands to the mainland. Peter and Brenda made us very welcome despite their house being flooded a couple of days prior to us arriving and them being in the middle of trying to deal with that. One of the highlights for me was being able to use
Vancouver
Olympic Torches a shower that you could adjust the temperature of and would go for longer than 5 mins without first feeding it some more coins, I am sure there are other highlights that Shelley will add but that was up there.for me, i just a simple boy. My turn now, and I have already interjected a couple of extra sentences into the above paragraphs, but at least he wrote something! He didn't whine too much about it either. Each day we spent in Vancouver, the weather improved. Luckily, we arrived with our own accomodation which meant that we didn't have to add to much hassle to the clean-up from the flood and subsequent visits from insurance and repair people. Its going to be a long repair job but at least we were able to offer a little help by moving furniture and boxes to different areas. We took the skytrain from out by the airport into Vancouver and the Seabus across the harbour. It was great to see downtown Vancouver again and the improvements that have been made especially for the Olympics last year. As the occasion was my brothers birthday, we went to a seafood restaurant called the Boathouse in White Rock, where we proceeded to eat one of the best meals we have ever eaten. Between Deans 'crab-stuffed prawns' and my 'miso coated Halibut' as well as the various entrees, wasabi mashed potatoes and the decadent desserts, we were most satisfactorily stuffed! It was a lovely birthday dinner. It was wonderful to spend time with family and now we are on the home stretch travel wise, it has made us look forward even more to seeing the rest of our whanau in a few weeks. We have left Vancouver and head back into the USA under sunny warm skies and the last leg of our journey, down the Pacific Coast to Los Angeles. More amazing sights to see around every twisting corner! Until the next posting, love from Dean and Shelley.xxx
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