Friday, December 9, 2011

Here Comes Santa Claus....

Tonight was the Fort St. James Santa Claus parade.  It was to start at 7 pm.  So we bundled up and left the cabin, planning on catching the parade at the end of its route just up the street.  But the route was different from last year and we saw the flashing lights of the police cars go by as we walked up the driveway.  So we ran and got to the end of our driveway just in time to see Santa go by.  Luckily, Santa is at the beginning of the FSJ parade, so we didn't miss anything.  We saw the dog sledders go by and the archers, the firetrucks and the local businesses, kids dressed up as penguins and the grinch.  All the floats had lots of Christmas lights - which since it is a night parade, is really all you can see (hence no photos - last year they turned out pretty bad).

There aren't that many houses close together on our street, and I'm guessing most people were standing on the street uptown to watch.  So Mark and I were the only spectators on our corner.  So everyone waved and shouted Merry Christmas to us.  And (Ro - you'd have loved this) they threw us candy.  Lots and lots of candy - and even an invitation to a free pancake breakfast.  I think they were just excited to throw it - it was near the beginning of the route.  But there was no one else around to grab it.  And since it was the end of our driveway we had to pick it all up or we'd drive over it in the morning. 
The candy canes are for you Ro.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Ghosts of Christmas Past

My cousin was decorating her Christmas tree (which she rode home on the back of her bike).   My grandmother gave her a box of old ornaments.  She found one in there that I had made back in 1991.  What a fun surprise. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

mmmmmmmmm....... Egg Nog

There's nothing like that first glass of egg nog to get you in the Holiday Spirit.  Especially after singing some Christmas carols with the Girl Guides.  The weather outside may be icy, but inside beside the fire is cozy.  And the egg nog is delicious.



Cheers to you!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Way to Go Lions!

Congrats BC Lions!  The Grey Cup 2011 is all yours!  Great Game!  And to my little brother - Way to go keeping that crowd cheering loud. The spirit was definitely in the air.  We saw you in the background on TV a couple of times.  Not everyone gets to fulfill their childhood dreams, let alone get to the very top!  You are the best mascot - and your team just won the biggest game of the year!  Awesome!!!   Enjoy the celebrations tonight!

YAY LEO AND THE LIONS!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Ol' Doc Jennings Had a Farm

Ol' Doc Jennings had a farm.

E I E I O

And on that farm she had some chickens.

E I E I O

With a cluck cluck here

And a cluck cluck there.

Here a cluck.

There a cluck.

Everywhere a cluck cluck.













Ol' Doc Jennings had a farm.

E I E I O


And on that farm she had some cows.

E I E I O

With a moo moo here

And a moo moo there.

Here a moo.

There a moo.

Everywhere a moo moo.













Ol' Doc Jennings had a farm.

E I E I O

And on that farm she had some horses.

E I E I O

With a neigh neigh here

And a neigh neigh there.

Here a neigh.

There a neigh.

Everywhere a neigh neigh.

Ol' Doc Jennings had a farm.

E I E I O

And on that farm she had some pigs.

E I E I O

With an oink oink here

And an oink oink there.

Here an oink.

There an oink.

Everywhere an oink oink.

Ol' Doc Jennings had a farm.

E I E I O

And on that farm she had some cats

E I E I O

With a meow meow here

And a meow meow there

Here a meow.

There a meow.

Everywhere a meow meow.

Ol' Doc Jennings had a farm

E I E I O

And on that farm she had some dogs.

E I E I O

With a woof woof here.

And a woof woof there.

Here a woof.

There a woof.

Everywhere a woof woof.

Ol' Doc Jennings had a farm

E I E I O





Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Birthday Road Trip Day 8 (the end)


October 29th, 2011
Departing Destination: Bear Glacier
Clue:

A shelter in a storm, a candle in the night.
Yearned for from afar, dulled by morning's light
Though built of wood or rock,
Can be moved around the world
A part of you and me,
Wherever we may be.

What am I?

Home!


What a sweet poem to end the trip with and lead us home. It has been a fantastic Birthday tour. I am super lucky. A few hundred more kilometres to drive and a few more adventures to be had.
 
The view from our campsite. Not too shabby.










All packed up and ready to go, and I decide that I should try to feed seeds to the grey jays.  Unfortunately, this time I was unsuccessful.









The first stop of the day was a secret little waterfall.  A short walk through the woods led us here.  What a neat spot.  Ducky liked it so much that he jumped out of my pocket.  It took us a few minutes to find him hiding under a bush. (yes, it was a geocache that led us here).







Today was a day of driving and geocaching.  We departed the mountains and drove across the Nechako plateau towards home.  We stopped to find the micro geocache hidden here, and had to take some pictures since there were muggles around.  We never did find the cache.




Dusk, and we're almost home.  But we had to stop for one last geocache before it got too dark.  And wouldn't you know it - we stopped at a cairn (man-made pile of stones) whose centre stone came from the castle where King Arthur of Camelot was said to be born.  What a cool piece of history to end an amazing trip with.


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Birthday Road Trip Day 7

October 28, 2011 
Departing Location: Cottonwood River 
Clue:
The name of this place will show you our path, 
We'll pay it a visit, if you do the math, 
It's chilly and chunky and off the main way, 
Drops down the valley and into a lake.
_ _ _ _     
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Hmmm... ok, time to pull out the map and take a look.... Lava beds would be neat.... they aren't quite chilly, but they are chunky. But if I put lava as the four letter word I'll get a coordinate that puts us somewhere near Niagara Falls... not exactly a day drive from where we started. Oh, what's this... Bear Glacier... That's chilly, chunky, off the main way, goes down a valley and there's a lake. The words fit the blanks and doing the math gives us coordinates that keep us in the right part of the world. So off we go to Bear Glacier.

N 56o 02.578' 
W 129o 54.448' 



 It snowed over night.  So we woke up in our little cocoon of a tent.  Mark got up and made breakfast.  As we ate, we listened to wolves howling up on the mountains.  They sang for a long time.  It was beautiful, especially since we didn't actually see them.  No doubt they would sniff around the campsite after we left.  We didn't hang around too long, but we did enjoy the howling while we ate.































Driving through the mountains....  Does it ever get old?


Welcome to Belle 2.  A lodge and gas station on the highway in the middle of nowhere.  A beautiful place...  I mean take a look at those gas pump shelters.  (and yes, there is a geocache here too).















Bear Glacier!

The weather may have been pretty crappy, but we got to see the glacier.  (My man is awesome - how many birthday trips include hotsprings, wild animals AND glaciers).  This is a class A provincial park - crown land with protection status, the day use area has been closed and there is no camping.  There aren't any trails over to the glacier, so viewing it from the pullout on the highway is really the only option.  The glacier is currently retreating.  Strohn Lake is at the bottom of the glacier.


We wanted to continue down this side highway to another provincial park with a campground, but due to road washouts that are still under reconstruction, the road is only open sporadically to traffic following a pilot car.  We didn't want to wait the two hours until the next pilot car was leaving, so we turned around and found a nice rec site off the main highway to camp at for the night.