In and Around Whistler

I'll admit I wondered about visiting a world-famous ski resort in the summer.  After all, don't you go to a ski resort to ski?  But the mountains around it are gorgeous, and when there's no snow you can hike.  There actually was snow, above about 5,000 feet - on the peaks, around 6,000 feet, it was quite snowy.  It only rained on us one day, and one of the days we were there was glorious - sunny and warm!  I'd say the activities we saw the most of included snowboarding (at appropriate altitudes, of course) and mountain biking (everywhere!).

The gallery On to Whistler starts with some photos I took on the drive from Powell River; waiting for the ferry at Saltery Bay I got some shots of a bald eagle, who was just hanging around the ferry terminal waiting for something edible to come along:

We watched the ferry come in and dock, a very slow and stately process.  We've gotten so used to cars and airplanes that we forget how long it takes to make a boat do anything in the water:

At Langdale I got some shots of seagulls from above, they were cruising below me, looking for garbage (sorry, but it's true):

I don't have a lot of photos of Whistler itself, the town just isn't that photogenic.  I've written about the bears we saw in another post, they have their own gallery.  The day I enjoyed the most was the nice day, when Jim went on a strenuous hike and I strolled around Lost Lake, a lovely lake that you can get to on the bus.  Here's Lost Lake from part way around, you can see the beach:

The high points of Lost Lake were the female merganser duck, with her five very small ducklings riding on her back:

 
I got several more photos of the ducks, and some very beautiful shots of the lake edges, but the other highlight was this fellow:

That, my friends, is an osprey, who hovered overhead long enough for me to get several other photos!  All the photos are at the gallery Lost Lake, for your viewing pleasure.

Bears, Oh My

No lions or tigers, I'm sorry to say.  Almost the first thing we did in Whistler was to go on a "bear viewing tour" led by one Mike Allen, a local self-taught bear researcher.  This involved driving around Whistler Mountain and then Blackcomb Mountain in an SUV, looking for bears, and stopping to take photographs when we found them.

I think there may have been some misunderstanding about the best time to find bears; we found I believe one bear on Whistler Mountain in over an hour of searching; then we drove over to Blackcomb Mountain and found four of them - two hanging around the luge track (Whistler hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics)!  Wilderness bears, right.  Nonetheless, it was a very interesting afternoon, Mr. Allen was extremely knowledgeable about bears, and we saw places we'd never ordinarily get to.

This is the best bear photo I got, if not the most handsome bear:

This scruffy soul was foraging around uphill from the luge track - in fact, on the luge track platform.  The photo is sharp because we were only about 20 feet from him; he never even looked at us.

It's harder than you think to photograph bears, especially on an overcast day.  You have to use telephoto, which reduces the light available for the shot, which makes it grainy; and you're pushing the limits of the image stabilization (I refuse to carry a tripod around), so it's also kind of fuzzy.  This one, of the "matriarch of Blackcomb Mountain," came out pretty well:

Mr. Allen said she's lived there over twenty years.  The other good shot I got was this guy, a yearling who was foraging around below the luge track, near the road:

The rest of my bear photos are at my gallery Bears!.

Discovering Powell River

We spent 3 nights in Powell River, staying in a bed and breakfast (photos in the last post on this), and spending time hiking with my friends Janet and Wes.  Because we also spent a lot of time just sitting around talking, I took fewer photos than I sometimes do.  I did take some of the tiny crabs that just covered the beach in front of the B&B, they were none of them over an inch long.  Here's the best one:

Dinner the night we got there was quite a surprise.  Our B&B hosts referred us to the Laughing Oyster, near Okeover Arm Provincial Park (and past the turn for Desolation Resort!).  I thought the body of water nearby was a lake, but a look at Google Maps says it's just another arm (Okeover Arm, I guess) of the Strait of Georgia.  The food was excellent, but we weren't expecting the live classical music concert.  There was a small group of musicians - 2 harpists, a cellist, and a singer who was also waiting tables (yes, she usually works there).  I think we got the last available table in the place, and we were three feet in front of the harpist.  At least one of them was from Brazil, we never quite learned who the group was or where the others came from.  We happily put money in the tip jar for them!

The next day we went out for a "short" hike through a Douglas fir forest near Gibson's Beach, and then had dinner and talked.

 
The day after that, we split up; Janet and I took a leisurely hike part way around Inland Lake, while Wes and Jim did a much more strenuous hike over by Saltery Bay where the ferry is.  I got some nice garter snake shots - we walked past a little bank just as the sun came out, and all the garter snakes scrambled out to get warm, saw us, scrambled back in.  So we stood still, and after a minute here they came again.  One of them sat still long enough for a portrait shot:

It was a very peaceful visit, ending with dinner in a local restaurant.  If you'd like to see the rest of the pictures from this stay, here's the link to the gallery:

Around Powell River

Driving the Sunshine Coast

Our next vacation stop after Vancouver was Powell River, about a day's drive up the B.C. coast from Vancouver.  I have an old friend who lives in Powell River.  When we entered Canada, the border guard asked us, where are you going, and we said, Vancouver, Powell River, and Whistler.  "Powell River!" he exclaimed.  "Why would you go there?" 

Getting to Powell River entails a drive up the Sunshine Coast, so called by the local chamber of commerce.  I don't believe we saw the sun once while in the area, and much of the time, it was raining.  And driving the Sunshine Coast isn't especially scenic, because the roads are lined with tall trees, the whole way.  If you leave the main road and drive down to the coast (about half a mile), the views of the Georgia Strait are spectacular; but as a fellow guest in our Vancouver B&B complained, "We drove the Sunshine Coast and all we saw was green!"  That's what we saw.  You start out at the huge ferry terminal in Horseshoe Bay, and take the first ferry for Langley:

In about 45 minutes, you drive off the ferry and onto the Sunshine Coast Highway.  We stopped at a local park (Cliff Gilker Park, in Roberts Creek) to eat our packed lunch (in a light drizzle) and take a short hike, where we saw a waterfall:

The park was off the road, up a semi-paved track.  The only signs of civilization were a fenced sports field, a single house, and a public rest room.  I was touched to find, when I used the rest room, that someone (presumably the lady of the house) had put a vase of fresh wildflowers in it.  The rest of the trip was uneventful, and green.  The only place the road gets near the sea is in Sechelt.  We didn't stop.

The actual drive only took us a couple of hours, including a side trip to Egmont, where we hoped to see the Skookumchuk Narrows, a tidal rapids.  Since that involved hiking down a trail of unknown length (NO CARS, the sign said), we turned around and continued on to the Earl's Cove ferry terminal, where we waited.  Most of this trip is spent waiting for ferries to arrive.  Here is Earl's Cove:

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I post the photo because I was astounded.  I took this trip in 1981, alone (on a bus), and at that time the Earl's Cove ferry terminal was a wooden dock by a grassy slope.  The road came up to the dock and stopped.  There were no buildings and no other signs of civilization.  Now it's not only paved and furnished with steel frames, it has restrooms and a small restaurant.  I know why they built it up, but it was prettier in 1981.  Eventually the ferry came, and in another 45 minutes or so we docked in Saltery Bay and everybody rolled off the boat and onto the highway.   We stayed in a bed and breakfast about an hour north of Powell River, The SeaDream B&B.  Why so far?  Well, look at the view from the porch in front of our room:

The hosts were very friendly and chatty and very good cooks!  If you'd like to see the rest of the photos from this section of the trip, you'll find them at Up the Sunshine Coast on my SmugMug site.

Stanley Park

We spent our last day in Vancouver wandering around Stanley Park.



It was a gorgeous day, sunny and breezy.  The pointy white object behind the cruise ship is Canada Place; this was as close as we got to it.  (Can't do everything in one trip.)  Located on a peninsula between English Bay and Burrard Inlet, Stanley Park is very scenic.  Don't miss the seaplane (they went by quite often, heading out to sea, I never figured out why), the totem posts, the gull with a mouthful of something I couldn't identify.  Stanley Park has very clearly marked lanes for walkers, cyclists, and cars, and God help you if you walk into one of the wrong lanes!

It's in Stanley Park, but I was so charmed by the Vancouver Aquarium that I gave it a separate photo gallery.  In particular I was charmed by the beluga show, which I walked into - I'd never seen a beluga whale before, I didn't realize they were white!  So here's the beluga, isn't he charming?  Look at that coy glance.



There are several more photos of him, plus some nice moon jellyfish, and a handsome fish (with anemones) that I can't identify.  I also got a couple of shots of Harris hawks.  The Aquarium put on a raptor show, the birds flew free around the viewing area.  They were going to start with a bald eagle, they did start with a bald eagle, but they untied the jesses and he flew across the viewing area and just kept going.  I heard the docent say something about it's going to be one of those days.  The Harris hawks behaved much better.

A Day in Kitsilano

Kitsilano, for those who've never been to Vancouver, is a neighborhood; it's across the inlet from the downtown and has several beachfront parks, plus a couple of museums.  It rained this day, so we toured museums; by the time we were museumed out, the weather had cleared and we spent some time in the park.

We began in the Maritime Museum.

It doesn't look like much from outside; but when you go in you find that it was built around the St. Roch (pronounced "saint rock"), which is in drydock.  The St. Roch is the first ship to traverse the Northwest Passage from west to east (it took 3 years) and the first to complete the Northwest Passage in one season.  You can read the web site for the several other firsts, but what charmed me is that the St. Roch was not crewed or captained by naval men.  It was owned and run by the Mounties - in effect, the police, who learned seamanship on the job, so to speak.  It was originally built for the RCMP to patrol the Arctic, and was pressed into service to sail the Northwest Passage to Halifax during World War II.  If I remember the story correctly, Captain Henry Larson took an Inuit family aboard to help him navigate the passage, which meant that something like 7 people and 17 sled dogs lived in a tent on the deck.  I have a photo of the tent in the gallery.  Given that the ship was only 104 feet long with a 25 foot beam, it must have been amazing.  They have a statue of Captain Larsen on the deck.

It was our day for interesting boats.  As we came out of the Maritime Museum, I saw what looked exactly like a Viking longship floating on English Bay!  I wasn't fast enough to get a photo with the (square red and white striped) sail up, but I got several shots of the crew maneuvering the boat into the marina near the ferry ramp, under oar power.  Here's one:

 
In some of the other photos, the dragon head on the prow shows.  Kitsilano is an interesting place.

We explored the Space Center and Science Museum, and the Vancouver Museum, but they were less interesting than the St. Roch.  However, in the pool around the fountain, I found a family of ducks swimming around the legs of the crab statue in the fountain (photos of the crab in the gallery):

By the time the museum closed, the weather had cleared, and we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach in Vanier Park, taking pictures of birds, boats, and a couple that was trying to take off parasailing from ground level.  I didn't see them make it; it wasn't that windy!  If you'd like to look at the rest of the photos here's the link to the gallery:

Van Dusen Gardens

We visit the VanDusen Gardens every time we go to Vancouver, and this trip was no exception.  My husband thinks that VanDusen is one of the finest gardens in North America.  I just think it's full of things I want to photograph because they're gorgeous; in general, Jim will tell me what they are.  I'm not a gardener; I'm the audience.  Here's the link to the photo gallery I've devoted to this visit:



I learned a little history about the garden on this trip - back in the day when the Canadian Pacific Railway owned Vancouver in fee simple, this 55 acre tract of land was leased by the Shaughnessy Golf Course.  The golf course moved to a new location in 1960 and the battle began:  the railway wanted to put in a subdivision, the neighbors objected, and in 1966 the usual band of dedicated volunteers and fundraisers formed the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association and set out to save the site.  The garden opened formally in 1975, which means that when I first saw it, on our honeymoon in 1986, it had only been open for about 11 years, and some of the newer shrubs weren't very well grown.  Let me assure you:  twenty-five years later the shrubs have filled out!

The Forgotten Photo

I missed this one when I wrote yesterday's post, because it wasn't in my camera - Jim took it.  He reminded me of it later on.  I've now added the photo to the gallery.

We met this handsome fellow at a rest stop on I5 somewhere in Oregon:

He was sitting on the shoulder of an older man, who got out of his car just as I walked past him.  I asked if I could take a photo of him and the bird, and he suggested that someone should take a photo of me and the bird, as the bird "likes women."  I held out my arm, and the bird walked onto it; and the man suggested that the bird "really prefers a shoulder perch."  So here he is, on my shoulder.  He was very well behaved, and said something unintelligible which his owner said was his name.  The owner tried to get him to raise that elegant yellow crest, but we never got a photo of that.

North to Vancouver

We took a driving vacation this year, driving north to Vancouver and environs.  We like Vancouver; we went there for our honeymoon, and we've been back several times since.  I've posted the photos from the trip up, click on the photo to go to the gallery:



The elegant fellow above is a Steller's jay whom I caught preening at the northbound rest stop on Lake Shasta, where we usually stop for lunch on these northbound trips.  This stop was enlivened by a turf war between the Steller's and scrub jays, all of whom thought that particular tree was theirs.  There are more jay shots in the gallery. 

The amazing thing about this stop was Lake Shasta - it was full!  Every other time we've been there, it had a "bathtub ring" of bare red dirt, sometimes yards wide.  This time the water is right up to the trees.

We spent our first night in Grant's Pass, Oregon, where Jim discovered the Oregon Cavemen on his morning walk.  In the photo gallery there's a photo of the sign explaining the cavemen, and a picture of the statue outside the Chamber of Commerce.  Just go look at it.  That's all I can say.  This is pure local history, and the linked article has no photos.

We stopped for a day in Washington to visit my friends Tammy and Dan Domike, whom I originally met online through Adam Felber's Fanatical Apathy blog (now closed, alas); they live in Hoquiam, in the Gray's Harbor area.  We drove through Gray's Harbor and Hoquiam on the way to Lake Quinault a few years ago but didn't stop.  Because Tammy and Dan know the owner, we got a private tour of the 7th Street Theatre in Hoquiam, a lovely theatre, beautifully restored, the first in the Northwest to show "talkies."  Take a look at their web site, it's a fascinating place.  I got 3 shots of the interior, which are in the gallery.

We spent the rest of the day poking around the harbor at Westport, WA, a few miles away.  This isn't the port it was when lumber was king, but it's still a working fishing port in a beautiful setting.  We were fortunate in a beautiful day and a clear view of the Olympic Peninsula:

The gallery has more shots of the harbor and the boats, including several shots of gulls, brown pelicans, a cormorant, a harbor seal, and a duck I haven't identified yet; plus a couple of shots of Dan and Tammy!  We stopped at the Westport Museum and got a look at the Fresnel lens from the old lighthouse, moved to the museum when coastal changes made the lighthouse unusable.  If you've never seen a Fresnel lens, they're quite a sight: