wee little lovelys

Elk Lake

July 28, 2014

On a hot Sunday morning we decided to pack up our swimming gear and head to Elk Lake which is about a 15 minute drive from our house. Jimmy spent a lot of time at this Lake and the conjoining Beaver Lake in his youth. I ran the trails of this lake when I went to University. The trails are really nice and if you run the whole lake it is 10km. Elk Lake is the training area for Canada’s Olympic Rowing team and is a popular fishing area as they stock the lake with fish annually.

We arrived fairly early so there were not many people. We played in the sand and then quickly made our way into the warm lake water. Claire and Rhys love swimming. Particularly Claire who is a fish and once in the water does not want to come out. After a few hours we packed up and headed home to host our friends for an early evening BBQ. A great Sunday!

Claire being a ‘baby turtle’ on her daddy turtles back 🙂

Goldstream Park

July 23, 2014

We like to adventure and spend a lot of time outdoors with the kids which is great because Victoria is home to some amazing parks. Goldstream is one of those parks. It is 477 hectares and home to small Garry oak meadows, arbutus, and Douglas fir trees – some more than 600 years old.

On a nice Sunday when we had no other plans we decided to get suited up and go hiking. We packed a lunch and drove to the park which is about 17km from town. It was a hot day so finding refuge in the old growth temperate rain forest was perfect! This park is a popular place for viewing the annual fall chum salmon spawning runs in Goldstream river. It is also popular because there are numerous trails for hiking including a rugged and steep one called Mt. Finlayson trail that goes to the top of Mt. Finlayson. We choose to hike to Niagara falls which was really more of a walk with some minor rock climbing which is a recent favorite past-time of Claire & Rhys’.

Niagara falls is 47.5m high and to reach it you have to walk through a dried up stream bed. In the winter months the stream bed is full of water and the waterfall has so much more water volume. It was still very pretty when we visited. We spent some time there climbing through a rock tunnel and skipping rocks into the water basin at the bottom of the falls. After we had our fill of the falls we walked along some paths towards the nature visitor centre. We found plenty of slugs and other critters along the way that we had to stop and watch things where we had a little picnic lunch amongst the grass reeds at the end of the Saanich Inlet.

It was a great day 🙂

Canada Day – July 1, 2014

July 18, 2014

Canada just turned 147 years old on July 1st. To celebrate we hosted a BBQ at our new home with some of the Miller clan.

The weather in Victoria has been very sunny and hot lately; record setting temperatures in fact. Thankfully we have adequate backyard shade as well as two inflatable pools, so we all kept cool enough to enjoy ourselves.

Our recently purchased Weber barbeque proved its worth and it was a fun gathering with good food, laughs and splashes 🙂

McCaulay Point

July 16, 2014

Moving back to Victoria has proven fruitful in the realm of play and exploration. Some of my best childhood games of “hide and go seek” and “war” had McCaulay Point as the stage; a great day trip location for a boy.

In truth, McCaulay Point provided coastal defense to Victoria and Esquimalt harbors between 1870 and 1950, with the time around 1910 being the most active as the militia was being built then. Nowadays the park remains open to the public (adventurous families, bird watchers, dog walkers, etc.). With only a few areas fenced off to protect indigenous plants, the rest is free to roam.

It is certainly a neat place to take the kids as the (safe) gun turret are fully accessible/ climb-able.

– Jimmy

This is the tunnel which was built in 1895. It provided controlled (protected) access to supply sheds within the fortification. Nowadays is good for a spooky echo and a mild scare as it is just long enough to feel weary of your exit lies.

Here are the kids back in rainy January atop of the old battery command post/observation point.

Transition

May 14, 2014

Ever since our return to Canada in December 2013 our life has been a whirlwind of activity.

We have been renting a furnished condo in Victoria since our arrival. We decided to move to move into a non-furnished house which we recently acquired. On top of those two properties we were still paying for our condo in North Vancouver! Also having our vehicle and two storage lockers our life was literally spread out everywhere. Proof is in Jimmy’s key chain – see below!

We are happy to report that we have recently sold our condo in North Vancouver…finally! and we have moved into a nice house in Victoria and no longer have ties to the furnished condo rental here. We actually have all our belongings under one roof for the first time in years. Other good news… I just received permanent work status in my government geology job this past Friday. We are now officially Victorians again 🙂

We have a lot to catch up on friends and we do miss having our blog as a method to share all our wonderful photographs and adventures.

Stay tuned!

blog absence…

April 11, 2014

Sorry for our three-month absence from posting on our blog. It has been quite the reintegration process for us all. It sure has been fun rediscovering old haunts in Victoria and it has been great to come back to where it all began.

More to come as we get settled in a new home and we sift through our vast collection of photographs 🙂

“Holland Point” just five minutes from where Jimmy grew up in his childhood:

Australia 2013 – Sydney!

February 9, 2014

Rerouting our recent trip back home gave us the chance to visit some good friends as well as relatives. Tim & Sarah live in Sydney, Australia with their dog Kione and we scheduled a visit -albeit a fleeting one.

We left Perth late in the evening and arrived very early in the morning. Our awkwardly timed flight found us circling high above so as to burn off time due to the Sydney Airport Curfew Act. By the time we checked into a stupidly-expensive hotel we were exhausted. We agreed to sleep for a few hours to mentally regroup but not defeat the day.

Thankfully, Tim was gracious enough to take groggy-us around once we were properly roused. He took us to many tourist hot spots in record time; the Sydney Opera house, lunch downtown, some famous skate spots, and finally Bondi beach. The kids had a brief nap at the beach so Tim & Jimmy went to skate the famous Bondi bowl while I hung back and did some people watching.

We later met up with Sarah after her day of work and we had fun catching up both in their cute little house and at their neighborhood playground. We wrapped up our full day by visiting one of their favorite local pubs which was kid friendly, had yummy food and tasty beer.

Although it was only the one day that we had in Sydney…it really was a satisfying one full of sunshine, fun friends and fulfilled kids 🙂

Australia 2013 – Perth!

January 25, 2014

At times it felt like our global story would never end regardless of chapters ending. Due to travel agent error our previously arranged flights home required re-booking. No longer stuck to a European route home, we opted for a slightly longer path; one via Australia.

Visiting my Uncle Mike and Aunt Christine in Oz has always been on my personal to-do list. I recall discussing a potential visit with my Mom (Mike’s Sister) as far back as high school -as a post grad course of action. Alas, fate finally set the course.

Our flight from Johannesburg went great and the kids once again proved their traveler-prowess. We departed during an electrical storm so the first 20 minutes of our flight was very bumpy which Deanna did not like at all. We arrived in the early evening into Perth after an eleven hour flight and some extra customs grind. We were greeted with warm temperatures similar to Jo’burg and hugs from Mike & Christine.

We spent our time in Perth on the beach, adventuring around parks, a Christmas festival downtown, the Aquarium etc. We went to a lot of places and got a good feel of the city thanks to Mike driving us around our whole stay. The kids really earned their gills as Mike & Christine are avid divers and their personal pool and passion certainly rubbed off. Incidentally, Rhys is also more comfortable around dogs now too. Seems their dog Mitchy left a great impression as Rhys still mentions/misses him to this day.

Even after a ten day visit, Mike and Christine remained gracious hosts. Normally we’d cut any family related visit to a week at maximum for everyone’s sanity, but we were at a loss for flight times due to Aussie schools being let out for the busy Christmas holidays. Rest assured we escaped with necks narrowly un-wrung and hugs still shared upon departure… all the while unsure when we’d be down-under again.