A Mini Cooper Clubman, Ice Blue with black bonnet stripes: doesn’t this cute little station wagon make you smile? Why would we ever give it up? It is not an easy decision, but going car-free is our resolution for 2018.  Continue reading
Category Archives: Boots
Hiking and walking adventures
Stories and Shorelines
A cod-killer is a good thing, while a smatchy brine is not. Newfoundland’s rural fishing villages are long-abandoned, but the stories are not lost. A fisherman born in Kerley’s Harbour, Captain Bruce educates and entertains us with tales of everyday life in the enchanting coastal communities near Trinity, one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s best preserved historic towns.
Magical Mystery Tour
Safe yet playful river rafting, spectacular alpine walking, wildflower meadows and waterfalls, comfortable cabins to stay in, congenial new friends: check! Destinations, dates, and companions are a mystery until the last minute, as tour companies scramble to work around an evacuation alert for Clearwater and a two-week wildfire-related closure of Wells Gray Provincial Park.
Peaks and Creeks
The Tourism Whistler web site lists forty-eight summer activities. From the list, our multi-generational group chooses seven sports – a heptathlon. We hike, bike, paddle, swim, climb, slide, and zip. Snow-capped peaks, creeks with views at every bend, wildflowers, wild animals, bucket list-worthy thrills: Whistler, a mountain resort two hours north of Vancouver, is truly a family-friendly, multi-sport mecca.
Joining us on this Whistler-week are our son Alec, his wife Angie, and their three children, Nathan (14), Scarlett (12), and Robin (11). Nick (18), our oldest grandchild, comes, too; the rest of his family are occupied elsewhere with work, summer school, or dragon boating.
Still Roaring After All These Years
Who can forget the first time they walk onto the endless sands of Long Beach? In 1970 hordes of hardy hippies, draft dodgers, and surfers would make the drive over a long dirt road to a glorious tent city on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We were there in our paisley shirts, with two naked toddlers in tow. Beach camping in driftwood shelters, drag races on the hard-packed sand, huge bonfires – forbidden now by Parks Canada regulations, and firewood costs seven dollars for a little bundle. Can two old hippies go with the flow?
High and Mighty
Two adventures this month: one at a High-elevation mountainous park, the other a Mighty-pretty-but-Mighty-hard wilderness canoe trip. (map) A rugged, nearly-off-road ride brings us up almost 7,000 feet to Canada’s highest full-service hiking lodge, Cathedral Lakes. This quirky hodgepodge of buildings is our base camp for five days of alpine hiking, fine dining, and hobnobbing with celebrities and adventurers from around the world. Next is the Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit, a world-class test with eight portages totalling eleven kilometres. We dub it Bowron: The Farewell Tour, because we may not tackle this circuit again. Those portages are a lot tougher than they were twenty years ago!
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Golden Anniversary Expedition
An elegant, classy dinner party with gold paper doilies under the plates? Not our style! Here’s another idea for celebrating a Golden Anniversary: a one-week canoe-camping trip! Our children and their families joined us to float a 107-mile stretch of the Upper Missouri River in an area virtually untouched since Lewis and Clark’s expedition two hundred years ago. We slept in tents, used bucket toilets, and dealt with insects, injuries, thunderstorms, and extreme heat. Like Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery, we met these challenges through teamwork and determination. Just the kind of party to remind us of the roads we have traveled in our half-century together! Continue reading
