Summer Vacation 2005Part IV: All's Well That Ends Well

I can see how you might get the impression that we had the most horrible holiday of our lives, based on my last few posts. In truth, aside from the Bellingham experience (that I will no longer mention unless I find a funny way to do so), we had a spectacular time. And we have the photos to prove it!

Between my newly acquired Minolta DiMage Z1 and my girlfriend's Fuji Finepix A201, we managed to snap off more than 600 shots over the course of 10 days. Naturally, most of them will never get made into prints or emailed out to family, but that's the beauty of digital photography, isn't it? You just keep shooting until you get what you want!

In true tourist fashion, we filled everyday with as much sight-seeing as we could handle. And, although the Vancouver area is absolutely packed with great attractions, it seemed like the best things for us were either off the beaten path, or simply nature itself. We had already done the Vancouver Aquarium the year before, so we decide to avoid that. I was initially quite excited about walking across the Capilano Suspension Bridge... That is, until I found out that they charge $26 per person for the priviledge of walking across said bridge. That's something I'll never do, on principle alone.

The B.C. Mining Museum, on the other hand, turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. At first, I didn't think I'd be very interested in going to an abandoned copper mine to learn about... well... copper mining, but it was actually quite cool! The best part came at the end of the tour when we were shown how to pan for gold. Yours truly actually found a piece! I'd probably have to go back 1100 more times before I'd have enough to make a ring, but that's not the point. I found gold!

That same day, on our way back from the Mining Museum, we stumbled across a little park north of Vancouver that ended at the shore. We spent the better part of an hour there, just watching the waves, collecting rocks for our kids, and taking pictures of the boats as they went by. It just so happened that one of those passing boats was a B.C. Ferry, a vessel capable of carrying over 350 cars. My girlfriend was quite surprised to find out the size of the waves a ship like that can generate in its wake! It was just after she frantically scrambled up from the waters edge that we decided it was time to go.

In an ironic twist (if you've been reading this little series from the start), we ended up taking one of those very ferries over to Vancouver Island. we only stayed for one night, but it was relaxing to be away from the hustle and bustle of the Big City, even for so short a time. And it gave us a chance to do a little beachcombing in Parksville, just like the year before. Of course, we happened to pick a "protected" beach, so I had to make many surreptitious trips back to the van to drop off our illegal treasures. Seriously, who's going to miss a few seashells?

Before heading home to Calgary, we took one last stop in Hope, B.C. to visit my parents, and it's a good thing we did! There were so many things to see and do there... I never would have guessed! In our final day, we took in an Art Festival, saw some of the most amazing sand sculptures imaginable, and hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls. My girlfriend's ankle was extremely sore, but nothing could keep her from seeing that waterfall, let me tell you! If there's one thing that girl likes, it's waterfalls...

Now, we did a ton of other things during our 10 days, but it would probably take another 10 days just to write about them. Suffice it to say, we had an awesome holiday and can't wait for the next one!

Why does retirement have to be so far away?

Summer Vacation 2005Part III: Thar She Blows... I Think

After doing our "Rudest Tourist" impression at a local pub by insisting we get served as quickly as possible and shovelling some of the best food we've ever almost tasted down our throats, it was back to the boat to see if we could secure a good seat before the rest of the passengers returned. The weather had brightened up a bit, so we decided to risk sitting on the observation deck at the top, the spot everyone would be flocking to once we got to the whales anyway.

As we sat there, waiting for everyone else to board, the pride we felt at having staked out such an envious claim was only slightly marred but the realization we were with, without a doubt, the worst whale watching outfit in the harbor. Everywhere we turned there were beautiful boats filling up with people positively giddy with excitement. Some were decked out in bright orange jumpers, piling into an ultra-fast zodiac, while others took their places and sipped beverages on more spacious yachts with enormous viewing decks and energetic tour guides fanning the flames of anticipation.

Our boat had more an air of, "Crap. Here we go again." It was a mood that only soured further when the captain annouced where the whales had been spotted... near Bellingham. Essentially, this meant, in order to stay within the time constraints of the tour, we might make it to the whales and, if we did, we'd have only a couple minutes to see them before being forced to return.

Great.

To prevent you from feeling as miserable as we did, I'll cut to the chase now... It was absolutely freezing on that upper deck and the time just dragged by. When we finally arrived at the whales, it was obvious that all the other tour boats had been there for quite some time. We, on the other hand, had to turn around almost immediately to head back. We never got closer than about 500 feet to the whales, which was a far cry from the 5 foot proximity of last year. I tried to take photos, but quickly gave up in frustration as all I could get were blurry little black dots on the water. This is the best of the batch, and was only possible thanks to a 10x zoom:

During the remaining 4 hours of the cruise (2 hours back to Friday Harbor, then 2 more back to Bellingham), fate deciced to add injury to insult... We couldn't take the cold any longer on the upper deck and went below to find somewhere warmer. As we did, my girlfriend slipped on a worn spot on one of the stairs and came crashing down into the main cabin, badly spraining her ankle in the process. It was then that the captain discovered his First Aid kit consisted of about 3 Band-Aids, a pair of tweezers, and a roll of tape.

Needless to say, the rest of the way back to Bellingham was grueling, many of our plans for the rest of our holiday were dashed, and our money for the whale watching tour was fully refunded.

Now, whenever I have a brilliant idea that my girlfriend doesn't like, all she has to do is look me in the eye and say one word.

Bellingham.

Summer Vacation 2005Part II: 2 Hours We'll Never Get Back

To say that conditions on the boat were cramped would be an understatement. At one point, I'm pretty sure I saw a school of sardines swim by and laugh at the stupid humans. Not only were we seated should to shoulder, knee to knee, but many of us had luggage as well. Granted, it was mostly of the backpack or purse variety, but there was no place to put any of it, save at our feet or on our laps. This meant finding the one configuration that worked, then sitting in that position for the entire 2 hours.

Even though this wasn't the whale watching portion of the tour, the captain of the boat did his best to point out things along the way. "If you look out the port side of the boat, you'll see Orcas Island, the largest in this archipelago. For those of you having a hard time making it out, it's the dark mass along the horizon, just behind that low-lying cloud cover..." But the poor visibility wasn't that much of a problem, since he'd point out that same island 4 more times before reaching Friday Harbor.

He told other stories of local color and commented on various points of interest, but we missed much of it, thanks to his competition. I'm talking about a couple of German women seated next to us. Of course, I don't speak the language, so I can't say definitively that they were German, but I'm sure I heard the words "David Hasselhoff" more than once, so I have my suspicions. From the time we left Bellingham until we reached Friday Harbor, these two talked incessantly. And loudly. More often than not, they completely drowned out the PA system. My girlfriend and I both tried firing annoyed glances in an effort to turn down the volume, but eventually had to "shush" them like 4-year olds. That did the trick... for about 3 minutes.

Sigh.

Time practically slowed to a crawl as we strained our eyes, hoping to catch any glimpse of civilization that would signal the end of this Torture-Cruise. And then, just as I was beginning to think I was trapped in some cruel Twilight Zone episode, there it was... Friday Harbor. At long last! A chance to stretch our aching legs by wandering through the local shops, museums, and restaurants promised in the pamphlets. An hour and a half of blessed freedom!

And then the announcement from the captain... "Folks, since we are running a bit behind today, we going to have to cut our stay at Friday harbor short. We'll be setting sail to see the whales in about 45 minutes."

Perfect. How did I not see that coming?

Summer Vacation 2005Part I: It's All in the Planning

If any of you are masochistic enough to have been reading this blog since last summer, you'll already know what an awesome time my girlfriend and I had when we took our very first whale watching tour out of Victoria, BC. And for all you new readers, my girlfriend and I had an awesome time when we took our very first whale watching tour out of Victoria, BC last year.

How's that for "setting the stage"? Pretty good? Cool.

Well, for this year's trip, we had decided it was time to take a nice, romantic Caribbean cruise. Sadly, those plans got quickly tossed away as soon as we discovered that, "Hey! These things cost money!" So, it was back to the coast for a second round with the Killer Whales... How could we go wrong?

Read on.

In order to save a few bucks, I convinced my girlfriend that it would be much better to slip down to Bellingham, Washington to do our tour, as opposed to going all the way to Vancouver Island and spending a fortune on the ferries. I figured the idea was brilliant, like all my ideas, because we could get some shopping done while we were down there. She wasn't as keen, but eventually gave in after much whining (not hers, mine). I think what won her over in the end was that I had found a company that offered 7 hour guaranteed killer whale watching tours on a luxurious 110 ft boat that would make last year's jaunt on the Zodiac seem like "slumming it".

In hindsight, it probably would have been smart of me to make sure the tour company was operating on the day we went down. Which it wasn't. Nor the next day either.

As it turned out, we were lead to believe that there was only one company offering whale watching excursions on a daily basis, but you had to take a 2 hour cruise on a 45 ft boat out to Friday Harbor first. Not what we had in mind, but what the heck... So we decided to take the lemons that had been handed to us and make lemonade by signing up. At least we'd see whales and spend some nice time out on the water.

Here is a picture that I took from inside the boat:

Not exactly a great day to be out... Or, at least I assume not... It was hard to tell through the rain- and sea-spattered windows. Yay. I couldn't wait to see whales through that stuff! Keep in mind, too, that the boat could seat about 25 very comfortably... A fact that was completely lost on the 40+ people crammed into it!

And the fun was just beginning...

Blog Van Winkle

I'm going to have to assume there's a problem with Blogger's timestamps on my blog... There no way two months have gone by since my last post. Seriously... A dedicated blogger, such as myself, completely ignoring his blog for that length of time? It's unthinkable! Remember how long summer holidays lasted when you were a kid? It was a veritable lifetime between Grade 5 and Grade 6! Well, that's apparently how long this little ol' site of mine has lain dormant.

Crazy.

Perhaps I could tell you that I've been deeply involved with a corporate merger that will soon see me writing about bigger and better scenes from bigger and better forklifts... Or that my recent battle with flesh-eating disease had me at death's door and it was all I could do to hold onto this mortal coil. Maybe you'd believe that I did, indeed, pull a Rip Van Winkle by voluntarily participating in a cryogenics experiment conducted by the University of Calgary and, as far as I'm concerned, not more than a couple of days have passed since I last posted so you can all just get off my back! And somebody get me a blanket... I'm freezing!

Of course, my tendency to blog my inner machinations, coupled with a total lack of ambition when it comes to thinking up believable lies, pretty much eliminates any chance I have of fooling even my most gullible of readers. Oh! Which reminds me... Hi, Jack!

Alright, so there isn't really some great, earth-shattering event that has kept me away from the blog-world, but I suppose there's a fair-sized backlog of stories that I could tell... With my daughter finishing Kindergarten, my recent summer vacation, the Calgary Stampede, the return of the NHL (thanks for the reminder, Catt...), and a whack of so-called blockbuster movies currently showing, I think I can come up with a couple things to say.

Okay, grab yourself a coffee, put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on your office door, and get comfortable... This won't be a short ride.

Just kidding.

I know what it's like to read a blog post that's just way too long. Actually... No I don't, because I usually give up after a couple scrolls unless the thing is really interesting. And, since I can't guarantee that I'll be really interesting, I think I'll cut it off here, for today, and start a 4- or 5-part series that is sure to get you all up to speed on the fascinating life of Cuppojoe without putting you to sleep. There's nothing worse than having your boss find you drooling away on your keyboard... Unless he finds you drooling away on his keyboard, I suppose...

Random Brew: Perspective

Wouldn't Fear Factor contestants be wiser to view the glass as half empty?

Photo of the Week: Concrete Curvation

Pleasing perspective on a public parkade from atop the Calgary Tower.
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