Sunday, September 30, 2012

Portland Island

 
 
Portland Island-  An adventure in which Niki and I camped and relaxed and had our chocolate eaten by racoons.
 
Headed out to Portland Island for a little one night getaway this weekend.Had a lovely community breakfast in the morning and then Niki and I headed out in the afternoon  The winds were light and it was gorgeous fall weather.  Portland Island is not to far a paddle but slightly isolated enough that your can feel far away.  It is an island that we go ashore occasionally with work but Niki and I camped on the far side where we dont take the kids. 
 
We set up the tent and then headed out to explore the island via the network of trails.  Fall is my favorite season and the dryness of the Gulf Island fully display the best of fall  gorgeous golds and browns, leaves and mushrooms, dried flowers and berries 


 Fav photo of the day

 The maples all had a wierd fungus that made them pokadotted


 We found a trail lined with berries which we picked


 Our tent in the trees,  We forgot the fly but that made for great full moon viewing and sunrise!!

 Sunrise over Mt. Baker through the tent
 Niki was sleeping so I couldn't get out of the tent but here is one where I leaned over her and opened the tent door a wee bit....
 Making Pancakes for Breaky
 Blackberry Sauce


 Attempting the stern farmer pose...

 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

September Days

 There comes a time when I have not posted in a while that I kind of avoid posting because I feel guilty for not posting but I have come to the realization that my blog is murky reflection of my life and my life involves a lot of time with no Internet access so to all the people who I love who I know check this regularly I apologize.
September 1st the day after Trip 5 I headed home to the valley for some much non boaty time.  It was a fabulous 5 days filled with family ( I love my family), a few close friends, church, and sunshine.
One of the highlights was climbing Mr Cheam with my dad and Uncle Gerald and Allan. Dad and I have been talking about hiking it together for ages and finally back in May I pretty much made him sign a contract that we would do it this week that I was home.  We got up super early and were the 3rd car in the parking lot and 3 little group to summit. We summitted around 930, beating the hoards of people that acended after us.  The weather and views were steller. 
Lady


Pretty blessed girl to have such an awesome dad.  Love him like crazy


 Still some flowers out
 Spent the day day I went back to Victoria with Oma and Jake.  Sitting outside in the garden


 I got back to Victoria on the Wednesday night of my week off and at 6am on Thursday morning I was on the Pacific Grace headed off to Port Townsend in Washington State for the Wooden Boat Show. The boat show is the largest wooden boat show in the world and it was a blast. I had been to PT once before with Corina but it came truely alive for the Festival. We were rather the stars of the show as well. From the time we entered the harbour, The Grace was the largest ship ever to come into the inner basin where we were docked and the finesse needed to maneuver the boat in there had people lining the docks and rails to watch us anytime we moved. We held open houses on the boat for people to tour, also enjoyed looking at all other boats and attending workshops. Tony and Stephen hosted several lectures as well.

Leaving Victoria (Iphone)


The inner basin... a jumble of boats




Visting the Sail Loft(iphone)- Amazing workspace and light and the work they do all by hand- breathtaking. 

 
There was a great street band from New Orleans playing on friday and Saturday.  I spent quite a while standing and listening to them.  They looked like hobos who had just jumped off a train. But they played and sang amazing blues/folk.
Saturday was the schooner race.  There was  fresh breeze that kept switching around delaying the start multiple times and when the race finally started we were horribly out of position to make any sort of move.  But we still completed the race course and had a lovely time sailing with so many other boats.  This is Zodiac another large schooner from Seattle. 




 Love Wood
 Mabel came
 Love these mail boxes

 After Port Townsend the Fall season was upon us.  6 short weeks until the season is complete.  The sun shines mostly upon us as Indian Summer is wonderful in the Gulf Islands.
This is just a skyscape that I am constantly on the look out for backgrounds for digital images of the new boat for promos
 Swift Anchored at Tumbo Island. This fall we have explored a bunch of new places that we didn't go to this spring.  This has made the transition from the west coast to gulf islands more tolerable.