'Round Cape Horn

Santiago, Chile

Hostel Romandia

back garden of hostel

I arrived reasonably well rested since I was lucky enough to get a entire row of seats on the plane to myself! Santiago airport doesn't have a direct metro link, but does have a airport bus that goes to the main bus/train station which does, so I opted for that as the metro went fairly close to the hostel I had booked. The hostel was a converted villa in a quiet, reasonably central residential area and was a great deal because not only was it a nice place and clean, it also had wi-fi and breakfast included (which the hotel we stayed at the next night did not -and it cost ten times more!)

Cerro San Cristobal

Parque Metropoitanito

After getting settled in, I took a little stroll around and noticed a statue on top of a hill -Cerro San Cristobal at Santuario Inmaculada Concepcion in the Parque Metropoitanito- well one can only presume there must be a good view from way up there, so off I went... Having spent the last few months acclimatizing myself for winter, it wasn't long before the 25 degree heat and the switchbacks were causing me to perspire somewhat... but I eventually made it to the top (and in a little better shape than the group of 20 somethings that followed me up). The climb up was definitely worthwhile as the view from the base of the statue was magnificent and with a little wandering about it was possible to get a view of most of the city, ... There were, of course, easier ways than taking on all those switchbacks to get up there, such as driving and the tram (which would have been fun had it been operating).

Santiago itself is a very nice city - at least the places in the city that I've seen... very modern with a fair bit of modern architecture and public art - an excellent subway ( the cars of the trains are all joined in such a way you could see unobstructed from one end to the other), the people are very friendly, the motorists courteous...

Santiago street

After the trip down the hill (which was significantly easier than the hike up) a cooling cervesa and bite to eat were welcome and then it was back to the hostel to the usual computer work (download and edit pictures and GPS tracks write notes and a few emails, do a little information gathering for the next day...). As on any trip there always seems to be one or two items that you forget and it was only a short while before I discovered the first of those when the battery on my phone and computer ran down and I realized I had no power plug adapters... so no power and thus no blog posting.

Next day I found out the new hotel had no wi-fi, so no blog again....but I did find the adapters I needed at the largest mall in SA, so at least I have power now. Finding some free wi-fi in the morning probably won't happen as time will be tight due to an early bus to the coast to meet the evening sailing... so probably no posting again...

8 floors of shopping, and
each floor a city block makes
this the largest mall in SA

 

Since it was so much fun last year, I'll to do it again this trip... and since last year I managed just over 20000km, I ought to try to best that number this time round....after all I've got more time this time! Today we (dad and I) managed a grand total of 9km but with my 11484km from yesterday ....well, it looks like that ought to be do-able... :)

thursday, january 17, 2013

Valpariso, Chile

Today a bus was arranged to take us from Santiago to Valparaiso on the coast where the cruse ship awaited us. Although the drive was only two hours and we had nine hours until the ship sailed, there was of course no time or opportunity to do any sight seeing (except of course from the ships decks after we were boarded saveral hours early). I was mildly amused however, when the bus tour director noted that although they didn't normally divert, we were ahead of schedule, and thus, had a few minutes available to pop into a conveniently situated roadside stop (that just happened to sell drinks and souvenirs) and, I noticed, several other buses were also ahead of schedule...!

One thing that was very striking about the drive was the tunnels that were used to punch through the rather large (and steep) hills, avoiding what would have otherwise been fairly labourous climbs up and over. Tunnels were also to skip under the congested areas of the city, and yes, there were of course tolls involved for all of this convenience... :^) At the port and once we were finally ready to get underway, it was rather interesting backing out of the birth, while avoiding the dock, the other cargo ships and what appeared to be most of the Chilean Navy - I'm not sure that it would have been possible with only tug boats

Chilean Navy

Pilot boat doing doughnuts

Rear deck pool area

The following day was a day at sea, which, according to the schedule, will happen nearly every other day ...of course, lots of on-board activities are available all day long so I picked a few and dropped in on a few just to see what they were about. Had breakfast with a very lively group from Montreal and took a beginners Spanish lesson (which was really just a intro to a few of the common basic words and some pronunciation). The instructor was from Argentina and it was interesting to note the differences in pronunciation (such as y and double L's).
It was not really a problem that we spent most of the day 60km offshore as the fog was so thick in the morning that you could barely see the far end of the ship (It was very noisy up front with all the honking in the fog)
Tonight was one of the formal dress dinners which was a fairly spiffy affair.. but oddly (I thought) the food wasn't that great - I suppose it is difficult to mass-produce greatness. In retrospect (this being written a couple of days later) it would appear that I had the wrong expectation...although you dress up, the menu does not significantly change.

saturday, january 19, 2013

Puerto Montt, Chile

Wood carvings

Magically, when we got up this morning we were in port. Magically, it was a fabulous clear morning, and as it would turn out, the warmest day in Puerto Montt in two years. This part of Chile is very narrow, as the border with Argentina is only a dozen or so kilometers away and the mountains that were somewhat inland are now right on the coast. It's a little hard to tell from here, but they appear to be the typical rugged and very steep coastal mountains like you would find in British Columbia. Mount Washington with it's snow capped heights is quite the sight from the Vancouver shore... well, that sight is fairly common along this coast with many peaks in excess of 2500m and many snowfields and glaciers.

All wooden church

 Puerto Monttt is nearly exactly what I would expect; partially modern while much of it is not, but it is very Latin America. As I wandered through a local market, I found myself wishing I had a BBQ so I could try some of the salmon which looked excellent and was about $5/kg. And then as I was taking a shortcut through what turned out to be a particularily poor section of town, I had to laugh when I realized these people had some of the best views in town.

Fruit, vegetable and fish market

-Section; 1308km -Trip total; 12801km

Volcanoes near to Puerto Montt

Fiords/Glaciers, SW Chile

And another day at sea. This one started out fabulous again, but as the day wore on, the clouds thickened and the wind increased as well as the ocean swell, so that by mid-afteroon, most people were staying indoors and occasionally walking like they were all drunk. The swell made the pools fun though, as they would turn themselves into wave pools every now and then with a wave that would get to be nearly a meter tall.

It is now late and the fog horn is still going so I assume that visibility is still nill, which I hope changes in the next few hours as we are supposed to be stopping for some sight-seeing at a place called Amalia Glacier in the morning...

-Section; 1078km -Trip total; 13879km

sunday, january 20, 2013

Amalia Glacier (not the real name)

About 7:30am we pulled into position in front of the glacier which comes right down to the waters edge. They say it used to be 4 km longer a few years back, but that would mean that it would pretty much fill the strait that we sailed through...

The weather was perfectly clear and sunny, although cool - after all it was 8 in the morning! Wanting to give everyone equal opportunity to view, and the captain spent about an hour slowly spinning the ship in place, so we got the whole spinning restaurant effect. After we had pulled away from the glacier a few kilometers, you could begin to perceive how large the ice-field was as it climbed over the mountain behind. The rest of the morning we sailed through a series of narrow passages back to the open ocean and more fog and then late in the afternoon we began sailing up the Straight of Magellan on our way to Punta Arenas.
-Section; 934km -Trip total; 14813km

monday, january 21, 2013

Punta Arenis, Chile

Considered to be the largest most southerly city in South America...and if you can explain to me what that means, please do! The city used to be a very important port when ships had to travel around the horn before the Panama Canal, but now much of it's livelihood is associated with oil. The residential parts of town are quite spread out (not a lot of apartments) and the commercial center is quite large as well. There isn't a lot in the way of vegetation in the region as as the entire Patagonia area was covered in a ice sheet only 10000 years ago, so other than the few planted trees, mostly there is only scrubs and grass on the lower slopes and rock on the upper.... Again, the weather was fabulous today so I did a walk through town and saw a few of the sights.



-Today; 17km -Trip total; 14830km



Sheepskin rug

 

Urban art wall

tuesday, january 22, 2013

Beagle Channel, Cape Horn

In the morning we passed through what is known as 'Glacier Alley' starting at 6:30 am until about 8:00am the captain reduced speed to about 7 knots as we passed in fairly quick succession about a half dozen glaciers that used to come to the waters edge, but now the majority are hanging glaciers. On a clear day this would have been spectacular as you would have been able to glimpse the ice-fields on top and behind, but even with clouds obscuring the mountain tops it was still quite the sight - especially for those who don't get to see glaciers too often. The amount of melt water coming off the glacier and ice-fields is huge, especially considering it was early morning and the heat of day had not yet had an effect...though the drainage area may be so large that this is still yesterdays run-off?

...about a billion Lts/min coming off this ice field

The glacier water does not
mix with the sea water

Ushuaia, Argentina

At noon we passed over the border into Argentina and docked at Ushuaia which is considered to be the most southerly city in the world, and it is quite a bustling center of activity. There are two airstrips, one for small craft and the other for big, a harbour that had a number of freighters and container ships as well as three other smaller cruise ships in addition to ours, and a marina full of small boats. In town there were a lot of people about and many seemed to be locals.

 I was somewhat surprised by the number of sporting goods and outdoor outfitters clothing stores. It probably has to do with the hiking and skiing available north of here.-Section; 524km -Trip total; 15354km

wednesday, january 23, 2013

Cape Horn, Chile

Cape Horn, Chile

From Ushuia we sailed south back into Chile and around 'The Horn'. This whole territory south of the Magellan Straits has been long desputed between Chile and Argentina, and I heard a rumor that the Pope was finally called in to resolve, which he did by simply telling each to take half, with the border down the middle.

friday, january 25, 2013

Stanley, Falkland Islands (Malvides)

There was some concern initially that we might not visit the Falklands for political reasons, but that apparently had been resolved.  However, on the day we arrived the winds were 90-100km/h, and after a test run the captain decided that it would be too dangerous to run the punt service to the dock. Due to the sea conditions we were anchored about 2.5 km from the pier so that would have been a long trip through rough water. It was so rough that the punt doing the test run would disappear from sight every now and again in the waves (and this is a boat that can hold over 100 passengers). There is also the issue of getting on and off the little ferry boat. Most of the passengers on the ship are over 65 and not in the best physical shape, which may also have been a consideration.
The islands themselves have a fairly low profile and as such there is very little scenic appeal from 3 km out at sea, but we got a good long look as we rounded the eastern coast and part of the northern before heading back to Argentina. The seas are rough enough today to get the pools a rocking every now and again, and after one particularly good session, where the pool wave splash was nearly 15' high, the staff closed and emptied the pools. :( On a ship this size though (and equipped with stabilizers) it isn't particularly difficult to walk around.

-Section; 1076km -Trip total; 16430km

sunday, january 27, 2013

Puerto Madyrn, Argentina

'free' hot-spot -courtesy
of the hotel across  the street

An important port with a big aluminum smelter, the town itself seems to be in a bit of decay with a lot of unfinished streets and buildings that are in the works, but look to have been that way for some time, as well as a fair few at the edges of town that are bricked up and crumbling. The area is essentially a desert with a huge 'Death Valley' to the north and the worlds largest Magellanic Penguin colony about 100km to the south. The beaches go on for kilometers and get even larger with the receding tide -which is about 6 meters, and translates to several hundred meters of revealed beach. This area is popular for tourism due to the marine life that is abundant and can be commonly observed such as penguins, sea lions, dolphins, whales and orcas. I didn't see any.

EcoCenter Maritime Museum

Puerto Madyrn from the ships deck14

Puerto Madryn beaches

-Section; 1211km -Trip total; 17641km

tuesday, january 29, 2013

Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo old town skyline

looking a little worn

I was only in the old city area, but what I saw reminded me a great deal of Cuba. ...vehicles both new and ancient as well as the odd mule and wagon, manual labour methods, condition and architecture of buildings... It was as if a handful of Spain and a handful of Cuba were placed in a bucket and given a good mix. Very neat and tidy (in a relative sense) just like both Cuba and Spain ...though not as tidy a Spain... quite rundown in places like Cuba but a lot of repairs are underway....a lot of vacant buildings and buildings needing urgent repair. The people were very friendly and helpful.

-Section; 1343km -Trip total; 18984km

Buenos Aries, Argentina

We were very late getting into port today as there were some problems with the berth or something during the night and apparently the captain was told to hold position for a couple of hours way out in the channel. The entire trip from Montevideo to Buenos Aries is up the Parana River estuary which is extremely shallow and there is a only a narrow lane safe for shipping. (It would seem that the safe place for passing was several hours out from Buenos Aries) We eventually made it, but of course it messed up everyone's plans and I ended up going into town by myself, which as it turns out was probably a good thing. By the time I found a bank to get some money to pay for the metro, then get to the metro and then to the hostel (which fortunately had a space for tonight) a couple of hours had passed an I was drenched... I really need to get used to this heat somehow.

-Today; 272km -Trip total; 19256km

Vancouver Island

This little guy was a tad
shy and turned his head
just as I snapped the picture

The next couple of days were much less energetic as I only drove a few hundred kilometers each day. Originally, I had hoped to make it to Hope (ha-ha!) in a day, but then I remembered I have lots of time and don't need to be in a hurry, and so decided to relax and take my time. Instead of spending my time driving, I found some free internet and wrote a blog (which always takes an hour or two), read a book and generally got off to rather late starts in the morning. Eventually I did make it to Hope and being such a nice afternoon, I decided to go with the original plan of camping at Silver Lake which is just a few km south of town. A very nice provincial park campground that comes complete with a small lake nestled snugly between nearly vertical hills, and surrounded by tall cedars and rainforest as one would expect for Hope. Lots of fishing being done in the lake, but not a lot of fish being caught as far as I could see.
Next day it is on to Tawassan and the ferry and finally Victoria.  Although driving through Vancouver without a navigator was an interesting exercise, I did manage to find the ferry and was exactly on time to drive on and sail with no wait - always a bonus...

Kinsol Tressle
- walking between the
support towers

Kinsol Tressle

Managed the first golf game of the year a few days back (and even won a golf shirt in the process), so now was a good time for the first tennis game of the year. I nearly won the match...which roughly translates to 'lost' the match - although I did manage to do well enough to push it into overtime (that is, it took 10 games for me to lose) which I was quite happy with for the first playing of the year.

Went for a bike ride on small portion of the Trans Canada Trail at Kinsol Trestle (or Koksilah River Trestle) which is the largest wooden trestle in the commonwealth and one of the highest railway trestles in the world. After a close call with the wrecker, it has just recently undergone a major rebuild/repair/renovation and is once again open to foot, bike and horse traffic (no trains). A bit of an engineering marvel...the individual supporting timbers are about 30cm square and possibly 15m in length and although it is hard to see, the platform or rail bed is made of similar sized timbers except they all have a curve to match the 7 degree curve of the tressle.

After a vigorous paddle to the middle of
the ocean, we found a small island to
have a rest before the journey back

Kayaking on the Pacific Ocean - well at least a very small and protected piece of the pacific... we did see one seal swimming just off the point in the picture, but no close encounters, although I do now know of a place where they hang out, so will have to check that out in a day or two.

Vancouver Island - via Kootenay

I am now (really) on my way...with a stopover to visit family and try a bike hike that I saw published.
Diana Lake - only about 30km from the highway - and if you have the right car you can drive most of it on logging access roads. I don't have the right car. I was able to drive the first ten km and then things got a bit rough so I decided it was a good place to begin the bike portion. As far a a bike ride goes, the path/road is really quite good and fast. It isn't an overly scenic ride but there are very nice views now and again. From where I parked it was up for 3km and down for 4km and up for the final 11km to the beginning of the trail which I was able to ride for about the first km and then it became too steep and rough to do anything but push or carry.

I chose to park the bike which would mean that I would have to walk down, but as it turned out that was the right thing as this trail is definitely built for hiking. The map I had said 5km to the lake but as it turned out was almost exactly 6, which normally wouldn't be a problem but I had allocated only so much time in order to not be late for dinner.

A good portion of this hike is in the trees (which is nice on a hot day) and a good portion is in the open with very scenic vistas.

The Judge

Once you are out of the steeps and getting into the alpine, the views get absolutely fantastic! The majority of the trail is fairly steep and at the rate I had to travel in order to not be late, I was really pushing it....and then the extra km.... but I made it to the lake at one minute after the time I had set as the absolute-must-turn-around time ...so that was good... but that also meant that I had to attempt a 7-8km/h jogging decent (which lasted for about 3km and then slowed substantially) and ended up averaging 6km/h...which was pretty good, but now I had to make it up in the cycle ride down.

Larches around Diana Lake

Things went really well until I got to that 4km climb, and by the end of that I was really hurting  - thank goodness I still had the 3km coast down to the car!
This was really the perfect time of year to go as all the larches were changing color!

Vancouver Island -via Kananaskis

...on some river crossings it is just easier to lie down
and do the backstroke...

This trip was planned for early summer but kept getting postponed, so in the end it sort of started for real with a couple of side trips to the Kananaskis (that needed to be done as the weather was sooooo good it would have been a shame to run away and then come back to find everything covered in snow...).
So first up was an exploratory trip to Canyon Creek with a return along Prairie Creek. In theory it would work just fine, but there was very little information on the Canyon Creek portion past the Ice Caves and hence the 'exploratory' classification. The one description we did have suggested several creek crossings but it is now late summer and the water levels have all subsided so that should make things a bit easier. I also had a track for the first portion of the path in my GPS that we could use as a guide and that ought to make things easier also.

without water, it was easier in places
to just use the creek bed as the path

eventually there was water
in the creek

The first portion up to the Ice Caves trail is of course a gravel road and a nice easy ride on a fabulous day (which it was). As soon as we left the gravel and found the trail, which was actually the remnants of an access road of some sort we found things were going to get ore interesting. In places the trail was fabulous, wide and reasonably smooth, and in places it had been washed out and was now a rocky stream bed, and in others it narrowed down to a very winding single tract that wasn't always easy to follow. The one consistency was that it kept crossing the creek. We lost track at around fifteen, but at least the lower portion of the creek was dry which made it much, much easier. Eventually there was enough water to remain on the surface and the creek was no longer dry and then became a significant stream which became difficult to cross without getting the feet wet. You might ask why the path crossed the creek so many times - I know I did! Well, it wasnt just random or for fun. The creek is aptly named. It travels through a small but quite long and very winding canyon with a lot of bends that end in cliff faces so the trail has no choice but to go to the other side.... after about six or seven kilometers the trail begins to peter out and is difficult to follow in places which is where the GPS track I had came in very usefull. Eventually, after about ten kilometers we were not able to find the trail anymore as my GPS track ended there as well. The last few kilometers had been quite slow due to the bushwhacking and route finding and so we decided to about face rather than push on and tempt a return in the dark. As it turns out we were within a half a kilometer of another access road that would have taken us where we needed to be...  ...Oh well, good to know for next time!

The next was in the Sheep end of the Kananaskis on a couple of trails that I had done a few weeks before on my commuter bike - I wanted to redo one or two and do one or two that I hadn't gotten to... re-do as a comparison for myself between what mountain biking was like in the 80's with no shocks etc (like I had with my commuter bike) and today with full suspension, 24 gears and fat tires.

nice trail - lots of obstacles

Well, on the new trails I went on with all the roots and fallen trees and rocks and bogs, I would have been hours longer on the other bike - not to mention how much more effort would have been required... But on the trail I chose to re-do, things went somewhat different. I figured if I could do twenty km along a fairly good track with the commuter, I ought to be able to double that on the mountain bike - which would have gotten me all the way up the Sheep River to Tombstone. Things began very well - I was making great time and the ride was a fair bit easier, but just as I was done most of the hard climbing and was getting into the long valley, I came over a rise to find I had a small problem... well, not so small actually!

Mr. Grizzly cooling down on a warm day

There was Mr. Grizzly on my path with no apparent intention of leaving. (You might also notice he has a significant silver patch on his shoulder hump). I was about a hundred meters away and on a bike that (with a bit of adrenaline)  could do 35km/h along that path, so I was reasonably comfortable taking a couple of pictures and waiting a couple of minutes to see what he would do. He definitely knew I was there but made no move to retreat and there was no way I was going to advance - so we watched each other ....and then I retreated.  ...I'm pretty sure the whole 40km would have been quite doable otherwise.... :)

a new Gone4aday

Another one?
Yup! ...at  Gone4aday.wordpress.com
I've decided to go wireless, with all that that entails, and when I was doing my reading I happened on some persons mentioning a site (Wordpress) that was good when blogging from an Android device. Well I have an Android device. So now I am trying it out and comparing to working with this Gone4aday.


there was an intersection in Houston that reminded me of this....



Hot Springs & Durrand Glacier



BCG - I liked your picture so much,
this is mine in return

Well, I didn't get started as early as I had hoped, but then again I was supposed to leave yesterday... cause this was origionally going to be the Hot Springs Tour (HST), and with a half-dozen or so springs to visit on the first leg, it would take a few days ... but then things happened and now we have the modified HST - which is to skip the first 3, go to one, then skip some more, go to a cold lake, and finally, to skip the last few ...well at least we'll get in one HS... So I guess I'll call this new plan the 'modified version'...



The Fireweeds are out in force this year!

I started my modified version tour by stopping to visit dad. We had a nice breakfast on the patio, but that meant it was one o'clock in the afternoon before I got on the road. ...which did get me to Whiteswan Park and Lussier Hotsprings in time for a late afternoon soak and then a 10K hike - yes I probably did that backwards, but sometimes you should eat desert first. :)


Alces Lake (Whiteswan Park)

There are two lakes here, both crystal clear and seem that they would be great for fishing (at dusk you can see the fish from shore, just under the surface - presumably hunting bugs). I got back and set up camp as the sun was going down and managed dinner in the dark... well by the light of the campfire....
 

Lassier Hot Springs
-It was initially my thought that I was going to do this posting with
pictures only (like this), but that plan got modified also...

   
ooops... late leaving again today...hmmm, could there be a pattern developing here....? Actually, I was only late by the campground warden's clock. By my 'Slightly Modified Hot Springs Tour' clock, I was right on time.... you see, since I had gonE for a late afternoon dip yesterday, I had to get to the springs for a morning dip/soak. After much deliberation I decided the morning one was better - less people (thus more pool), besides who wouldent want to watch the sun come up while soaking in their own private hot pool?


PS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAC!



 Tomorrow it is off to Revelstoke and then an early morning helicopter lift to Durrand.Glacier. 



A fairly early 8:30AM arrival




Honymoon Lake

Weather today was part sunny, part cloudy, part rainy with possible thunderstorms so we did a shortish hike in the morning and came back to the lodge because of a threatening thunderstorm, checked the latest weather and radar imagery, guessed that the storm had just missed us and decided to go out again for an afternoon hike. After walking a few kilometers the weather finally decided to get serious and have a nice little storm. Luckilly, we were still low down at the time and could easily duck into a small copse of trees to wait it out. Twenty minutes later - sunshine! ...so off we went and got to the top of the ridge when suddenly the weather decide to threaten again, and not wanting to get caught out in the open...down we went...
  

 Day 2 started out without a cloud in the sky - and stayed that way the whole day! ...unfortunately I forgot my sunscreen and, boy, could you tell by the end of the day... which was 10 hours of hiking as we inadvertently ended up taking mom to the top of Goat Peak and at 10.5km and 3300', that was a personal best for her this year!



Morning visitors who later became
our tramping buddies for the day



Looking back towards the lodge

the lodge from Goat Peak

Day 4 was even hotter! ...like 24 degrees, which is really warm for 2000m elevation! So instead of a long walk we did a little boot skiing and had a swim in one of the lakes. 

Summer in 'the Soo'



After being lazy and mucking about in St Lucia and Spain it was time to get some chores done at home -like the usual spring cleaning and, of course, cleanup in the yard after winter - somewhat unexciting and rather time consuming, but not so much that I wasn't able to squeeze in the occasional coffee. Since the weather was rather so-so, it seemed a good opportunity to get some bigger chores started... or maybe finished? First, was the wall I built several years back but could never decide on the right finish.... So I compromised and bought some styrofoam 'stones'.


...it is hard to tell what is 'real' and what is styrofoam...

 They come in sheets which makes them really easy to install - they just don't look so great because of the uniform strange green colour for both stone and mortar... so they needed a custom paint job - to look a little more like the real thing... ...and of course an 'end' stone wasn't available to buy, so I ended up making a bunch of my own stones to finish off the ends of the wall. In the end, the look and finish was exactly what I wanted, but perhaps was a tad more labour than I originally envisioned!



sometimes stitching photos doesn't work so well
- but you get the idea...




The floor is now dark (Ebony Rosewood),
the backsplash glass and mosaic tile
and the counter is 18"x36" porceline tiles.



Summer still seemed to be having a hard time getting motivated so I decided to tackle the kitchen next. This became a perfect example of how one change forces another until you find yourself looking at a complete reno! It all started with needing a new floor because the finish on the old one had worn away and thus I could never get it to look clean. --But if I was going to replace the floor, then it seemed to me that that would be a good time to put in an island, if such was desired (and it was) -- And since I was changing the colour of the floor, the counter no longer worked (and of course it would need to be changed because it ought to match the new island's counter) -- And if you re-do the counter, you're going to have to re-do the back-splash -- And heck, if you're going to do all that then you may as well sort out the lighting and get the switches placed more sensibly - you know, instead of having to go to the back door to turn on the kitchen sink light...

Eventually I did finally get the kitchen reno finished (thanks to my advisers who helped me make decisions when I got stuck). The new island looks great - in my opinion, it gives just enough of an updated look, but I really don't know what I'm going to put in all the new drawers!

 Then it was off to visit the girls in Ontario!

When summer is called here in Eastern Canada they certainly follow through! Lots of HOT sunny days, a little bit of rain and cloud and then more hot and sunny. Spent a fair bit of time in the Soo with Mia and doing a lot of chores around the house there - the list of to-dos on this house seems to be endless!



....not sure why people plant cedars in front of
windows, but I think they look a lot better here!

 

This years list included a lot of landscaping, tree moving and re-grading of the yard to try to direct the water away from the house (it rains marsupials here on occasion) also needed to get the solar heating for the pool working and of course there was that little hole that had to be dug under the back deck to enable a foundation repair!



ahhhh, this was fun! ...the nice thing about
digging under a deck is that it is always
shady - still 30 degrees, but shady!

  One thing we did find out with all the digging that we did was that there are a LOT of rocks in this ground - so Mia now has a very nice rock pit/garden! Inside the house, there was the last bedroom that had to be redone (walls and floor ripped out and rebuilt) and another bathroom reno and finally the theater/guest room built.


the sheds got a much needed face-lift and
of course, Mia's new garden!



a new rock garden - what you don't see is
that there are 2 cubic meters of rocks in it!




Mia's new garden with 2 weeks of growth...



You can't have all work and no play, so Mia and I took the short 8 hour drive down to London to spend a few days with Pepper (aka Cricket). We unfortunately weren't able to do a couple of things we we wanted to like going to Niagara to pound grapes and learn how to kite surf, but there will be time for that.... Mia did get a first out of the trip - first time to be pulled over by the OPP! (sorry, no picture - thought about it too late!) ...no fault of hers - a wire broke and thus there were no brake lights. The nice police officer lady did advise her however that the registration was expired, and with no brake lights the car would have to be towed.... initially.... Perhaps the nice police officer lady took pity on poor Mia and soon came back and asked Mia if she knew her arm signals - ie how do you signal a stop? Thank goodness Mia was paying attention at bicycle school! With permission, we promptly drove home and diagnosed the brake problem, fixed the broken wire and phoned up Adam and gave him shit for forgetting to put registration on the car. We then quietly drove the short way back to the Soo and have since parked the car in the driveway until Adam can get the registration sorted out. London was fun though otherwise... Had a nice visit with Pepper, met her new beau, had a nice day trip to he beach and another day on a boat tour of the Huron river courtesy of a friend of a friend.


I think the person sitting in the lookout chair
ought to be looking out - or at least forward!




...a private beach

 We were even there for Sunfest! ....and yes, it was sunny...and hot...and then it rained for a bit and got tired of that and went back to being sunny and hot.

So now we are back in the Soo and although it appears it may have rained here sometime in the past, it is currently....care to take a guess?....Yup! Sunny and hot!


Mia even got a quick course in autobody repair...



Ok, got to go. Still have the last two items left to finish on my list and of course, must test out the solar heated pool! :) Had to buy a new thermometer for the pool - the last one didn't survive freezing over winter... anyway the new one says to pool is a tepid 30 degrees.