Our Happily Ever After

A Quick Catch-Up

2010-12-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

I have been deficient in keeping this blog up to date. So here is an attempt at quickly remedy-ing that.

One of my dearest childhood friends got married and I got to witness the celebration.

CONGRATULATIONS BUKKY AND RUSSELL!

My friend and co-worker Joy had a baby.

And we went from really pretty this:

To still kind of pretty-in-a-much-colder-way this:

And that is it for now from rainy Victoria! (the snow all melted and we're back to our usual cloudy windy winter :)

It's Been a Long Long Time

2010-08-07T20:41:00.001-07:00

So I suppose I should pick up this blog again. For the sake of my mother. Probably our last remaining reader, haha.

We had been in Chad. Chad has a way of draining you. It was a beautiful but painful experience. Bittersweet has been the best word to describe our time there. And maybe this is why it took so long to come back to writing. I have needed to have a pause, to break to let the sadness ease. I loved being a nurse there, there was so much need and so much thirst for God's love and I came alive sharing God and life. But there was also death. And lots of other pain. My heart went out to the people. Our time there came to an end but I know God will be leading us back to another place of need. At the moment, we need to be back here to raise money again to go where God leads next.

The adventures have continued since then and we are back on our beautiful island, planning and scheming for the future that is yet to be.

Since we've gotten back we have been sorting life stuff--the small but ridiculously complicated details that is required for Life In The Civilized World. Things were so much simpler in our hut-living days. So we are still in the process of getting back in the swing of things here. Jeremy is currently in a wrist cast for a long overdue wrist repair that he was blessed to have in April for FREE (thank you Canadian healthcare!) and has taken up sailing and making dehydrators and a host of other inventions (he never ceases to amaze me, the man is unstoppable, cast or no cast). He is also going on two major backpacking trips this summer.

I am in the Place-In-Between, more details on that later once I get all sorted out. I am working with some really sweet and many times confused group of elderly helping them go through this thing called Life. It's been...hilarious and tough and heart-touching and has caused me to think many thoughts about the cycle of life and the irony of how you can go back to being nearly a child when you're very old. I don't want to grow old.

Within the past few months we have: Moved back to the island. Gotten new jobs. Backpacked into the Carmanah wilderness. Road-tripped and camped along the way to Olds, Alberta for a family reunion hitting up Banff and the Schuswap. Gone berry picking. Tofino with Jeremy's Mom & Dad. Crewed on sailboat race. And got ourselves some 4x4 wheels because well...our adventuring has been without them and lately we have decided maybe if we go on crazy middle-of-nowhere logging roads, perhaps we should probably go 4x4ing on something other than a Honda Civic, trusty and adventurous though it be. The most intense time we thought this was on when we were on a 45 degree angled slope on large rocks and gravel, cliff on our right and were barely moving upwards, just pushing gravel out from under us but not moving much--we thought then, "Hmmm, maybe we shouldn't be on these roads without a 4x4." Well, we have one now.

There is more. But I need to go to bed. It's an early and long day tomorrow back at The Grind.

Going Green...and Red, and Yellow, and...

2008-09-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

We have been holding our breaths as our orchids budded and I was really really hoping that they bloom before we left. And they did! And so beautiful they were. They were amazing. It seemed like they just burst, I have never seen an orchid with so many blooms. This was my Valentine orchid earlier this year when Jeremy gave it to me and look at it now.

As for tomatoes, it doesn't look like I'll need to buy any more before we leave since our green tomatoes finally decided to ripen by the time I got back from my visit with my parents. I thought they'd never ripen. After a short cool spell, the weather has decided to stay warm for us and that probably helped. I'm so excited about our tomatoes. I love tomatoes so I think I'm going a little nutty over our tomato patch. I love gardens. I'm going to so enjoy finally having a real garden when we go to Africa.

We had forgotten what kind of tomatoes these were until they turned yellow
Our red and yellow tomatoes

A cluster of our plum tomatoes

My basil plant is turning to a basil bush

Jeremy bought this hibiscus tree a little more than 2 months before we leave. Just for the hummers. He has a soft spot for those birds. He thought they might want some real flowers. They just bloomed two weeks ago, much to our joy because we wanted to see the flowers before we left. They are actually double hibiscuses and we wonder whether the hummers would still like to haunt them.
Jeremy fixed them up with their feeder in a mini-paradise. Our resident hummingbirds are in danger of getting spoiled. We're going to miss them.

New England & Baltimore Family Reunion

2008-09-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

We are off "going to the ends of world" (or so you'd think listening to my mom who has also lived "in the ends of the world"). She's almost sure we're going to get ourselves killed over there so she really wanted to see us "one last time." The original plan was to have my parents come here to visit our beautiful island, but unfortunately, my dad couldn't get away from his job--auditing going on. So...next best scenario was me going there. Jeremy could only get one free ticket with his mileage and he didn't have any vacation time...so it was just me. My poor parents. They came all the way here from Africa to be closer to their children and then their daughter and son-and-law decide to go to Africa. You just can't understand kids these days. :D

Of course it's their fault. They made Africa "home" so why do you think I want to go back to (as one MK friend puts it) "the motherland?"

I missed Jeremy terribly (it was the first time we were separated since we were married), but still had a blast, especially at the Baltimore Family Reunion when my brother came to spend the weekend and we met my mom's youngest sister after several years and her husband and 2-month old for the first time. Also there were 2 of my second cousins and their families/fiance. It was so much fun. Typical Filipino gathering: lots of food and family. I also got to see two really good friends of mine: Elena and her husband Mark (who I met in Florida) in DC and May (fellow Maxwellite-yay!) on our way through New York.

Wanna see the numerous pictures I took of the trip? Click away!

It's Official: We're Going On Another Adventure

2008-08-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

And this is going to be a major one. In fact, I am almost scared stiff due to my lack of medical experience and because I know that there will be times I will be overwhelmed. But we are doing this because this is what we have been called to do and dreamed of doing since before we met each other. We are so excited and so happy to be doing this. There has been times of serious prayer--"God, is this really what You want? Can we really go now?" This has more to do with willing hearts than packed brains--we are asking God to use our hands and fill our heads with wisdom as we go forward in this journey of faith and being truly used by Him. We have our tickets, our funds came in, and today we got our passports back stamped with our visas. This is it. We really are going. I started a new blog about this mission experience and put it under "Our Blogs" at the sidebar but we'll still be using this one for the more personal stories. So come walk with us into The Chad Chapter.

Blog Updates

2008-08-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

Quick note: Due to the extreme craziness of my life at present, I am way behind in posting the Philippine pics. To prevent myself from getting WAY behind, I'm just going to continue posting current explorings and catch up with the Philippine pics later and will let you know as I put them up.

The Fraffle Misadventure

2008-08-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

It was one of those days. I couldn't figure out what we were going to have for breakfast. Usually, we'd have green smoothies but we had to put our blender off on workman's comp after we injured it two nights ago. The frozen banana made it at just the right angle to break something. We've used it for 2 years now and it's been faithfully making green smoothies for us daily for almost a year now and is no Vitamix, so I guess it's understandable. Jeremy is still planning to operate on it but needs some special tools.

So anyway. I did not want waffles, or pancakes, or French toast, or tapsilog (traditional Filipino breakfast of fried rice, tapa, and egg). Jeremy was no help because he never has cravings and doesn't make any food decisions. So I do what I usually do when I can't decide. I compromise..meet halfway. I decided I was going to be BRILLIANT and make fraffles! It's not French toast, it's not waffles--it's Fraffles! I thought for sure I was going to win some genius award. Annie, Annie....whenever will you learn?

So I threw my vegan French toast mix together, soaked some bread in it, heated the waffle iron, and tossed it in. And squeezed it shut. I didn't trust my dependable waffle iron to tell me when it would be ready, so I opened it before it turned green. And so I ended up having French toast/waffle bits stuck to both ends of the iron and had to spend the next 15 minutes scraping fraffles off my iron. Great. Jeremy got served a bunch of Fraffle pieces.
He loves me. Wife of strange ideas. You can tell because he ate them anyway and said they were good. This man has had blended wooden spoons in his tomato sauce, eggshells in his banana bread, and more wooden bits in other dishes that required blending and has still decided to stick by my side. If that's not love and faithfulness...

You'd think I'd quit after that. But no, Annie is stubborn, so she decides to do it AGAIN. I had to make the perfect Fraffle dish, people.

Fortunately, I was successful. And since by this point I had run out of the soymilk mixture, I decided this was as far as I go. I am not going to risk it again. I am going to post the Vegan French Toast recipe on my foodblog. And post only the pretty picture. And then I was going to go fry myself some rice.

Fraffles. Don't do it.

Hot Stone Massage at Iron Mine Bay

2008-08-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

I tried to tell him people paid lots of money for what I was doing for him free of charge. He didn't buy it.

Granted, I did not have professional training. But hey, how hard can it be? Hot stone on muscle. The more the merrier, right?

It was Extreme Spa

a ~~bone-chilling swim~~ refreshing dip for the cold treatment, followed by the hot treatment: lying on warm rocks out on nature,

beautiful tranquil view, the music of the gentle waves,

and your wife lovingly ~~throwing~~ strategically placing hot rocks on your back...
If only he saw it that way...

We had a beautiful afternoon though :) Lying on the warm pebbles was bliss and Jeremy had a long nap.

Mt. Rainier

2008-08-13T22:37:00.001-07:00

Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. That is Mt. Rainier. I fell in love with the beautiful flowery meadows, the patches of snow, the rocky peaks...wow.

Mom and Dad (Jeremy's side) invited us to go camping with them. They wandered the Oregon Coast while we were still in campmeeting and we joined them on Thursday after Jeremy's rotation. Our first stop was Flaming Geyser State Park to float down the Green River. It's a pretty cool river because it curves around at this park so you don't really have to walk too far back to your car. It was so much fun! Especially the mini-rapids, made more exciting because the water was colder at this late part of summer and you did not want to get splashed with more of the cold stuff. I managed to get myself shipwrecked on some rocks a couple of times as did Jeremy who bravely rode a very manly pink inner tube ("I'm man enough to use pink" he says). He did it for me, so I could lie on the floating mattress, my hero! I wanted so badly to bring my camera for the ride but it was unanimously decided that it would not be in my camera's best interest (sob). So not much pics there.

From there we headed to Enumclaw (who names these places?) for a bit of grocery-shopping and lunch. Then it was on to Mt. Rainier National Park. Destination: Ohanapecosh Campground. We got there when it was dark. The sign said "FULL." We were in denial so we rode around. There were a lot of "reserved" sites but no one in them. A few fervent prayers later, Mom and Dad started talking to a woman who said they had just left the B-5 campsite for another one beside her sister's. They checked the reservation dates and it started the day we leave. Yay! Camp was set up much to the relief of the weary travellers and we slept.

Friday was a beautiful day. We took a drive through the mountains towards Paradise (yes, this side of the mountain is really called that) amazed at the views. Mountains are so funny. Fog would roll in and you'd be in the clouds and would never know there were mountain peaks surrounding you until suddenly it all clears and you stand in awe. We got to the Paradise Inn, looked around, and then decided to hike the Skyline trail, entering via the 4th Crossing Trail and made our way up the mountain. The views were gorgeous and the trail was covered in up to 2 feet of snow at times. It seemed almost wrong to be on snow in August. But the wonderful thing was that it was warm. So warm, we took off our jackets and wished we had worn our shorts instead. There were beautiful waterfalls and gorgeous colorful flowers. It was a wonderful climb. We reached the treeline and everything before us was pure mountain and snow. It brought back memories of Mt. Kenya but without the altitude sickness. We found a white-tailed ptarmigan totally camouflaged in the rocks (especially with his eyes closed). He was so amazing. We'd never have seen him if it wasn't for the clucking sounds he was sending out. When the Skyline Trail became basically a snow trail, Mom and Dad decided to go back the way we came, but Jeremy, ever the explorer, decided to forge ahead. I went with him and climbed a few more snow hills before we found the Golden Gate Trail back down. We saw a marmot running across the snow. The Golden Gate Trail had quite a few beautiful meadow views but not the same mountain vistas as from the Skyline Trail. We stopped at Myrtle Falls for some pictures and then headed back on the Skyline Trail towards the 4th Crossing Trail entrance where Dad was waiting for us. Dad and Jeremy took off running down that trail throwing snowballs at each other the whole way. Boys. We hiked about 3 miles that day and at least half of that uphill so it was a fun strenuous hike. We took in Narada Falls further down the road before heading back to camp, supper, and crawling into our nice warm, soft, sleeping bags.

The rest of our weekend was not as sunny and much colder. We drove to Sunrise on Sabbath hoping to hike the Sunrise trails, however, there was no sun, rise or otherwise. Just a whole lot of cloud and cold. The viewpoint would not have been a viewpoint so we headed over to check out the White River campsite, eat lunch and see the results of the mudslide. In the afternoon, we hiked a bit of the Wonderland Trail. We also managed to do some waterfall hunting off the beaten path. OK, there was a path but just not as beaten as the others. We came upon some really pretty falls at Panther Creek while Dad was ~~sleeping~~ guarding the car. We also got to check out the Grove of the Patriarchs (Cathedral Grove for you islanders, except with a river flowing by, a cool hanging bridge, and a more hilly trail). We had a campfire that night. Yay! Its warmth was quite welcome and we got to roast corn on it, heat some pita pizzas, and some vegetarian chili. Nothing like a old-fashioned campfire meal.

Sunday was a sad day since we had to leave. We packed up camp and headed back to the Paradise area to see the observatory. It was more of the same of the day before: no view, just clouds. We caught a few of the exhibits and then headed off to see more waterfalls. Then it was time to go. So sad. It was time for the 5 hour journey back. We headed north of Sequim in the Olympic Peninsula to do some exploring in Dungeness State Park at the recommendation of one of Jeremy's coworkers. It was a pretty place. Reminded me a lot of Florida since it was by the coast. Short trees and beach. It was on the ferry after that and arrival 90 minutes later in the Inner Harbour, so beautiful with all the lights. I had never noticed that the Empress lights changed color until then.

Note: The album pics are not quite in chronological order as Picasa won't let me reorganize them at this point. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon.
The Mt. Rainier Album

Hope BC Campmeeting 2008

2008-08-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Three words. Mosquitoes. Rain. Cold.

That was what met us anyway when we showed up. I picked Jeremy up Tuesday morning after he had worked the night shift and showered at the hospital and we headed on to the ferries to hit the mainland. Jeremy tried to catch up on sleep on the ferry and on the road there. Fortunately I didn't get lost. Whew...

Camp Hope is beautiful, surrounded by mountains on all sides and by the Fraser River. This year's theme is Sanctuary and it was one of the first things you saw once you entered the camp. A life-sized desert tabernacle was set up in the field and tours were given by Messiah's Mansions. It was an amazing spiritual journey to walk through it and see how the plan of salvation worked then, through Christ, in us, and what is going on up in heaven right now. The tabernacle was so rich in meaning and it was amazing to see how every detail pointed to Christ.

We didn't get to come last year so we were glad that Jeremy's work schedule worked out so we mostly just missed the first weekend. It was my first time and it was such a blessing. There were seminars in the afternoon and we caught a sign language one together, Jeremy fully enjoyed the Men's Ministry seminars, and I caught a couple of CHIP health lectures by Dr. Diehl and some of the Women's Ministries seminars by Kay Kuzma. We got to be part of The Wave, the young adult tent, during the evening. We caught the last of Dr. Samraj's talks on Tuesday night and then each night after that was Pastor Matthew Gamble. Dr. Samraj's last sermon was very deep. I love how philosophical he is. And I was challenged when he reminded us that the disciples wrote their "Gospel," their good news after their encounter with Jesus. And each of us as well, encounters Jesus--we get to know Him in our own lives, to "meet" Him and get to know Him so to speak...I was challenged to start writing my "gospel" and my journey to knowing God. Pastor Matthew preached the Gospel like I haven't heard it preached before. I wished so much more adults our age and up, who have been hurt by a lot of the legalistic view of the church growing up, could have heard his message--God's message--that we all have issues, that our robes are filthy garments, we are the adopted child who poops in his diaper despite all that our Adoptive Father has done for us--but God "has a whole closet full of diapers." And He will change them every time. No complaints. And He will even potty-train you. God is our Daddy. I loved that parallel. In any case, his message was full of God's love and I left in awe at how much God has given us and how much we are loved. I wish more people were able to come. As it was, the place was packed. Standing room only. There were even people sitting on the grass (the non-smokable kind) in front of the stage.

Of course, those days didn't happen without us exploring. I think that's what Jeremy and I do. Explore. Everywhere we've ever lived together (which is only all of 2 places so far...with hop, jump and a skip to Australia, Philippines, and a road trip across the US), we have gone wandering around. We just HAVE to see the four corners of everywhere we've lived. I think we've been to more places on this island than some people who've grown up here have :D Jeremy has a craving for being out in nature and I just want to see new places constantly--mostly of the outdoors kind, although Victoria has been a city full of wonderful discoveries. Anyway, back to the campground...we hiked the Third Ledge trail and beyond. The entrance was just below where we had camped. And just before we headed back, we went waterfall hunting once again up some river rocks until we reached it. All beautiful views that fed our soul.

So yes, there were mosquitoes but they were sluggish from the cold so we didn't get bitten half as much as we thought. It was cold in the beginning but it warmed up. It rained, no--POURED, our first night...and we found that our tent was over a small pool of water so we felt a bit of the waterbed experience...but we stayed dry thanks to my husband's expert waterproofing of our tent and didn't need to join the line of poor people who had to dry their sleeping bags the next day. The rain came on and off but it was mostly drizzle and we had a little "forest clearing" right beside our tent where we could cook and eat our meals in a dry fashion, so we were blessed. Then our last day (hmmm, this is beginning to be a trend) was a beautiful sunny day. In the end, we remember all the things that fed our soul. It was more than worth it.

Click on this or the big picture to see more.

The Cape Scott Adventure

2008-07-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, two adventurous souls, who just so happened to be married to each other, decided to go on a journey to the Far North of the Island to see the far far away kingdom of Port Hardy and to dwell for a time at the North Shores named Cape Scott Provincial Park. The Time Fairy had given them the Great Gift of 3 and a half days off.

Day 1: The Beginning
As usual, this was a spontaneous decision: "Love, we're going camping this weekend." This said by Annie on Thursday when a sleepy Jeremy emerged from the bedroom at 2pm after catching up on sleep after his night shift. Destination? Cape Scott (8 hours away). And we were leaving now. "Now?" Jeremy asks. And kindly tries to point out that we had camping gear to pack, those handy instant food stuff yet to buy (it's backpacking into the beach)--how are we supposed to leave "now"? We managed to get ourselves together in two hours and rushed over to the highway. Just in time for rush hour. And there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. But eventually, we left the rest of traffic as we continued north. 9:30 found us camped near the river in the Quinsam campground of Elk Falls Provincial Park. It was a really nice campground and we regretted being too late to get any sites that were right by the river. Ah, well, next time. We brought our supper to the river and ate to music of the river.

Day 2
We could not leave Elk Falls Campground and not see Elk Falls, so after packing up camp, we continued down the road to the park entrance and went waterfall hunting. It was a bit scary seeing all the danger signs around. There was a dam upstream and if a siren sounded, you were to run as far away from the river as you can as it meant there was to be an emergency release of water. So keeping that in mind, we wandered over to the river's edge and followed the thunder to where it suddenly disappeared. It was beautiful from the viewpoint. We hiked over to the other side of the canyon (following a trail that went around a fence that appeared to be blocking the original trail, why?) to see the view from the other side. It was just as breath-taking. It became even more so when Jeremy realized that we were standing on an overhang and it was already beginning to crack and pull away from the main cliff face. Gulp. Needless to say we both, very quickly, found ourselves on the other side of the crack and headed back to the car. And it was back on the road to Port Hardy.

Port Hardy, aptly named we think from the stories of the extreme conditions we heard about there, surprised us by how big it was. It wasn't large by any stretch, but we were expecting an almost non-existent tiny town. The place had a small shopping mall, residential area, supermarket, and diving tours. We went by the Visitor Center to get a map of Cape Scott Provincial Park and while we were there, we had a short chat with the ladies running it. There is a new trail that opened just this year. The North Coast Trail, 63 km long, is much much less crowded than the West Coast Trail and goes along the North Coast. Jeremy's eyes lighted up immediately and I could see him already scheming to go on it. Sigh. I desperately need to get a LOT more fit fast if I'm going to be keeping up with this husband of mine. We stopped for lunch at Subways and we headed toward Holberg, a little village only reachable by logging roads (read: dusty, gravel, unpaved). Past Holberg (it was so tiny it went by fast), almost 2 hours and sixty-five kilometers later, we arrive at the Cape Scott Provincial Park trailhead. Ideally we would have loved to have made it to Nissen or Nels Bight but that would involve 5-6 hours of hiking and since we only had 3 and a half days off (one of which was spent coming here and another going back) we thought we'd spend most of that time actually seeing the beach rather than hiking on the trails. So we opted for the easy 2.5km hike in to San Josef Bay, leaving us 2 days to explore. It was a beautiful hike through wet trails and lush rainforest. The huge trees held us in awe. At "the pitchfork tree"...three trees joined together, we stood amazed. And then we reached San Josef Bay and its beautiful white sand beaches.

We wandered to the middle of First Beach and Second Beach to see the sea stacks. They were pretty amazing. I especially liked the tall pillars with the trees growing on top of them. Supposedly, Second Beach was only accessible at low tide. It was high tide from what we could tell since the stacks were surrounded by about 4 inches of water. I was wearing shoes as my Chacos were being replaced (the hike up Taal Volcano in the Philippines killed them), so we decided to take the inland trail through up and around the cliffs to the other side. Now, I would like to explain that Jeremy was making strange comments about the trail to San Josef beach all through our hike. Things like, it was "too easy." Where's the West Coast adventure? Where are the rocks to climb over, the rope ladders and the steep rock cliffs to scale? I tell you, the things I have to put up with being married to man who never runs out of energy. Did I tell you about the time he ran up to the top of the Batad rice terraces and left us several terraces below. I stood gasping for breath with the rest of my huffing and puffing friends who asked me in between breaths, "How do you keep up with him?" Oh, yeah, I haven't written the Philippine posts yet. Anyway, fast-forward to Canada and the San Josef Bay. I, for one, had enjoyed the relaxing easy walk through the woods. Then came the inland trail. It was steep. It was wet. It was covered with tree roots and rocks and mud. It was not a trail. I could have sworn it was a little brook that we were wading through. But Jeremy became alive. This was what being a man was all about...conquering treacherous mountain trails. I, being the woman I am, fell in the mud. I recovered quickly but my wet clothes gave me away. It was all fun and adventurous and all but I was really happy to see the beach open up to us. At last! Second Beach!

Second Beach proved to be the right choice as it had several streams empty onto the ocean there for our water source. First Beach didn't really have any. We scoped the place for camping spot possibilities. We had the whole beach to ourselves, not another single soul in sight. We could camp anywhere we pleased! In the end, we brought it down to two options. Option 1 was in a clearing in the woods, sheltered by trees, soft ground and no view of the sea. Option 2 was right on the beach, two streams bubbling by on both sides facing the ocean and the waves. I thought it couldn't get any better than that. We were right beside a little waterfall of sorts so we had the sounds of the waterfall with the sound of the waves. The best of both worlds. Besides, the wooded area was like 15 feet from the outhouse--how inspiring was that? I checked the rag tide (a ranger in Florida told us how you could tell how high the tide went by seeing where the seaweed, the rags, settled) and it seemed unreachable and so I made supper while Jeremy worked on building a fire. It did seem strange, however, that the sand was wet. In our tent for bed, I sat mesmerized by the beauty of sea and waves outside our tent window. Full of the spirit of adventure, I told Jeremy, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to watch a storm from here?" Jeremy, ever practical, pointed out that no, Annie, it would not be nice to be here for a storm as that would involve some huge waves and well, it would be rather too dangerous for us. I still thought it would be fun to watch a storm from our tent, but safely, of course. Famous last words.

The Awakening
At 2:30 AM, something woke me up. It was raining. I heard the waves crashing. They sounded way too close. Could it be...? No, I shoved the thought to the back of my mind. It's only your imagination, Annie. I felt movement beside me and Jeremy seemed to have woken up too. Groggily, he got up and opened the tent flap. I heard a watery whoosh hit the tent and heard Jeremy say, with a strange urgency in his voice, "Um, love--our shoes are gone!" I jerked awake. Gone?! NO! Jeremy had just bought brand new Chaco sandals after losing his pair in the Philippines. In my half-dreaming state, the most important thing I could think of was there was no way he was going to lose another pair. I shot out of the tent after grabbing my headlamp. Jeremy was stunned. He had never seen me get out of the tent that fast before. Outside I found myself standing in very, very wet sand. Our footwear, previously neatly arranged in front of our tent, had been swept by waves a couple of feet down the beach. I rescued my shoes and my two flip-flops but only found one of Jeremy's Chacos. "No!!!" I wanted to scream at the sea. "Give it back!" Then some of my sense returned to me and I realized that our tent was in danger of being totally drenched. I ran back to the tent and asked Jeremy to give me my rain jacket. All he kept saying was, "We need to move the tent! Annie, let's move the tent!" Rainjacket on, my soggy shoes on my feet, I started going around the tent pulling the pegs out. Jeremy, now outside, was frustrated and pulling one end of the tent--"Annie, what are you doing?!"
"Pulling the tent pegs out!"
"Just help me move the tent!"
Adrenaline pumping, both of us are a little disorganized.
"Let's move the tent back!" I pick up one end and we half-carried, half-dragged our tent over driftwood and to another sandy spot right at the edge of the cliff wall. We stop to figure out what to do. Jeremy decides to assess the situation and wanders down the beach a ways. I'm glad I have a man with me who can help figure things out. Jeremy returns holding the missing Chaco sandal. He found it to the side of where our tent used to be. Whew. I was beginning to laugh at the comedy of it all. What to do? What to do? Jeremy figures the tent is fairly safe where it is at right now but we are uncertain how long before the tide would reach it. I suggest that we throw as much as we can into our backpacks (fortunately we packed light) and just carry the tent as is, all set up, across the beach (wading through the water, coz hey, my shoes are soaked anyway), and set up camp in where we should have in the first place--right near the toilets but definitely beyond the reach of the tide and sheltered from the wind. I figured only one of us should get in the tent and do the packing to prevent the further "moisturizing" of our tent. Jeremy volunteered--or was volunteered. He is after all the expert packer, not to mention much smarter than me. Especially at 2:30 in the morning. I stayed outside. To give surf reports. "Waves are 3 feet away, love. We're still good!" Frantic packing from inside the tent begins. From the tent, Jeremy shouts to be heard above the wind, "Love, I want you to promise me you will not wander off. Whatever you do, you stay right outside the tent. Understand?"
"Yes, love, I'm staying right here!"
And then it dawns on me why Jeremy sounded concerned. We are out in the wilderness. In the north of the island. Where cougar attacks are highest. It is night. Cougars hunt at night. I look up at the cliffs and the trees and squint up at the branches hoping a cougar isn't crouched there. Gulp. As if to reassure me, yesterday's morning exchange at the Visitor's Center came back to me.
"Are there a lot of cougars out here?" we ask.
The girl looks at the other co-worker. "No cougar sightings yet this year," she answers. Relief fills me. Then evaporates after her next words. "But that doesn't mean they aren't out there."
Fast-forward to the spot on the beach where the waves are threatening a little blue tent by the cliff. Annie is trying not to think of cougars. Jeremy hands Annie her backpack through the opening and she puts it on. His backpack goes on and we each take one end of the tent and wade through the beach, through the stream, and continue down the beach with the logs of driftwood to our right. We don't quite remember where the opening is to the pit toilets and our future campsite. The wind is strong and the tent is suddenly wanting to become a sail to reach places it has only dreamed about. We tighten our hold and continue hiking down the beach. Finally we catch the sign for the toilets and then it is up climbing logs, hoping none of them are too slippery and that we can see our steps despite holding a huge tent. We made it to the toilet--yay! My ever-thoughtful husband prepares the ground our tent is to go on and removes all the big stones and sticks. Soon, the tent is in place, the inside dried and I'm inside re-spreading the sleeping bags while Jeremy is outside putting in the stakes and tying down what needs to be tied down. I'm nervous thinking of him outside because for some reason I feel like he would be safer inside with me. Finally, he gets in and we relaxed. And laughed. And thought how we woke up at just the exact right time. As it was, we heard the first wave hit our tent and it probably sustained only 2 more after that. Jeremy had just re-waterproofed our tent the summer before so it didn't really get wet inside except for a little bit from one wave when the flap was open and the little we dripped into it. If we had woken up earlier, we wouldn't have even thought it a problem and any later, our tent may have been more soaked and we would have been more miserable. But we were warm, dry, and protected and are strangely suspicious that it was God who woke us up. And we laughed a lot more about how funny we must have looked trudging through the waves, me in my soggy shoes, and both of us struggling with the tent in the wind. And how fast I shot out of that tent. And about how focused I was on the Chaco rescue and that when Jeremy got out, he couldn't even remember which direction we had hiked in. We reflected on the whole rag-tide idea and Jeremy said he had cleared seaweed away from our tent site earlier than morning not thinking of what that meant. Note to self: make sure there isn't a second rag tide mark further up the beach next time. And so before going back to bed again, we put our heads together and fervently thanked God for waking us up and helping through this adventure.

And that was only the first day there.

Day Three
It didn't get much better than that. We enjoyed West Coast weather the whole next day. Read: drizzle, wind, more drizzle, and more wind. Jeremy never did get a fire started that first day. There was not much luck the next either. It seemed every time he tried to light a fire, it would rain and the fire that started didn't get much of a chance to grow. It didn't help that we only brought one cheap book of matches that somehow, in the wet weather we were having, got slightly...um... damp. Making it extremely challenging. To add to the excitement, we had to treasure each match because there weren't that many. And it was cold. And windy. And we were damp from the drizzle and the rain. We so needed that fire. Nevertheless, we had a beautiful walk in the drizzle (the kind that I call rain that you don't get wet in). We were doing this trip rain or shine so we were committed to enjoying it. So the early morning was spent wandering and exploring the beach. It was low tide. The islands were suddenly reachable through walking so we went starfish hunting at the sides and found quite a few. It was a hauntingly beautiful scene...two white to gray sand beaches, sea stacks, starfish, mussels, streams, and a bunch of sea caves...all this, all to ourselves. It made me want to dance for joy. So I did. And was unfortunately caught on camera by Jeremy. Oops.

We decided to move to First Beach since we were planning to head out early the next day and didn't want our crossing to be hampered by the high tide. There was NO WAY Annie was hiking the inland trail again. So we packed up our second campsite of our first night there and went to campsite #3, stopping by the stream to top up our water bottles. After we set up camp and had lunch, I went to the beach to wash our dishes and noticed that some people had wandered in and were taking a walk down our beach. We were no longer alone. I saw the strangest sight of a small boat heading in from who knows where and pulling up onto the beach. Jeremy and I watched as two bright orange suited people pulled the boat in and then unloaded two surfboards and two large bags. Wow, hardcore surfers, we thought. They set up camp at the other end of the beach from us. Later, we were surprised that one of them was a girl. She came by our camp on her way back from the pit toilet at the other end of the beach and stopped to chat. Apparently, she and her boyfriend live in the Comox area and had decided to come in to this beach by boat. They had parked at one of the campgrounds we had passed on the way there and taken the river from the campground to the beach. It was only accessible by high tide as otherwise the river was too shallow when it emptied onto the beach. Apparently the weather was going to clear up by Sunday and the waves were going to be good. She invited us to hang out with them if we wanted to later. When we she left we sat out there on a piece of driftwood and enjoyed our beach. It was absolute beauty, absolute peace, and absolute wilderness. We were one with coast. And then it started to rain. A little more than the ordinary drizzle. We were resistant but eventually got chased back to our tent where we spent the rest of the afternoon cooped up reading books and napping. And it was evening and morning and then the fourth day.

Day 4
The day dawned bright, clear, and...(gasp!) SUNNY! It was rather depressing to know that we were leaving. So we hung out a little longer and did more exploring around the beach and took in all the sunshine we possibly could. Then we repacked our bags for the last time and hung my shoes on Jeremy's backpack because they never did get dry. I opted to hike out in flip-flops and was glad that I had thought to bring them. Since the trail was so "easy," they did fine. We arrived at our car and discover the next of our problems. The back right side tire was flat. Probably because of sharp gravel on the way in. So it was on with the spare. We drove 20 km/hr heading to Holberg as Jeremy was being extra cautious after I told him one person's story of getting two flat tires on this road. We only had one spare and couldn't take the risk. After a very long slow hour we arrived at the nearly non-existent village of Holberg and pulled in to the gas station. Just in case, we asked the lady at the store if there was anyone who could fix our tire. There was. She gave him a call and this nice man who worked in a garage down the street drove over to us with his two sons (he was just about to leave to go fishing with his kids on this bright Sunday morning). We followed him to his garage and he fixed it right there for us. There are good people on this earth. After that, we were able to speed it up a little more and stop for lunch at Port McNeil at a very nice little Mexican restaurant. Another stop at the very resortish Telegraph Cove to take a look across the bay at the town of Alert Bay, and we were on the road again and got home that night. Click a photo to see the rest of the pictures.

One adventure down, 5 million more to go...

Breakdown of this adventure:
Two tankfuls of gas: $101
One night's stay in the Elk Falls Campground: $15
Lunch for two at Subway: $12
Two nights stay at San Josef's Bay: $20
First aid for one flat tire: $30
The rush of adrenaline at 2:30 am when you hear the waves breaking against your tent: Priceless.

Tall Ships Festival Part II

2008-06-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I got a call from Elizabeth telling me that Fred and Joy's friend from the mainland would not be able to come with them to the Tall Ships Festival on Sunday. They had a spare ticket--and would I like to come? But of course! So I got to go again and see more ships! Photos of Tall Ships Part II here

Tall Ships Festival Part I

2008-06-27T22:09:00.000-07:00

June 26, 2008 found us shivering at Songhees Point at the west end of the Inner Harbour "waiting for our ship to come in." It was cold, windy, occasionally drizzly rainy, and Jeremy had forgotten his windbreaker. We were there with a few hundred other people to see the tall ships come sailing in. It would almost seem like going back in time to see the ships come in if it wasn't for the rather fancy backgrounds of luxurious condos and buildings that surround the Inner Harbour. There were bigger crowds across the harbour, kayakers and other boaters on the water hoping for an up-close view, and one crazy guy in bright yellow pedaling on the water in some sort of water bicycle. It was unreal and cracked me up. They were all cleared once the ships arrived though. And oh what a sight...it was a lot of fun. The next day, Day 1 of the Tall Ships Festival, Jeremy and I came back to wander the markets and booths that were set up, watch some of the live stage and street entertainment, and mostly to be able to board the ships and wander their decks. It has inspired us to learn to sail. We ended the day with a drive to Beacon Hill Park and took a walk down the shore to a spot between Beacon Hill and Ogden Point to watch the mock cannon battle. It's a whole other world to be watching the ships, full-sail, on the water and "firing" at each other. The most haunting one for me was the red-sailed ship.

Pics can be found here at the Tall Ships Part I Album

Cycling Victoria

2008-06-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

So it was a nice warmish day. Summer had only just put its first step in the door. Jeremy and I decided it would be a nice afternoon to cycle around downtown Victoria. We loaded our bikes on top of our car and it was off to Selkirk Station, the official beginning of the Galloping Goose Trail. We headed to the opposite direction, however, and off downtown, across the Johnson Bridge, by Wharf St., passed the Inner Harbour on the right and the Empress on the left, continued up past the Legislative Buildings and the Royal BC Museum, through the beautiful Beacon Hill Park and broke onto the ocean view and the Olympic Mountains way in the back. So exhilarating. We headed off to Mile 0 because I insisted that we had to have a picture with it. We've been in this city for over a year and not taken the touristy pic yet. While there we stood in line behind two gentlemen who called themselves the Stride Guys who had arrived from the other end the Trans-Canada. Wow. Read their story here. We didn't really talk to them (we're shy like that), just noticed their trusty Stridey van and their matching Stride pants, watched them take that last picture on their webpage, and overheard them tell the ladies who took their picture that they had come from the other Mile 0 at the other end of Canada. I took note of their webpage and decided to read their story when I got home. Two guys playing ping-pong with Canada coast-to-coast. What a goal. We took the Mile 0 picture, making Jeremy feel all uncomfortably like a tourist (sometimes ya gotta step out of your comfort zone, love) and it was off down Dallas St. to Clover Point, ocean side all the way. We locked our bikes to a lightpost on Clover Point and took a leisurely stroll down the beach on the other side and lay for a while on the pebble beach enjoying the sunshine and the sound of the waves. As the evening started to put a chill in the air, we regretfully got up to go back home. Back at the Inner Harbour, we stumbled on a Night Market! Didn't know they held those there during the summer. So we went market-ing, found a tall ship that was early for the next week's festival, and found some love.

Come cycle with us here.

My Best Friend's Visit

2008-06-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

My Best Friend's Visit AlbumShe thought I was Chinese. The nerve of her! That was one of my first thoughts about this new girl that had moved into our apartment complex and had tried unsuccessfully to coax words out of my little brother and I, both equally shy at that time. She tried French. When that didn't work, she tried English. Then she thought, "What else am I supposed to try, Chinese?"

That was 20 years ago. We grew up together in Africa. Both our parents were missionaries. We both went to high school together in Kenya and since then have kept in touch. I haven't seen her since her wedding to Peter in 2002. Six years is a LONG time. Since then she's had a little boy and I have since met and married my prince. So it was great to catch up, meet her adorable little boy for the first time (he melted my heart when he came running to me to give me a hug saying, "Annie!" as if he's always known me). Their visit went by way too fast, but not before we got some good times in. I won't forget running after and being chased by Jonny the WHOLE way to Iron Mine Bay (that kid has endless energy!), running around a playground with Vanda and Jonny & witnessing Jonny's first ever bite of injera (a Maxwellite tradition).

Mystic Beach

2008-06-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

Today was the day to get started on the Juan de Fuca Trail. All 47 kilometers. Haha, yeah right. As if I was yet that fit. Actually, we felt the need to explore a new place. So we thought we'd take a look at China Beach. Which also so happened to be the start of the Juan de Fuca Trail. Once we got there, we decided to take the trail to Mystic Beach instead and avoid the more popular China Beach. We loved the suspension bridge. Jeremy got a little too excited and jumped on it. While I was on it, no less. Which made for some heart-pounding excitement. There was this amazing tree that had fallen and they had turned into some stairs for part of the trail. I almost thought the tree was petrified, it looked like we were walking on stone steps. And then we walked onto Mystic Beach. Mystic indeed...there was a beautiful little waterfall to the left side and there were already a few tents set up by the cliffs, some by their own little waterfalls. The cliffs were beautiful by themselves. We wandered around and enjoyed the beauty around us. Here, take a look at our pictures.

Mission Trip to Gingoog: Cultural Adjustments

2008-04-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

So we are in the Philippines. This is where I am from and I am relishing all that I have missed. The tropical lushness. The mangoes, the marang, the mangosteen, the lansones...(and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you are seriously deprived). The beaches. The mountains. The jeepneys. The tricycles or motorelas. The crazy driving. The markets. The smoke fumes. OK, so maybe I didn't miss everything. It was with much amusement that I watched the group adjust to a different place, unfamiliar food, smells, weather, and animals. They could not watch as our driver ~~swerved to miss children, pedestrians, smaller vehicles, pass on the wrong side of the road, become the 4th lane on a 2 lane road~~ skillfully maneuvered through traffic to bring us safely, although a bit shaken, to our destination. I had to educate Elizabeth and Jeremy to (in the words of Cherrie) the tabo system, usually used in the ~~restroom~~ CR (comfort room). For those of you who have been deprived of this useful device, let's just say that the typical Filipino bathroom has wet tiled floors, a simple toilet (no lid, no tank), possibly a pail with a tabo (plastic dipper) sitting under a faucet. No toilet paper. Question: What are you supposed to do? I'll tell you the next time you go to the Philippines. But if you can't wait, you can google it. It seems to be a mysterious ritual that no one really talks about as there were a lot fewer links than I expected. Jeremy became quite the pro after a month in the Phils. He even became quite proficient in using the tabo for bathing. In cold water. That's right, there's no hot water in the Philippines. And with the summer temperatures averaging 30-33 degrees Celsius, do you really want some? Actually, yes, there are hot water heaters in some houses or if it's really cold, you always have the option of boiling a pot of water and pouring it in the pail--but where's the fun in that? Jeremy learned to deal with being stared at and having people yell "Amerikano!" when he went by. They were introduced to Filipino hospitality and friendliness. And the one thing that nobody had trouble adjusting to was the Filipino food. And there was lots of it. As Jeremy as learned from living with me, in the Filipino culture, food is a big thing. Mealtimes are a social time and feeding you is a major way that Filipinos make you feel welcome. We share this with many other world cultures. "Kain tayo" (let's eat) is courtesy-filled phrase and one of the first sentences that Jeremy learned after meeting me. Our group feasted on mangoes, rice, jackfruit cooked in coconut milk (the best recipe I have yet to taste was cooked by a woman from Palapay church during one of our mealbreaks from church-building), spring rolls, fried vege-tapa, cassava cake, steamed okra topped with tomatoes, onions, ginger, and soy sauce, fish, countless wonderful vegetable dishes made from fresh local produce--I so missed the fresh Philippine vegetables. And always for dessert, we would have any number of fresh Filipino fruit found only in this part of the world. Words cannot describe, so I invite you someday to visit the Philippines and taste all the fruit in the markets.

Jeremy and Elizabeth took up coconut tree climbing (lessons courtesy of Uncle Tata, our esteemed chauffeur). Jeremy also looked (scarily?) quite at home with a bolo, a Filipino knife/machete, having used something similar in his stint in Guyana. This is us...feeling at home in the Philippines...

Click to see More Philippine Pics

Jeremy's Philippine To-Do List

2008-04-10T01:05:00.000-07:00

Since I am slow on putting up the pics, I thought I'd put this up...

Help build a church.
Take a thousand pictures of cute little kids.
Climb into the crater of the world's smallest active volcano.
Ride a carabao.
Learn all the names of Annie's relatives.
Remember to "bless" all the elderly.
Walk on the Banaue rice terraces.
Buy and wear a bahag (the Filipino "English" translation is G-string).
Dance in a bahag.
Climb to the top of the Batad rice terraces. And get lost. And worry everybody else.
Get a tan.
Ride in a jeepney.
Drive a tricycle.
Get a drum. If Annie will let me, get some spears or other scary weapons.
Swim with the largest fish in the sea, the whale sharks in Donsol.
Ride a ferry through the islands.
Ride top-load on (top of) a jeepney.
Stuff self with durian, mangoes, and jackfruit.
Eat and drink up as many coconuts as possible.
Eat halo-halo. As often as possible.
Take generous portions of cassava cake.
Eat balut.

I'm still very disappointed that he didn't finish everything on my his to-do list. Crushed, I tell you.

Philippine Updates Will Be Here...Eventually

2008-03-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Life has been a mountain of stress and craziness since coming back from the Philippines. I have been way too busy dealing with multiple issues and so I will eventually add the rest of the trip pics here. Stay tuned.

For Joel

2008-03-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life gives you one of those blows. Unexpected. Painful. And just totally totally wrong. No explanations. That happened to us 4 days into our mission trip when we lost Joel at the river during a workbreak. We came back with bittersweet memories...bitter with loss, but sweet because of everything else that was gained. And much more aware of the unseen battle that is being fought around us.
So this blog could not go on without a moment to remember. He came to serve. To help give the Palapay church a house to worship in. He worked hard, got blisters, sweated and carried dirt with the rest of us. I remember Jeremy and him jumping on the platform to compress the dirt and moving on to more advanced technology with the wooden hand compressor. It was hilarious.

We're going to miss his sense of humor. His opinions in Sabbath School. Looking up and up and up to him (especially me, anyway). Teasing him about the girl that he snowboarded into (twice!) when we went skiing/snowboarding on Mt. Washington. His giving spirit. Our church is not going to be the same without our main soundman, head elder and our friend and brother. The world feels his loss. But we'll smile when we remember him.

Because of him, I have vowed to live life twice as fully. I refuse to be afraid of taking risks...rather, I am choosing to take the risks, to truly live life...to experience more, maybe for him, but also for everyone else. I am going to love deeper, share more, and be more. And I am going to know that death is temporary...we will see him again, and I'm pretty sure it won't be too long from now. Joel, the next time you open your eyes, you'll be seeing Jesus. We may have lost a soldier, but the battle is won.

Mission Trip to Gingoog: Travelling With Boxes

2008-03-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

Wow. Jeremy and I had been longing for the day when we could be in a mission trip together. Missions is a shared passion so we were overjoyed to find out that our home church was planning a mission trip to no other than my home country, the Philippines. And we had big dreams. The trip consisted of everything from an evangelistic meeting, Vacation Bible School, basic first aid/CPR training, toy distribution, feeding children, building a church, painting 3 churches, and giving medical supplies and medicines to a rural clinic.

Our team getting there was just the tip of the iceburg, it seems as much groundwork had already been done before we arrived. The church in Gingoog was actively involved in their community. The Bible workers were dedicated in sharing God to the people. And God blew us away when weeks before we arrived, we got word that approximately 96 families (and Filipinos are not your typical 2 children families) were getting Bible studies and were wanting to be baptized--and no one was going to stop them. Wait for the mass baptism in April? No way! These people were joining the family now. There were two batches of baptisms before we even arrived.

My last teaching teaching attempt ended disasterously after 3 days. But I had promised God I would do whatever He wanted me to do, even if it took me outside my comfort zone. And then as God's sense of humor tends to do, I found myself somehow volunteering myself for VBS. Vacation Bible School. Teaching approximately 60 children at a time. Rick said it best after one of our meetings. "It will be interesting to see what God will do with a rag-tag group like us." Four nurses, a teacher, pastor, grocery store worker, finance consultant, a fisherman, electrician, high school student, as well as other backgrounds--all of us somehow became a team, a family...we travelled together, lived together--and actually got along quite well together.

And so when March 11 came, we all took the 3 o'clock ferry. Cherry had to stay at Tsawassen to wait for the VBS DVD that we hadn't been able to pick up before we left. Fortunately, Joel was able to get it and had it sent via the ferry that left after us so Cherry had to wait to pick it up. It was the first of many unexpected problems or glitches that we somehow had to deal with during the next 2 weeks. But Cherry made in time for our check-in. And we were off. 13 people, 15 boxes with cartoon faces (thanks to Pastor Brake) and 11 check-in baggages were on their way to the Philippines. Twelve hours in Manila, 6 hours layover at the airport, and less than an hour flight later, we found ourselves in Cagayan de Oro. And these are the pictures: Travelling With Boxes Photo Album aka How We Got to the Philippines.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

2008-02-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

I won't tell you how old he is...but I think if you look really closely at the pictures...

He doesn't really look that old, does he? Hehe...

Visit From Our Parents

2008-02-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

It was with great joy that we welcomed Mom and Dad (from Jeremy's side--I don't know why I even bother saying which side, it's pretty obvious at a glance). We are very happy to see them, wander the island with them, and celebrate Dad's and Jeremy's birthdays together in advance. We took them to McKenzie Bight one day and then up north to see some of our waterfalls...Little Qualicum Falls, Englishman River Falls, and then went wandering among the big trees in Cathedral Grove. On our last night, we took them to probably one of our favorite restaurants in Victoria, The Blue Nile, an Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant that serves very yummy injera with a buffet of all kinds of wot and other veggies. You sit down in an East African setting while watching music videos of Ethiopian dancing and music. We thought it was a great way to celebrate Dad and Jeremy's birthdays.

Click to see Mom & Dad's February Visit.

Valentines Day

2008-02-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

So we both worked the night before. We ended up sleeping half our Valentines away. Romantic eh? ;) I thought so because when I woke up, Jeremy was gone. I got up just a few minutes before he came back. He was carrying a beautiful orchid plant with a long stem of dark magenta yet-unopened flowers and nestled at the leaves on the bottom was the most beautiful handmade card anyone has ever made for me with the sweetest ever love letter. Sigh...l'amour. It's really nice to be married to the love of your life.

Tara Na, Biyahe Tayo

2008-02-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Now that things have been more or less falling into place (I got my Permanent Resident status on the 29th, yay!) and I can start working now, I have been focused on our next grand adventure. Because of it, I've been catching myself singing my new theme song "Tara Na, Biyahe Tayo" (Come, Let's Travel). For those of you who don't know, Jeremy and I have joined our church's mission trip to the Philippines. Long term missions has always been where we've felt led to but at the moment we are patiently waiting (well, somewhat anyway) here in Victoria for further instruction. We've also always wanted to go on a mission trip together but because of the limitations of my paperwork stuff, this is the first chance we get and we are definitely taking it! We were happy that our church was planning this trip because not only will we get to participate in sharing God and building a church, we are also going to be in my (Annie's) homeland and it will be a great chance to finally introduce Jeremy to my hundreds of relatives there (and yes, he's ~~panicked about having to learn 100+ names, apprehensive about sticking out, cramming as much Tagalog as he can into his head and I'm not going to tell him that the other half actually speak Bisaya~~ very eagerly looking forward to it). It will be a crammed and crazy two weeks but I am intent on taking him to all three major islands (because that's where my family's at.) The Philippines is composed of 7000+ islands so there's no way to see everything there is in one trip. So we are concentrating on visiting family this time around. Since Jeremy and I are going to be working through his birthday, our 2nd year anniversary, and my birthday, this is going to be our celebration. So I think it's highly fitting that for our 2nd year anniversary, we're doing two things that are very close to our hearts and who we are: missions and family. I am so excited.

This video brings together the most popular singers in the Philippines to sing about the beauty of the Philippines and inviting everyone to come visit. It gives you an idea of some of the places we'll be visiting. A rough translation of the lyrics are found here.I hope it inspires you to travel to the Philippines too!

Snow in Victoria

2008-01-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

It's the 4th time this winter that we get the white stuff. This is turning out to be one of the colder winters there is. Whoever told me at the beginning of all this that it snows once every 10 years in Victoria, that it snowed last year so we have nothing to worry about until another 10 years--that person lied. Brrr... Then I remember the rest of Canada right now engulfed in blizzards and feet of snow and think that the schizophrenic snowstorm we had yesterday that hit small pockets all around the Greater Victoria area is not so bad after all. We had some snow that night because we walked on crunchy snow-ice on the way to take Jeremy to work. Later that morning, I looked out the window and saw snow falling. Gentle powdery stuff. I look out again in 5 minutes and it was gone. I take a look at the houses below us and everything had gotten a sprinkling of white. In the afternoon, just as I was about to go out on a walk, I look out the window and it was snowing again. I thought I'd wait a while longer but when I checked again in a few minutes, all I could see was white. It was a snowstorm. By the time it was gone, the world as I had known it had changed. Everything was beautifully white. And then I tried to drive on it in an overestimation of my snow-driving capabilities and very nearly ran the car ahead of me going down the hill (Note to self: Do not hit the brakes when you're trying to stop from going down a hill). Fortunately I just missed him and the dreaded phone call to Jeremy that begins with, "Mahal, do you love me? Really love me?" But I survived. The car survived. And I saw Thetis Lake after a snowfall. I took Jeremy with me again today (he drove) and he also got to see the winter wonderland magic. We're sharing it with you here.

Jeremy measures frozenness
of lake by using his water bottle.

Fisgard Lighthouse and Fort Rodd Hill

2008-01-24T21:56:00.000-08:00

So I wasn't overly thrilled at visiting a fort and seeing cannons, ammunition, and all kinds of warfare. But Jeremy and I wanted to take a walk out to the lighthouse and try our hand at lighthouse photos. So we were off. Before I didn't think magazines were made of anything but paper, that batteries were small things that fit in cameras and such, that shells were found on beaches, but my mind was opened. It was a lot bigger than I had expected Fort Rodd Hill Park to be. We wandered the different batteries, looked through cannons (OK, that was all me. It cracked Jeremy up because he said that only a typical girl would go and endanger herself in that way--I prefer to think of it as a mark of courage), and took pictures of the lighthouse. I think I enjoyed the lighthouse tour more. I was so dis-appointed that the stairs leading up to the top of the lighthouse were closed off. Apparently it's still a working lighthouse so the public isn't allowed there. In any case, here are the pics we took.

McKenzie Bight

2008-01-23T18:21:00.000-08:00

We returned to Gowlland Tod today to explore more of its trails. However, the getting there was more of the adventure than the actual hike. We planned a somewhat medium long hike, choosing to enter at the McKenzie Bight entrance and wander down the coast a bit. The map we had was incomplete and only said that we had to take Ross-Durrance Rd from Millstream Rd. What it didn't tell us is that Ross-Durrance is only Ross-Durrance further up and actually starts out as Millstream Lake Rd. This resulted in us driving the length of Millstream and back, guessing at which road it was, taking the wrong fork it ending up almost all the way east across the peninsula instead of up north. In any case, we took the roundabout way and finally got there after a very long scenic drive. The sunshine was deceiving to this tropical-grown girl. Sun has always meant warmer weather to me, but not this time. We walked into the shaded forest and the temperature dropped several degrees. On a warmer day, the trail would have been wet, but instead we walked on frozen mud that crunched beneath our feet. Several times where the ice was thicker, we had to watch our footing since it was slippery. We heard and then saw a creek flowing below then beside the trail and and followed it as it joined the beautiful McKenzie Bight. We found the only spot bathed in sunshine and spend the rest of our time there, bird-watching, taking pictures, and sitting down for lunch. Although we wanted to explore further, we had used up most of our day so we headed back after that. Here are the McKenzie Bight pictures.

Carpeting and Snowtubing Mt. Washington

2008-01-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

So it came to pass that Annie joined the Lakeview Ski Trip to Mt. Washington. Alas, she was not to be accompanied by Jeremy inasmuch as he had to worketh. The day started long before the sun had risen at it would be a long journey. I receiveth a phone call from Elizabeth at 5am. She had knocked and knocked at the abode of Dima & Anna but no one answereth and no lights were on in the house. I offer to calleth for her and awakened the lady of the house who asked me in her Chinese accent, "Is this wake-up call?" I assured Enchin that it wasn't for her. I was told later that Enchin opened Dima & Anna's room and loudly told them, "Get out! Car outside!" Half-awake and half-asleep, the couple tried to shake awake to figure out why they were being kicked out onto the street. Dima was thinking, "Car outside? There are plenty of cars outside." There was a bit of a flurry and they were off to pick me up. When they got to the house I teased Dima since yesterday he had reminded me not to "sleep too much."
"So, um..." I asked, "Who was the one who slept 'too much' last night?"
It was the alarm's fault of course. It didn't ring like it was supposed to. We were worried we wouldn't get there on time since Elizabeth had to help with getting the kids organized but fortunately we had overestimated the amount of time it would take for us to get there and we got there just in time. Snowtubing didn't start until 1pm, so we hung out at the lodge and went off to break in the Crazy Carpet that I had insisted on buying last month despite Jeremy's, "What are you going to use it for? There's no snow around here..." In case of a blizzard, one must be prepared, right? And I knew we'd be making more trips to Mt. Washington. It was a blast crazy carpeting. They pointed us to the Ozone runs, since the snowtubing wasn't open yet and we got to use the tubing runs to crazy-carpet on. We took turns. Then we went in twos. And to end it, Dima, Anna, Elizabeth and I all boarded the thing and flew down the hill with snow flying onto our faces because of Dima who couldn't keep his feet up. We were thoroughly covered with snow by that last ride so we all headed back to the lodge to get warmed up and defrosted. After a while, Elizabeth and I convinced Kassandra to take the Crazy Carpet out for a ride again and the three of us were off for some more screaming. First, Elizabeth went. Then Kassandra. Then me. It was a blast. Time for lunch and then we were back for the snowtubing. All I can sayeth (since I've long since lost the King James Version of this story), is that thee had to be there to experienceth such speed and joy. If thou wanteth to see-eth moreth, please clicketh on this link: Snowtubing Mt. Washington.

Back to Creyke Point

2008-01-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

So we thought that Dima and Anna need to visit another beautiful place here on this island that they are now beginning to call home. We didn't want to scare them off with any of our long hikes and I don't think they were overly sure about this whole traipsing around in the cold weather idea, but I told them that the last time we came out to East Sooke Park it was a nice warm day (by Jeremy's definition, brrr) and tempted them with tales of the beautiful views and that it was only a short walk from the parking lot (we picked Creyke's Point especially for that feature). So they decided to join us. It was a bit of a crisp day. OK, so it was cold. But we were all bundled up and so it was fairly fun to leave the car and wander through the old Aylard farm and orchard into the beach where Anna got camera-happy. And stayed camera happy for the rest of our wander down to Creyke's Point. So it was a beautiful day of enjoying the sea, catching glimpses of the Olympics beyond the low-lying clouds, bird watching, scrambling down rocks onto little islands, and enjoying the view from the top of Creyke's Point. Click here to see where we went.

Gowlland Tod Trail

2008-01-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

Gowlland Tod Provincial Park is one place we haven't yet explored. It's supposed to be a day hiker's dream, with trails bordering Tod Inlet, views of the Gulf Islands on the north end and the Malahat and Finlayson Arm on the southern end. After a long 7 km hike down Millstream Creek and around Florence Lake yesterday, I thought today I would do a more relaxing 3 km stroll in Gowlland Tod looking forward to a beautiful waterfall along the way. Unfortunately, I opened up to the wrong trail in my trail book and ended up giving Jeremy directions to the 7 km trail. I caught my mistake halfway there so we figured we'd just do half of it and turn around. I should have paid better attention to the small "elevation change 220m" blurb in the book. We started our hike off the Emma Dixon entrance. That the parking area marked on the map was a tiny shoulder off the tiny road could have clued us in on the lack of popularity for this starting point but we were on a pre-hike high. Let's just say that the trail began with an uphill climb that did not end for many many meters. I was gasping up that thing reminding myself that mountain/hill climbing is now a normal part of my life. On one of my many stops up the trail, Jeremy laughed thinking about how my "relaxing stroll" today had morphed turned into something totally different. After that steep ascent, however, the trail turned out to be more of level with occasional uphills as we wandered along the tops of the range bordering the Finlayson Arm. The views from this trail are absolutely breath-taking. Our favorite viewpoint was not even marked on the trail map and we kind of stumbled on it when we took the first branch off the forest trail beside a pile of boulders covered in moss. We wondered if we could see anything behind the rocks and when we climbed above them emerging from the forest, we were spell-bound to see the earth drop beneath us and leave us overlooking the incredible views of the Finlayson Arm and the mountains on the other side. We were on the Gowlland Range that "towers 430 meters over Finlayson Arm, a unique fjord that only replenishes its marine waters once a year" per the Trailpeak website. All we could say was, "Wow!" It was like being beside a huge cliff and not knowing it until suddenly the trees clear. After taking our fill of pictures, we continued down the trail beside this incredible view, coming out at the different viewpoints to see new perspectives of the fjord below us. We hiked until the loop right before the Pike Rd. access and turned around. I estimated that we hiked about 5.8 km. Now that we've discovered this park, Jeremy and I are hoping to come back to explore more of its 25 km of trails. Next time, we're heading up the Saanich Peninsula to the Wallace Rd. access to check out the views of the Gulf Islands from up there. Until then, we leave you with these pictures.

Langford Lake

2008-01-15T21:54:00.000-08:00

I have been prodded from my winter inactivity by a new inspiration for walking gained during our church health seminar over the weekend after hearing about all the benefits of walking. Our trail running had come to a standstill due to the colder weather. I find it difficult to breathe properly when it feels like you're inhaling blocks of ice. However, as previously stated, I have been feeling the lack of exercise so I have a renewed determination to go walking on a daily basis and add trail-running when the weather gets warmer. To aid in my motivation, I bought myself a pedometer and registered on StepsOut, a nifty place that lets you plug in your walking steps and puts you on an imaginary trail to show you how far around Vancouver Island you've "walked." I plan to virtually (and not so virtually) walk the coast of Vancouver Island this year and see how long it takes me to do one round. Yesterday I decided to explore Langford Lake. Jeremy was off early from work yesterday so I pulled him along with me for a short walk before sunset. Today I walked the whole trail around the lake. It's such a beautiful little lake. If you want, you can come on a walk with me.

The Gratitude Dance

2008-01-14T08:43:00.000-08:00

We love Victoria. We've almost been here a year and have loved every minute exploring our beautiful island. We have made friends, we have joined a church family, we have wandered its landscapes, we have been part of its seasons, and it has become home. I realized this today when I came across this video and connected instantly to all the familiar places and people and realized I belong here now. "Hey! I know where that is!"

So for those of you who live here, do you recognize the place? Do you recognize the people? (Especially the statue man at the Inner Harbor). And for those of you who don't live here...this is just a glimpse of how grateful we all are that we get to live in Victoria, BC. Enjoy!

Coast Trail Hike

2008-01-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

My outdoorsy, nature-addict of a husband was feeling nature-deprived, so supportive wife that I am, I had the brilliant idea of taking him out hiking for the day. I felt in need of a nice long walk, myself. We'd been more cooped up during the colder months of winter and not hiking as much. We thought of the closest most beautiful place to go hiking and decided Jeremy's free Sunday should be spent further exploring the Coast Trail at East Sooke Park. We wanted to spend as much of the day there as possible, so we took our lunch and started the trail at 11:20am. (We woke up late). We were aiming for Cabin Point and at 1:30, we reached a beautiful viewpoint. It was also our deadline to turn around so we stopped there for lunch. Jeremy was pretty sure it was Cabin Point but we didn't see the promised shack so I highly doubt we made it. We had lunch overlooking the sea and watched a sea otter climb the rocks, the seagulls fly, and a cormorant dive for fish. We headed back at 2pm, enjoying the views of the sea, the coast, and the Olympic Mts. on the other side, the lush forests, high cliffs, and little creeks that we went across. It turned out to be a 4 and a half hour hike. And I wondered why I was sore the next day. Here are the rest of the pics.

Sabbath at Dima & Anna's

2008-01-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

Dima and Anna invited us for lunch this Sabbath. The dessert, a cake that Anna made by steaming its layers, was outstanding and made especially Alex, the dessert addict, very happy. We hung out and played 20 questions in the afternoon and then at sunset, our gathering turned into game night. There was the Jumblinging Towers (like Jenga), Apples to Apples, and Pit. Pit was the most addicting and it totally cracked me up to see Elizabeth's game personality come out. She turned into a loud, commanding presence fighting to make money--she controlled the stock market and beat us all soundly. It was crazy and lots and lots of fun!
Alex, Dima & Anna

Maria (Alex's wife) and Natasja

This is the Elizabeth before Pit

Just before the crash

Jeremy and I make a great couple. He is "Graceful" and "Luxurious"

While I am "Manly." Figures.

There aren't that many more but the rest of the pictures are found here.

Royal BC Museum

2008-01-08T15:12:00.000-08:00

We figured we needed a bit more culture in our lives, so we decided to go to the museum. Natasja told us it was entrance-by-donation week and we originally all planned to go together but Jeremy forgot he was working on Sunday and I was sick with the flu so we all ended up going different times. I got this flu right after the ski trip and I was sick and tired of being sentenced at home all day but since I was feeling a bit better we decided to go to the museum today. Thinking about it now, I ended up hacking and coughing away most of the time so it was probably not the best idea. Oh well, it was fun. Our favorite part was the First Nations Exhibit. Jeremy played stare-down with his past. See more pics here.

Mt. Washington Ski Trip

2007-12-28T20:51:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin? Let me remind you of our last (and my first EVER) skiing mis-adventure. Two years ago on a mountain in Massachussetts....
Annie and Charlie in their respective typical skiing poses
Please note that my brother is standing up and I was on the ground. You'd think I'd be able to manage to stand up long enough for a picture but no. I am slope-challenged--and there's not even much of a slope in this picture. Poor Jeremy broke his back peeling me off the snow the whole day as I was not for the life of me able to resurrect, resuscitate or awaken the muscles needed to get me up off of skis. Furthermore I discovered trees have a strange magnetic pull to skis and I found myself resorting to falling into the snow to avoid a sure collision. Jeremy also had to dig me out of deep powder a couple of times. Then Jeremy tricked me into going down an advanced course. It took me an hour due to my frequent falls. Needless to say, I did not have a good first impression of skiing.

So how did I find myself once again on a snow covered mountain with skis on my feet? It was all because of a promise I made February 26, 2006--something about "for better or worse." This being the "for worse" part. I stood there on my skis, freaking out at the slope, and telling Jeremy, "This is how much I love you, that I would be standing here on my skis and facing all this scariness." He looked at me in shock--"You make it sound like I'm torturing you. Skiing is fun!" Yup, he needed to tell me that.

This trip came about after our friend Joel mentioned he wanted to come up to Mt. Washington to snowboard during the winter break. Of course Jeremy jumped at the chance to go. In a couple of weeks, another friend from church, Vanessa, said she would plan the trip for the 27th & 28th and get back to us. So Christmas and Boxing Day came and went...and early 5 AM on the 27th found us on the road with Vanessa, Steve (her fiance), and Joel at the wheel. I was told that skiing was easier than snowboarding so I opted to ski and since the others were snowboarders, Jeremy thought this would be the ideal time to learn how to snowboard.

And so it was that Jeremy and I found ourselves both on a bunny hill, at last at the same beginner level. It was a little challenging for Jeremy to pick me up when he himself was learning but he was my hero the whole day! Finally I figured out how to get up off the skis and Jeremy taught me how to really use the snowplow effectively and after that, things started to come together. We attempted a couple of more advanced greens which still demanded some hiking back and rescuing efforts from Jeremy when I fell and couldn't get up again. It was blizzard-ing, windy, and cold so that everytime we took the lift up the slope, our faces would be frozen. The snow was falling fast and it made it hard to see and we didn't rent goggles because we didn't think we needed them. At one point, the wind was so strong that when I was going downhill I came to a stop. Other times it had the opposite effect and nearly freaked me out when I would be going faster than was comfortable. Then we made the mistake of staying too long on the slopes and finding out that the bunny hill lift which should have taken us up to the lodge was closed meaning we had to hike up the hill in probably the stiffest boots known to mankind at the end of a long day of skiing. Grrr...

We were thankful to find a cozy room to stay in and then we were out looking for a place to soothe our starving souls. Vanessa had the great idea to check out an awesome Mexican restaurant that specializes in fresh organic produce. It was an excellent choice to finish up the evening. If you're ever in Courtenay, definitely check out Tita's Mexican Restaurant.

The next day was beautifully clear, very different from yesterday. Since I had now gotten the basics, I shooed Jeremy off to spend the day boarding with the guys on the more advanced slopes. Vanessa's sister Cynthia joined us with her boyfriend Moses and the three of them spent the morning taking snowboarding lessons together while I went off to brave the green slopes by myself. I started off at the bunny hill trying to learn how to deal with speed but then I realized it was rather hard to do with all the little kiddies taking lessons that involved them criss-crossing the hill several times putting me in danger of taking little kids down the hill with me. So I went up the Green Chair to the green runs. Now this lift is hard to get off of if you're a beginner as it ended at a rather steep disembarkation point and yesterday I fell while getting off holding up traffic behind me and necessitating the assistance of the lift personnel to get me out of the way. It was embarrassing, although I did feel better to see 5 people fall right after me. Today, I managed to stay up 1/3 of the time getting off although I did achieve to knock my seatmate so he fell instead, wait a second too long to get off, pushing off when the lift was already a couple of inches higher which resulted in me losing control and falling yet again. I also managed to do some spectacular wipe-outs witnessed by the those riding the lifts. A small group of little kids were sitting on the snow halfway down the slope, snowboards in front of them, listening intently to the ski instructor in front explaining the next lesson when I carefully skied in front of them and decided that instant would be a perfect time for a wipe-out, which I proceeded to do directly in front of the class. I have to hand it to the kids and the instructor because they had the decency to act as if nothing had happened and continued normally. I struggled to get myself up but as I had chosen to fall at a flatter area of the slope, it was hard and 4 tries later of me flapping around in the snow, I had gotten nowhere. By that point, very aware that I had an audience watching me fail miserably at sitting up, I decided I would wait until the class left. They did, mercifully, and I attempted it 3 more times before I finally got to my feet. But my most memorable moment was on the bunny hill going down a couple of times while waiting for Jeremy to find me. I heard someone scream behind me and looked back to find it was came from a Chinese girl, in classic beginner skier mode, skis pointed forward gaining speed and with no idea how to stop. I checked and I wasn't in her way but there wasn't much I could do to help her. Near the bottom she fell and disappeared in a cloud of snow and powder. The snow was soft and she was laughing but that wipe-out was hilarious. While I was waiting in line to go back up the lift, I watched another Asian girl run over a man near the bottom of the hill. The man was just barely side-swiped and both were fine too but I decided then and there that the bunny hill was probably the most dangerous hill to be on.

As for the guys, they had their own adventures going down tree runs, black diamonds and blues, and Steve told the tale of Joel's most spectacular wipeouts. First he collided with a tree and then shortly afterward he ran over a girl. Twice. Same girl. We told him there were better ways of meeting girls. Jeremy took pictures of the view from the top of the mountain and also the double blacks, which he was very eager to try on skis. I looked at the picture and basically they were cliffs. There was very little slope if at all...and he wanted to go down those with skis? I don't understand. Someone please explain.
Joel & Steve

Vanessa

Moses

The major thing I learned from skiing? Humility. We all had a blast. Jeremy has gotten addicted, and I have a feeling this is not the last time I'm going to see this mountain. Enjoy the pics!

Merry Christmas and to all a good night!

2007-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Traditionally, my family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve with a big feast at midnight (the noche buena) to greet Christmas Day...and lots of firecrackers and any noisemakers. Jeremy's family has a family dinner and games, opens a gift at Christmas Eve but waits until the morning to open the rest of the presents. This Christmas required a bit of re-arranging however. We had no family with us (everyone too far away) and Jeremy had to work Christmas Eve. So, we waited until Jeremy's Christmas "morning" (when he woke up at noon after a few hours of sleep after the night shift) to open our presents for each other. I gave Jeremy a wishlist so he had an idea of what to get me and the crazy man bought me everything on it! And more. We both enjoyed buying stuff for each other--so we got a little carried away. As far as family goes, we decided to adopt some "family" for the Christmas meal and play some games. The "Christmas orphans" we found who weren't already adopted into other families were Natasja and a Russian-German couple that she introduced us to, Dmitriy (Dima) and Anna. Anna--Annie, with a name like that, I liked her immediately. So we had our feast, "family," presents, games, and Christmas morning--topped off with eggnog. Following are some pics but you can see more here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Our Christmas tree

Our little Nativity scene from Peru thanks to the Global Village

Our now empty Christmas stockings

Our Christmas window

Our adopted family: Dima, Anna & Natasja

And of course you need the eggnog...this was actually our first time to gulp down the stuff (it took a lot of self-talk and Natasja reminding me, "Just think, Annie, the egg is pasteurized") and surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I expected, just very sweet. Jeremy couldn't finish his though, ha!
Us women with our eggnog: Anna, Annie, and Natasja

The couples

The 12 Days of Christmas at Butchart Gardens

2007-12-20T20:56:00.000-08:00

As proud annual card holders of this famous Victoria Garden, Jeremy & I had been looking forward to seeing the annual light display of the 12 Days of Christmas at Butchart. It's been so busy lately that we almost forgot to go see them...but today we thought we'd go before it ends.

So here we go folks...

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...
a partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...
two turtledoves....
and a partridge in a pear tree....

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...
three French hens (they were having croissants and coffee, I guess that's what makes them "French")
two turtledoves, and a partridge in a pear tree....

OK, I'm tired of typing. You didn't really think I'd type out the whole song now, did you? Why don't y'all just click on this here link to see the rest of the pics so I can give my fingers a break, OK? :D

Festival of the Trees

2007-12-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

The Festival of Trees transforms hotel lobbies in three BC communities, Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna, into lush forests of beautifully decorated trees. Every year the Empress Hotel here in Victoria is the host for the Festival of the Trees. It is a Christmas tree decorating contest by about 100 sponsors that raises money for the BC Children's Hospital. Jeremy and I went today and it was crazy what the different sponsors came up with. Click our Tree album to see the most memorable ones. To those of you still wondering if you want to visit Victoria, read the "Menu" on the Taste of Victoria tree.

Oh, Christmas tree...

2007-12-13T21:31:00.000-08:00

...oh Christmas tree....how lovely are your branches....

Today was the day for our FIRST EVER Christmas tree. Our first Christmas as a married couple was in Orlando, FL last year. However, our Christmas "tree" was a little tiny rosemary bush trimmed to Christmas tree shape and shamelessly pretending to be a tree. I thought it was a great idea at the beginning but then I grew to believe that there is
something very wrong with a Christmas tree that smelled of food instead of pines. Moreover, we were in the midst of moving and packing so needless to say, our little home was not in the most Christmassy of shapes. My family was able to come down and spend Christmas with us (and were pulled to moving/packing service--ho! ho! ho! what a Merry Christmas!) My poor family--but it was still a special Christmas to have them down there. Especially with my brother's "special" Santa hat.

This year we will not be having family and since Jeremy is working Christmas Eve, we are stuck here. However, this year, we have vowed we will have a proper tree. So today, we set about getting one. As the Christmas spirit would have it, we arrived at the little "local Christmas tree sale" behind where we lived just when they had a fresh delivery. The trees were cut at 9am this morning. Mmmm...the piney scent is always so inspiring.
Our adopted tree is brought home

Trimming in the kitchen

Jeremy strings the lights

Mad Waterfall

2007-12-04T21:50:00.000-08:00

Jeremy and I went trail running at Witty's Lagoon today. After all the rain we've had lately, I wondered what Sitting Lady Falls looked like so I went for a ramble in Metchosin to see it yesterday and I was awestruck by its power. Some of you may remember our first visit when it looked like a proper beautiful ladylike falls. During the fall, when Mom and Auntie Nening were visiting, we took them there but it was a mere trickle, not even worthy of being photographed then. But you should see it today. It was the first time we've seen it roar like this. Yesterday I was even afraid of it. So today, I had to take Jeremy to see it. You have to be there to truly feel the mist and hear it rush. And since we were here, we thought we'd give trail running in Witty's Lagoon a try. And I have to admit that it is one of the most beautiful trails to run here. There aren't many trails that take you over a waterfall, crossing a few creeks, by a pretty lagoon, up and down hills, through a beautiful forest, to end with the ocean before you. Truly inspiring.

Vancouver Island Weather Report

2007-12-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

It's winter, folks. And it's official. We woke up Sabbath morning to a beautiful winter wonder-land. This is a result of a veritable Victorian blizzard. And this is the view from our patio. Jeremy, the Albertan, is thriving in all this snowyness. He thinks if it's cold, it might as well be snowing. I'm thankful that the snow here doesn't last long enough for us to get sick of it. The beauty of Vancouver Island--Monday's forecast? A balmy 13 degrees Celsius. So we enjoyed it while we had it. We managed to get a snowball fight in with Elizabeth and Jen on Thetis Lake shortly before sunset. It was gals against guy and we girls, despite the 3:1 ratio, lost miserably to the Albertan. I seriously need to work on my aim. It was a lot of fun though. We had Victoria blizzard #2 Sunday morning (I say Victoria blizzard so you don't get it confused with blizzards in other parts of the world that probably better live up to the name) and since Jeremy was at work, I had to drive myself to the church garage sale. My adventurous spirit led me to an unplowed, unsalted side road for the "experience" and I had it at the stop sign when I did what Jeremy told me not to do and put on the brakes harder than I should for the speed I was going. Needless to say, the stop sign didn't manage to stop me and I experienced the thrilling freedom of a car not under my control. It was an adrenaline rush but I had the good sense to let go of the brakes and the car managed to go where I told it to go eventually, much to my relief. It rained in the afternoon and all the beautiful snow was gone by the end of the day. I take back all I've ever said about Vancouver Island rain and how this is the only place I know that when it rains, you don't get wet. I've always said that the rain here is always just spitting at you or a very mild drizzle and nothing like a good downpour you get in tropical areas where I always lived. This past weekend proves that it does truly rain here and it does get you wet! Nothing close to the downpour yet, but nevertheless, this past weekend is deserving of the word "rain." And that's it folks! Winter is over!

From Our Window: First Snow

2007-11-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

It snowed last night!!! There is actually some snow on the mountains in front of our window. It will probably all melt off by the end of the day since it didn't snow that much but I took pictures before the sun started burning them off. I walked Jeremy to the car last night and all this powdery stuff was falling from the sky. It was such fun. I made him drive to work because I don't trust my driving in snow and what if it got icy overnight? And we live on the side of a mountain with a steep road. I'm probably overly paranoid but I wasn't planning to take any chances. As it is, Jeremy said the car door froze shut and he had to pry it open with his fork this morning. I would have had no clue what to do or what the problem was if I had a hard time trying to open the door this morning and poor Jeremy would still be standing at the hospital waiting for me in the cold. I didn't even know car doors could freeze shut! I have great sympathy for you poor people who live in cold places. I hope you forgive my weather-focused posts these past few days, but this is the first time I've actually lived (and not visited in) someplace with four seasons. Here are more snow pictures from the yards of our neighbors who live below us.

Frost

2007-11-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

We had frost this morning! So we actually had trucks coming around to sprinkle salt on all the roads. Some of you people from colder, much colder areas of the world are probably laughing at this point, but nevertheless, we are island people and snow and cold and ice is a strange foreign thing that we don't know how to deal with. Especially me. I was asking Jeremy if it means the roads are slick but he said I should be fine. On the shopping list of today though is a scraper, as we had to scrape the windows with a CD this morning to get enough visibility to bring Jeremy to work. Apparently this is not the first time this year but it's the first time for us to see it so I thought I would document this historic moment. This is my first winter here so I am watching to see how it goes.

She Passed!

2007-11-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

At the risk of sounding redundant, we just wanted to announce another passing of the boards. We got this in the mail today. Yay!!!

Salmon Run

2007-11-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

Every year from October-December, the fish come home to die. It's rather sad, really, but it's also beautiful because before they die, they mate in order to ensure the existence of their species. From death comes life. Thus the drama and the cycle of life. I had always wanted to see a salmon run. But I hadn't realized the gruesome torture of it all. They don't tell you about the stench of rotting fish. They don't tell you that from the time they leave the sea, they live an average of 8 days. They don't tell you that as soon as the salmon hit freshwater, they begin to die and a white fungus begins to grow and overcome them. And they fight it. They fight the current, the fungus that slowly eats them, the other fish who also want their mate...they fight until they are able to plant a new generation and they hang on to protect the nest until their dying breath. You can tell those that are near death by how covered they are with the white stuff. I didn't expect the powerful metaphor for pain and suffering and fighting for life. But I admired them for fighting so hard. All their life, it seems, they've been building their strength for this last battle.

After church, we gathered at our place for potluck (first time having a group over at our place, woohoo!) and after some good 'ol fellowship, it was off to the races. It was pretty amazing. I found myself cheering them on and feeling protective when little kids would throw stones in the water and discourage the fishes. It was fun hanging out with the group, exploring the stream and then taking a short hike to the Nature Center to make bets on the salmon count, take group pics and so Brian could take pictures with the fishes he "caught."

These are the pics of The Fish-Watching Event.

Of Shanghai and Time Travel

2007-11-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

Well, after Australia we wandered off to Shanghai. Well, it wasn't really a wandering because it was somewhat planned seeing as it was a stopover on our itinerary, but it's always nice to imagine that we just up and decided to go visit China just for the fun of it, right? We enjoyed the in-flight entertainment.
Hint: Question #3. Our favorite was the symptom after "Fever."

Since we would be arriving Friday night and leaving Sabbath noon, we were hoping we would be able to wander around downtown. We hoped that the free hotel the airline put us in would be in the vicinity of the city.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way. We got to the airport and that lost feeling came back. It's such an interesting experience to be someplace where no one speaks a language you can communicate in. An airline agent shouting "transit to Vancouver and London!" met us at the gate. Eventually, a small group of transit passengers accumulated at the gate and in due process we were all stamped with a bright orange sticker and told, "You go. I find you in baggage." That was the only English we got for the next hour. The silly stickers kept falling off and we kept picking them up because for all we knew it was our only proof that we were part of the group. We got our luggage and were herded to one section of the airport to another, confused & not really knowing why as nothing really happened anywhere we went to. Apparently we were waiting for someone or something but they never showed up so it is uncertain how important that was. Finally we were given the OK to exit the terminal and go outside. After a few minutes, a hotel coach arrived and we all piled in. It was with relief that the one of the coach personnel was the English-speaking representative and he informed us that we would be staying in a hotel 45 minutes away. We were also to be at the lobby by 11am the next day for transport back to the hotel. We found out later that we were also about 40 minutes to Shanghai so there would not be enough time for us to go there and back to catch the bus. It was quite the disappointment but we enjoyed the 4-star hotel we were put in. We haven't stayed in anything that fancy yet, where the bellboys would not let you touch your baggage and insisted on delivering them straight to your room. Service was excellent and the room came with a small fridge and refreshments, very comfy slippers and robes, tons of nice fluffy towels, a complete set of quality toiletries, a room safe, coffee maker & coffee, Lays potatoe chips, and I'm sure if there was anything else your heart desired, you had just to clap your hands and a genie would appear--poof!--to do your bidding. No wait, that was Aladdin, not me. In any case, we walked on clouds feeling like royalty. The next day's buffet breakfast was pretty yummy as well and then we spent the rest of the time touring the grounds and taking pictures of tricycles and people on motorbikes who waved at us as they went by.

It was the same drill on our way back. English-speaking representative stood in front of the bus with his speech of where we will be going and how long it will take and thank you for staying at our hotel. I had emailed Elizabeth with the specifics of our travel, that we will be leaving Sydney on the 2nd, spend overnight at Shanghai, take half a day travel, and arrive on the 4th. However, I was unaware that with the technology these days, time travel was now an option and unknowingly, we had boarded a time machine. We left Shanghai at 14:30 on the 3rd, and arrived in Vancouver at 0900 on the SAME DAY, took the ferry to the island and arrived at 14:30. Basically, the trip from Shanghai to Victoria was instantaneous. The marvels of technology, I tell you. Unfortunately for us, Elizabeth did not know that we were capable of such feats as I neglected to tell her and so there was quite a measure of ~~anxiety~~ excitement in the air when we arrived at our home port and no one was there to pick us up. Jeremy and I were ~~going over~~ ~~Plan B-walk home (too far & luggage too heavy)Plan C-take a taxi to our car (we forgot the address of the people we left it at)~~ ~~Plan C-scream loudly and run around the terminal~~ waiting serenely at the waiting area outside when Elizabeth pulled up after receiving my messages on her cellphone after church and we were never more happy to see a familiar face. We got home after all the adventuring. Safe and sound. The End.

Well, except for these pictures.

No School!

2007-10-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

We have been having so much fun hanging out with the family. So the closer it got to us leaving, the sadder it was. So it was with great joy and cheer that we were given one more day to hang out with Cami and her kids since she decided just for today, she would get the day off for herself and her kids. The fun started with a visit to the "salon" for Keldan, progressed into throwing everyone into the pool, and ended with a beautiful meal at a very fancy restaurant owned and waitressed by one of the cutest little people you have ever seen.

To see the rest of the pics and catch the exclusive restaurant review, click to see the Day of No School.

Jeremy and I also managed to get copies of Cami's pics during the week that we were there, so check out this album to see the amazing feats of Ethan, evidence of dunkings, Sage's birthday, and more.

Surfing Catherine Hill Bay

2007-10-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Catherine Hill Bay. We went here because the last time the waves were smaller and I was wanting someplace with waves that didn't totally freak me out. I've had too many poundings into the sand and it has made me very respectful of the waves. But when we got to Cathos, the gentler waves I was expecting had somehow morphed into some mean-looking ones. To me anyway. Jeremy went off surfing and had fun and eventually he convinced me to face my fears and bodyboard anyway. I still crashed, but I had fun. It is such a beautiful beach, just being there watching the waves is exhilarating...

To see the rest of our pretty beach pictures, click here.

Whale Watching in Nelson Bay

2007-10-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

Awe-inspiring. Breath-taking. And the "breath-taking" is even before we saw any whales! I say you should go on a whale watching tour just for the fun of getting splashed. We boarded a catamaran and got a seat at a table at the very front of the boat. And when the Canadian man leading the tour (aha! I catch these accents now) informed us that there are high chances that we are going to be wet, especially those sitting at the front (this said while looking meaningfully straight at me). He asked me if I minded getting wet and I gave him the "A-OK, I'm game for this." And then the tide came in and we were off. It was great fun, especially when there was a big wave and we would ride to the crest and then go woosh down the wave. It was like riding a roller coaster and we held on and laughed when we got drenched. By this point, most people retreated into the sheltered cabin leaving just a few of us nutcases out. Once we left the bay and were out at sea, the waves were a little smaller, things got calmer, and the others warily came back out. We passed a few dolphins and continued scanning the horizon for any whale signs. No luck. It must have been nearly 2 hours of non-whales before they decided to turn us around and head back. And that was when we saw them. We were blessed by a rare sighting of mother and calf. Mama Whale was teaching Junior how to breach... and so we sat there awestruck as we watched Mama explode through the water into the air, turn nearly 360 degrees and crash back into the water. Junior followed her a few seconds later making a smaller splash. And they did that over and over to our amazement. After all that action, the Mum and calf went rolling in the waves. Apparently it was their way of "cooling down" after breaching. We are told that whales have amazing eyesight. Just imagine how large their eyes are and how much detail they can take in. On their migration, they breach in order to "scan" the horizon, turning in order to cover more area in order to check for danger and see the landmarks. We were lucky to watch Mama Whale teach Junior how to properly breach. The calves have to do this especially to note the landmarks they pass so that they can remember and make this same journey the next year from memory. It was pretty amazing to see this happen in front of our eyes. For you to see some of it, just click here for the Whale Watch album.

U-guy Reunion: Australia Chapter

2007-10-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

I belong to this multi-national, crazy-wonderful family of friends called the U-guys. We bonded in college and after over ten years, we are still in touch and very much a family. This Sabbath I was blessed by a visit from Devita, who came all the way from Queensland to visit me (well, and her other friends). I haven't seen this girl in basically 10 years. Since then, we've both gotten hitched with who we agree are extremely exceptional men (of course, we married them, didn't we?) and grew up a bit as far as years and possibly (?) maturity go. It was such a blast catching up and sharing pictures and it was so GOOD to see her again. We can see how good God is when we retrace our lives. We met at church then had a picnic with her and her friends Colin and Margareth and their 2 adorable boys. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Avondale campus, most specifically Sunnyside and the adjoining museum.

Going native

Reptile Park

2007-10-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

If you have to visit a zoo in Sydney whereabouts, I would highly recommend you take the drive/train to the Reptile Park. We skipped the Sydney Aquarium and Wildworld(?) this trip--but Jeremy's been to the Aquarium and also highly recommends it, one of the best he's been in. But as far as native Australian animals go, the Reptile Park has it all and it's fascinating to learn so much about them.

As you may know, Australia is probably one of the deadliest places to live in snakewise as it has the world's most deadliest snakes. Jeremy and I were thinking how funny it would be to move from Orlando's shark and alligators (the water is not 100% safe) and exciting hurricanes to Vancouver Island's earthquakes (which I have yet to feel), cougars & black bears, to Australia's poisonous snakes and spiders. Where is it safe to live in the world anymore? Then again, we LOVE excitement so it's all good. Australia is also the best place to be when you get bitten by a poisonous spider or snakes as they probably have the world's largest collection of anti-venom. The Reptile Park is one place that milks venom from spiders and snakes for research and anti-venom purposes so they know a lot about such things.

We had such fun at the Reptile Park. Aussie animals are some of the strangest and most fascinating of creatures. Yes, there were reptiles...lots of them...lizards, skinks, the Gallapagos turtle and lots and lots of poisonous snakes. The scariest place for me was probably the Spider World...those who know me know that I can handle snakes, but bring a spider in my vicinity and I am reduced to a pile of nerves. It helped that there was glass between us and the spiders but that Spider Show that involved letting the most poisonous funnel web spider on the loose toward us was pretty um...nerve-wracking. I kept Jeremy between him and me at all times. Sigh, sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Tough sacrifices. The other super scary spider was the Australian redback. Then there was the tarantula room that was even more hair-raising due to too many scary movies that involve tarantulas. They also had scorpions. Yes, the Reptile World is definitely a place for little boys who love to scare their mothers.

The Reptile World goes beyond reptiles however as they had a group of the friendliest roos on earth...and we spent a bit of time actually hanging around them, petting them, and attempting to convince them our leaves were the yummiest things on earth but failing. It's so awe-inspiring to interact with them and made me think of what it would be like in heaven when we could somehow communicate with all the animals. Jeremy even got nose to nose with one of them. There were the aviaries and their huge collection of Australian birds that still amaze me with their bright colors and songs. There were kookaburras and bats. We saw the apparently dangerously aggressive cassowaries but looked deceivingly peaceful in their home. Mr. Wombat was typically asleep. And we were thrilled to watch the Koala show and actually get to pet them. Since they're protected now, you are only allowed to touch them if you either pay for a private showing at Blackbutt or when the keeper lets you touch them during the show. Few places give you the opportunity nowadays for good reason and in the wild, it is rare to see them and if you do, you are to leave them alone. We learned that koalas have a special digestive system to digest the toxic eucalytus leaves. They get a lot of help from bacteria that live in their digestive tract. The amazing and somewhat disgusting fact we learned was that when the baby joey leaves the pouch to be on its own, the mother um...expells a special poop that the joey actually eats to give it a head start on getting bacteria for its digestion. I've heard of cultures chewing their child's food for them but this is beyond anything else I've known...ew. I'm so glad humans weren't made that way.

We saw an incredibly funny sight when we were on our way through the territory marked "Free-range kangaroos." It cracked us up so much that we took a video of it.

I don't know how good the quality was but that was a bird, I don't know what kind, chasing a kangaroo about 4 times his size. Apparently he didn't care that it was marked Kangaroo Territory. It looked like it was out of a cartoon. Gotta give the bird points for bravery. Apparently he likes showing people who's boss. Poor kangaroos, they weren't free to roam around in their own territory.

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing a platypus for the first time. They were a lot smaller than I thought. All those pictures you see in textbooks were always close-up so I grew up thinking they were 3 feet long or something. Not so. The one we saw was full-grown and about a foot long. That's all folks. But boy can they swim. They must be the funkiest and most confusing animal out there. Did you know they were also venomous? I didn't know that. Figures. If it is found in Australia, it's most likely venomous. We were told that it's sting can make a grown man cry. The park staff member we found there taking pictures told us that one of his friend's got stung by one and he was in extreme pain and agony for weeks. It is one of the few mammals to produce venom. It has a set of spurs in its hind limbs that injects extremely painful venom but apparently is not lethal. I've since learned that this excruciating pain does not respond to morphine. Ouch. So stay away from them platypuses if you know what's good for you :D

You can see reptiles and other creepy crawlies at our Reptile Park album.

Only in Australia

2007-10-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

Sign to Newcastle

Sign for round-about, more common here than stop signs

(left) You don't see signs to "keep left" in most other countries
(right) Speed limits are sometimes on the side of the road as well as on the road itself--so you can't say you didn't know :D

(left) A typical gas station, (right) Gas prices (1.26 AU dollars per liter)

Eucalyptus aka gum trees are everywhere

And my favorite...you know you're in Australia when....

THINGS I'VE LEARNED SO FAR:
1. "Barbie" has nothing to do with dolls.

2. Kangaroos dig weetabix and bread.
3. "Surgeries" are for doctor visits and usually do not involve any invasion into human flesh.
4. Aussie money is plastic.
5. It's "chemist" or "pharmacy" and people laugh at the idea of "drugstore"--as if you would go there to get cocaine and heroine.
6. "cc's" are not units of measurement but refer to "corn chips."
7. Bell peppers are "capsicum."

Proof: click on the Subway picture and read the word at the bottom left corner

8. Beaches here have amazingly white and fine sand.
9. Never spread Marmite thickly on your toast.

(it's VERY VERY salty)

10. Brekkie is the first meal of the day.
11. You can never outrun the flies.
12. Thongs are worn on the feet.

(I bought a pair of Havanas as a souvenir and the next day when Cami asked me, "How are your thongs fitting?" it took me several moments to figure out that she wasn't asking me a very personal question.)

Blackbutt & The Entrance

2007-10-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, I laughed a lot when I first heard of Blackbutt...and I did wonder how it ever got that name. Blackbutt Wildlife Preserve is a pretty awesome place though. We went to see the koalas. But we also got to see a wombat dead asleep--apparently that's what they do all day, and a lot of very pretty birds including a cockatoo that kept saying, "Hello! Polly want a cracker?" which somehow didn't sound fitting for a bird that was in very wild surroundings, and we also saw the "pile of grass bird." At least that's what Jeremy calls it. In fact, he calls it that so much that it's the only name I can remember for it now. It was a lot of fun to wander around and see the animals at Blackbutt and learn more about them. But the koalas definitely steal your heart. They are even cuter in real life and it makes you want to hug them. And when awake they remind me so much of Yoda from Star Wars...so it made me feel like they were incredibly wise but very very slow. And they also slept all day. One keeper shook one of the trees to wake one up to come down to get fed so we got to see how slowly they moved.

Afterward, Jeremy took me to the little town surrounded by ocean called The Entrance. We had fun visiting the little shops and surfshops and then wandered over to watch the pelicans and hang out at the beach. It was a beautiful day.

Sydney

2007-10-23T00:15:00.000-07:00

Someone told me, "You haven't seen Australia until you've seen Sydney." I don't know about that, but I do know the most famous landmark is probably the Sydney Opera House...and so we were off in typical tourist fashion, to go sight-seeing in Sydney.

We set off early in the morning to catch the train for the 2 hour trip to Sydney. I love trains. It's such a fun mode of transportation and it's so relaxing to watch the landscapes go by. We stopped to pick up our nursing licenses (we can work here now if we want!) and it was off to be tourists! We spent a bit of time shopping and hanging out at Darling Harbour. We caught the digeridoo show at the Outback Center. Jeremy bought one at his last trip but we have yet to make some decent sounds on it. It was pretty amazing to see how he was able to imitate different animal sounds and calls with it and his discussion about circular breathing was pretty interesting. It's a really fascinating instrument.

We rode the ferries to Circular Quay, checked out the shopping there as well and then took the ferry to Manly to take pics of the Sydney Opera House from the water. Hung out for half an hour at Manly visiting the beach and the park and then it was back to Circular Quay where we walked around the Sydney Opera House. It's a pretty fancy building. I did find out it wasn't as white as it looks on pictures--and that some of the tile are actually kind of goldish in appearance, especially at the bottom. Nevertheless, it was a pretty amazing experience to actually be there. We did a bit more shopping and then it was time to head back home.
Sydney Sighting-seeing: The Album

Family

2007-10-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

The major reason we came to Australia was family. The wonderful thing about getting married is that your family instantly gets expanded to include a whole new bunch of people who may look very little like you (especially in our case, LOL) but who are now linked to you. Before Jeremy, I had no sisters or older brothers, nieces or nephews...and as soon as we were married, I got them all at once. If that wasn't a miracle...

We had a blast. Here are pics of that first weekend. We went to the beach after church for some Sabbath picnicking at Catherine Hill Bay--yet another beautiful beach. All beaches in Australia are beautiful so my beach descriptions are going to sound rather redundant. Jeremy played ball with Sage, Jayden and Kelden played in the sand, then Sage decided to make the Great Wall of China--pretty awesome to witness such a historical moment. On Sunday, we played in the pool the whole day. Jeremy terrorized the poor kids by pirating all their floating vessels. Then we had some ice cream to celebrate Sage's 7th birthday.

Love getting to know our family here. It has been highly amusing to me to see Jeremy get hooked on Bionicles and watching these boys play with their toys. Jeremy made this huge mean looking Bionicle giant. Jeremy's accomplishments thus far has been making that Bionicle giant because unfortunately the rest of the time has been a humbling experience. First Keldan beat him in chess. In 6 moves. Then Ethan, the Dutch Blitz Whiz, beat him rather soundly in Dutch Blitz. He is a beaten man. Cracks me up. Enjoy the pics.

Soldier's Beach

2007-10-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

First off, let me start with: It is totally UNFAIR that in my high school, surfing wasn't an considered a sport activity and we couldn't do that for PE.

Bill points out that we didn't live 20 minutes to the beaches either. The schools in the area have the privilege of being 20 minutes to beautiful surfing beaches, so every week for Sport (PE), these kids get on buses and head off to the beach for an hour or so just to surf...like, how awesome is that? I never heard of them doing such a thing in Florida. I think the Aussies have a good thing going on here...

But hey...we had GIRAFFES roaming our campus, so there!

Anyway, Bill was nice enough to invite us to join his Surfing Sport class so we waited at the Morrisset roundabout and waited for the Avondale school bus to go by and we followed them all the way to the beautiful Soldier's Beach. They piled out of the buses and changed into their wetsuits or swimsuits (for those who were just there to go swimming or take a walk down the beach) and they were off and I thought envious thoughts again. Jeremy brought one of Bill's surfboards with us and we all walked down to the sand and the surf and I was in bliss...I had so missed being at a warmer beach. Bill gave Jeremy a short surfing review and he was off... Bill stood to keep an eye on all his students and I sat on the sand and watched all the surfers, took pictures, and just soaked the whole thing in. Bill eventually took the kids back to school but Jeremy and I stayed to play a little more. We loved it so much, we went back the next day and Jeremy caught more waves. These are some of the pics we took during those days. Click on Soldier's Beach.

Newcastle and Nobby's Beach

2007-10-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time when I was still getting to know this guy named Jeremy, who was at the time studying in a college 8 hours away, he told me this strange tale about "killer koalas" and the dangers of this rare breed. Apparently, they also go surfing. (Now do you understand why I considered taking him to the psych hospital for treatment?) He sent me this picture as proof:

Obviously, he must not have scared me off enough because I STILL married him. I don't know what that says about his convincing power or my wisdom but we're both very happy so it's all good. Today, in "killer koala" country, the man decides to take me to the beach the koalas went surfing in...the place where the photograph was allegedly taken--and that was Nobby's Beach.
It was so extremely beautiful, this beach in Newcastle. We wandered by the beach and then hiked to Nobby's Point, the path of which was protected on both sides by huge cement blocks, all the way swatting flies. Ah yes, the flies...Australia is plagued with them pesky things, especially when the weather gets warmer. They would have driven Jeremy crazy if he wasn't already. It was a windy day too, probably not the ideal day that Jeremy thought of to take me there, but it was wild to see the waves crash against the rocks on either end and to run madly to escape being drenched. Jeremy got hit more than a couple of times, much to my enjoyment. We had fun wave-watching and then we walked back to the beach for me to get my feet in Australian sand for the first time. It was wonderful. We spent the rest of the day driving along the coastline looking at the other beaches and baths and exploring the rest of Newcastle.
Newcastle & Nobby's Beach Album

The Roos

2007-10-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

What do you do on your first day out in Australia? Go the the psych hospital!!! No, we didn't need to take Jeremy in to see the doctor nor did he need further treatment (although the thought had occurred to me). We did this strange thing because the hospital was almost just down the street from Cami's (Jeremy's sister) place and since it was surrounded by park by both sides, it has become a major hangout for herds of kangaroos. I did, for a fleeting moment, wonder if the medication they were giving the patients in the hospital had a strange side-effect of giving you kangaroo-like features, but I figured I had been watching too many sci-fi movies. So it is that Jeremy and I found ourselves on the grounds of a psych hospital hanging out with a bunch of roos. To prove it, here are the pics: Our day hanging out with the roos.

From Sidney to Sydney

2007-10-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

Doesn't sound like we flew halfway around the world, does it? Our journey began at the tip of the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver Island (north of Sidney) where we took the ferry over to Vancouver, and then hopped on 2 bus rides that took us to the Vancouver airport. The bus rides were a tad tricky as we had no clue how the transport system works here, it was a bit of an adventure getting all squished in the buses with our 2 huge backpacks and 2 more handcarry items since I wasn't expecting them to be that crowded on a weekend. However, we caught them all in time, allowing us to be 3 hours early for our flight so we could have a relaxing lunch and explore the brand new international wing of the Vancouver airport.
The time we were done checking in at the Vancouver airport (YVR)

Sculptures at the new international wing of the Vancouver airport

What we see when we look underwater in BC

It was our first time with China Eastern so having read mixed reviews, we braced ourselves. And it was quite an adventure on that first flight. First off, it was a much older plane. Then, when we let down our tray table, the fabric from the back of the seat in front of us fell down. Jeremy even had a "tablecloth" of sorts while mine was just hanging sadly down. There were TVs in the center of the plane, but the one at the front of our cabin was doing the rolling screen thing at high speeds, quite painful to the eyes. Finally someone had it put back into the wall to prevent blindness, much to our relief. Mealtime came and the stewardesses were giving out the trays. We had ordered the vegetarian meals so I had high hopes...this is a Chinese airline after all right? The steward came to us. "Ah, you odah vege-try?" I nodded yes, we had indeed ordered "vegetry." He left to continue serving. Everyone had already finished their meals and there was still no sign of our "vege-try." They finally remembered and we got our trays. Let me tell you a little bit about our food. Basically, it looked like someone had taken the little tray and spooned 2 tsp of spaghetti sauce in it, layered some steamed rice on it, then topped the whole thing with 2 broccoli spears, 1 side of a red pepper, 5 corn kernels, 4 julienned squash strips, and 2 slices of mushrooms from the can, covered the tray in some foil and steamed the whole thing. This was served with a dinner roll and margarine, with a side of cauliflower and corn salad and a bowl of melon and honeydew balls. Some of you probably know how much Jeremy despises cauliflower and how unthrilled I am with melon and honeydew. I gave him my melon bowl and he gave me his cauliflower and the world was a little bit better. Whatever happened to the tofu? The awesome Chinese mock meats? The stir-fry? Our second meal was also late. And there you go. It didn't help that the crew didn't speak English too well and it seemed the stewardess avoided us as to not have to struggle with the communication barrier :D I just want to clarify that these are not complaints, merely observations, we thought it was highly amusing. These next pics are of the Shanghai airport during our stopover.
Duty-free shops
The airport structure
Vending machines
I'd like you to note that this water is "sterilized"--yes, 100% absent of any microbes whatsoever
The garbage: organic and inorganic (Jeremy didn't understand why I would take pictures of the garbage...it's part of the whole cultural experience, is it not?)
Our second flight with China Eastern was MUCH better. It helped to have the 4 hour layover after 12 hours stuck in a plane and we stocked up on our water since I had begun feeling extremely dehydrated on the first flight. Our next flight restored my faith in China Eastern. We boarded a much newer and nicer looking plane where everything worked fine. The crew were extremely helpful. I so appreciated them...we got our meals just slightly ahead of everyone else's, they went through the cabin with juice and water frequently so those who were awake could refresh themselves, and they even kept the lavatories clean. And the meals...these were the meals I was expecting...we got rice with sauteed veggies, complete with shiitake mushrooms. The veggies and fruit were super fresh...I even learned to like melon! So I still would go with recommending the airline. They gave us the best deal and Jeremy and I just needed to make it over here in one piece :D

So we made it! Cami and Bill met us at the airport. It was a bit of a line at customs (I told Jeremy it wasn't a good idea to take all that heroine over here, but did he listen to me??? just kidding) and Cami was beginning to worry that Jeremy had told given her the wrong date again. Eventually we got out and I got to meet my new sister-in-law and her hubby for the first time. We got to their house and I met my niece and 3 nephews--which was pretty cool. I think they're great kids and we're having a blast jumping on the trampoline, swimming in the new pool, and playing Legos! (Yes, I have been Lego-deprived and Jeremy found me sheepishly happily playing Legos with the boys that first day.) The boys were awfully kind to their aunt and helped her find all the Legos in their box so I could build my Lego mansion. Kelden even explained how to put the flowers together so I could plant flowers on my roof. I guess they sensed how deprived I was coz Kelden went to Ethan's room to bring out the huge Lego box so I could have an entire box to myself. They were showing me their Bionicles and asked me if I knew what they were and if I wanted to play with them. I opted for my Lego house and told them that Bionicles weren't around when I was their age. Kelden told me that I missed out big in my childhood. Ah, sad sad me... Jeremy isn't missing out at all though because he is now catching up with all the Bionicles. Of course, Ethan had to point out that you're not supposed to connect the head to the foot, but Jeremy will learn eventually. Sage convinced me to go jumping on the trampoline with her. The heights you can attain while on that thing are dizzying but if you are bouncing while cross-legged, it is much bearable, I learned. In any case, it has been a lot of fun so far...I'm looking forward to spending more time with the family. :)

Fall and Survival

2007-10-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

The other day, I took a walk through fall...it's such a strange thing...back when I was living in more tropical climates, fall was a relief from the heat of the summer...and now, fall is almost sad because the beautiful summer weather is gone and it's more chilly now. It is beautiful and colorful, though. I thought I'd share a bit of our fall with you.

We went for a drive to Nanaimo yesterday for me to do the boards. Major brain-drain but it's OVER!!! I have survived! Am extremely happy about that.

Hawk Watch

2007-09-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

The CRD (Capital Regional District) is pretty cool in that they have nature programs every now and then. This was one of Jeremy's rare Sundays off, so we decided to check out the Hawk Watch they had going on, especially since it was in East Sooke Park, one of our favorite places. Per their website, the hawk migration is from mid September to late October when turkey vultures, red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, merlins, American kestrel, Cooper's Hawk, osprey, bald eagles...anyway, a whole bunch of birds gather at the southern tip of Vancouver Island before they cross the 18+ miles of open ocean of the Juan de Fuca Strait on their way to the Olympic National Park in WA. Peak migration is supposed to be at the end of September.

So it was that we found ourselves at the top of Beechey Head at 12:00 am after a 30 minute hike, looking at the gray skies and feeling thankful for windbreakers and jackets as the winds were raging. And there was no migration. We couldn't really blame them. I wouldn't migrate with winds like that either. There were a few brave birds that flew out over the strait. The CRD bird expert who was up there with a scope was saying that the birds were "testing" the winds but most likely weren't going to try today. Once the weather cleared up a bit more, we saw them...red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures, bald eagles, pigeons, sea gulls, herons, sea lions (in the water, not up in the air)...it was really fun enjoying the view and then seeing a bird, having our expert tell us exactly what it was, and then get a close-up with the binoculars. And the sea lions must have been Stellar sea lions, they were huge :D Here are some pics of the view from Beechey Head.

There were a bunch of us, some brought scopes as well as binoculars

View across the strait to the Olympic Mts.

Storm-Watching at Comox

2007-09-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well, we didn't actually start out to go storm-watching at Comox... Jeremy and I thought we'd like to explore more of the island and since it was especially cloudy in Victoria today, we thought we'd drive north in search of sunshine. Well, the weather only got worse from then on. Our goal was to see what Courtney and Comox, the cities halfway up the island, were like. When we got there, the winds were raging. It was raining sideways. We had lunch at Goose Spit Park in Comox where a bunch of other people were also parked sitting inside their cars and watching the waves. There was even a brave surfer who cracked us up because his surfboard was acting like a sail and he was fighting the wind as he moved forward to the beach. The waves looked fairly choppy and didn't look like they'd give you much of a ride. He tried for a while but gave up quickly. We went out for a quick while just to experience the wind. It was so strong that when I jumped straight up with my back to it, I "flew" forward up to 2 feet. It was seriously wild...and a lot of fun.

Watching the waves

Jeremy was the brave one who went out first
Brings a whole new meaning to "windswept" hair

The sign that cracked us up--no way a fire would even survive that

If you're interested, here's a scary video of me getting blown around by the wind (I'm scary, not the video).

Death By Chocolate in the Empress

2007-09-22T23:34:00.000-07:00

Ha! That sounds like the title of a mystery or detective novel doesn't it?

Elizabeth invited me to join their church's Ladies Night Out, which, cheerfully involved a ritual called Death By Chocolate topped off by Hairspray (the movie, that is). The Death By Chocolate apparently occurs in the Empress Hotel's Bengal Lounge. It's a chic colonial-India themed lounge with a live jazz band on Friday and Saturday nights. We sat on leather couches around a big table. The Bengal is most famous for its curry buffet and the Death By Chocolate buffet which is basically a license to raid the dessert table of very beautiful desserts, from chocolate mousse, a rich chocolate cake with nuts, cheesecake covered with beautiful fresh berries, a chocolate cheesecake, white chocolate covered lemon dessert, fresh fruit and a bunch of other goodies. All that for $17 (significantly less than I expected for the Empress). Those who know me know that I am not much of a sweet tooth. I may crave desserts on occasion but can't really handle eating a lot of sweet stuff. Nevertheless, I was game to try the main thing they were known for so I went for it. I took my plate and filled it with little cakes and goodies. Did not think I would eat much but after the first heavenly bite, I was hooked. I did finish the plate but with a little help from Elizabeth and Jen. I also got to taste some of their samosas and I have to say they are the best I have eaten since I left Kenya. Small and crispy, just the way I like it. It makes me want to try their curry buffet sometime. We headed off to movies afterward to watch Hairspray, which was really well-done, it made me laugh but I could not get over the fact that it was John Travolta under all that, it didn't seem right somehow. All in all, it was a fun night and I'm glad I got to hang out with the girls. I had really been wanting to visit the Empress to see what it was like inside and had not gotten around to it yet so this was a lot of fun. My husband is so wonderfully supportive to make sure I went off to enjoy myself.

Beaver/Elk Lake Wanderings

2007-09-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

So it was that it was a late Sabbath afternoon and the sky was gray and drizzly. We heard reports that it was sunny at Saanichton which was north of the Saanich Peninsula. So we thought, "Why don't we explore Beaver and Elk Lake?" We haven't been there yet. And we were off for a relaxing stroll by the two lakes that are joined together by a channel.
We started our walk at Beaver Lake A hint of fall

Elk Lake

Beaver & Elk Lake album

Our Water Feature

2007-09-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

This post is for those of you who went hiking with us and saw Jeremy put large rocks from the beach into his backpack to bring home (that would be you, Mom, and our other Mom & Dad). If you ever wondered whatever happened to those rocks, then wonder no more. Jeremy finished this earlier this month and I thought I'd share our soothing water fountain with you all.

Keeha Bay Backpacking Trip

2007-09-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

The last time we went camping, I forgot the pots. This time, I forgot to bring any form of silverware. We survived the pot-less existence (no this does not refer to weed/marijuana--and shame on you for even thinking it) by grilling food on sticks by the fire or eating sandwiches. This time was a little more challenging as we sat there for that first meal faced with our bowls of noodle soup. But, I'm way ahead of myself here....let me start from the beginning...

It all began with Jeremy's need--not want--need to see the community of Bamfield. (Note that it is a community not city.) Months ago when we visited Port Alberni, Jeremy saw the turn-off for Bamfield and was ever after hooked with the exotic idea of visiting a place so remote, it is only accessible by boat or a very long, very pot-holey, very bumpy logging road. It begs to be conquered and explored. So last week, we thought we'd give it a try. I went online to find a camping site and stumbled on the Keeha Bay Trail. Hmm...extreme hiking? deep mudholes? must cling to tree roots, climb and crawl under deadfall? rope climbing down steep hills? defeat a daunting hill near the end? open up to beautiful deserted white beach at the end for some isolated beautiful wilderness beach camping? Sign us up!!!! I've been wanting to do the Juan de Fuca trail, a 47 km 3-5 day backpacking trail along the southern coast of this island, but have not quite felt up to it yet so I figured this 3.5 km "extreme hiking" would be good training. Short but fun right? We packed eagerly for an adventurous 3 days. The plan was to leave on the 12th, Wednesday morning, for the 4 hr drive there, hike in to Keeha Bay, spend two nights camping on the beautiful beach, hike back on Friday the 14th, spend a few hours exploring Bamfield, and then head back for the 4 hr drive home. Pretty straightforward, right?

Except we forgot to print out a map to Bamfield. And I only thought of that 30 minutes into our drive. After a mad scramble of the pile of miscellaneous maps we always keep in our car, I finally found one that had a more or less clear view of the roads to Bamfield. No names, but at least we had an idea right? We took the Lake Cowichan route and one wrong turn later, we managed to find our way to Bamfield despite the lack of road names (there were none) and depended mainly on the old handwritten signs pointing to Bamfield that we saw on the logging roads.

The Hike
But we made it! There was a short stop at the tiny little Chamber of Commerce/Restrooms & Showers/Campground office to get a map of Bamfield and some trail pointers, then we found ourselves on the trail. We hit a few muddy spots, no biggies, kept hiking and scoffed at the reviews. Muddy? This? Climbing over roots on the ground? This isn't bad! Where's all the mud, folks? Give us something more....where's the challenge in this? But lo and behold, we did come upon huge mudpits later on the hike that we had to navigate. Jeremy, to my envy, managed to keep himself all spic and span whereas I had a couple of occasions of accidental mud dipping. We hiked and hiked and looked for the "daunting hill" that took a long time appearing for such a "short" hike and finally after thousands of tree roots and mudholes, it appeared before us. Fortunately, after climbing hills on a regular basis,
it was not too bad, all things considered, although we had to fight through a lot of brush and trail reroutes with the fallen trees on the trail. There was only one section that had a rope and since the weather has been beautiful the past few days, the trail was not as muddy as it could have been and we didn't even use the rope since the trail wasn't that slippery. They weren't kidding when they said it opened up to a beautiful beach...one minute you were in high shrubbery and trees and the next you climbed over a driftwood log and the entire Keeha Bay lay open in front of you. Beautiful! Not quite "white" beach, but deserted and beautiful. We set up camp by the biggest tree stump driftwood we had ever seen, on the sand, with the beautiful beach spread out before us. Gorgeous.

The Solution
So we come to the fork/spoon predicament. How does one eat noodle soup with one's hands? Fortunately, one doesn't have to if one has such a talented husband as I am blessed to have. He proceeded to take a piece of cedar and carve me a spoon. I am now a proud owner of probably the most eco-friendly piece of woodware that exists. If I ever drop it, I know it is biodegradable, wood has a natural antiseptic so even a rough washing will be sufficient, and it imparts a cedar flavor to each spoonful that I bring to my mouth. I have to show off my husband's handiwork. Aren't they beautiful? :D

After Dinner Happenings: Beach Dishwashing/Rinsing 101, Canadian-style
Stand on beach, wait until wave crashes and then run madly into the surf to clearer non-sandy water, swish pots in water until foot numbness is attained, run back to the beach and jump around yelling until feet are de-thawed and able to feel again. Repeat until pots are clean/food particle free.

Wise Sayings
After supper, we sat there in front of the cozy warm fire, hearing the waves crash in front of us, a sky full of stars above us, I'm cuddled with my husband and I sigh, "So this is what marriage is like." He smiled and gave me one of his Jeremisms, "It's like dating except you can't change your mind." Ah, bliss.

Exploring the Beach
The next day, when we got up, this is what we saw.
A rather gloomier version of yesterday. Nevertheless, after it cleared up a tad, we went off for our planned beach exploration. It was already beautiful but little did we dream about what our piece of heaven had to offer. Our coastline exploring turned into cave exploring when we stumbled upon numerous hidden caves and beautiful hidden coves. None of the websites told us about this! We hiked from one end to the other, and it was only the fact that it was getting late and we were somewhat tired that made us turn around and go back to our tent--there was still so much coastline to explore, so much to see!The promised white beaches Hike Back
We left the next morning thinking of how short our stay was. The trail, as it turned out, appeared to be muddier than last time. I certainly turned out to be the more accident-prone of the two of us. Of course, Jeremy made me hike ahead ~~to make sure I fell in the mud first~~ mark the pace. I kept threatening to fall, slipping so much but always by some feat of acrobatics manage to right myself before any damage was done. But it was Jeremy who was the first one to land his entire foot in the mud. Fortunately for him, we came upon a lake shortly where he proceeded to erase all evidence of his mistake. It was after this that I slipped and got one foot in the mud, slipped again 10 minutes later getting my other foot coated, and still later slipped and found myself sliding a few inches before my feet hit something solid. When I got up, Jeremy laughed at my mud covered backside and told me I appeared determined to get my pants fully broken in to this hiking in the mud business. I rather gleefully told him I wasn't done yet and how I was looking forward to getting my picture taken at the end. I then managed to top it all when I slipped yet again and landed in a mud in the "proposal position," down on one knee. Too bad I was already married and not facing Jeremy or I would have taken advantage of the position to ask him to marry me. By this point, mud no longer fazed me and it was a messy way back. I still arrived cleaner than before as the wet bushes we went through proceeded to give me some sort of a hiking wash.

Shots of "What We Looked Like Afterward": Annie Vs. Jeremy

We got back to the Travel Info/Chamber of Commerce to clean up a bit and then took a short tour of Bamfield. It didn't take very long as East Bamfield was pretty tiny. We saw their Marine Center and got to see all these amazing sea creatures in their Whale Lab and then looked out across to West Bamfield. Apparently, Bamfield used to be exclusively a boat community and I think everybody there still owns a boat although the logging roads have now made it accessible by car. Since it was cold and we had run out of clean warm clothes, and had no desire to be out in the weather at the moment, we decided to save the exploring of West Bamfield to some later date. It would require a water taxi over to the major part of Bamfield. So if any of you ever come out here, definitely do give Keeha Bay a go. It's definitely worth it.

To see more pretty places that we saw, the high end of the primitive campsites on the other end of the beach, and cougar tracks, you can see our Keeha Bay Backpacking Trip Album by clicking here.

Pender Island Explorings

2007-09-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

So we've been here a while and other than Sidney Island, we have not been to any of the other many nearby Gulf Islands surrounding us. So we thought it was high time that we pay at least one of them a visit. Today's Island Hopping Adventure was... (drum roll) Pender Island!!!

What to say about Pender? Well, it's one of the larger Gulf Islands, the first stop on the Gulf Island BC Ferry and is actually composed of two islands: South Pender and North Pender. They used to be one island back in the day, but because of the treacherous waters off the south point, a narrow canal was dredged in between the two to enable the ferry to travel from Hope Bay to Victoria with more safety and less time. It's only has a population of 2400, which triples in summer because of visitors and tourists who are out spending time there in the sun. There are two major hiking trails on the island, one to Mt. Norman for its splendid views and the other to Beaumont Marine Park with its white shell beaches. We only had time for one of them today so we went for the Mt. Norman views.

I started the hike thinking it shouldn't be too much of a biggie, I mean, it's not that much taller than Mill Hill now and that's fairly do-able, right? Right. After what seems like a long time of hiking ("Are we there yet?"), we reach a magnificent viewpoint of Mt. Baker. Is this it? We climb off the trail for a ways to take pictures and pose at the "summit" and take a breather. Then we hiked back down to the trail. It kept going, so we figured maybe we should follow it. After another long grueling uphill climb that seemed longer than the first part, we reached it! An outlook area over the South Pender Island and beyond--there was no doubt this time, this, THIS was the summit. It was so beautiful, it made me forget what I went through to get there :) We had lunch overlooking the islands and then we headed back down. Now when I hike, either of my ankles, both being deficient in some way (thanks, Mom), have a tendency to give out with no warning. I never know when it's going to happen. From past experience of sprained ankles, my body has known to just collapse whenever this happens to avoid further twisting or breaking the said deficient ankle. My body has attained this skill to such a level that I have been known to fall so fast, one second I'm there and the next, Annie has seemingly disappeared--poof!--behind the car, the couch, a bush, or wherever. It's almost magical. It has resulted in some confusion on Jeremy's part wondering where Annie has vanished, like the case of going to the car after church when I "disappeared" while going to my side of the car. Jeremy saw me, turned to open his door, turned back around after hearing a yell, and did not know where in the world I had disappeared to. He walked around the car to find me in a heap on the ground behind the trunk laughing because I didn't have enough time to figure out what was going on. Which is why I try to avoid heels, they tend to make this worse. In any case, we had more or less reached the bottom and were just a few meters from the car when I did another of my infamous falls. Left ankle gave way, body goes into collapse mode, I see the ground coming, my knee hits a tree root hard, I fall over to the left in pain and my left arm lands in some poison oak leaves and I feel a stinging sensation on my left forearm. At first I thought it was my imagination that my arm was stinging but soon lo and behold, a red rash started appearing. So I started laughing at my triple achievement of a sprained ankle, a badly bruised knee, and rash on my left arm. Why does these things happen to me? My nurse husband gave me some anti-allergy medicine and I was more or less fine despite being bruised and slightly sprained. A triple feat--can anyone else do that? :D I couldn't stop laughing at myself.

We spent the rest of the day driving around the island and checking out the different beach accesses. It was fun and by the time it was time to head back to the ferry, we had not yet even explored all the roads yet. I guess that means we'll just have to go back....

For more of our adventure, check out our Pender Island Album.

The Butterfly Gardens

2007-08-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

They didn't really look like much when we drove by them from the Butchart Gardens the first few times. However, when I went online, I came across their site and as I learned more about them, I was convinced Jeremy would love this place. So, for a surprise date, I took him there today for some jungle immersion. The Butterfly Gardens, are filled with at least 4000 butterflies at a time. I knew Jeremy would love that it is also filled with tropical plants, giving a jungle feel. They also have tropical birds, colorful fish, and an "exquisite orchid display." All the things Jeremy loves and in one place! It's also very educational, you can hunt for caterpillars and chrysalises in the gardens and see all the stages of a butterfly's existence. They even have a section where they hang the chrysalises that they buy from the butterfly farms where there are almost always new butterflies emerging. It was very cool. Jeremy enjoyed it so much, he was wishing he had brought his tripod so he could take better pictures. It was a fascinating exploration of the garden. Here's some of what we saw in the gardens...

For all the pictures, click here for the Butterfly Gardens Album.

Iron Mine Bay and Butchart Gardens Fireworks

2007-08-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

This Sabbath brought us back to the beautiful Iron Mine Bay. We thought Mom and Dad had been here before, but it turns out it was they had been at the other bay at the other end of East Sooke Park. It was nice to be able to bring them somewhere new. It seems that is beginning to be tradition that whenever we bring Mom and Dad to the beach, the day turns somewhat gray. Nevertheless, Iron Mine Bay was still beautiful. We found some bright orange fungi on the hike to the beach which was pretty amazing. We climbed up onto the island that was just off the shore and did some exploring, and shortly before we were going to leave, I glanced down over the cliff and caught a glimpse of something large and orangish and many legs--could it be? Surely not...but what else could it be? I started yelling, "Octopus! Look! It's an octopus!!!"

I mean, could you really blame me? Doesn't it look like an octopus? Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be not an octopus but a big sunstar, roughly the size of a basketball if not larger. Never seen anything like it yet so it was quite exciting. Here's a video that Jeremy took that involves mostly me counting its legs. For a few more pictures of here, check out Iron Mine Bay pics.

Later, we went to the Butchart Gardens to catch their world-famous fireworks show and see the Night Illuminations. It was so beautiful--almost like another world to see the Gardens lighted up at night.

Butchart by day:

Butchart by night:

Click this to see the fountain in action.
The fireworks wasn't just fireworks like I was expecting, it was a show accompanied by music--a fireworks concert, if you will, and was pretty amazing. This year's theme was Aladdin. Jeremy took videos of a bunch of them. The ones we have online are Prince Ali, Never Had a Friend Like Me, Mamami Mamamai, and a piece of the grand finale. But you really have to be there to fully experience them.

To see all the pics of this Butchart Visit, click on this here link.

Announcing our New Home!!!

2007-08-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, folks...we haven't told anyone yet because it was meant to be a surprise, but with the help of Mom and Dad, we found our new home that is just perfect for the two of us. It is not only ocean/mountain/island view & very eco-friendly log cabin, it is also waterfront and you can hear the waves crashing. It's very affordable and it has the added bonus of being very economical in terms of hydro and electricity (big bills here in VI)--because, well...it doesn't use any. Instead we will depend on the sun for heating and the sea breezes for cooling. It's a tad bit small but it comes with an acreage--can you beat this?
Us smiling out of our new home
Here's a better view of our new place

So what do you all think? Should we buy this one? :D I hate to tell you this but we found out that the government won't let us stay here. Apparently they own the land and they want to keep it. Sigh...and I thought we had already found our dream home. Ah well, guess we'll have to keep looking! :D

Back to reality...today we decided to take Mom and Dad to Sidney Spit, a park that is located on Sidney Island, roughly 25 minutes from Sidney, the northern part of the Saanich Peninsula (which is roughly 30 minutes or so from Victoria for those of you unfamiliar with our Island's geography). It's only accessible by boat so we took a ferry over. It was beautiful out there so it was nice to enjoy the scenery, hike up the Spit a ways and then have to wade back since the tide came in and covered part of the island. We hiked up to the campground wading in freezing water half the way because the tide had come in, covering most of the beach on that side of the island and Jeremy was certain it wouldn't be far before we'd see the beach. It was farther than he thought and we froze our legs multiple times but it was all in the name of exploration. In any case, here are some of our pictures....to see the whole album, click here.

Mill Hill Views

2007-08-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

The day after my mom left (which was a sad day), we were blessed by another visit from our other set of parents! It was really good to see them again. They came late last night. It was a close call, they came racing down just as the last ferry from Port Angeles was about to close the gates and just barely made it in. So we were very glad to see them. Jeremy worked a night shift last night so he wasn't able to see them until he came back. We made him eat breakfast with us and then he didn't want to go to bed afterwards, but he did. In the meantime, I got to work trying to convince Mom and Dad to climb a mountain with me. I know that they call it Mill Hill but I think they only did it to rhyme with Mill because as far as I'm concerned, it's a Mountain. Got that? :D Dad didn't come because he ~~didn't think he could do it~~ said he didn't want Jeremy to wake up with nobody there to greet him. But Mom was up for the challenge so we were off. And I am glad to say, we made it!!! Here is proof.

Views from the Mill Hill Summit
Olympic Mts and the Juan de Fuca strait

The summit marker, proof of what we conquered

Resting at the other outlook

When Mom Helps Make Bread....

2007-08-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

...then these are how our loaves turn out. I got a making-bread-properly 101 lesson from my mom today. This was her contribution to help me to avoid further "bread with handles" disasters as can be seen here from an earlier attempt this month. I think she feels sorry that Jeremy has to put up with my culinary experiments >:) Why oh why is it when she makes bread it always turns out perfect and mine cave in? We even had extra dough to make cheese bread with...

Victoria Dragonboat Festival '07

2007-08-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

For a long time now, we've been watching these dragonboaters paddle in sychronized motion down the Gorge Waterway when we walked there. They're fascinating to watch. So we've been looking forward to watching the Victoria Dragonboat Festival 2007, an annual Victoria tradition. I think it's cool that Victoria, as well as a number of Canadian cities, have adopted this traditional Chinese festival. It was a colorful Asian-themed, and cultural experience. They had some amazing performances from Motown to ethnic musical instruments, belly dancers, taiko drumming, tai chi, folk dances from China, Japan and the Philippines, and whole lotta great Asian food.

Friday afternoon we went to watch the Taoist Eye-Dotting ceremony also known as the Awakening of the Dragons that officially starts a Dragon Race. It reminded me of my World Religions classes where we'd visit different religious styles of worship. It starts out with a dragon dance. There is the actual ceremony and then the Eye-Dotting when the dragon's eyes are dotted in with paint to show that they are now "awakened" after the monk had sprinkled all the dragons to bless them. We walked around the Forbidden City and stage (the area with all the food stands and musicians) and took pictures. My mom and I went back on Sunday to watch some of the races and to catch some of the entertainment. My favorite, I think, is still the taiko drumming. Dragonboating is poetic because of the synchronized paddling and the drummer at the front providing the beat. In the actual racing though, it's hard to hear the drumbeats from the shore. It was a fun event to watch.

We took a few videos so you could share a little bit of this with us. I apologize for the poor quality. To see them, just click on the highlighted text in this post, most of them take you to the video clip that they are referring to.

The pictures can be found at our Dragonboat Festival 2007 album.

Pacific Rim National Park Explorings

2007-08-16T23:15:00.000-07:00

Although it was a pretty campsite, Mussel Beach was still 20 minutes over potholes and an additional 10-20 minutes from the major attractions where we wanted to explore. We will be back when we want to spend some time away from everything...but this trip was for further exploration of the Pacific Rim Park and taking my mom around there. So we were off for another exciting ride back to Long Beach (which is a part of the Pacific Rim Park). We took a bit of a wrong turn somewhere in all the jumble and ended up opposite the bay from Ucluelet and had to do a U-turn. Back at Greenpoint, we were put on the waiting list also known as the List of Life, I think that's what the lady at the campsite said they're called. Fortunately, we were the very first--meaning that we would definitely have a place to stay. As it was low tide, we took breakfast along and headed for the shore to explore among the rocks. Jeremy took a lot of pictures of the "caves" between the rocks and we were even able to go into a cave that had an opening at the other end where during high tide, the water would rush in the entrance and explode out a smaller opening on the other side. The day was full with exploring Tofino, Incinerator Rock, hiking to Schooner Cove and around the little island just off the beach and then getting back to shore and realizing the tide had come in and we now had to wade in knee deep water to get back to shore. Both my mom and I had the foresight to wear pants, of course. Needless the say, we had a memorable experience. We came back to Greenpoint for sunset and supper at Coomber's Beach...grilled veggies and roasted corn. We started supper, then took pictures of the sunset. Jeremy and I decided to climb the rocks for better sunset pics and left my mom to go back to man the food. It was too late...when we got back, Mom told us that our roasted corn was now burnt corn, that they were on fire when she got back to them. So we each had the edible half of our burned corn and some really awesome grilled vegetables.

And there was evening, and there was morning—the next day.

Where we were greeted with raindrops. And Jeremy was sleeping on the ground under a plastic sheet. Because we got home too late last night and there were no good trees to put up his hammock. He was fine but the rain didn't let up too much. It wasn't pouring but it was raining fairly steadily. The forecast for the rest of the weekend was more of the same so we figured we should pack up camp. We did so in the rain--it wasn't the most fun thing :D The rain stopped sometime later so we took Mom hiking to Florencia Beach. It was a beautiful trail but involved a lot of stairs. We climbed back up those stairs to take another path and still more stairs over to Halfmoon Beach. Then it was off to spend some time in the Wickanninish Interpretive Center and drove around to explore Ucluelet. On our way back, we surprised a black bear crossing the road into leaping to an embankment above its head. Amazing feat, we thought. You want to make sure you climb very high up a tree if you're trying to escape one. I was glad my mom was able to see at least one during this trip. We had a blast...

Here are some pictures to prove it: The Pacific Rim National Park Pictures

Mussel Beach Adventure

2007-08-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

We wanted to show Mom what camping is like in Canada, but little did we know that it was going to end up being such an adventure. After dropping off Auntie Nening at the ferries to catch her flight in Vancouver (sadly she only had a week with us, she didn't want to go but she had to work the next day), we came back to finish up on our packing and then we were off.

In our typical go-on-a-trip-last-minute fashion, we left without reservations choosing instead to live the exciting life of not knowing where we were going to lay our heads down that night. Reservations are over-rated. After all, did we not find room in the best campsite in the area, last time? It was with great disappointment that we got to our most-preferred campground and lo, and behold, they were full. Our second choice had no vacancies as well and neither did the next, or the next...it does make a big difference after all whether you arrive early in the morning or late in the afternoon. After about an hour of looking without success, we were feeling more and more like Mary and Joseph inn-less in Bethlehem. So we opted for Plan Z... an adventure to Mussel Beach. In my talk with the lady running the campground on our last trip, she had assured me that they always had sites and that was where we had planned to go if we had no luck anywhere else. So we took my mom, who hasn't gone camping in years, for her first taste of camping in no other but a "wilderness camp." Bring-your-own-water-and-food, take-back-your-own-trash, no-electricity and be-prepared-to-mingle-with-bears kind of place. And we hoped she'd survive and still like us after it all. After following signs, and turning our little Honda into a mini 4X4 over 20 minutes of rocky pothole pitted almost-lost-Mom-out-the-window road (ah, memories of the Philippines) with my husband's excellent driving, we pulled up to the most magnificent peaceful sunset twilight view overlooking the Broken Islands. It was breath-takingly beautiful. I just sat there for a while awestruck. There was definitely room in heaven for us. When we asked if there were still campsites available, the lady said, "Are you kidding me? After that road? Of course we'll have a place for you!" She then gave us a rough outline of the campsite for us to use in looking around and added, "If you see a bear, make yourself look big," (this said to me of course, as if that was possible) "and if he doesn't go away, just come back here." If I saw a bear, lady, I wouldn't even waste time trying to look "big"--I'd be back "here" in 2 seconds flat. We opted to neighbor beside the huge teepee in the forest, just around the corner from the ocean view--mostly because they were charging near-hotel rates for the ocean-side camping. After claiming the campsite, we were off exploring on the rocky beach that was a mini-version of Botanical Beach with a big population of sea anemones, small tidepool fishes, starfish, and other small sea creatures. It was so beautiful and our pictures could not capture it all really.
Annie forgot the pots. Although my wonderful husband had packed all the camping gear, with stove, silverware, knife and I had brought plastic containers for plates/bowls, in a rather sad amnesiatic moment, I had forgotten to bring the pots! Fortunately, most of the planned menu was already cooked or did not require any cooking or did not require pots, so we were able to come up with an alternative 100% non-pot menu. We ended the evening with warming up at the campfire and making S'mores. Mom, having grown up cooking on wood fires, proved herself highly experienced in the art of fire-making and before we knew it, had shaved off such a mass of kindling as we had never before seen and in a such short time, claiming, even, that she was much better than Jeremy. We did not argue with the woman with the knife. Since Mom and I were taking the tent, Jeremy made himself a rather cozy clear tent (his home-made tarp) over his hammock to fall asleep star-gazing. I think he had long been looking for an excuse to go hammock camping and the fact that my mom was with us let him get away with it. He enjoyed sleeping in a hammock and under the stars again.

Enough said, here they are: The Pictures of Mussel Beach

Butchart Gardens

2007-08-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Jeremy is finally off today (but working night shift) so we decided to all go to Butchart Gardens, a first for all of us. Butchart Gardens is world-renown, people from all over the world come here to Victoria to see it, and it is probably one of the most famous gardens out there...except to clueless me, of course. I had to be culturally educated by my dear husband. Butchart Gardens is probably Victoria's major attraction. There is a breath-taking Sunken Garden, ever-changing fountains, the Bog Garden, the heavenly-scented Rose Garden, the beautiful Japanese Garden, and the brightly colorful Italian Garden. The Butchart Gardens started out in 1904 when Jennie Butchart asked her husband if she could beautify a worked-out quarry site. Her efforts resulted in "55 acres of floral finery." It was fun to watch Auntie Nening because after getting excited with every flower we saw yesterday, when she stood with Butchart Gardens before her, she was just still, overwhelmed by it all. It was all too much to take in at once for this flower addict :D

Without further ado...click here for the pictures.

Flowers, Gardens and Castles--Oh My!

2007-08-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

As the days went on, it became increasingly clear to us that Auntie Nening is a flower addict. Not only is she a flower addict, she is a deprived flower addict--a deprived flower addict let loose in Victoria, also known as the Garden City. Symptoms include, but are not limited to, taking a picture with every single flower in a garden, shouting with joy when a flower is sighted, wanting to buy her niece (me) all the pretty flowers in the garden center, and just being overall extremely happy in the presence of flowers. So to help with her withdrawal symptoms from before she came to us and to feed this addiction, I thought that today we would take the group "garden-ing." This, in Annie's Dictionary of Made-Up Words, simply means "a touring of the gardens in the vicinity of home." Oh, and mom and Auntie Myrna also liked flowers.

While Jeremy slaved away in a hospital, us girls headed off for a flower fix. First stop was Beacon Hill Park. It is located on Mile 0 of the Trans-Canada Highway at the edge of downtown. It is a beautiful large city park with beautiful gardens, lakes, and a heronry (although they're afraid it has been abandoned after a bald eagle rampage earlier this year). What I love about this park is that it extends all the way to the ocean, where the bluffs give you a beautiful view of the Olympics Mountains on the other side and a trail leads to the beaches below. Remember this familial food-focusedness? Beacon Hill turns out to not only have flower gardens, it is also a vegetable garden in disguise. For all of you Filipinos out there, you will be highly amused to know that included in the ornamental shrubbery are the purple and green variety of camote tops! Yes, camote tops! Not only that, they also had gabi.
Needless to say, to the food-focused people that are my relatives, this resulted in a lot of mouth-watering and the next thing I knew, this food-focused gene transformed my aunt into a thief. ~~After we stood around her to shield her~~ When no one was looking, she broke off a few shoots of the leaves so that I could plant some in my patio. They apparently grow really easily. For the non-Filipinos among us, the camote tops (sweet potato leaves) are used as greens. They're cheap and grow like weeds. The gabi leaves, are also especially popular in Bicol express (my favorite anyway). It's my dad's provincial dish where the leaves are first dried and then cooked in garlic, onion, ginger and coconut milk with chilis. It is yummy. Although it is common in the Philippines, all these are hard to find out here in the Western world, which is why it was so exciting and surprising to find them growing in a city garden. It was all I could do to keep my aunt from further supplementing my garden by pulling out a shoot of gabi. Those large leaves are a little harder to hide in a backpack. After all the excitement, I had to tear them away to our next stop: Craigdarroch Castle. We didn't really want to do the tour, just wanted the photo op, so it was a quick stop. Next: Abkhazi Garden, "the garden that love built." It was owned by a Georgian prince from Russia and his Shanghai-born princess who found each other, were separated by the war, and found each other again, got married, and bought this rocky property to create a garden. They remained childless so this garden was their pride and joy and when they died, their ashes were scattered over the garden. It was a pretty garden but less interesting because we missed the blooming of the rhododendrons. We stopped for lunch at an awesome buffet of Szechuan cuisine and then headed to the hospital to bring Jeremy some of our dessert leftovers (that we rightfully stole) and to thoroughly embarrass him (imagine a cloud of paparazzi's in the form of your wife's relatives descending on you at work). We left soon after to his relief and went off closer to home to visit Hatley Castle located in the Royal Roads University. Lucky university, part of their administration building is in the castle. We took pictures of the castle and the grounds and gleefully found that the beautiful Hatley Gardens were open for free today because a special event (wedding?) had closed the inside of the castle for the public. We wandered around the gardens until it began drizzling, after which we called it a day and headed home.

See the garden and castle pics here.

Girls' Day Out at Iron Mine Bay

2007-08-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

Jeremy, supportive husband that he is, had to work today. So today was Girls' Day Out! I brought them to see a bit of Millstream from the Galloping Goose Trail on the way home from church, and then we were off to see beautiful Iron Mine Bay in East Sooke Park. The way there was a little too exciting for my group of passengers as they thought my driving...uh...more fitted for the racetrack and dangerously stroke-inducing. I kept trying to explain that I'm driving slow compared to the other drivers and that it is totally normal to be swerving around the corners but they didn't buy it. Nevertheless, we managed to keep body and spirit together and arrived alive at the trail entrance. They absolutely loved the bay :) There was some serious photo-shoots. To get back on the coast trail, Auntie Nening led the group up a steep, I-kid-you-not-80-degree dirt slope. What cracked me up was how my mom went for it and actually scaled that thing. She looked back at it later and could not believe she climbed the almost-wall.

Our familial food-focusedness reached new heights to Jeremy's amusement when we came home with an armful of wild oyster mushrooms picked at the forest and cooked them up for supper. It was hilarious to see how excited they were to find them since oyster mushrooms are a delicacy in Asia. And they were extremely yummy...

Click here for Iron Mine Bay pics.

Floating Beds, Blackberries and More

2007-08-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

And it came to pass that on Friday we picked up my to-be aunt Myrna. We just recently found out that my uncle's fiance is here working in Victoria! So exciting to find a "relative" nearby. So we kidnapped her for the weekend and it was off to Thetis Lake to for some fun in the water. They first wanted to go swimming in the ocean but we soon talked them out of that. For us Filipinos, it's difficult to imagine the ocean being cold and the lakes warm--it's the other way around in the Philippines :D My mom, the typical Filipina, wanted to stay in the shade, so she passed up the opportunity to lie blissfully in a floating bed in the middle of the lake and instead amused herself by watching us bumble our way around. It was just Jeremy and ~~his harem~~ the girls. We had a lot of fun floating around the lake and learning how to paddle the thing with four people aboard. It was a little more complex than just the two of us and resulted in a lot of splashing & constant re-steering.

After the lake, we hit the trail at Witty's Lagoon where the blackberry bushes proved more popular than the driftwood beach. (Can we say "food-focusedness?") Jeremy was told about the blackberry bushes in another Witty's Lagoon little-known entrance, so we went hunting for this prime berry-picking spot. It was a very pleasant and agreeable surprise to stumble upon--not only an expanse of blackberry bushes--but an abandoned cherry, crab apple, and plum orchard. Needless to say, we were scaling trees the next minute to get to the tempting fruit. We came home with bags of blackberries, boxes of apples and (we discovered) EXTREMELY sour plums (they picked them anyway, they couldn't just leave them hanging there), and cherries. It was a lot of fun! Click below to see the photo album--
Floating Beds and Picking Fruit

Potholes, Botanical Beach, and Mt. Doug

2007-08-09T22:42:00.001-07:00

Potholes. When you come to Vancouver Island, ya gotta check out our potholes. We made a quick detour to see the Sooke Potholes before continuing on our way to Botanical Beach. There is definitely a lot less water this time of the year there than when we first came and the water was roaring down the mountain. Nevertheless, it was still really pretty. Botanical Beach was also quite amazing. I quite enjoyed watching Mom doing some serious bouldering. I have never seen her do as much climbing up and down of rock before, so I was quite proud of her.

Let me tell you about my ability to see food wherever I go. Example: We are hiking down a subtropical rainforest and I notice the ferns. "Yum!" Jeremy looks at me confused and I tell him that there are edible ferns in the Philippines. Second scenario, this time we are at an aquarium. Jeremy points out a pretty red fish and says, "Isn't that so beautiful?" I reply with, "You know what? My mom used to fry fish that looked like that." So much for being a vegetarian. I didn't start out as one, okay? Jeremy is horrified that I could look at a pretty fish and think food. So now Jeremy teases me about how I see food everywhere we go. It isn't because I'm eternally hungry, there just seems to be yummy stuff around here. Today brought out the first hint of the genetic root of my food focusedness. Five minutes into our hike down the forest trail toward Botanical Beach, my mom points at the ferns and tells Jeremy, "Did you know we eat those in the Philippines?" Jeremy cracked up, finally enlightened and told me that now he knows where I got it from. My aunt has it worse. She was so excited at the abundance of mussels on the
rocks, exclaiming "My friends eat this!" It was all I could do to stop her from picking them off the rocks to take back to her friends. This was only the beginning of such food discoveries...Other than these near-death experiences, the rest of the visit with the sea creatures remained somewhat more trouble-free and safe for all. We enjoyed the peek into these other worlds. We decided to end the day by taking these ladies to the top of Mt. Douglas...the easy way. By car. I am ashamed to even admit it. But they absolutely refused to hike straight up in agony with much suffering like we did before. No clue why. Following is the link to the album of today's events. Feel free to click away...
Potholes, Botanical Beach, and Mt. Doug

Blueberrying and Victoria-ing with Mom and Auntie Nening

2007-08-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

They're here! I have been looking forward to having my mom and aunt over to visit for a while. I haven't seen my mom since last December and my aunt since YEARS ago...so I was quite excited to see them again and watch the reunion between the two as well. The two sisters met in Vancouver and bussed to the ferry terminal to take in the ferry trip through the Gulf Islands to our little island (OK, so it's not that "little"). I was highly relieved to see that they did not get lost on the way to the ferry and managed to take the right buses. They loved the ferry ride. Of course that was too much enjoyment and we thought they needed to do something more depressing, so we put them to work and brought them straightaway to a blueberry field in Saanich to pick blueberries. They enjoyed that a little too much as well. Auntie Nening cracked me up because her prior experience with blueberries resulted in disgust and she never touched them afterwards. When she ate the first ones she picked however, it was love at first taste and she realized that they were awesome after all. Mom, however, had such a knack for picking the sour blueberries that she would never believe that they could be sweet...and as the week went on, we realized that the sour berries seemed attracted to her because everything she ate, she claimed was sour. She even went so far to say that they looked blue when she picked them but would turn pink in her hand. She was so picky with the blueberries (in fear that they would be sour) that she took forever to fill her box. In the end she poured her half with my half and left to just eat the berries straight off the bushes and not worry about filling a container. In contrast, my aunt filled hers fairly quickly despite her eat-five-put-one-in-the-container method. This was a berry-picking first for both my mom and my aunt so it was hilarious to watch since they were having so much fun and enjoying the blueberries so much. We went through the Saanich farmland and Auntie Nening got very excited about all the pretty flowers. We stopped by a U-pick flower garden and I could have sworn she posed beside every single flower there. This is someone who has been flower deprived.

We brought the berries home and then it was off to give them a quick tour of Victoria...the Inner Harbor, Empress Hotel, Legislative Buildings and Fisherman's Wharf. They loved the quaint look of downtown, with the older English style buildings, the double decker buses, chariot rides, and flowers everywhere. Very quickly, we found the trend that continued through the week. My mom loves taking pictures but hates being in them and Auntie Nening found herself a sought-after model for every piece of Victoria scenery that caught my mom's eye. Jeremy and I tended to flee from these model opportunities. We went by the performers at the Inner Harbor, which included a white "statue" that moved when you put money in his little white pail. We ended at the funky floathomes in Fisherman's Wharf, where they were amazed at the houses that float.

Click here for the Blueberries and Victoria album.

From our window: Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis

2007-08-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

Or deer, for you common folk. At least I think they were the black-tailed deer. If there's a scientist expert out there who will correct me, please feel free. I've decided to do a series on what is seen from our window. The idea is, of course, shamelessly stolen from another blog. Jeremy saw this when he got home this morning and brought me to the window to see them. Apparently they like the blackberry bushes growing at the bottom of the property.

Bread With Handles

2007-08-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

aka the bread I baked on Friday that collapsed on me. I turned some slices to French toast this morning for breakfast and here they are in all their abnormal glory. I just thought some of you would crack up further. It has entertained me to no end to eat bread as strange looking as these. And I didn't even have to squish them to get them to look that way... Mom, I know you're laughing. Laugh some more.

The Symphony Splash...

2007-08-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

is a blast!!! If ever any of you get a chance to visit Victoria in the summer when it happens, make sure to attend.
The Symphony Splash is a Victoria tradition of a free concert for the city by the Victoria Symphony held at the Inner Harbor. What makes this concert so unusual is that the entire orchestra is seated on a floating barge in the Inner Harbor. The city watches by finding a place to sit in the U shaped harbor, all around the "stage." I think it's the most attended event in the city with approximately 40,000 people in attendance. The music performed is a mix of classical and popular selections, and a talented young soloist is featured each year. This year's theme was, "A Celebration of our Youth" and so it not only included some awesome music from the orchestra, but also 3 (instead of the traditional 1) hand-picked young talent of the year. 13 year old Timothy Chooi had some amazing violin talent and 16 year old soprano Sahara Sloan's voice was incredible. There was a 13 year old pianist Carolyn Tsao, but we missed her. Although the whole event started at 4pm, the Victoria Symphony did not start playing until 7:30. I picked Jeremy up from work at that time and we were off to the Inner Harbor. We got there in time for most of the pieces. It was huge...the water in front of the orchestra barge was filled with multicoloured canoes, kayaks and inflatable boats (the real front row seats), and then the Inner Harbor in front of the beautiful Legislative Buildings were people on their lawnchairs, blankets, you name it. We found our place in the crowd, sitting right at the edge of the Harbor with our feet dangling over the water. It was beautifully romantic listening to a mix of classics and watching the sun go down. As is tradition, the Symphony ended with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, complete with bells, cannons and fireworks. The cannons were right beside us and I forgot that they were going to go off so I was startled :D The fireworks were amazing over the water with the Overture playing. Just when I thought it was the grand finale, the Highland Cathedral pipers arrIve with Tobin Stokes on stage and wow! Bagpipes are always a treat to listen to but it was even better because they joined the symphony in a rendition of "Amazing Grace." I thought it was a fitting music to end the day. But, as we were to find out, it was not even yet the end. After Jeremy and I had made it through the crowds to the street, we were surprised to see the Highland Cathedral pipers arranged in formation on the main street. All of a sudden they started marching and playing their pipes. We all followed them, Jeremy madly taking pictures from the sides, and then getting the idea of walking ahead of them and taking a video of the march. It was like a moving street party, crowds of people were all around them following them as they marched down the street, turned around to lead us to the pub downtown for the after-party. I was the most fun I've had in a long time being part of that. I looked around and there were people skipping along beside them, yes, grown adults SKIPPING down the street. There was another older lady dancing along and people in the sidelines cheering and clapping along. It was hilarious. And so awesome to hear those pipes go. And my husband in front of everyone videoing away. It was hilarious because he was the first one, it seems, with the idea and when they had seen him in front of the parade, a whole bunch of tourists and so followed his example and I was cracking up because there he was, my husband, leading this mad parade...
Jeremy and I thought it was hilarious that this very Scottish looking group was led by a man who looked as Chinese as you could look

Feel free to click on the highlighted text in this post to see the video clip that they are referring to. We have a clip of the 1812 Overture with all the fireworks but it was too long for YouTube and awaits possible editing by my genius husband.

Notes from the Housewifer

2007-08-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

Our orchid plant is in full bloom!

So I thought I'd give you a short break from all our exploring in order to bore you instead with a bit of what's happening on the homefront. Actually, I'm procrastinating from studying for boards (sssshh, don't tell Jeremy).

This post is about what is growing in our garden. Just because I'm getting so excited about our tomatoes. No, Mom, I didn't count them. I have just been informed that there's this (cool) Filipino superstition that it was bad luck to count your tomatoes. Maybe they'd shrivel up or something? So I have tried to be a good tomato mom and keep my counting to the minimum.

The little bush of micro tomatoes never grew an inch. As soon as it peeked over the container edge and felt the cold wind, it figured it would stay right down there and got busy growing fruit. It cracked us up because it started sprouting fruits like crazy. Then there are the cherry tomatoes...that only recently started fruiting once the summer weather finally showed up. The last picture is our "Early Girl" tomato. Well, the micro tomato bush was earlier but sure enough, it was the next plant to bear fruit. What they don't tell you is that the Early Girl only has one tomato in a lifetime. One. Uno. Isa. That's it. I think it's supposed to do more but no one told this plant that so it's focusing all its energy on this one tomato that is now beginning to show a tinge of color.

This is my tomato growing luck. Where is my green thumb? I thought being the daughter of a farmer's daughter accounted for something. Well, when my Mom gets here, she might be able to give me a prescription for plant vitamins or something. And show me how to make bread. Properly. She's still laughing at how my bread turned out.

Yet More Spit

2007-08-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

Sidney Spit, that is. I still can't associate the word "spit" with anything else other than what comes out of your mouth. But I have begun to understand that here it refers to a long stretch of nothing-but-sand thing that sticks out far into a body of water. That's what similar from our last spit visit anyway.
Welcome to our day of wandering another island, a beautiful beach, walking barefoot in sand, and seeing interesting sea creatures. Sidney Spit is one of the most beautiful beaches in the Victoria area. It is only accessible by boat or a passenger ferry that leaves from the pier at the end of Beacon St. in Sidney. The last time we checked, Jeremy and I are not in possession of a yacht or sailboat of any kind--although Jeremy frequently dreams of buying a sailboat that we can buy and sail around the world in. But still it remains but a dream so needless to say, we took the ferry. It was a fun ride across. Sidney Spit is also known for all its wildlife (which doesn't include bears or cougars, btw, much to our relief). We saw orange jellyfish. There were a bunch of them that had washed up onto shore (the picture that we have in our album is one that is no longer alive but still in the water), but we did see a few from the dock and we were amazed at how beautiful they are and how long their tentacles stretched to. They are amazing creatures. There were a lot of shorebirds, huge schools of small needlefish (I can't remember if they're really called that), blue herons, sand pipers, and host of other wildlife. This place seems to have rich ecosystems. They do in have about 30 walk-in sites so Jeremy and I are thinking of perhaps coming here to camp sometime in order to see some of the other animals that we didn't get to see in the day that we spent here. It was a perfectly warm day, so nice to walk on the sand, walk in the water (a little too cold for swimming), and just explore the park.

If you want to see the rest of the pictures, check out our Sidney Spit pictures here.

Feeling Ambitious

2007-08-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

I had a burst of energy. And an insane ambition to be super-wife. Or something. I still don't know what possessed me to make gluten, siopao (Filipino steamed buns, what I've always called the Filipino version of a hamburger), bake bread, and a ton of crepes all in one day. As well as do laundry and clean the house for Sabbath. Temporary insanity?

Vanda, this post is for you. Because of your siopao craving. As promised, I present you with whole wheat siopao, the best I can do with the distance between us...enjoy:
This plate is for you, Vands

Well, the siopao, gluten, and crepes turned out OK but my ambition resulted in hilarity when I opened the oven at the end of the day. My second try (ever in my whole life) at making bread resulted two loaves that caved in and with crust that was so hard it broke your teeth (so I exaggerate). So much for making "bread like my mom made." It was nothing like. But because I have a loving husband, he ate it! And (dare I say?) enjoyed it! Ah, love...

PS. Buki, remember our (first time, ever in our whole life) that we made bread? That Home Ec dinner we cooked for the Booths? That turned out well, so Annie has not given up yet...she will make decent bread one day!

Our Long Beach Adventure: Day Three

2007-07-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today was our day for exploration...our first stop was Honeymoon Bay, a really pretty and small beach. On the road over there, we got our second bear encounter while driving by someone's house in the forest. Mr. Bear was rummaging around the garbage can and making a mess. Felt much better that we were in the car and tried to get a picture of him but Mr. Bear was too shy and ran away. There is a theory that Mr. Bear was actually Mrs. Bear because we met a jogger at the trailhead who told us he had seen a mother and two cubs on the way up. Maybe she was looking for food for her young'uns? In any case, we headed over to the trail for some more beach...beautiful starfish, anemones, and mussels...as well as other shore life.

After I was fairly hypoglycemic and in need of breakfast, we went back to pack up camp, and headed over to have breakfast at Wickaninnish Beach. It was surfer-watching time for a while then we went to check out the Wickaninnish Interpretive Center--which I highly recommend. It was very educational and taught a lot about the First Nations that lived around the area and more about the marine life around us. Interesting place to explore.We decided to visit the Shorepine Bog as well because Jeremy really wanted to see the killer plant. Stepping inside the Bog was kind of deja vu feeling--and I suddenly figured out why. It was Florida again!!! They were little trees!!! Apparently the ground was nutrient deficient so the trees (lodgepole pines anywhere else in Canada), grew to only a few meters, some were even shorter than me. Maybe that's why the trees in Florida were short. It was an interesting eco-system. Small "broccoli" forests, tons of sphagnum moss, false lily of the valleys and the carnivorous "sundew."

It was back to the Wickaninnish Interpretive Center to the beginning of the South Beach trail. There's supposed to be some great wave-watching there so we were off...it was another beautiful beach. This place just has a lot of beautiful beaches that are fun to explore.

And then it was time to go home. Neither of us wanted to go. I nearly had to drag Jeremy away because he was not wanting to go to work...but we will be back!!! To the waves, the bears, the star-fish covered rocks, the sunsets, the surfboards...

To see all the pictures from today, click here.

Our Long Beach Adventure: Day Two

2007-07-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

Can you find the crab?

Walls and walls of mussels on their oceanside condos

We woke up with the sun (the beautiful thing about camping is that you get to start the day early) and got our first bear encounter. You have to understand that the first thing the ranger told us after giving us our campsite permit and telling us about the importance of "bare campsites" was, "we do share this area with a mother bear and two cubs--" and I tried very hard to remember the "what to do when you see a bear" instructions--and scanned the area for climb-able trees. Well, when we were at the parking lot, our neighbor, a woman with a baby, informed us that she had just seen a mother bear with two cubs head down the trail through the campsites. Scream!!! We immediately headed off toward our beach trail but when we passed the entrance to the camp's amphitheatre, we heard a rustling noise and saw another camper run out onto the road. She looked at us and almost as if she didn't believe it, told us, "The-th-there's a mother bear and two cubs right over there." I took a look a sure enough, right by the trash can was Mama Bear. We didn't see the cubs, but we didn't stay too long to chat with Mama Bear and ask her how old they were...we just went on our way. But that was our early morning excitement. Next we went toward the rocks in the middle of Comber's Beach and Long Beach to go tide-pooling at low tide. We discovered that this area has a huge population of starfish, sea anemones, and there were major mussel colonies on all the rocks... Mussels creating droplets on the sand below

Day Two was all about surfing. We join all the many surfers on the water. What amazed me were all the women surfers, there were more than I had ever seen before. It may be that Tofino has Canada's only all-female surf school. My surfer dude of a husband finally got a chance to ride some waves. He has been long deprived. Florida was too gentle for surfing. As timing would have it, we finally had a chance to buy some wetsuits just before this trip at Costco--that FIT!!!! That is just plain miraculous for a 4'11"er like me--everything was either too long or fit too tight (kids' size). And you KNOW that the effectiveness of a wetsuit lies in how well it fits. So here are pics us going surfing!!!! Well, let me rephrase that. Jeremy went surfing. I just kind of...hung on to a board? Maybe next time I'll actually get a chance to get up instead of all the falling I did. What you won't see are pictures of me falling. This I do for you. I wouldn't want you to die of a heart attack from all the laughing you'd be doing. Of course. Click here to see all the pics in the Day Two album
My hot surfer dude

Look at him go!!!

Me struggling to hold the board up. It was too big for me. Really. Jeremy had to carry it to the water for me.

Our Long Beach Adventure: Day One

2007-07-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

While Jeremy and I have so much in common it amazes me, parts of our personalities are almost opposite. I'm easy going bordering on complacent--which is why Jeremy is great for me because he pushes me to do things every now and then (like study for boards, exercise, study for boards--and oh, did I say study for boards? >:) Jeremy is easy-going enough to deal with (and laugh at) my extreme lack of common sense (I'm just glad I entertain somebody other than myself nowadays). I'm also into organization, I make lists for everything and then go about easy-goingly checking things off them. I have to plan things, I can't just go off and do it because things tend to go wrong when I don't at least think about all the details involved. I'm not detail-obsessed, too phlegmatic for that, but I just like being prepared. Jeremy? Well, Jeremy loves to do all kinds of things but he likes to do it on the spur of the moment... This one aspect makes for a hilarious event every time we go on a trip.

Take this Tofino trip for example. Jeremy has always been wanting to go to Tofino. He's been wanting to go even more after he found out it was known for Long Beach--the island's best surfing spot. I have known he has been wanting to go but he only decided we will go 2 days before the actual day--which left me, the planner, 2 days to find accomodation, get camping supplies, plan a menu, and well--the major thing was accomodation. Did I mention this is the peak of tourist season and everything that could be booked in advance was booked in advance? Needless to say, Annie was in panic mode for most of the two days trying to find a campground that was 1) had a free spot, 2) would actually answer the phone, or 3) was not eternally ringing with no one answering. Seeing as the area had all of 5 known campgrounds, I wasn't having much luck. Ideally, we wanted to be at Greenpointe, which was the Pacific Rim Park's only campsite on Long Beach. It was booked solid through summer and although they had walk-in sites, the reservation lady was pessimistic about our chances. I was seriously scheming on how to camp illegally on a deserted beach without getting caught when I found a campsite in Ucluelet that offered "wilderness camping" and who told us they always had space. Whew. We could then go knowing for sure that we'd have a place to stay. That was all I needed to know...

And Thursday, we were off on another of Jeremy and Annie's last-minute adventures. I love being married to this man :) We had so much fun and took so many pictures, that I will break this trip up in days...may you enjoy this journey with us :D

DAY ONE
7:30 We set off on the 5 hr trip. Car packed, ready to go.
We stop at the Malahat Viewpoint, a turn-off in the part of Highway 1 that goes through the Malahat for a breath-taking view of the Saanich Peninsula and Saltspring Island.

We stop again at a river after Port Alberni to scramble down some rocks and watch the water rush by.

12:30 We are ecstatic!!! We had our pick of the walk-in campsites at the Greenpointe Campground! It pays to ignore the "We are FULL" signs posted outside after all and ask. We got a site in a forested area on a bluff above the beach, we couldn't see them but we could hear the roar of the waves. Jeremy's spontaneous nature works again!

Lunchtime: With business taken care of, we were off to hit the beach!!! Incinerator Rock at Long Beach, that is. Although our end of the island has numerous beaches as well, they don't have the beautiful waves like Long Beach has and it was like being back home to this island girl. We had lunch by one of the rocks. And watched the surfers and beachwalkers. We found out soon after arriving not to be fooled by the beautiful sun and the huge number of surfers in the water--they were all wearing wetsuits because the water was frigid. Really. I couldn't feel my feet after 5 seconds, then there was a painful tingling sensation and I was out of the water in another second. Which was why after eating lunch, we found it so amusing when some (Floridian?) girls arrived, lay their towels down, stripped to their bikinis, and ran expectantly into the surf--only to do a 360 as soon as their feet touched the water. They did this strange circular water dance jump move for a while to the music of their screams, and then they went back to their towels. We are so easily amused, that had us laughing for a long while.
After all that beach, Jeremy was itching to get his own surfboard so we headed off to the cute little surf/fishing town of Tofino to rent ourselves a surfboard.

The Tofino sense of humor
And then, we ended the day in "our" beach. Our campground is beside Long Beach and Combers Beach, so we headed off to eat supper at Combers, and then watched an absolutely beautiful sunset at Long Beach, built a campfire, and ended the day with S'mores. Click for Long Beach: Day One album

Blueberry picking...

2007-07-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Something happened in Okanagan during the visit with Grandma and Grandpa. Annie got addicted to fruit picking! OK, so this has been a more or less lifetime addiction (as evidenced by Annie being restrained by Jeremy while in Kauai because she wanted to pick the guavas down the steep cliffs in the Kalalau trail). Nevertheless, both of us had a craving for picking berries and Jeremy had a huge craving for blueberries...so it was off to the blueberry field. We started off with a tour of the Saanich farms--a WHOLE LOT of fun...we got some island-made honey straight from the Babe Honey store, did a tour of the farms' stands and stores of their produce to check out the very fresh island veggies and fruit. It's nice to be able to meet the people who grow your food face to face and know that you are buying fresh and buying local. And the farmland and orchards are always so peaceful to see (I am a farmer's grandchild after all). We ended up here....

The Blueberry Picture Album Link

Island View Beach Sabbath

2007-07-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

After the church potluck, Jeremy and I kidnapped Clive for our usual Sabbath afternoon exploring. This Sabbath, we went off to Island View Beach in Saanich (north of Victoria), a really pretty beach.

Boys being boys....
They found themselves a...uh...canoe....

Jeremy demonstrates how to sand surf

Jeremy's favorite beach activity
Click here to see the Island View Beach album