British Columbia trip revisited Part III

Join me today for a hike around Lost Lake....
On the next day of our vacation, we found the pretty lake we had seen from the Gondola Ride and since there was a trail around the lake, we got busy. The color of the lake was an unusual aquamarine, and had very beautiful water. We parked in the parking lot, and walked a short trail to the lake, and the park in front of it.

We walked out to the small beach area to start our hike. This lake is heavily used in the summer for swimming. But today it was still very, very cold. We had to keep walking fast to stay warm enough.

As we walked around there were platforms every little while out in the lake, so swimmers could access them, dive or sunbathe. There were also several small piers, and I am standing on one in the photo below. This picture shows the water color best. Isn't it almost like a painting instead of real?

This photo is at the opposite side of the lake looking back from the way we had come. We were 1/2 way around at this point.

Heading back there was more fall color and a 'wilderness trail' that went through the woods along the lake.

I had just stopped and asked John to look for something I could take a picture of for our grandsons. There didn't seem to be any birds about, or frogs, or bugs etc. I think mostly it was too cold, and many things were staying in their nests or the ground, or their tiny homes. Right after I asked him, the insurance man spotted a large blue heron at the lake's edge. He was a pretty sight, and totally unconcerned with us.

After we took the above photo, I asked if he could zoom in a little closer. We had to go past the standard zoom range, and sometimes that doesn't work well, but this time it worked beautifully. Here is the heron boys, courtesy of Papa. Isn't it a lovely photo?

After he took the photo of the heron, he decided to take a few of the fall leaves we saw.

Some we knew and some we didn't...but they are all beautiful samples of God's handiwork and creativity.

It was a wonderful hike and felt so good to get out and enjoy the scenery of the Whistler area. There are three lakes around the village. One is Green Lake, and we drove past it later in the week. The other one we never found, but Glenn and Nancy driving by themselves found it and spent a little time there.

British Columbia trip revisited

I am back again from yet another trip, this time to the Oregon Coast with two of my daughters, my son-in-law and their 2 year old Macy. We had a good time, but I want to continue on with our Canada vacation.
We quickly decided the day after we arrived to do the most popular off-season attraction...ride the gondola's up the mountains. We looked at the weather report and found that it would be our best day for seeing the views afforded. It was brrrr! cold, but clear so we headed to the village. Our first obstacle was parking. They were busy fixing up a couple of the parking lots, so some were closed and parking is a big issue in Whistler. We drove around and around and around some more, along with dozens of other later-than-the-early-birds, until we finally snagged a spot where someone was leaving, along a woodsy road. We had to walk a ways, but that helped us get the lay of the land. We arrived at the bottom of the gondolas, to find literally hundreds of people waiting to go up. That's what happens when you go to a popular destination on a holiday week-end. This is one corner of the building where the Gondola ticket booths are. They have a gondola hanging there, showcasing what fun lies ahead. We decided on tickets for the 'peak-to-peak' gondola ride, where you ride one gondola to the top of Whistler mountain, then take another over to Blackcomb mountain, then repeat the process back.

We joined the throng waiting in line for tickets...

then joined another throng waiting in line to board the gondola. I had never seen so many mountain bikes and bikers before that day. This was a biker mecca. There were two different ways the bikers could go up the mountain...on a lift (4 at a time) or in a gondola (3 at a time). Once at the top they took extreme paths down the mountain, on ski trails and on specific bike trails. There were hundreds of young men and women enjoying the beautiful scenery and the thrill.

It was beautiful on the ride. We passed three lakes, and this one had such an unusually pretty color. There was some snow around as you can see, but also there was very pretty fall color in the shrubs and trees.

Here's Nancy and the insurance man enjoying the trip.

This photo shows the viewpoint at the top of Whistler. There is a restaurant there, and a lot of people.

Looking over the side I could see where some of the bikers took off from. It was hard to get their picture as they whizzed by so fast. There was always a steady stream of them taking off along this trail.

A picture of Whistler mountain from the viewing area.

Here's proof that we really were in Canada...and the flags were dramatic flying against the blue sky.

Glenn and Nancy enjoying the view.

Here is the gondola that took us on our next journey. It was much bigger (held more people) and sturdier. It needed to be, as the wind along the canyon was pretty intense.

This is a picture of us starting out on our route across this canyon to Blackcomb.

The scenery was immense, and made the gondolas look like little playthings. It was pretty far across, as you could hardly see the gondolas on the other side.

This is a photo from the middle of the canyon, and it was breathtaking! (Partly because of the cold)

A view from the top of Blackcomb...and the viewpoint there. Yes, we did make it across. It sort of looks like we're at the top of the world, and we felt like it.

A last photo from the top, along with a little girl we met on the ride. Her sister was too shy to get in the picture. We had a great time, and were so glad we rode to the top. No bikes there, just on Whistler. The views were tremendous, and it was a good start to our vacation.

I'm going to take a quick break from our B.C. trip, to tell about a fun experience we had over last week-end. My sister-in-law Peggy, mom-in-law Bethel, and I got our heads together and planned a special surprise for my dad-in-law Larry, to celebrate his 88th birthday on Oct. 17. Peggy made reservations at the Hotel in Diamond, Oregon for dinner. Diamond is a very, very, very small community approx. 60 miles southeast of Burns. It is in a valley at the base of the Steens Mtns, and has about 30 ranching families there. The hotel is probably one of three buildings that make up the 'town'. A history of the hotel states that it was there at the turn of the century (the last one), and their sign says it was established in 1898, so it is 111 years old.
We managed to keep it all a secret from Dad until my brother-in-law Cliff along with Peggy drove up to Mom & Dad's to pick us up in their pick-up, so we could all ride together. It took us about an hour, and was a fun and lovely ride. The hotel is a big wooden structure that holds 5 guest rooms and a dinning room. There is also a converted ice house out back that serves as a small cafe during the summer season.

The parking lot was full of cars, and I wondered where all the people came from, and how did they hear about it? The hotel was surrounded on two sides by a big screened in porch. Dad is just going through the door onto the porch above. We noticed that there were deer around, and soon four small bucks were grazing on the front lawn. While we waited for dinner, the insurance man and I sat on the porch and watched the deer. It was actually darker than this photo appears, thanks to flash photography. The sun had set, and it was a peaceful and beautiful evening.

Mom and Dad chose to stay inside and wait where it was a bit warmer....

Our reservations were for 6:30, and quite a large crowd had gathered. I began to ask questions, and found out that our reservations were for a 7-course wine tasting gourmet meal! No wonder so many were there. People had come from Nevada, California, Ontario and Beaverton Oregon. Seating was at large tables, family style.

Our table was just big enough for the six of us...perfect. Dad is sitting at the head, not quite sure what to expect. (We had informed the hosts that we were not drinking, so had only the one goblet at each setting for non alcholic sparkling cider, although a few of us tried a couple of the wines...very interesting. Other place settings had seven goblets at each!)

I am going to give you the menu...so you can see what fun we had. They featured all Oregon foods with many original Danish Scandinavian recipes. They were honoring the matriarch of the family who is of Danish heritage.

First course was the appetizer: Pickled shrimp, Danish Havarti Ball rolled in dill, and a plain Havarti Ball with homemade crackers.

Second course was soup: Winter vegetable squash chowder, served in individual bread bowls (see photo of Cliff and Peg above). Each course took about 20-25 minutes, so we had lots of waiting time to talk and have fun.

Third course was salad: Pear, avocado and tomato on fresh greens with Parmesan Vinaigrette and sprinkled bleu cheese, served with home-made pumpernickel bread. (The bread was delicious!) The family that runs the hotel and restaurant are ranchers that have been ranching there for five generations. It was truly a family affair. There was a large crew cooking, one for dishes, and the granddaughters did the serving. The grandmother is a widow now, and circulated around talking and making sure all needs were met.

While we waited for the next course Dad opened a few birthday cards and a gift from Cliff & Peg. That bag played 'Happy Birthday to You', and we got a kick out of that. Fortunately, it didn't play it too loudly!

The next course was Fish: Salmon and Baby Scallop Nadine ( in a puff pastry with cream cheese) and finished with a sherry mushroom sauce.

This next course was Sorbet: Tomato Jalapeno Sorbet!! Yes, you read that right, a HOT/COLD dish. In the photo above Dad is trying it out. Mom and Dad were both really good sports to try everything.

This is a laugh...we were all laughing by now at the very funny sorbet. Peg likes spicy things so was trying to get it down, but was sweating and wiping the sweat off and trying to take off her jacket. It was really good for laughing, and we had a great time. ME?? I only touched a tiny bit to my tongue (at every one's insistence) and that was enough! I couldn't believe something frozen could be hot?! They did explain that it wasn't that spicy when they froze it, but the flavors intensified (what about Jalapeno did they not know??) and by the time it was discovered it was too late, and they served it anyway. Everyone was laughing in the room by the time for the next course:

Main Course

Roulader- Slow simmered beef rolls A tenderized steak, rolled up around dill pickle slices and cabbage and simmered until tender.

RodKaal- Red Cabbage

New Potatoes with fresh parsley and butter

Most of us were so full by now that getting all this main course down was an impossibility. They passed around to-go boxes.

Our last course was dessert of course:

Kringle (Scandinavian pastry much like Baklava)

Chocolate-Mint Brownies (This was very different, no flour or cookies here. A little patch of dark chocolate mouse, next to a light chocolate mint mouse dollop...yummy!)

Sharp Cheddar triangle, with a dollop of homemade crab apple butter and a mint leaf. Oh so good.

It was a very fun and perfect birthday celebration. We drove home through a moon filled, star studded night, full and happy...(talking to keep each other awake) and got home around midnight.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Sugar Pears

The favorite white dish is back out. Has anyone ever heard of a sugar pear? My children saw them at Sam's Club and gave me such big puppy-dog eyes that I caved and purchased them. I didn't regret it. They made such a lovely centerpiece with their rosy cheeks. When they began to turn a little yellow, we tried out their taste and got a second delight. They're so good. Their small size made them perfect for children as well. An unexpected treat this fall. :)

We left the next morning for the Canadian border, and enjoyed the car trip. We stopped briefly to see my brother in Seattle, and enjoyed lunch in Lynnwood. The next stop was Blaine, known for being the border town in Western Washington. We got out at the park there and enjoyed the pretty gardens. The trees were not turning color there yet either. My friend Nancy had never been there before, so we walked over to the peace arch, a gift from Canada to the United States.

We weren't exactly sure what to expect at customs, as everyone had said that things were much different since 9-11. We all had our passports and got in line...

We found there wasn't much difference really...other than there were cameras that took a photo of your car and license to check. It took very little time, and we were soon on our way. We followed Highway 99, and found that we had to drive through downtown Vancouver to go north on 99. This highway crosses the main bridge in Vancouver, beside Stanley Park. It was dark by now, and we enjoyed seeing all the very tall sky scrapers, and beautiful buildings. After a 60 mile trip north we arrived at Whistler.

We had directions on where to go to check-in and that went well.

However the directions for finding our timeshare were sketchy to say the least, so we spent a good amount of time driving around on dark roads trying to find it. We breathed a sigh of relief, when we finally parked in the parking garage and made our way to a nice room and beds for the night.

The next morning we got up refreshed. This is our friend Glenn getting in a little reading time in the living area.

The week-end we arrived was the Canadian Thanksgiving week-end, so we quickly found out that everything was very busy and full at Whistler. It seemed so weird to have everyone wishing us 'Happy Thanksgiving' early in October, and selling turkey and holiday pies.

I will explain a little more about the village at Whistler tomorrow, but here is where we ate lunch the first day. The insurance man is not a beet lover, so I had to take this photo to prove he ate here. It was different, but good. I had a cream of carrot soup, and a roasted yam roll-up. The insurance man even found something he liked. More vacation tomorrow...

Vacation to Whistler

In some ways I feel that my contributions to our blog are sort of a travel-log. We have been so blessed to visit many unique and wonderful outdoor areas this past year, and I love to share them on the blog.
Last week we went on vacation with two dear friends to British Columbia...a vacation that was a year in the planning and dreaming stage. We left home for Eugene, as the insurance man had a business meeting the next morning. After completing that, we had the rest of the day to make our way north to Silverton where our friends live. We stopped by the town of Brownsville, as it is close to several familiar towns, yet we'd never been there. After a walking inspection, we had lunch in an old house turned cafe, that was quaint and good. Next we drove to Silver Falls State Park for some hiking. This park is about 12 miles from Silverton, but the insurance man had not been there since childhood. We found the park about deserted for the season, and had the trails mainly to ourselves. There are several falls in the canyon, and an 8-mile hiking trail connects them all. But since we had a limited amount of time, we chose to drive to the falls, and hike down to each. Here is the south falls, the first one we hiked to. The water flow was low at this time of year, but very pretty nonetheless.

This photo was taken from behind the falls. If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the trail that runs behind the water. We took this picture standing there, looking out at the waterfall. One more shot from behind the waterfall, showing the water falling into the pool below.

We hiked down to several more falls, and here the trail ends at the north falls.

On the last photo, the insurance man is standing at the top of the north falls, just before the river flows over the rocks in a free fall. There wasn't much fall color in the park that day. I think with the colder weather in the next week, the leaves really began to change while we were away.

We finished up our hiking just in time to get to Silverton and get something to eat with our friends after they finished up their work days. The next morning was our scheduled time to drive to beautiful B.C. So, I'll continue that thought next week.

A Nice Big Smile :)

Cecily got her portrait taken today. She's pretty hard to get to smile. I had to lay her down and tickle her and finally got this happy face. :)