the Nacho King

At first glance of that title one might think that Trish & I have moved to Guadalajara, Mexico and opened a Nacho hut at the side of the road, fortunately we haven't yet embarked on this type of entrepreneurial activity.

What we have gone and done is found a Keeshond named King from the Lewis County Shelter in Chehalis, Washington and gone and adopted him. But King just wasn't a fun enough name so since we always wanted to name our dog 'nacho' and he's already got the name 'king' we have deemed him the Nacho King.

Nacho King has only been in the shelter a few days but at this point we figure he was a farm dog that didn't quite get the love and attention he needs. With a little bit of time, a lot of shampoo, an extreme amount of brushing and potentially some temporarily short hair he'll be up to cosmetic snuff in no time.

Now we just have a whole night and most of tomorrow to kill until we can pick up Mr. Nacho King from the veterinary as he has to get his manly bits removed as a part of the adoption. Poor fella.

Here's Nacho King...

FREE Education?! Nahhhh.

Yeah, that's what I first thought. I mean sure most nations on earth offer at least basic primary education free of charge, that's old news! No, what I'm talking about here is university-level, first-rate, higher education... FREE OF CHARGE!

Okay, what's the catch?! Well, apparently there isn't one... yet. Canada, although democratic and certainly quite capitalistic, is quite far down the Capitalism-Socialism scale. Some of the benefits of this include 'free' health care for all, many social programs, cheap education (especially when compared with higher-level education available in the United States), and of course a some sweet taxes. Further down the scale toward socialism are many Scandinavian countries. Some of the benefits of these countries' social values are in line with Canada's but instead of inexpensive education their higher education is free, that's right, FREE.

There are current discussions with the European Union to alter the current free education for all stance to have it only applicable to EU member countries. Presently, Denmark is the only country that charges non-EU students tuition fees and they have done so since September 2006.

So if I were to study in Scandinavia would my English-only skills pose a problem? Normally not. Most Scandinavians speak some English and many courses are taught solely in English. Also, depending on the school, some offer introductory language classes as a part of an international student program.

Accommodation and living expenses are not covered, but student housing is often available at a less-than-market-value level.

Countries that make up Scandinavia include: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland. I'll have to do more research to verify if all Scandinavian countries, save Denmark as earlier mentioned, offer this sweet deal.

Fight Climate Change!!!

Further to my previous post on hybrid cars and the sometimes scewed facts pointing to them being the most environmentally friendly way to go, today I was pointed to a study on climate change. Most of us have been taught that to fight climate change we need to reduce general consumption, make green choices with regards to our homes and transportation, and explore alternative 'green' energy options.

A study released today on the Hidden Cause of Global Warming points to deforestation as the single largest culprit, far outweighing every other environmentally negative action. The study claims that the deforestation that will take place over the next 24hrs will pump more CO2 into the earth's atmosphere than 8M people travelling by jet from London to New York!

The key forests that need to be saved, in light of this studies' findings are the tropical rain forests that line the earth's equator. The Amazon, Indonesian forests and also those of the Congo are crucial to combating climate change. The Kyoto Protocol and other environmental pacts are useful but without the preservation of the worlds great rain forests, which contain nearly 50% of the earth's biodiversity despite only occupying 7% of it's landmass, are moot points.

One option to help save the rainforest is this website: Save The Rainforest. Click it today (and everyday!)
Disclaimer: In this case "with one click" means 'with two clicks'

Camping v. 1.0

At the end of our little vacation Trish & I decided that we should keep the adventures flowing this summer in a more cost effective manner, hence camping v. 1.0. After some intense brainstorming we determined that we didn't need a tent, trailer, or motorhome, but that we could use the Disco, hence Disco Camper v. 1.0. We attempted to have Camping v. 1.0 in Disco Camper v. 1.0 on the first weekend home. For some odd reason we have had interest, maybe a small obsession, with Whidbey Island, despite never being there or really knowing where it was other than West of Burlington, WA. We intended to cure our fascination and achieve our first camping in experience in some time.

NOTE: My previous camping experiences included Alberta 1985, TREK in 1998, and my grad present safari in 2001. Tricia's included several Garabaldi trips with the family friends growing up.

So last week we set about to build the appropriate camping apparatus in the Disco to create Disco Camper v. 1.0. Due to some poor planning and time management the 'camper' was not finished until midday on Saturday, but v. 1.0 was finished. We packed up everything we thought we'd need and headed down to Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island.

The border had some traffic so we took our usual Truck Crossing route with a quick stop in at the Duty Free Shop, which by the way has a great USD/CDN exchange rate. Once through we stopped in at the Cost Cutter which has ridiculously low prices to get our sustenance for the next 24 hours. Turns out it took us barely more than 1 hour to get to the park once we had crossed the border.

The pass & park were gorgeous. A bridge to a central small island and then another to Whidbey with rushing tidal water below greets you. I should remind everyone at this point that there climbing on bridge is prohibited. But driving over it is permitted. The state park takes up both sides of the bridge although the main park area, where we stayed, is on the Whidbey Island side. The park and island are very Pacific Rim National Park like including the drive there, as parts literally seem like a copy. I'm shocked more Vancouverites don't know about Whidbey Island as it's really so close and costs so little to get to as there aren't any ferries involved.

So other than a few minor tweaks to Disco Camper v. 1.0 needing to be carried out prior to the Camping 2.0 we had a great time. Although it didn't 'look' like rain as we set up camp we should have probably set up a tarp because come the next morning there was some light rain. Being relatively inexperienced campers this was an oversight. But no worries since we were in Disco Camper, we just packed up the few things we had left out and continued on in our exploration of the island.

We went through Oak Harbor (US town so US spelling) and then shortly after that turned around to start heading home. A wrong turn led us through Anacortes and right by a location of The Calico Cupboard. We were powerless to there cinnamon buns and had to stop in for one. After that we took the right turn and headed on back to Canada.

We'll definitely go back to Whidbey Island. One other item of note is that at Fort Ebey State Park there is apparently some surf, enough to ride. I will have to verify local rentals prior to our next WI trip.

Modern Architecture

I know I promised some more pictures of some of the great modern design and architecture that we got to see in Acapulco, but due to a certain 'incident' we didn't venture too far from our hotel for the latter half of the week.

I did snag a couple shots on our way to the aeropuerto. These two pictures are quiet typical of entrances in much of Acapulco. Because much of the city is built into the side of a mountain, buildings on the downside of a road are often barely visible. The only thing one will see is the entrance and from there the visitors will descend down into the actual building.