Canada.com is the easy online source I use for most of my daily Canada-related news. They had a little more credibility a few years ago but lately have been a little more tabloidy, but every once in a while they redeem themselves.
Right now they have a special feature section on Great Canadians. The great thing about this article is that it's not just highlighting the John A. MacDonald's and Terry Fox's of the world, although they were great. The feature highlights all sorts of great Canadians including some regular people who are doing great things.
Some highlights include the Asian business tycoon, Allan Zeman, affectionately known as the Mouse Killer, Alan Bean, a pastor working in Jena, LA., and Laura Louie who refuses to stand by and instead rolls up her sleeves in Mae On, Thailand where she started a clinic that is now self-sustaining.
Showing posts with label discovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discovery. Show all posts
3.1.08
16.7.07
Mosquitoes... narrowly avoided.
So Trish & I decided to get away for a night this weekend and decided that would be by camping in Whistler for Saturday night. We booked a tenting site at the Riverside RV Campground & Resort.
We checked in around 1:30pm and decided to set up our tent before hitting the town. Now at this point in the story you may be wondering why we were setting up a tent since we have the Disco Camper v. 1.5 at our disposal. Well, it turns out that the sites in question are not drive-in and are in fact walk-in and thus the Disco Camper would not suffice. So, we set up our tent at the spot they designated for us and due to the extreme amount of mosquitoes and a campfire ban in effect we decided to enjoy the rest of Whistler until bedtime.
Later that evening as we drove back towards the parking lot near our campsite Trish noticed some people 'in our site', or so she thought. We parked, put some pants on, and then strolled toward our site where sure enough there WERE people in our site and they had already set up their tent and staff from the campground had taken down our tent and removed all of our stuff from the site. We were a little shocked, but tried to find out what was going on. Apparently we had set up in the 'wrong' site, according to the managements quick research. We reviewed our info and had actually set up in the spot we were told to, however, in the computer we were supposed to be 5 sites down. In the hurried take down of our tent by the campground staff they also inadvertently broke one of our tent poles rendering our tent somewhat useless.
The campground has some log cabins in addition to their tent and RV sites, and fortunately there was ONE log cabin remaining which they decided to put us into.
All and all it worked out pretty well and they handled things fairly well, other than the broken tent pole, which they will be replacing. But the cabins were clean, dry, mosquito free, and had showers, etc. so it was somewhat of a nice surprise.
We checked in around 1:30pm and decided to set up our tent before hitting the town. Now at this point in the story you may be wondering why we were setting up a tent since we have the Disco Camper v. 1.5 at our disposal. Well, it turns out that the sites in question are not drive-in and are in fact walk-in and thus the Disco Camper would not suffice. So, we set up our tent at the spot they designated for us and due to the extreme amount of mosquitoes and a campfire ban in effect we decided to enjoy the rest of Whistler until bedtime.
Later that evening as we drove back towards the parking lot near our campsite Trish noticed some people 'in our site', or so she thought. We parked, put some pants on, and then strolled toward our site where sure enough there WERE people in our site and they had already set up their tent and staff from the campground had taken down our tent and removed all of our stuff from the site. We were a little shocked, but tried to find out what was going on. Apparently we had set up in the 'wrong' site, according to the managements quick research. We reviewed our info and had actually set up in the spot we were told to, however, in the computer we were supposed to be 5 sites down. In the hurried take down of our tent by the campground staff they also inadvertently broke one of our tent poles rendering our tent somewhat useless.
The campground has some log cabins in addition to their tent and RV sites, and fortunately there was ONE log cabin remaining which they decided to put us into.
All and all it worked out pretty well and they handled things fairly well, other than the broken tent pole, which they will be replacing. But the cabins were clean, dry, mosquito free, and had showers, etc. so it was somewhat of a nice surprise.
9.5.07
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.
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.
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