In late July, Glen, Susan and, Susan's sister, Shirley went for a hike at Mosquito Creek which starts from the base of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver. The first hour of the hike was all uphill. The first 45 minutes, Shirley decided to turn back as she felt she wouldn't be able to make the entire 4-hour hike. So she turned back and we expected her to take the bus home. We continued with the lovely hike, had lunch on some boulders at Mosquito Creek, and continued to trek up. We finished the hike in the late afternoon, and received a message from Shirley. Apparently she did not go home, instead she decided to go up the Grouse Grind. For those who do not know the Grouse Grind, it is one of Vancouver's famous hikes and is sometimes known as Mother Nature's stairmaster. The hike is about 2.9 km long, with an elevation gain of 2,800 feet, and a parad of people are constantly going up the grind. Depending on the fitness level, it can take a person anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. We didn't expect her to do the Grouse Grind, as we felt the Grouse Grind was much harder than the hike we did. We had challenging spots on our hike, but it wasn't constant stairclimbing like the Grind. Anyway, Shirley really enjoyed the hike and she continued to go on a regular basis each weekend.

In early August, Susan flew to Calgary for the long weekend to visit with Glen and family. We went for dinners and dim sum and played Risk with Susan's cousins Amy and Kenny. Amy and Susan were knocked out early in the game, and Glen ultimately succeeded at world domination. Kenny gave a good fight! During the long weekend, Glen's parents and brother's family were also in Calgary as we were all going to Glen's cousin's wedding. We spent one afternoon riding the rides at Calaway Park with his parents and brother's family. It was a cool, windy and a little bit of rain during the afternoon, but we had a lot of fun. After Calaway Park, we went out for dinner with Glen's family at Japanese Village in downtown Calgary to celebrate his brother's birthday. On the Saturday, August 5th, we attended Leanna (Glen's cousin) and Sheldon's wedding. They had perfect weather for the outdoor wedding with photos at Princess Island Park (and we as extended family took some fun pictures as well). After the reception, we said good bye to Glen's parents and brother's family as they were headed to northern Alberta to visit more family, and then to Saskatchewan for a family reunion. For the remainder of the weekend, we took a tour around northwest Calgary, drove to Cochrane for some ice-cream, went go-karting (as our original idea of trying luge was curtailed when the luge track was closed at Canada Olympic Park), and had lunch with one of Susan's friends that she has known since elementary school, Balwant and his son.

In mid-August, we spent a week vacation at the lake. Robin and Sheila from Vernon, and their two kids, Evandro and Hayley, visited us for the August 12th weekend. Sheila arrived late Saturday afternoon with the kids, as she missed the turn-off from Highway #1 and had headed to Pritchard, so it was nice to see them finally arrive. Robin arrived in the early evening just a couple hours after Sheila, as he had to work earlier in the day. We had a nice time catching up, as we hadn't seen them since our wedding in 2000. On Sunday, we took the boat for a ride to Albas Falls for a nice hike and swim. It was a nice, relaxing time. We took our time driving back to the cabin enjoying the sunset and only on arriving back we realized that Robin, Sheila and family were headed home on Sunday night. We're happy that they were able to stay for dinner, and they left at 8:00 pm to go back to Vernon. We re-painted the deck during the week, took a drive to Kamloops for a day, where we picked up our niece, Rebecca. Glen's brother's family were headed back to Port Moody after their trip to Saskatchewan. We picked up Rebecca as she was going to stay at the lake for the remainder of the week and Glen's parents were also returning from Saskatchewan. We bought a new tube in August, and this week was the first time to use it. It's a 3 person HUGE tube, and the centre seat is like sitting in a Sea Doo. It took us a while to pump up the tube, and it was finally ready to go. Rebecca and Glen really enjoyed the wild rides and trying out different sitting positions on the tube. They were quite the acrobatical pair. Glen's parents even went on the tube. On Friday,August 18, our friends, Rob and Diana from Vancouver stayed with us for the weekend and they brought their niece, Hayley. Eddy, Hayley's dad, decided to join us for the weekend and drove from Edmonton. We had a fun time with boating, swimming and tubing. The tubing was pretty WILD with Eddy, Rob and Rebecca. We were successful in tossing Rob off the tube as we were trying to coerce him to sit in the tube instead of continuously lying on the side of the tube. Also during this weekend, Eddy and Rob, put some pickets on our stairs that go down from our deck. Needless to say, we had a very fun vacation week with our guests.

The September long weekend, we had our friend, Anna, at the lake for the weekend. We had many active plans for the weekend, but it ended up to be a very lazy and relaxing weekend, which we all enjoyed. Glen had injured his shoulder from trying a mountain biking stunt earlier in the week, so no waterskiing for him this weekend. We did take a drive to Seymour Arm, where we enjoyed the warm water and the white sandy beach. It was nice to sit on the beach and read. From September 8 to 17th, we took another week of vacation. This time the vacation was to the Kootenays for a hot springs tour, camping, hiking and moteling. We started on Friday night with a stay at our cabin in Anglemont. On Saturday, the plan was to drive all the way to Yoho National Park and camp there for the night. Due to the heavy rain, we didn't make it to Yoho, and after stopping to see Revelstoke Dam, we stopped and camped at Canyon Hot Springs just after Revelstoke. It was wet pitching the tent and making dinner, but it was really nice to go into the hot springs afterwards and get warmed up before getting ready for bed. We had a relaxing dip in the morning again before we headed to Yoho. We arrived at Yoho late afternoon, and we stopped in at a few Yoho highlights and decided to go to Emerald Lake and walk around the lake. The lake was a beautiful greeny-blue and very peaceful. After the walk around, we decided to check in to Kicking Horse campground. It was a nice campground, minus the fact they didn't have any working washrooms or running water that evening. In the morning, we decided to go on a day hike to Twin Falls. On the way to the Twin Falls trailhead, we passed by Takakkaw Falls, the second highest falls in Western Canada. It was a nice hike, it wasn't too steep but it just felt like a long 15 km. At the top, the view of the falls is very beautiful. Also at the top of the hike, there is a tea house/cabins where people can rent and stay overnight during the summer. The only way in is to hike up and bring your own gear with you. The tea house and cabins were closed when we were there. After Yoho, we drove to Radium and stayed in a little motel for the evening. We walked around Radium for the evening and enjoyed a dip in Radium Hot Springs in the morning. The hot springs in Radium were quite nice with their two pools. The pools were much bigger compared to Canyon, and they also had another large pool that was cooler and you could swim and dive. Overall we enjoyed Radium the most because of the size and cleanliness, the view could have been a little bit better but we weren't complaining. We continued our journey south in which our next stop was Fort Steele Heritage Town. Fort Steele is a little museum town set in the 1890's. During the high tourism season, they have hay rides, steam train and lots of informative exhibits. Unfortunately for us, we went during mid-September where many of the tourist attraction shows and exhibits were closed. There were a few buildings open and available to tour on our own, but a lot of it was peaking through the windows of the buildings. It was more of ghost town at the time fo year that we were visiting. As we went onward, we camped in Cranbrook for the evening. We found a campground which was basically in a park in downtown Cranbrook. We were the only people tenting, everyone else had rv's and trailers. The evening was very warm compared to the previous nights of camping. We enjoyed Cranbrook, it was very nice. On the Wednesday, we drove towards Christina Lake where we had booked a bed and breakfast on the lake. Before Christina Lake, we stopped at Le Roy Mines in Rossland. we really enjoyed the tour in the undergound mine. The tour guide was excellent and very informative. We arrived at our bed and breakfast at Christina Lake in the late afternoon. Our room and deck had a beautiful view of the lake and it was so peaceful there. A rainstorm was coming in. We decided to go for dinner at one of the nearby restaurants. Fortunately we found a restaurant that was open and serving people. While we were sitting at the restaruant, the power went out in the area. Good thing the restaurant cooked with gas. The power remained out for a few hours. The bed and breakfast that we were staying at had set up all the candles and lighting for us while we waited for the power. The next morning we had hoped to use the canoe that was available, it was a little bit grey and chilly in the morning, so we decided not to. Instead we enjoyed breakfast with the host and other people who had stayed overnight. We continued our drive through Castlegar, had lunch in Nelson and enjoyed a walk through the downtown area. In mid-afternoon we arrived at Ainsworth Hot Springs. This hot spring was quite neat. There was the main pool which was quite warm, and then they had the cave area which you could go in. It was quite hot in there. The water was very nice. And from there, you could go in the cold plunge pool in which the water feels like it is freezing after you have been in the other two pools. Of course we had to try it. It was definitely refreshing. After Ainsworth, we stopped off at Sandon which is another historical ghost town. Again it was pretty much closed up for the season. We stayed at a motel overnight at Naskup. We had a very nice dinner there. The next morning, we went for a dip in the Naskup hot springs. It was a very nice place also. The pools are relatively small compared to the other places we had been. Luckily it wasn't too busy. The water was very nice. We drove back to Naskup and walked around on their boardwalk with the view of Arrow Lake. After Naskup, we took the ferry from Fauquier to Needles. We were on our way for the weekend to Vernon to visit with Robin, Sheila and their kids. On the Saturday, Sheila took us to Davison orchards where Vernon was having an apple festival. we went and picked about 8 lbs of apples, and then we went to another orchard down the road and bought about 15 lbs of pears. That afternoon, we also went for a hike around Kalamalka Lake. It was very pretty and a hot hike. It was very nice to spending time with Robin and Sheila's family, they were very good hosts. Sunday morning, we headed back to Burnaby to end our vacation. The following week, Susan was busy making apple pies and canning all the pears. The weekend of September 23rd, Glen stayed in Calgary for a Java conference, and the following weekend we had Glen's co-worker, Jennifer, and her boyfriend, Zachary, at the lake. Glen and Zachary, both, waterskiied and kneeboarded. On our drive back the Vancouver. We decided to stop at Adams River to check out the salmon run as it was supposed to be a big one this year (every 4 years). We saw a few salmons, but it was still a day or two early. While we were at Adams River, we ran into Robin and Sheila and their kids... what a small world! Also during this last weekend in September, Susan's parents came to Burnaby/Vancouver for a 2-week visit.

In October, we spent Thanksgiving weekend at the lake with Glen's parents and his brother's family. We cleaned the boat and closed our place for the season...another summer, another year. Unlike the previous weekend where the Adams River Salmon Run had been a little lacking, there were a few more salmon this weekend, and although we didn't stop, Glen's brother Jim got some good salmon run pictures. The following weekends in October were spent with family and friends for dinners and celebrations. October seemed to go by very quickly.

During November, we went to the opening night of the James Bond movie, Casino Royale, we both really enjoyed the movie. We thought Daniel Craig did an excellent job portraying James Bond and we would highly recommend the movie. Also in November, Robin and Sheila came for a visit as they were attending the District Toastmasters Conference. It's funny, we hadn't seen Robin and Sheila since our wedding, which was 6 years ago, and this year we saw them 4 times. We had a fun visit with Robin and Sheila. We attended the Toastmasters Humourous Speech Contest and the dance afterwards. It was an alarming night with Robin and Sheila staying at our place, as they set our house alarm off in the middle of the night. At least, we learned our alarm system worked and the monitoring company was paying attention and doing what they needed to do.

During November 25th weekend, we went to Whistler for some skiing. It was very busy as it was opening weekend for Blackcomb and not all the ski lifts were open. The snow was very nice and it was constantly snowing. Susan was very pleased with her skiing as she was progressing to blue runs. Unfortunately, after skiing, when Glen and Susan were walking back to the parking lot, Susan took a hard fall on the ice. It took her about 2 weeks to get back to normal, as she was quite sore through the backside. The return drive from Whistler was slow, as there was heavy snowfall from Whistler to Squamish. This was the first night of the heavy snowfall forecast for the Greater Vancouver region. When we passed Squamish and got closer to Vancouver, it was more like rain. However as the night progressed, it was snowing. On Sunday, Glen walked to the Dr.'s to get a flu shot, and discovered a nice walking trail called the Burnaby Mountain Urban Trail, that is a very good way to get up onto Hastings Street from our house. On this particular day, the snow made the trail a very beautiful thing.

The last week in November saw heavy snowfall in the Vancouver region, and mayhem on the roads and skytrain. Susan has come to the conclusion that people in the Vancouver region are hooped if a natural disaster ever happens. The way people reacted from the boil water advisory and the snow, it was disgraceful. People were in a frenzy at grocery stores to buy bottled water, and during the snow, people shoved, pushed and yelled on the skytrains.

In December, we are having some family dinners during the weekends. For Christmas, we are heading to Calgary from December 22 to January 1, and staying with Susan's parents. Susan's sister, and brother's family will also be spending Christmas in Calgary. It should be a really nice time as it has been over 10 years since Susan and her siblings and parents have had a Christmas together.


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