First looks at Curacao

May 24, 2009 Maurice 4 Comments

We have arrived in Curacao! I’m sitting on our deck, looking out over the ocean, having a cup of Timmy Horton’s coffee, typing this report.

We took a little 16 seat puddle jumper over to Curacao from Aruba – they said it would take 40 minutes, but it took about 25. Was a neat little trip – kinda reminded me of the puddle jumpers we took jumping the Greek Islands.

Curacao seems a lot bigger than Aruba. Willemstad seems quite large, compared to Aruba’s towns. We had a bit of an adventure finding the place – we didn’t really get lost, we just thought we were lost!

The condo is really nice – very large, 16 foot ceilings. A 400 sq ft deck out the bedroom has an outdoor dining room and 2 couches on it. It’s got good internet from out here too.

We’re going to go hop in the ocean in about 15 minutes. Hopefully, the water is clear and lots of fish are hanging about for us to capture on film!

Curacao, Vacations

Charlotte NC

May 23, 2009 Maurice 3 Comments

Well we’re in Charlotte, NC, and it’s 3:30 am Vancouver time. We are waiting for our connecting flight to Aruba. We have about a 3 hour layover here. It’s a very nice airport, with rocking chairs all over so you can sit and relax. There are electrical plugins, and they offer free wifi connections, too. So you can sit in the rocking chair, with your laptop plugged in, and surf the web while waiting for your flight.

Seattle’s airport charges $7.99 for 24 hrs worth of connectivity, the typical ATT ripoff “featured” in so many US airports.

We were having a bite to eat and a beer in the Seattle Taproom in the airport, when the waitress said, “you’re ordering a beer? I’ll have to see some ID.” I said, “ID? Really? How old do you have to be to drink in this town??” But I still had to pull out my ID and prove I was over 50 I guess. (Pam was going to have a coffee, but decided to order booze so she could feel young…)

We’re heading for breakfast now, then maybe a nap til the flight. The US Airways flight from Seattle to NC was uneventful. The flight was crowded, packed even. But all went well.

All About Max, Surrey Parks

Mudbay Park

May 18, 2009 Maurice Leave a comment

Today (Monday) we took Max over to Mudbay Park, an important part of the Pacific Flyway, the aerial highway migratory birds use to make their way from South America all the way to Alaska. It’s a pit stop of sorts, for birds on their way to and from mating/breeding grounds.

This was our first time there; there are paths running along the sea shore, over dykes and through the estuary. The marsh grasses hide lots of birds, but most of the up to 1200 species are not here at this time of the year. We saw only the usual ducks, crows, seagulls etc. The tide was not too low, so the flats are not that visible in the pictures.

It has a nice flat course for easier running. There are several well-paved trails, used also by cyclists. It was overcast, so a touch cool, but nice for a walk/run. The first loop was a 1.5 km trail, that had no hills what so ever. The only incline was down hill, and that was about 5 steps worth! Max liked to look over at the ocean, but had no inclination to try to get there.

It’s certainly a park that’s worth a second look. Pam has already declared it her favorite park. For a runner, it has some nicely maintained trails, in a relatively flat setting. The ocean is a welcome diversion, but the plant life is nice too. Lupins were just beginning to bloom all over the trail.

All About Max, Surrey Parks

Surrey Lake

May 16, 2009 Maurice 1 Comment

It’s been a while since we’ve made a post on the blog. Not sure why that is – just lazy I guess. We’ve been doing a lot of running, Max and I. We usually head down to the watershed on the weekends, and I usually don’t take a camera. Yesterday was a day off for me, so Max and I headed over to Surrey Lake.

It’s a man-made lake, and wetlands, designed to protect the farmlands. It’s got a trail around and up a fairly steep hill. On top of the hill horses graze. The run down the backside of the hill is nicely lined with trees, then you break out over the flats of the wetlands.

Max really gets excited when we get close to the parks where we run. He sits up and starts whining eagerly, prancing on his seat. All the little creatures get him scampering all over.

He’s much better around people when we’re on a leash. He used to react to people who got too close. But we’ve managed to calm that down a bit. Still working on his in-home behaviour when visitors arrive – I’d like him to be a bit calmer when he sees we are ok with whoever has arrived. We had a technician from the cable company and he was better. Not great, but getting there.

I tell you tho, he has the most hysterical habit of playing with his stuffed toys. I’ve seen dogs take toys and shake them and rough house them, but Max takes them and TOSSES them WAY into the air. They even wind up on the table! It’s so funny, and he stands there with his mouth wide open in a big smile! It’s really too funny.

Something About Us

Tribute to Nurses

May 3, 2009 Maurice Leave a comment

The Vancouver Medical Dental Building was built in 1929. On about the tenth floor there were constructed 11 foot high terra cotta statues of the Nursing Sisters, a tribute to the nurses of the First World War.

The story goes that one of the architects who designed the building was wounded in the war, and he credited the Sisters with saving his life. This was his way to pay his respects.

They could not be salvaged when the building was demolished, but replicas now reside on the Crystal Place office building, on the corner of Georgia and Howe, but down at the 3rd floor level, where they are clearly more visible! When we were waiting for the Sun Run to start, we took a couple pictures of her – and so – here she is! Really pretty cool.

Commentary

Nothing much!

April 29, 2009 Maurice Leave a comment

Well the weather finally seems to be turning the corner into summer, but I’m not holding my breath about it! The other day i posted a picture of some tulips in our back yard garden – here is a picture of the tulips a couple days later – the color is darned glorious!

And the cherry tree has finally bloomed, but it looks like a lot less blooms than last year. Guess we’re not going to get a bumper crop this year!

One of our friends was heading to Cancun, Mexico but has been forced to cancel due to the swine flu pandemic that threatens to envelope the globe. Is that something or what? The scale of it seems incredible, with Mexico City considering shutting down public transit! Wow – that’s an amazing reaction.

Surely, in this day and age, a flu pandemic cannot be THAT serious, can it? They say that up to a quarter of a million people die from the flu yearly, so will this drive that number up significantly? I always worry about how the media approaches these kinds of stories. Headlines from many papers are over top really, creating fear and worry among anyone with a sniffle or a cough.

SWINE FLU GROUND ZERO screams one headline; SCIENTISTS PERPLEXED BY SWINE FLU screams another; even the New York Times is adding to the hysteria with silly pictures of people with masks on… the practice of wearing a mask can actually INCREASE your chances of getting the virus, people! Here’s a link to a story if you don’t believe me.

RELAX – chill out. This too will pass….

All About Max

The mind wanders

April 22, 2009 Maurice Leave a comment

Stream of consciousness post this evening… We’ve had time to reflect on the Vancouver Canucks four game sweep of the St. Louis Blues and people got more than just a little carried away! They were out blocking intersections, and honking horns and fighting – and finally a cop got his leg broken. I mean, come on people! It’s the first round, we’ve won nothing.

Not that I’m not glad we won! Sure, I’m excited, but there are three more rounds to go. No point in getting carried away over nothing.

What happened to spring? Usually the cherry tree in the backyard has finished blooming already. So far, it’s not giving much sign of anything. If this is happening to our usually very productive tree, how are things going with farmers? I sense that food is going to be pricey this summer, rather than cheaper.

The early tulips we got in February are toast; they grew four or five inches then got snowed on, and they never recovered. The ones that were later coming up are finally giving a bit of a show.

Max had some dental work done this week, and had his nails clipped. He’s not great with strangers to say the least! When my folks stayed for a few days last week, he barked at them each morning. sigh. Not behaviour we want – I wish I knew what he felt… how can these people in the house be a threat? They’ve been there all day, all night…

I’m confused. He’s such a goofy friendly guy in general. It’s just this stress of seeing some one new sets him barking.

My official Sun Run time was 1:13:35. Darned slow I know, but I see in retrospect that I needed to train differently than I did. I’ll do better next year. It’s fun to be running again, especially now that it’s finally warming up. Although it wasn’t really very warm this morning!

(So what did happen to spring? Isn’t this the time of year it gets warmer?)

Thought for the Day: If I can remember when an application was for employment, a program was a TV show, a hard drive was a long road trip, and a keyboard was an electronic piano, does that make me old?

Snorkeling the ABC Islands