Birthday fun!

Can you believe it - Jonah is 6 years old!!!!? His birthday was on the 19th, and his Mom Jutta's was on the 21st! Picked up the kids in the morning at Jutta's office and then off to play for the day! This is Jonah's present - a little family of hedgehogs, about which he is enthralled.

Off we went to Beacon Hill Park - played in the playground.......

Walked around the lakes..................

Fed the ducks..............and then fed ourselves at the Beacon Drive In for lunch!

Richmond visit

Friday night, painkillers in hand, off to dinner out at Boston Pizza. Had a great time with Amanda and Amber.

So great to have so much time with the family before we leave in just 3 weeks....!

Am and proud Papa, Jason.

Saturday we stayed an extra night, and Kelly, Sean and Emma came over for a big roast chicken dinner. Fun evening.

Shannon Falls

After Brackendale, we stopped at Shannon Falls, an amazing place which is really stunning in the early spring during runoff, but is still very beautiful this time of year.

As we got closer, the views got better.....!

Close up it was wonderful, but I was not able to hike up the closest trail with my stupid back.

Awesome big tree with a dual trunk system in the park.

Brackendale...!

Had to stop and walk out my back several times, so first stop was Brackendale, a dear little town beside Squamish where up to 4,000 eagles converge in November to eat salmon.

The Squamish River is beautiful, and as it was another sunny day, it was a great place to walk around - slowly...!

This is the deck of a great restaurant perched on the edge of the river - we did see a few eagles, but it is too early for the main group, who come a month later.

We had an amazing lunch on the deck, in the sun, and then drove on to Richmond, to stay at Jason and Amber's for the night.

Goodbye Whistler

Last day in town and I put my back out - ouch! - picking up some laundry from the floor....sigh. Nevertheless, I was determined to go to the Irish Pub and hear some live music, which we did.

Enough pain killers and wine, and I can do anything....it was fun.

Miki by the giant Inuktuk.

Friday morning we headed out, getting the reverse views of fabulous mountains on the way down the Sea to Sky Highway. It was a great week of west coast mountain experience, including a wonderful 3 days with Jason to celebrate his birthday.

Lunch in Pemberton

We arranged to meet Gladys and Sandy at The Pony - a great little place! Had a nice lunch and then off in different directions to explore!

Some of the houses in the Pemberton valley are just enormous. All the front doors are built several feet off the ground - to compensate for all the snow, no doubt.










Huge lovely homes with great land around them and nicely landscaped.

A subdivision of homes much closer together - all very nice.

Pemberton mountains

Wed. Oct. 13 is memorable for all 33 miners being brought up safely in Chile...Chi...Chi...Chi...Chi...le...le...le...le!!! After we tore ourselves away from the television coverage, we drove up to Pemberton for lunch.

Gorgeous mountains and scenery on another sunny day!

Little patches of snow that never did melt, and look out - winter is not far off.

What a view from downtown Pemberton!