Around the World

QUESNEL, WILLIAMS LAKE AND NAZKO, BRITISH COLUMBIA

13.05.2013 - 16.05.2013 12 °C

I flew to Quesnel on Central Mountain Air from Vancouver to visit my daughter, Melinda and her family. So after a day of relaxation, good food and drink we met granddaughter Andrea the next day and drove to Nazko....the site of a First Nation Reserve and in the heart of an area of soft wood lumber harvesting. This is a remote, backwoods, hunting, fishing and general recreational part of the province. So we took a picnic and followed that up with a visit to a famous.....I'm not kidding......truck stop that specializes in home made pies. What a treat !

Then Melinda and I headed for Williams Lake to see the new film "The Great Gatsby". Driving between Quesnel and Williams Lake is very dangerous at night because there are so many deer and even during the day we saw a huge brown bear at the side of the road. This is cattle and horse country so there are also a great many cows and horses in the fields. The country is green and rolling as well as quite heavily wooded. Anyway we stayed overnight, had a steak dinner and were about the only people in the theatre for the movie.

Tomorrow we are taking great granddaughters Makenzie and Erika to McDonalds for dinner and a swim at the Recreation Centre after which I will catch the evening flight home.

Arrived home last night(May 16th)after a wonderful time with my great granddaughters and a breathtaking flight. Hopefully the pictures I took do both events justice. And I am practicing with captions of a sort. The iPad is a little tricky but fun.

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Foxes in Quesnel

Swimming pool fun

Taken from an 18 passenger plane between Quesnel B C and Vancouver

Posted by douglasw 17.05.2013 16:08 Archived in Canada Comments (0)

VILLEFRANCHE, FRANCE, March 30-April 26,2013

06.05.2013 - 06.05.2013

This was my seventh four week trip to L'Institut de Francais and apart from saying it was as good as ever I won't bore anyone with the details. Has my French improved? Yes it has but not as much as I expected. I guess I'll have to return next year. Heather went with me, although not as a pupil, and we had a wonderful time. We went to Lyon for a long weekend on the TGV high speed train, stayed in the old town, enjoyed some of the great food Lyon is famous for, went to the opera, rented bikes to go along the paths bordering the rivers and more. Another weekend we went to Lourmarin, near Aix en Provence and stayed with friends. All in all it was a great trip and having Heather with me made it perfect.

Villefranche

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Posted by douglasw 06.05.2013 19:56 Comments (0)

VANCOUVER'S NORTH SHORE MOUNTAINS

26.02.2013 - 26.02.2013 8 °C

Here they are in February

Posted by douglasw 26.02.2013 12:29 Archived in Canada Comments (0)

VISITING ONTARIO AND NEW YORK CITY, DEC 6,2012-JAN 9,2013

My second Christmas season with Heather in Oakville including a few side trips.

06.12.2012 - 09.01.2013 3 °C

Once again I had a marvelous time with Heather visiting friends, eating out, entertaining at home, walking and talking. We went to dinner with The International Wine and Food Association in Toronto and attended the Rotary Christmas dinner. And we went to a concert in Toronto and a hockey game in Brampton. My great-grandson Ethan is the goalie on his team, his Dad Powin is the coach and his Mom Tanya along with his Grandfather Doug, Heather and I were his cheerleaders. And they won!

After the hockey game Heather and I went skating on the great skating path in a Brampton park and visited their museum. Not in any particular order we spent Christmas Eve with son Doug's family----wife Linda and all six kids and four grandkids as well as sons-in-law and a couple of girlfriends. Another emotional event for me. Then Christmas day we had Heather's daughter Briana and husband Rim as well as her other daughter Amelie for dinner. Spontaneously Heather invited three friends of Briana's and their father to join us which made for a very joyous meal. And went to Penetang to visit friends of Heather stopping en route to visit another friend in Creemore. While in Penetang I had a chance to ride Jane's Icelandic pony which was a thrill since I hadn't ridden in years.

But that wasn't all since we spent a week in NYC in Briana's apartment while she and Rim vacationed in Grand Cayman......what a deal! And this trip gave us the opportunity to visit and have lunch with my sisters-in-law Bev and Fran in St Catharines and Welland on the way. We went to three Broadway shows, had a terrific dinner out on New Year's Eve, walked across Brooklyn Bridge both ways and visited more friends in Old Greenwich. Of course we went to the Museum of Modern Art and this trip we also visited The Metropolitan Museum. Both were very busy but shouldn't be missed on a trip to New York.

Jan 13,2013 Added pictures taken by Heather Christmas Eve, at Ethan's hockey game and of me skating.

Tree cutting in Hillsburg, Ontario 2012

The house in which my Grandfather Williamson was born in 1879. St Catharines, Ontario, Dec 2012

Heather's house, Christmas, 2012

Heather's house Dec 2012

Riding Jane's Icelandic Pony, Penetang 2012

Kerrs' Boxing Day skating party. 2012

Kerrs' Boxing Day skating party, 2012

NYC January, 2013

NYC January 2013

Son and Father at Ethan's Hockey Game 2012

Ethan in goal 2012

Christmas Eve 2012

Christmas Eve 2012 #5

Christmas Eve 2012 #4

Christmas Eve 2012 #3

Brampton Ontario 2012

Posted by douglasw 12.01.2013 12:39 Archived in Canada Comments (0)

VANCOUVER TO SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA ON MS OOSTERDAM

An 8000 nautical mile cruise with stops in Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga and New Caledonia

01.10.2012 - 26.10.2012 28 °C

This cruise on Holland America Line was special since the ship crossed both the International Date Line and the equator. After five days at sea we spent a day in Hilo and a day in Honolulu before another five sea days until we arrived in Apea, Samoa.

While there we rented a cab and took a seven hour tour stopping to swim in an cave and then at a beach. The scenery is beautiful and the island is relatively unspoiled. Before returning to the ship we stopped at the home of Robert Louis Stevenson which has been perfectly maintained. He is revered by the people of Samoa for writing stories about their myths. Both here and in Tonga, our next stop after another sea day we found the local people gracious, helpful and very friendly.

In Tonga we kayaked to a small island for snorkeling and a beach lunch. I don't know the name of the island but apart from the restaurant it seemed virtually uninhabited. Tonga is the only south sea island to have never been colonized which sets it apart.

Then after two more days at sea we arrived at the French possession of New Caledonia. Our first day was at Easo, Lifou where the facilities are very basic but interesting. We took a cab to tour places of interest and walked up to a church high on a hill. Also we snorkeled in a little cove which some of our group thought was the best they had ever experienced. On this island the ship had to anchor and use life boats to ferry us to the rickety landing. Then our ship started dragging anchor and came within 50 feet of a bed of coral. It was the first time the Oosterdam had come to this island and the captain was on shore to receive some sort of plaque. But it all ended well and neither the ship nor the coral was damaged. The next day we docked in Noumea, New Caledonia and it was a shock to be in this modern resort. We did visit a great museum there, the Tjiabou Cultural Centre designed by Renzo Piano who also designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris, showing ancient village life of the original inhabitants.

Then another two days at sea and we sailed into Sydney harbour early in the morning. With a fire boat spraying and the sight of the Opera house, skyline and the famous bridge it was really a sight to behold.

We had a very busy couple of days in Sydney, attending the opera for Lucia di Lammermoor, walking through the Botanical Garden and going to the Art Gallery. Also we shopped and went to Darling Harbour where we visited the Aquarium and the Wild Life Park. So we saw what the Great Barrier Reef is like without travelling to Cairns and of course the Australian animals and snakes are unique to that continent. Then we took the ferry to Manly Beach where we had dinner on the beach and watched people surfing. Australia is a wonderful place to visit and we wished we had more time there. All of the following photos are courtesy of Heather Donaldson.

Leaving_Va..g_to_Sydney.jpg Hilo Hawaii 2011