The Squamidian Report – July 8 / 06
Issue #214
Also in this issue:
Brenda’s Canada Day
The Ontarion
Hi All,
It wasn’t a dirt biking adventure, it wasn’t even really an adventure. It was simply a pleasure. Sue and I did a run up to Whistler on the street bike for breakfast last Sunday morning. The day was hot and clear, not a cloud in the sky. The thing about highway riding on a bike is that there is no roof, doorposts or windows to obstruct the view. You glide between the tall trees that line the road. You pass under the snow-capped mountains of the Coastal Range. The motorcycle’s muffler sound echo’s off the rock faces as you accelerate up the grades.
The streams and rivers are swollen from the melting ice and snow in the upper alpine areas. That bitterly cold water chills the air along the river courses. As you pass over the bridges over these rivers you pass through that chilled air and experience the temperature changes.
I’m not big on going to Whistler. There isn’t much there to interest me. It has become a tourist trap that caters to the very rich and the wild party types. But there is a small restaurant in Function Junction that used to be a catering place with a few tables for walk in customers. At that time it served breakfast to the local truckers and trades people. It has evolved into a ‘funky’ eatery but the food is still good. And by Whistler standards, the price is still acceptable.
Sunday mornings are the best time for rides like that. Traffic is usually light. Highway 99 is best traveled when you have the freedom to enjoy it. When traffic is heavy, like on a Friday evening or Saturday morning, it’s the pits. You are too busy driving to appreciate where you are and what you are doing. By the time we got home it had become too warm for us to wear our leather jackets comfortably and the traffic was starting to build. So our timing was good and our morning was great.
*
Here’s a cool web page for anyone who likes to see far off places. It’s a page of 48 web cam shots spread out around BC, the Yukon, Alaska and Washington State. Just one word of advice, do not try to view this page if you don’t have high speed Internet. Those 48 pictures would take a while to download over a dial-up connection.
http://ruping.awardspace.com/webcams/pyrwebcams.html
doug
****
Hope y'all had a wonderful Canada Day weekend!! John & I played tourists in Toronto. It was really fun. I was sort of scared that TO traffic would be a nightmare but it was fine...not great but fine..we could cope.
We picked up my cousin, Marlene in Weston and drove dipsy....doodle through the city down to Harbourfront. We found underground parking at the Radisson Hotel, parked, took the elevator up to ground level and joined the crowds for the festivities. I think we saw every nationality that's ever come to this country and more!! It was just perfect weather wandering around in the fresh air, listening to the music and people watching. A guy working for the harbour cruises persuaded us to join the next cruise so we hopped aboard with about 20 others for a 45 minute sail around the harbour and over to the islands. Even though we had lived in Toronto for a few years before moving to Kitchener, this was a first! We had had no idea of the channels and trails and a little lighthouse and the filtration plant that we saw out there. And it was just so much fun... out there amongst the kayakers and sailboats and the taxi-ferries taking picnickers over. We sailed up a channel lined with the kinds of boats that you and I don't own....people aboard were really friendly and it was amazing to see all the Canadian flags, red & white streamers, even camping chairs all with red maple leafs.
After we got back on land we went back to the car to get our picnic hamper and we found a table near a spot where they teach you to kayak and/ or canoe. They had a lift to allow handicapped people to be placed in the boats and off they went sailing..lots of smiling faces there!. After lunch we wandered back to Queen's Quay to shop and browse in some of the stores.
Then we left Harbourfront to drive further east to another part of the city on Queen street east...the Beaches. I had been there 35 years ago..a fact I remember because I was pregnant with my daughter. I don't know the whole history of this area..but there is a whole neighbourhood of really old homes...some of them are little wee bungalows and others are three stories high. I think some of them were cottages at one time. The streets are narrow and down at the lake there is a boardwalk and sandy beaches. It was packed with people and we had a bit of a time getting a spot to park but eventually John squeezed the van into one narrow spot and we were off again to window shop on Queen. Eventually we took one narrow street down to the beaches and walked the boardwalk for about 15 minutes. Lots and lots of people all doing the same as us, enjoying the out of doors and happy to be where they were at that moment! It was pretty hot by that time so we chose another side street to amble on back to the car. Along the way though, we took the time to really look at the old houses, so narrow and with such beautiful gardens, rockery, little fences and all kinds of funky decorations on their porches, shutters and driveways..hardly enough room to swing a cat!! One fancy house has gingerbread woodwork that was actually really gingerbread men!!
Again we dipsy doodled our way back into the downtown area to another old area called the Distillery District. It at one time housed the factories which brewed all kinds of liquor but the insides have been re fitted into shops (quite expensive) restaurants, coffee shops and art galleries/museums. At the restaurant where we had an Italian supper, the insides were quite plain but the restored bricks and heavy beams were all it took to make the place very comfortable and the three of us enjoyed a pretty reasonable dinner of pasta, veal and shrimp (not all on one plate...we all had something different). We decided to blow the bundle on dessert and these were truly decadent. (I didn't see anything left over on anyone's plate.) By this time the good weather had been replaced by rain and some pretty gusty winds so John ran to get the car and my cousin and I jumped in without getting too wet. The rain stopped as fast as it had come and the drive back to Weston was a great one because we passed through some of the ethnic areas of the city inhabited by people who had won in soccer on Saturday. To say they were having a good time would be an understatement.... front porches full of people, people outside on the sidewalks, cars tooting and young men hooting with double and quadruple flags flying from their cars..it was a riot!!
I know it maybe wouldn't be everyone's idea to spend Canada Day in downtown Toronto but we had a wonderful day seeing the sights, enjoying the weather and really celebrating the diverse cultures shown by all those we saw. Hope that you had a great day too.
****
Hello
everyone!
Well the
weekend is fast approaching and the weather is supposed to be amazing. I’m
really looking forward to the next three days. Adam and I are going to Toronto
to attend the Molson Indy. We’ve talked about going for years but this is the
first year we’ll actually be there. Adam gave me the tickets for Father’s Day and
I’m sure it’ll be a blast. I’ll be sure to take notes for a section of The
Ontarion for next week. Adam is taking his camera equipment and should get lots
of good pics to help us remember the weekend.
*
Adam and
I had the chance to take a run in the MG yesterday afternoon. I had ridden my
motorcycle to Kaufman’s Flats the day before and spotted what I thought was
another Bald Eagles nest on the other side of the river. Our trip yesterday was
in part to make a stop at the location and take some photos of the “eagles”. We
had a beautiful sunny afternoon so it was a perfect time to check out the
birds. Upon our arrival we were pleased to see a large bird sitting on the edge
of a huge nest. The nest was perched on top of a group of four very tall hydro
poles about 100m from the rivers edge. They appeared to be about 25m tall and
were tied together by long 2x8s at the top. The nest was made up of quite large
sticks and branches. As we approached the foot of the poles we noticed that
there were two more heads sticking up in the deeper part of the nest. At first
glance it appeared we had found another young eagle because of the mottled mix
of brown feathers and the white neck and back cap on the head of the larger
bird. I had taken the binoculars along this time so we could take a closer look
right there rather than wait till we got home to enter the pictures onto the
computer for a better look. We were there about 5 minutes when all of a sudden
all three of the birds took flight. As they hovered overhead, we could see that
they were different than the Eagle we had seen last week. They turned out to be
Osprey rather than Bald Eagles. Apparently a mother and her two young were what
we were witnessing and they were spectacular! We watched as they did their
aerobatic flights and as one of them dropped into the river and came out with a
bright red fish about 6” in length. It flew for the next ten minutes with this
fish in it talon and finally landed in the nest. It was joined shortly by the
other two birds and I’m sure they made a quick meal of the catch. We enjoyed
our walk around this natural area. It’s been set up as a nature area by the
Grand River Conservation Authority. The area is known as Snyder’s Flats and is
a former gravel pit. The river feeds a group of ponds that interconnect and
eventually find there way back into the river down stream. There is also a
large pond that is farthest from the river that was formed by springs that were
uncovered by the gravel excavation work of yesteryear. You can see the difference
between the river water and the spring fed ponds. The spring fed lake is as
clear as a bell and you can see the bottom to about the 4 or 5’ mark then it
gets too deep and dark.
The water
from the river ponds is slightly darker with a bit of a muddy tinge to it. It
may just be that the gravel bottom cleans the water better than the mud bottom
of the natural ponds. Either way, they are an interesting group of waterways
and we are going to take our kayaks out there soon to do some exploring. We’ll
be sure to take the camera along when we do.
*
I’d
better stop here for this week and go get my things together for tomorrow.
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in
The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now… Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
Everybody
talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Mark Twain.
****
The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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