October 30, 2009

Summer Capoeira Shows

This summer, Kathryn's capoeira group put on several shows around the city and I was on hand to shoot video. The clip below is the 'best of' from a roda in English Bay, a demo at the Chinese Gardens and a show at 'Deep Cove Days'.

For any of you that don't know, capoeira is a Brazillian martial art that combines dance, music, acrobatics and scrappin' into a single entity. Kathryn has been very keen on it for years now and attends class as often as possible, so its a big part of her life and our free time out here.

NOTE: Anyone that wants to see this video at higher quality can check it out in 720p here.

October 29, 2009

U2 at a bit of a distance

Kathryn and I had tickets to see U2 last night at BC Place which can seat 60000 people. We'd bought the tickets months and months ago but didn't want to pay for the $250 premium seats prefering our affordable nosebleed seats. They put on a really great show with shout outs to the local transit system, Bill Gates (who was apparently there somewhere and it was his birthday), and Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. The light and sound show were great and they play a very solid set of favorites from their careers. Very much recommended to anyone that has the chance to see them someday.Since we were a bit far back I ran one of our photos through that picture enhancing program people always have in movies.. I don't know the settings very well so the results were mixed, but it was a great show all around, even if our pictures aren't too sharp or close.

October 26, 2009

Spotted Lake

On our recent trip through the Okanagan we passed through the town of Osoyoos which is right in the vineyard/desert part of southern BC only a few minutes drive from the US border. It is also home to a unique in North America phenomenon called Spotted Lake. Created by alkali mud and some sort of magic this lake is filled with hundreds of small pools of water year round. Its now a sacred native site so we had to sneak a bit to get a good look, but that's a better fate than the alternate plan which had been for private companies to package the mud and sell it off in beauty care products...

October 24, 2009

Marine Mammal Rescue

Kathryn has been a very dedicated volunteer this summer. She put in many shifts at the aquarium when the baby beluga was born and needed to be watched 24-7 to be sure it was healthy. She also put in 2-3 shifts a week at the Marine Mammal Rescue which is primarily involved with the rehabilitation of orphaned seal pups. The clip below covers their time at the MMR from arrival to release.
With any luck the little guys she has worked with and released are looking something like the wild seals shown below and fitting right in on the coast of BC.

October 23, 2009

Closed and Accidental Railway Museums of the West

On our journey through the west coast states and BC we happened across a couple of railway museums, one on purpose and one quite by mistake.
The intentional one was also the closed one unfortunately. The Kettle Valley Railway was listed in our tour book of the Okanagan but didn't happen to mention its seasonal nature and though I followed in my fathers footsteps and poked around the engine shed, someone had callously locked it.
And then as we were passing through Garibaldi, Oregon we came along this one sitting in the middle of the town and quite open to our pokings. Although this locomotive is no longer used (and has a boiler full of garbage tossed in by ungrateful passers by) they do let you poke about and there is another engine that does rides in the summer as well.

October 22, 2009

Big Cats of Bandon

On our recent holiday through BC, Washington and Oregon our southernmost destination was the town of Bandon whose claim to fame is a walk-through safari with extensive petting zoo. They work very actively with big cat preservation with zoos and the like and as a result frequently have young cats that are too young to be moved and to cute not to be patted.

There'll be more pictures from this place later, but for now we'll just leave it at the 'big' cats.
Kathryn is patting a baby leopard named Bently who weighs a little less than our cat and is still small enough for lap sitting. If you ask her nicely about it she may tell you more about this leopard :PNext was a lion cub named Bella who is a little too big for laps but still quite a charmer.And last but not least was a Siberian Lynx named Kesa who is almost big enough to move to her next home but was still present for our attention.

October 9, 2009

Hell's Gate

This summer we went to Hell's Gate with some friends. Its a few hours east of Vancouver and features a cable car (pictured above), a fish ladder and fisheries museum, fudge store and a haunted stove. Yes, a haunted stove... legend has it that the stove gets warm in the summer because of the Chinese cook ghost that haunts it, not because of direct sunlight or anything.There's also a bridge across the water lower down and a railway line running through the area. Every year during the spring melt the water comes very high and close to the bottom of the bridge, having washed out earlier and unfortunately lower bridges. The rocks in the panorama are scoured white by the fast waters.

October 7, 2009

Night Boarding

With winter on the way, I thought I'd share a few pictures I took on the slopes at Cypress last winter. I got an evening pass for one night a week with a co-worker and along with another friend of his we split up the work week with a bit of snowboarding. The top picture was taken from the chair lift and looks over the moutains and sea out to Gibsons'. The bottom picture was taken from the north slope and looks out over the southern runs and the chalet.

October 6, 2009

Vancouver Zoo

After yesterdays remarks about the lack of megafauna in our area, I felt I should show that there are still a nice selection of large and exotic animals to be found in the area. Though the zoo here is on the remote eastern outskirts of the city and not very accessible, we did get out there last summer with some friends to have a look around. Above are some neat cattle we had never heard of before which look quite a bit like Tim Curry from 'Legend' (mercifully the animal kingdom doesn't have any cattle that look like him from 'Rocky Horror')One of our favorite creatures we never knew existed, the Mara (in the back), is a Patagonian rodent that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo. We've seen them in Toronto and Prague as well and they never fail to delight. And a cabybara never hurt either.And just to prove that they have anything typical to zoos, here's a giraffe right before feeding time.

October 5, 2009

Ferocious Locals

Although Vancouver is a pretty built up place and certainly lacks megafauna, there are quite a few little mammals to be found here and there. Back in Burnaby it was quite common to see coyotes in the bush at dusk and now that we're downtown we're spoiled for choice with squirrels, skunks, raccoons, bats and all sorts of birds.

October 1, 2009

Whale Watching 2008


Kathryn and I went whale watching for the first time last fall and had an amazing encounter with a group of transient orca whales. We departed from an outfit running out of Granville Island and saw these whales off the coast of Galliano Island.

Tour boats are not allowed to intentionally go within several hundred meters of these great beasts, but they were curious about us and came over for quite a long look. For several hours we floated with a pod that came right up to the boat on a number of occassions and even breached a few times for us just as we were leaving.

Also saw some seals on a log jam near UBC and some bald eagles, but the whales were certainly the main event.