Trusty The Phamlee readers welcome to post three of three on the day!
This was my favorite stop of the day and one I have been waiting for since my birthday! Ever since they upgraded the BC Mine Museum I have been dying to go there and it was well worth the wait. There are a bunch of different exhibits that give you a good history on the mine and the two town sites that supported it. You get to go on a guided tour underground through some of the tunnels where they show you some of the old drilling equipment and how it worked, they even turn it on so you can hear how loud it was. The tour continues to one of the old core sample tents that still contains a bunch of the old samples in there original trays with the original numbers on it - super cool. You also get to see inside one of the mills and it is crazy to think this was built with the technology they had back in the day.
As per usual the kids had their cranky moments but for the most part they had a great time. Lots of the exhibits were interactive so it kept them entertained pretty well. Some of the neat facts I learnt include:
Monday, January 23, 2012
50 Things to do in BC Before You Die: #15 - Gawk at Squamish Eagles
Trusty The Phamlee readers welcome to post two of three from our awesome trip to Squamish yesterday.
Our second stop of the day was to check out the eagles in Brackendale. This is number 15 on our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die list and I was pretty stoked to knock another one off has part of my plan for 2012 was to knock 3 more things of this list.
We probably could not have picked a worse day to check out the eagles because it was snowing pretty hard at the time we arrived so the visibility was quite poor; while I will check it off our list it is in the back of my mind to go back. It is a pretty neat set-up as they have volunteers with telescopes lined up so you can really get a good look at the eagles. While we were able to see the eagles through the telescope the pictures did not turn out too well, see below for that. They even had step ladders setup so the kids could look through the telescope too which was pretty cool
I was speaking with one of the volunteers and she mentioned the number of eagles that returned this year was quite low and it is all due to the lack of salmon in the rivers. Obviously, if there is no food source the eagles will go elsewhere or die. Keep this is mind when you think of the Northern Gateway pipeline which is proposed to cross a number of salmon spawning streams and rivers in BC and it does not take much oil to kill off a stream. Anyways, not too much to right about this adventure so I will just show you the view pictures we took, but we will be back.
Our second stop of the day was to check out the eagles in Brackendale. This is number 15 on our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die list and I was pretty stoked to knock another one off has part of my plan for 2012 was to knock 3 more things of this list.
We probably could not have picked a worse day to check out the eagles because it was snowing pretty hard at the time we arrived so the visibility was quite poor; while I will check it off our list it is in the back of my mind to go back. It is a pretty neat set-up as they have volunteers with telescopes lined up so you can really get a good look at the eagles. While we were able to see the eagles through the telescope the pictures did not turn out too well, see below for that. They even had step ladders setup so the kids could look through the telescope too which was pretty cool
I was speaking with one of the volunteers and she mentioned the number of eagles that returned this year was quite low and it is all due to the lack of salmon in the rivers. Obviously, if there is no food source the eagles will go elsewhere or die. Keep this is mind when you think of the Northern Gateway pipeline which is proposed to cross a number of salmon spawning streams and rivers in BC and it does not take much oil to kill off a stream. Anyways, not too much to right about this adventure so I will just show you the view pictures we took, but we will be back.
BC Parks: Shannon Falls Provincial Park
To all you trustworthy The Phamlee readers this is the first of three posts I will do today regarding our awesome trip to Squamish yesterday.
While the main purpose of the trip was to go to the BC Mine Museum at Brttannia Beach (more on that in post 3 on the day) our first stop on the trip was at Shannon Falls Provincial Park. While I have been here number of times before I really wanted to go again to officially knock it of our BC Parks list as part of our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die challenge. The other reason I wanted to go today was I have never seen it in the winter when it was starting to freeze over so this gave us the chance.
The weather was gross yesterday as it switched between heavy snow and heavy rain with some brutal wind mixed in for fun. Even with all that the kids were troopers, most of the time, it was a quick walk in the snow up to Shannon Falls and they kids enjoyed it. I tried to find a few geocaches but gave up pretty quick when I realized it would be too hard in the snow.While the falls were not completely frozen over it still made for a nice view. Below are a few pictures of this little stop...
While the main purpose of the trip was to go to the BC Mine Museum at Brttannia Beach (more on that in post 3 on the day) our first stop on the trip was at Shannon Falls Provincial Park. While I have been here number of times before I really wanted to go again to officially knock it of our BC Parks list as part of our 50 Things to do in BC Before You Die challenge. The other reason I wanted to go today was I have never seen it in the winter when it was starting to freeze over so this gave us the chance.
The weather was gross yesterday as it switched between heavy snow and heavy rain with some brutal wind mixed in for fun. Even with all that the kids were troopers, most of the time, it was a quick walk in the snow up to Shannon Falls and they kids enjoyed it. I tried to find a few geocaches but gave up pretty quick when I realized it would be too hard in the snow.While the falls were not completely frozen over it still made for a nice view. Below are a few pictures of this little stop...
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
More Chilliwack Weather & Some Random Kyah Pictures
So today the big story for us was the -30 degree temperature with the windchill, -14 without, and all the blowing snow. While I was at work this morning I was keeping an update on the roads in town via twitter and one after another they were getting shut down due to snow drifts, etc. So at 10:30 I left work just to ensure I could make it home. One of the pictures below is of a self portrait as I stopped on the way home to help some dude out. I was outside for maybe 5 minutes helping somebody dig their car out of a big snow drift. The road was next to a farm and had no protection from the wind and it was the worst wind I had ever felt in my life, even worse than mountain peaks in the middle of a snowstorm. When the wind really blew you could not see the ground or your hands and that is not exaggerating. It was pretty cool and in my opinion what winter should be! The fluff on my hat is usually black and my snot and eyes have never frozen like that before.
There are a few other random shots like our front steps which I had shoveled yesterday and our fort which is slowly getting covered by snow drifts. All the other photos are ones Kyah took when she was playing with the camera. She has a bit of a cold right now and I just thought she looked so cute in her self portraits.
I must also say that the City of Chilliwack has done a great job updating the public on the road conditions via twitter and even though our power has blown twice BC Hydro has had it back on within two hours both times; I feel sorry for those dudes out there working in this.
There are a few other random shots like our front steps which I had shoveled yesterday and our fort which is slowly getting covered by snow drifts. All the other photos are ones Kyah took when she was playing with the camera. She has a bit of a cold right now and I just thought she looked so cute in her self portraits.
I must also say that the City of Chilliwack has done a great job updating the public on the road conditions via twitter and even though our power has blown twice BC Hydro has had it back on within two hours both times; I feel sorry for those dudes out there working in this.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Our Awesome Forecast and a Few More Snow Pics
So we got a bunch more snow last night here in the land of Chilliwack. Sorry to you Aussie readers but once again the weather has proved to be more fun in Canada! Anyways the snow has now given way to really cold temperatures and I must admit I really enjoy battling the elements. Below is a screen shot of our forecast (windchill of -31 for tomorrow yippee!) for the next few days (it is going to be very ugly when it rains and washes this away) and a few shots of the snow after I shoveled for the second time today. As you will see our awesome fort needs to be dug out which may be my task for tomorrow after work. The pics were taken with my phone so the quality it a tad poor. Enjoy...
Monday, January 16, 2012
Fort Woods & Birthday Pictures
The kids had their birthday party this past Saturday and we had it at the Chilliwack Gymnastics Club. The kids go there for their Gymnastics lessons, which they love, so we thought it was a great place for their party. The club had a supervisor to make sure no one got hurt but other than that the kids were able to go nuts and have a great time which they did. Pictures below...
Also, we got our first batch of snow on Saturday and the forecast was calling for lots more snow so Cohen and I decided to build a snow fort. While I busted my balls to build the fort Cohen made snowballs with the intent of throwing them at me. We got a decent size fort built after almost two hours playing outside and I was pretty stoked to see Cohen spending that much time in the snow and having fun.
Sunday we built the fort up a bit more and then Cohen and Kyah decided to use it as their base for a snowball fight. The fort is high enough now that they can duck behind it and it is almost impossible for me to get them; little buggers.
We got another big dump of snow today and as I assumed the kids were in a mad rush to play in it when I got home from work. While the snow was too dry to pack the kids still had a good time making snow angels and helping me shovel the driveway and sidewalk. All the pictures of our fun weekend below and wait until you see the awesome job Chelsey did with the cupcakes...
Also, we got our first batch of snow on Saturday and the forecast was calling for lots more snow so Cohen and I decided to build a snow fort. While I busted my balls to build the fort Cohen made snowballs with the intent of throwing them at me. We got a decent size fort built after almost two hours playing outside and I was pretty stoked to see Cohen spending that much time in the snow and having fun.
Sunday we built the fort up a bit more and then Cohen and Kyah decided to use it as their base for a snowball fight. The fort is high enough now that they can duck behind it and it is almost impossible for me to get them; little buggers.
We got another big dump of snow today and as I assumed the kids were in a mad rush to play in it when I got home from work. While the snow was too dry to pack the kids still had a good time making snow angels and helping me shovel the driveway and sidewalk. All the pictures of our fun weekend below and wait until you see the awesome job Chelsey did with the cupcakes...
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Snow Shots
Just some snow shots from my not so lucky Aussie friends and family. The weather forecast is looking better by the day.
Monday, January 2, 2012
New Year Geocaching!
The kids wanted to go Geocaching again today so we scooted out to Cultus Lake Park as it is nice and close. All the caches we found were around the Maple Bay campground at the far end of the lake and we ended up snagging 5 for the day. Since everything is shut down for the winter it was pretty cool wondering around as all the trails were covered in leaves and there were lots of trees down across the trails. I was super stoked at how good the kids were as we wondered around for close to 2 hours and they whined very little. They must have had a good nights sleep because the have been chasing their Zhu Zhu Pets around the living room for the past hour and they are by no means taking it easy; hopefully that means they will go to bed good tonight.
Pictures of our adventure as well as the beginnings of my "Chilli-Con-Cupboard" below; I made a wicked ham and bean soup yesterday so thought I would give Chilli a whirl tonight...
Pictures of our adventure as well as the beginnings of my "Chilli-Con-Cupboard" below; I made a wicked ham and bean soup yesterday so thought I would give Chilli a whirl tonight...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)