Day #8 since opening.
It’s a very impressive structure. A good experience.
We enjoyed ourselves — though the line-up for the slide was too long. If you want to do the slide, show up at opening.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I really like Salmon. Try to avoid thinking about how they are killed for my pleasure. 😐
But my Dad and brother have always been keen fishermen. I’ve joined them on charters a few times in Canada and Mexico.
Many times found reasons to avoid those trips in the past. I really fear sea sickness. 🤮
Since my Dad sold his boat, they’ve done two charters a year, most recently out of Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island.
As Pacific salmon numbers decline, it’s gotten increasingly more difficult.
June 2021 they decided to try a new guide in a new area. An interesting and entertaining character.
We stayed in Port McNeill for 2 nights as Pete lives there. He made the final decision whether to fish out of Port Hardy or Port Alice.
Fishing had been better out of Hardy, so that was the final decision.
It was about a 3.5 hour drive from Parksville to McNeill. Another half hour to Hardy.
We headed north at 6am on the hottest day in thousands of years (at least).
I’ve been to the north of Vancouver Island a few times — but feel I don’t really know the remote, unique area. I’m planning for a couple of weeks bicycle touring. Some day.
It was an hour at full throttle to get to the open fishing area. Seas at the north tip of the island are dangerous. Weather often horrific.
Our day was dead calm, compared to normal.
My family likes to fish for salmon first. Switch to halibut next. We had our limit of 8 Chinook (Spring) salmon (2 / licence) by about 12:30pm.
I even caught fish. It was fun.
Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.
Pete took us further out about 5 miles to a spot he calls his butthole. It’s a shallow, sandy bottom area.
We ended up catching 4 halibut. They were bigger and much more of a challenge to murder than salmon. The largest halibut required Pete to use his harpoon.
Cost for 4 was about $1600 including 2 nights hotel, charter, fuel.
We brought home well over $1600 worth of fish.
I’d go again. Did not get sea sick.
On return to town we found all restaurants closed. Power failure.
Happily our motel had a huge, noisy generator.
related – Canada has budgeted $647M over 5 years to try to save declining Pacific salmon.
Rob and Yvonne invited me along on a road trip to Sooke.
First stop was Port Renfrew where they were able to (tentatively) book their annual fishing charter. Salmon and Halibut the goal.
I was able to book accommodation for myself and Brian the night before we start on the West Coast Trail — June 15th.
I’d forgotten how chilly and windy it can be on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It was cold here on the pub patio.
We continued the scenic drive towards Victoria where Rob and Yvonne had booked their favourite hotel — Sooke Harbour.
I’d stay there again. Two bedroom units for less than $200 / night.
Next day we had the typical morning fog.
I jumped on my bike for the long ride back to Parksville.
Lexie Limitless.
I really need make a trip to Central Asia.
I’d join a guided tour first, to get a feel for the place.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’ve visited many of these wonderful places, but not all.
#dreaming
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (36min)
😀 Send me ALL the vaccine passports.
I got dose #1 of “Covishield”, the Indian version of Oxford–AstraZeneca, March 18th. NO — I’m not worried about blood clots.
I was in the first 7.76% of Canadians to get jabbed.
When Alberta started allowing the second dose of AstraZeneca after only 4 weeks, I signed up. Got jab #2 on April 16th.
Sounds like Vaccine Passports are a terrible idea.
But it’s inevitable that something like this will become required for international travel for many months. Or years.
Though Trudeau is worried about unintended side effects, vaccine passports are inevitable for some months and years to come. International airlines will require them, for example.
About 250k Canadians have already downloaded the most popular app — so far:
High privacy standards.
The app is available for free on iOS and Android devices and on the web at canimmunize.ca.
I manually added my 1st COVID vaccine. That can’t be in any way official.
But governments may eventually adopt this app for travel. I’ll be ready.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Pandemic seemed a perfect time to get on to the slopes.
Staying in Banff for 5 nights, I enjoyed 1 day at Louise, 2 at Sunshine.
Loving my new Shady Ray ski goggles.
It was ALL great. But my favourite run is the (easiest line) on Eagle Creek coming off Goatseye.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Shoppers Drug Mart is Canada’s largest pharmacy chain with over 1000 stores.
As I hope to become — yet again — a traveller, I’m thinking it might be better (in future) to have in-person access to all these stores.
Since I went on blood pressure medications a few years ago, I’ve been dealing with local, independent pharmacies. Good service, but they rarely have what I need in stock.
So … I’ve made a second trip back in person to pick up my DRUGS.
That’s been a hassle a few times over the years, as I travel so much.
The independents and Shoppers both now ship for free — but I have more faith in the big company.
Actually, I would have gone with Amazon Canada Pharmacy — but they haven’t launched that service yet.
Rick McCharles 