Off To Seattle

It was off to Seattle last weekend to take a break from Victoria and celebrate Tasha's birthday. We took the Coho ferry from Victoria harbour and drove from Port Angeles to downtown Seattle.

They sure have a unique way of parking on the ferry...




Port Angeles is a major freighter port of call.




We had to take the Kingston-Edmonds ferry and I couldn't believe what they had in the cafeteria: corndogs!!




When we pulled up to the hotel the valet took a look at the car and must have thought "Hey, the Ho-Jo is down the road"...but he parked us anyway.




View from our room...




There is always an idiot with a camera...




Couldn't pay me enough to do this job!







We went an a guided tour of Seattle and checked out many sights including the locks...




Cool sculptures...







Pike Place Market...










Great view of the city



All too soon it was time to head back. But not before loading up on clothes at the outlet and discount stores...actually I was the one that had to be dragged away!

It was a great time but nothing beats the sight of home sweet home!

Time To Make Some Noise

Andy came down from Campbell River and stopped by with his guitars and amp. I decided to set things up for a recording session and we were on our way to hours of creating quality "noise"...

Gettin tuned up...




I had problems getting the audio hooked up and had to call tech support (read: Josh)...of couse he got it all fixed up. What a guy, and cheap too!




Andy had some awesome acoustic stuff he had written...due to copyright reasons I can not share this great music with you (do I sound like an agent??)



After a Tim Horton's run we were back at it...

Yard Work

We decide to start a fire to burn some of the blow-down from the last storm..




Andrew took the chopping very seriously...I'm kinda worried about the boy...




Pam got herself a new wheelbarrow!




The fire was smoldering so I decided it would be a great idea to stand on it for enouragement...it actually worked but I had one heck of a hickory smell afterwards...




I didn't really know where to put this picture...I was looking at my odometer and after going "holy @#!T, I'm on borrowed time!" I noticed all the 7's...this has gotta be lucky for me. Hopefully the luck comes in the form of a new car...

West Coast Road Trip

I had a meeting in Lake Cowichan last week and decided to continue on to work using the logging roads through Port Renfrew to Sooke. It is officially called the "Circle Route"...or the "lose all your fillings", there had to have been thousands of potholes on the dirt road portion.

The industrial traffic was very surprised to see me, I stopped the truck and trailer pictured below for not having any insurance. Even though it is a logging road it is open to the public and therefore everything on it must have insurance. The first thing the driver said "what are you doing way out here?". I live for the shock factor...




















When I arrived in Port Renfrew the sun was going down and the surf was up. The effect of our recent storm was evident with all the logs and debris on the beach. Apparently Port Renfrew is poised to be developed soon. That's really too bad, I just hope it can be done in a way that respects its natural beauty...

Fighting The Weather

Last month I decided it was time to get those perimeter drains finished. Now that I have the "green light" for my transfer to the Vancouver area I have to get the house finished. I started digging with the intention to finish the next day but overnight the snow fell with a vengeance...

You can see I unearthed the old perimeter drain...kudos to whoever put that dysfunctional system in. The black pipe is my unearthed water-line which is wrapped in heater wire and pipe insulation to keep from freezing. You only let that happen once!

West Coast Destruction

Well, Josh wanted to see some pics of the famous "Storm of '06" so here you have it...greater Victoria wasn't too bad but heading west to Sooke and Port Renfrew was a real eye-opener. I just can't believe nobody was killed or injured during this storm, absolutely unbelievable.

The first two pictures are of a house in Sooke, the family had fled to the basement before the trees came crashing down. The third pic was of the neighbour who just received a "scraping". There were too many damaged houses to count. The rest are of my trip to Port Renfrew today where I was accosted by the locals and media (didn't make the news...dang, I was on my game too!).