Sunday, June 26, 2011

Southern Oregon & Northern California, 25-26 June 2011

Saturday was the main day of the CCC reunion. After breakfast at St John's Lutheran Church, we met in the church for Morning Chapel. It included the Healy Willan Te Deum, a favorite from the Oakland days.

Following Chapel, Rod Gehrke gave a mini recital. Yes, the kid can still play very well! (Not that he's much of a kid any more.)

Class groups then met. Our HS class of '62 had been assigned its own room, but a different room for the college '64 year with a couple of other years. So we combined them. It made for a large group, but was great to hear everyone's story. We also shared news of other class and school mates not there.

The afternoon began with a Chorister rehearsal, just like in college (Prof Gehrke always said on tour they fed you a big meal and then expected you to sing a concert, so get used to the pattern.) The director was the musician from St John's. We quickly learned about six pieces, most of which we had sung before in Choristers.

Following the rehearsal, an alumnus gave a talk about his experience going to a Mt Everest Base Camp. It sounded interesting, but he advised against doing it.

The Alumni Choristers at the Banquet
We gathered at the Hyatt Hotel for a banquet. The meal was good, and the bar was open. The program was reminiscences of the history of CCC. A little long, but interesting. The Choristers then sang three of the pieces we had rehearsed. It was overall a very good evening.

Sunday morning we all went to Trinity Lutheran Church for a service. The alumni choir sang. It was a bit long, but a very good worship experience. After church there was a reception for some final sharing with friends and classmates before heading out.

We headed east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains for a three-night stay in Jamestown, which will be a base camp for us to revisit Yosemite after too long an absence.  On the way here, we stopped in Murphys to try a couple of wineries on friends' recommendations. We found a couple quite good ones. We stayed there for dinner at a bistro, which was very good.

We are now settled in for the night, ready to head to Yosemity Valley in the morning!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Southern Oregon & Northern California, 24 June 2011

Today was mostly a long drive from Medford, Oregon to Sacramento, California. The only stops were for lunch at a rest area near Shasta Lake, and for gas. The day was clear and brightly sunny all the way. The mountains in southern Oregon and into northern California were beautiful. The highlight of that were the views of Mt Shasta.
Mt Shasta
It was quite warm (lower 90's) in Sacramento as we checked in to our hotel. Dick took a walk around the neighborhood before dinner just to explore. Our hotel is a block from the old California Governor's Mansion in a mostly business area, with a number of old houses, all in pretty good shape.

The opening reception of the reunion was a fun evening. Heavy appetizers, enough to make it supper. And plenty of good California wine to wash it down. And, of course, lots of good conversation with "old" friends and classmates. It was a truly fun evening!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Southern Oregon & Northern California, 23 June 2011

We are off on another small trip. This time headed to Sacramento for an all-years reunion of California Concordia. We're looking forward to seeing friends.

On the way south today through most of Oregon, we stopped at a few wineries in the Umpqua River  valley. That was after lunch in a rest area on I-5 south of Eugene. Found some pretty good wines (and bought too many, if that's possible).

We are in Medford tonight and had dinner at Wild River Handcrafted Food & Ale. It was very good, ale and burger and pizza with house-made root beer.

Tomorrow it's into California and on to Sacramento.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Vancouver to Portland, 12 June 2011

Today we headed home to cap off a great week. After packing up, we headed out on our way home by way of Tacoma. The GPS, however, didn't know about a road closure due to construction in Vancouver, so we took a slightly round about route to Highway 99 to Blaine, Washington. Also, we didn't know (nor did the GPS) that the Peace Arch crossing was closed for a "friendly border celebration." So we, and everyone else, headed a bit east to the alternate crossing. Since it's a smaller operation, it took just under an hour to get across the border.

Once in Washington, we headed south on I-5, stopping in Ferndale for "lunch": a scone and a coffee. It was good at a local place. From there it was simply down I-5 with the obligatory slowdown in Seattle. Even on a Sunday afternoon.

We were to meet the rest of the family at the Harmon Brewpub at 4:30 for a birthday dinner with the whole gang. We got there a little early and walked about a bit. It was a great gathering to celebrate Dick's birthday, and the Harmon is always good.

After dinner we gathered at Tim & Venessa's for drinks and cheer. Tim has gotten pretty good at making cocktails. We then headed home, with Karen driving and the usual stop at the Chehalis Starbucks. It was a great conclusion to a wonderful week of holiday.

Whistler/Vancouver, BC 11 June 2011

Saturday in Vancouver on a day that became sunny by early afternoon. Our plans consisted simply of being tourists.

Stanley Park totems
We headed first to Stanley Park, one of the largest and most beautiful city parks we know.  Our first stop in the park was at the totem pole collection. They have made some landscaping changes so you can't get right up to the poles, but all are clearly viewable. Several of them are "newer" ones placed in 1987 for the world's fair here. We walked around the point at that end of the park past a light house and the 9 O'clock Gun back to our car.

As we continued our circuit of the park, we stopped a couple of places for the views, notably at Lion's Gate Bridge. There is a new parking lot and viewing area since our last visit. For lunch we revived an old tradition and stopped at Lumberman's Arch for Fish 'n Chips in the park. That's where Dick first had (and learned to like) fish and chips many years ago.

Siwash Rock
Our next stop was at a spot to walk along the seawall to Siwash Rock, the site of a native legend that we had never before gotten to. It was an interesting short hike. After we returned to the beach and parking area, Dick headed up the path to a spot overlooking the rock for a different view.

Gastown Steam Clock
From Stanley Park we headed to the Gastown area, first for a stop at Murchie's Tea to replenish our supply of tea. With that accomplished we walked around the Gastown area, stopping at the steam clock, and visiting a couple of shops and galleries. We timed our walk to be at the Steam Clock at five o'clock. This unique clock runs on steam, and "chimes" the time with steam whistles rather than bells. It makes for an interesting sound.

Since our parking permit for Stanley Park was good till nine o'clock, we headed to the edge of the park to park for dinner at a Malay restaurant nearby on Denman Street. It was very good, and we got there just ahead of the crowds. There was a waiting line when we left. After dinner we walked to the beach area, and just sat and enjoyed the view.

Nine O'clock Gun in Stanley Park
Closer to 9 o'clock we headed back to near our first stop in the park, to view the 9 O'clock Gun. Interestingly, a wedding party came to do the same. We guess they wanted to celebrate the wedding with a bang. The gun fired right on schedule.

After another stop at Prospect Point near Lion's Gate Bridge for sunset views, we headed back to the hotel, capping a great day in Vancouver.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Whistler/Vancouver, BC, 10 June 2011

This morning it was time to pack and head out of Whistler to Vancouver. Leaving Whistler about 10:30, we headed south out of the mountains and along Howe Sound to Vancouver for a couple of days.

Brandywine Falls
On the way we stopped again at a couple places. First was at Brandywine Falls. The light was much better for pictures than on the way up, so we retook a bunch. As we were leaving the falls, the daily train to Whistler went by. After a quick stop for gas in Squamish, we stopped in Britannia Beach for lunch.

Vancouver to Whistler train
Galileo Coffee is a funky local spot with good coffee and good food. It's in an old house by the highway near the mine (now a museum) that is the main feature of the town. We then went back into "town" to a native art gallery and center. There was some beautiful artwork. But all we walked out with was a notepad the proprietor gave me for my birthday.

at Porteau Cove Provincial Park
Howe Sound
Our last repeat stop was at Porteau Cove Provincial Park. It was interesting to see the mountains around Howe Sound with clouds flirting around them. There were also some very pretty little birds with red heads and blue backs.

On into Vancouver, with a major traffic jam in North Van leading to the highway bridge, which is under reconstruction. We reached our hotel in Vancouver fairly easily once on the south side of the inlet.

For Dick's birthday dinner we drove in to Vancouver to an Italian restaurant near Stanley Park. It was very good, but not real quiet, as the Stanley Cup hockey finals were on the TV. We did see the only goal of the game, at least. Our waiter said we should not go back to the hotel the most direct route, as that would be right by the hockey arena, with the streets filled with fans. So we took a nice slightly out of the way route. After we got back to the hotel, we knew the game was over because for the next 2+ hours people drove around honking in celebration. (And they haven't won the series yet.)

After all the honking, it was a quiet evening "at home" in the hotel.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Whistler, BC, 9 June 2011

It was a lazy morning. We are on holiday (vacation, to you Yanks) after all. After a late breakfast, we wandered into the village a little past noon, and found a recommended coffee place for lunch. It was full, so we went across the way to another (probably related) one.

After lunch we wandered past Rogers Chocolates and made a small purchase. The next planned stop was Lost Lake, a fairly short hike. On the way we saw a black bear on the main road into the village. It headed into the woods by where we planned to walk. An officer came and fired a couple of blanks or flares to scare it away. Of course, it headed in the direction we were going. So we headed back to the condo to get the car.

On the way out to Lost Lake, we saw no bears.

Stocking Lost Lake
One of the yearling Rainbow Trout

 
Lost Lake is a small lake with a swimming beach and picnic area. There were many tadpoles in the water near the edge at one point. As we were standing there, a rather large truck drove in and onto the beach. It was delivering yearling Rainbow Trout to stock the lake. So we stayed around to watch that very interesting process.


We continued our exploration by heading further out Highway 99. We stopped at one of the area's golf courses, but did not play. The trail from Lost Lake goes out there, so we walked a little way on it. There was a floatplane terminal on the lake there.

On the way back to the village, we turned in to one area, with many very large houses. We saw a couple of cars stopped ahead of us where there were two black bears feeding on the roadside vegetation, mostly dandelions. One soon wandered off, but the other stayed, happily munching away and ignoring all the spectators. We stayed a while to watch.

Don't mind me. I'm having lunch.
After being satisfied that we had more than enough pictures of the bear, we headed back to the village and "home" to our condo.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Whistler, BC, 8 June 2011

The weather forecast indicated today may be the clearest day this week. Therefore, we took advantage of that and headed up to Blackcomb Mountain and the Peak2Peak gondola.

Two chairlifts, Wizard Express and Solar Coastal Express, take you to near the peak of Blackcomb Mountain. We heard that it snowed yesterday, which added a little to the large amount of snow still on the ground up on the mountains. But it was clear and sunny up there this morning.

Peak2Peak Gondola
From Blackcomb, a spectacular 4.4 Km gondola ride goes across Fitzsimmons valley to Whistler Peak. Fitzsimmons Creek runs through the valley. There are two towers on each end, with a span of a little more than 3 Km as much as 436 meters above the valley between them. This makes it the longest (and highest?) span in the world.

On top of Blackcomb
The view from the top of both mountains is an incredible 360 degree panorama of the Coast Mountains. Unfortunately, the lifts to the peaks of both mountains were not operating, so we had to settle for the top of the gondola, a bit lower than the peaks.

Straight down from glass bottom gondola
over Fitzsimmons Creek
We waited for the glass bottom gondola, which provided very interesting views straight down of the forest and creek on the way back across to Blackcomb.

After coffee on Blackcomb, lunch on Whistler, and another coffee back on Blackcomb, we reluctantly headed back down.
We hoped to maybe spot bear in the forests from the chair lifts, but there were none. So from the base of the lifts, we walked through the village back to our condo.

Before dinner, we headed out for a drink at one of the restaurant/bars in the village. Then it was back "home" for dinner and a relaxing evening.

Whistler, BC, 6-7 June 2011

Today we drove from Portland to Whistler, a fairly long day's drive. It was cloudy and drizzly when we left Portland, but cleared up as we headed north. We stopped in Lynden, Washington for lunch at a Dutch restaurant and had Dutch Pancakes, reminiscent of those we had had in Holland.

Howe Sound
The border crossing was fairly quick and quite easy. Even going around Vancouver was no problem, except finding a gas station. With that accomplished, we headed to Horseshoe Bay and turned north along Howe Sound toward Whistler. This was new territory for us along Howe Sound and up into the Coast Mountains.

Howe Sound
Howe Sound is a beautiful broad fjord-like inlet. The mountain backdrop is spectacular. And the water was a gorgeous blue from the clear sky. Near the north end of the sound, we came to Shannon Falls, a 335 meter high cascade. It is spectacular, and one of the highest falls in BC. And only a little way off the highway.

(most of) Shannon Falls
Going inland from the end of the sound through the town of Squamish, the road climbs through the forest into the Coast Range. This is known as the "Sea to Sky" highway, and for good reason. It climbs into the mountains to Whistler, in a valley between high ridges of coast range mountains.

On the way, we stopped at Brandywine Falls Provincial Park. These falls are a short hike from the parking lot. A beautiful straight fall and well worth the trip. It is a 70 meter single drop above Daisy Lake.

The Clock Tower
Home for a week
We arrived in Whistler after about ten hours on the road, including stops. We easily found our condo (GPS is a wonderful invention!) and checked in. We are near Village Square in the heart of Whistler. We had been warned it could be noisy, but we are on the side away from the square and in a relatively non-busy time. Being in the center of the village area gives us good access to almost anything we want or need.
Upper Nairn Falls

On Tuesday we drove north to explore Pemberton. It's not really too much of a town, but the drive there was well worth it. A little way south of Pemberton is Nairn Falls Provincial Park, another place well worth stopping for.

The falls are about 1.5 Km from the parking lot on a typical mountain trail, not paved or well graded, but also not difficult to hike. It follows the Green River to the falls, a spectacular double fall through a quite narrow cleft in the rocks. Since there is still plenty of snow melt, the river is full as are the falls. Watching them was somewhat like watching waves at the coast, with water splashing to different heights. There was also a good variety of wildflowers along the banks of the river.

Returning to Whistler, we spent a relaxing late afternoon and evening and ate at a brew pub. It had very good pizza and beer.

P.S. Pictures of the adventure will be posted on Flickr and Kodak Gallery soon.