Highlights of Summer 2015

September 16, 2015 / Peter Klopp / 3 Comments

Camping at Taite Creek

Gertrud at the Taite Creek Beach

One week after we had returned from Victoria I pulled our little trailer the 10 km distance to our favorite campground at Taite Creek. Over the years word about this oasis at the Arrow Lake had spread all over the land. Outdoor enthusiasts from BC and even from the neighboring province of Alberta were flocking to this little paradise in the sun.

Gertrud with a Piece of Driftwood

Gertrud and I were lucky to have found a vacant site in the middle of the summer. When we started camping, campfire bans were in effect due to the unusually hot and dry weather. What is camping without that romantic ritual of sitting around the campfire in the cool evening air, sipping a glass of wine, and having a good and relaxing time with your neighbors and friends? But Gertrud and I have learned to be content with what we have and not pine for the things we lack. In other words we made do with the given circumstances, enjoyed our daily swims in the refreshing lake, took canoe rides, went on photo excursions, spent some time with our camping friends, and played crib before retiring into our cozy trailer for the night.

Peter Returning from a Canoe Ride

Every other day quite early in the morning I drove home to look after our yard and garden and to get fresh food supplies for our camping needs. On one of those trips I got very lucky. A buck was standing on the side of the road. I immediately stopped the car hoping to capture his majestic image on my digital camera. Alas, the camera was stored away somewhere in the back of the vehicle. I opened the door very quietly and stepped out on the road. The buck did not move. I walked to the back and opened the tail gate. The buck still did not move. I quickly grabbed my camera and aimed it at the buck, who was still standing at the same spot and then as if he wanted to pose for the picture turned his beautiful antlers in my direction. Then to my utter amazement he allowed me to approach him, while I was taking one picture after another. At 20 m he decided that I was a bit too close for comfort and trotted leisurely off into the forest. This encounter with one of the finest specimens in the animal kingdom made my day and I proudly shared his image on Flickr with the rest of the world.

Buck with Antlers Illuminated by the Morning Sun

Highlights of the Summer 2015

September 9, 2015 / Peter Klopp / 1 Comment

Enjoyable Visit with our Son Anthony and his Partner Lisa in Victoria (4)

Empress Hotel at the Background of the Inner Harbor

As always when you are enjoying the presence of good company, friends and family, time is slipping by way too fast. In our case it wasn’t just the relaxing walks along the numerous beaches of Victoria, the trip to the harbor, the ferry ride past sceneries of colorful floating houses, marinas and the Legislative Assembly on the way to the inner harbor.

Famous Landmark: The Legislative Assembly of Victoria BC

It was indeed nice to feel like honored guests. But the best part of it all was to be included in Tony and Lisa’s daily routine. I was especially happy to help Tony with the painting of a table and do the digging in Lisa’s flower bed to prepare the soil for the new flowers she had bought. Getting to know Lisa’s sister Sarah and her lovely family was also a highlight during our four-day stay. I instantly connected with her husband Mingo. His charm, sense of humor and rapport with his children impressed me very much.

Lisa and Anthony

Soon it was time to say good-bye. Tony and Lisa’s heart-warming hospitality, their fantastic gourmet meals, the pleasant conversations, all these things and much more will stay in our memories for a long time to come. On the way home we had to make an unexpected detour and change our travel route. The Coquihalla Highway was closed because of a raging grass fire. So we took the Trans Canada Highway instead, a longer, but more scenic route. In the late evening light we traveled on the winding road alongside the awesome Fraser River past Hell’s Gate all the way up to Cache Creek, where we stayed overnight before heading home.

Kamloops Lake as seen from Transcanada Highway

Kamloops Lake as seen from Highway 1 west of Kamloops

Highlights of the Summer 2015

September 7, 2015 / Peter Klopp / 6 Comments

Enjoyable Visit with our Son Anthony and his Partner Lisa in Victoria (3)

A definite highlight of our visit was a trip to the Victoria harbor, where Tony went shopping for our evening meal at the local fish market. Wild Pacific salmon and halibut are so fresh – so I am told – that only a few hours before they land in the customer’s shopping bag they were still roaming in the nearby ocean waters. In the meantime Gertrud and I took in the colorful sight of this busy tourist attraction at the water’s edge. Some brightly painted homes here were actually boats that were permanently moored at a huge ramp-like structure, which looked more like a street with a board walk.

Colorful Boats Serving as Permanent Homes

Early in the morning, when everyone else was still sleeping, I sneaked out of the house and strolled down to the beach. In the cool air it took me less than five minute.s to reach the ocean..There my friends, the seagulls, greeted me with their raucous cries.Canada geese seemed to have made Victoria their permanent home. On another morning I was lucky to encounter a blue heron, which was feeding at low tide on the barnacles clinging to a concrete wave breaker. Accustomed to human beings it allowed me to come close enough for a great picture of this majestic bird.

Blue Heron Surveying Barnacles on the Breakfast Menu

To be continued …

Highlights of the Summer 2015

September 2, 2015 / Peter Klopp / 1 Comment

Enjoyable Visit with our Son Anthony and his Partner Lisa in Victoria (2)

The first thing Tony and Lisa did was to show us their home. They gave us the grand tour starting at the spacious basement complete with two bedrooms, storage room, work room, bathroom, then going upstairs to the wonderful living room with its original parquet floor and its large windows to let lots of light come in, the modern kitchen with a view onto the deck and the backyard. Upstairs under a slanted roof was their cozy bedroom. Gertrud and I instantly fell in love with the house and jokingly mentioned that we were going to stay there for good. The house, built in the 1930’s, impressed us with its fine blend of good solid construction and tastefully decorated interior.

Tony, Biene and Lisa on our first Evening Stroll to the Beach

From the huge deck behind the kitchen we had a first look at their beautiful garden with an abundance of flowers, shrubs, raised beds for vegetables and strawberries. We also admired the large arbor completely covered with grape vines, which were promising to provide a bumper crop later in the fall. Here one could retreat and under its dense foliage find relief from the hot afternoon sun.

Tony and Lisa were excellent hosts and did their best to make our stay as enjoyable as possible. It was sheer delight to see them harmoniously work together. They amazed us with the fantastic meals they lovingly prepared for us.

Biene Enjoying a Lobster Meal

Culinary Delights on the Deck

One morning Tony took us to one of the many beaches, where we whiled away several hours collecting pebbles in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors. A particular challenge was to find tiny pieces of glass from broken bottles that the incessant pounding of the sea on the sandy beach has ground them into smooth slivers. After Tony showed us how to find and identify them, the hunt for these little treasures was on.

To be continued …

Highlights of the Summer 2015

August 31, 2015 / Peter Klopp / 5 Comments

Enjoyable Visit with our Son Anthony and his Partner Lisa in Victoria

Tony’s and Lisa’s House in Victoria

On the last weekend in June Gertrud (Biene) and I traveled to Victoria, the picturesque capital of BC on Vancouver Island. Tony and his lovely partner Lisa had invited us to come for a visit. When on the way we stopped for lunch in Kelowna, the thermometer at the Orchard Shopping Mall showed a scorching 40 degree temperature. Gertrud and I were looking forward to spending a few days at the coast, where a cool breeze from the ocean would bring a welcome relief from the unbearable heat wave we had been experiencing for the last couple of days.

BC Ferry on the Way to Vancouver Island

The 90 minute ferry ride turned out to be sheer delight in the refreshing wind and under a cloudless sky. Having taken an earlier ferry, we had some extra time to explore Sidney, the most northern town on the Saanich peninsula close to the ferry terminal. There we went on a leisurely promenade on a trail very close to the beach.

Around supper time we arrived at Burdick Avenue, where Tony and Lisa had recently bought a house.Great was our joy to see them again for the first at their new place.

To be continued …