Tag Archives: B.C.

Vancouver, B.C., Canada

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As prom­ised, here are some of the photos we got in Vancouver. We’re in London now, and after walking for about 10 hours yes­ter­day (we estim­ated about 14km), we have a ton of photos from here already, but first things first.

Although it is my intent to write more once we get a bit more used to life on the road, for now I think I’ll let the pic­tures do (most of) the talking.

Colin gave us a few rides in his Bronco, includ­ing from the G-hound station. What a guy.

Nerds on ice. Photo by Brianna.

Laura is grace­ful like a gazelle, except when she fell on her bum (which may have been par­tially my fault. sorry babe!).

Later on we met Katy and Kendall for a movie and a pint. Katy’s a journamalist.

Brianna’s cat Seepo clearly wants to do some trav­el­ing of his own. Unfortunately, we had to leave him behind.

Pig on pig: Des made Dale his meal of choice for his birthday–Pancetta bacon wrapped on a juicy pork roast. It was indeed porkalicious.

Over 10 pigs died to bring us this meal.

As usual, Dale does all the work while every­one else stands around. Actually, that’s not usual at all.

Des made Dale half a birth­day cake. She also made us half a going-away cake (notice the word “BYE” on the right). Aside from being an awesome new-Mom, she’s also a master baker.

Group shot!

Laura and Isla-bean. What a couple of cuties.

Bath time! Rubber ducky you’re so fun!

Okay, this one’s not Vancouver, but I didn’t have time to post it before. Laura rocks out with the Malibu Knights in Kelowna. Dean (on bass) put us up. Woot.

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www.TheAirplaneGuy.ca

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For the past few days I’ve been working far more furi­ously than you would think someone who is tech­nic­ally unem­ployed would be. But working for your­self on a freel­ance basis can be like that and I’m happy to have the work. I also have a couple of other pro­jects to wrap-up, so I’m not out of it yet.

But, earlier tonight I did finish the major phase of a web design project I’ve been doing for a client of mine (who’s also become a friend), and if you’re check­ing out this site you should check his out too. Allan Gallant will be billing himself the Airplane Guy, offer­ing a range of school out­reach pro­grams to stu­dents right in the classroom. He’s been involved in avi­ation and avi­ation edu­ca­tion for vir­tu­ally his entire life, most recently having been in charge of edu­ca­tion pro­grams at the Calgary Aerospace Museum. Laura and I were lucky to have been given fairly free reign of the Museum, as well as some per­sonal edu­ca­tion from Allan, as part of this project. The guy knows his stuff.

During the pho­toshoot for the site, we got to check out the insides of a few vintage air­craft (includ­ing one of only 17 Lancaster bombers left in the world (those things were huge flying deathtraps, by the way), as well as learn about both civil­ian and mil­it­ary avi­ation. It’s inter­est­ing just how much avi­ation as a subject can be adapted to vir­tu­ally all types of cur­riculum. Math, physics, history, social issues, polit­ics, among others–all can be taught in terms of aviation.

So if you’re a teacher, or know a teacher, check it out and/or pass it along.  I don’t get a kick­back or any­thing from this; I’m just hon­estly con­vinced that Allan will do good things with this project. If I was a kid, I’d be stoked to see a present­a­tion of the kind of mater­ial he loves to teach.

And if you like the fin­ished result of his site, maybe check out my own site and keep me in mind for any print or web pro­jects you need. This was a full brand­ing effort, with logo, ori­ginal pho­to­graphy, and a website from scratch, and I feel quite happy with all of it. Here are a few shots from the pho­toshoot I did with Laura’s assist­ance (Thanks babe!). There are more at the site.

Cheers,
Chris

p.s. — Only three more sleeps until we leave the country...

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Vancouver Aquarium

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It costs 22 Canadian bucks for an adult to visit the Vancouver aquar­ium but it’s worth it. They take remark­ably good care of their tanks and creatures of all shapes and sizes. Ever seen a Beluga whale? How about  sea horses or a pre­his­toric fish that’s about 6 feet long and 1.5 feet wide? If you haven’t then you need to go the Vancouver Aquarium.

I thor­oughly enjoyed the way the aquar­ium presen­ted their written mater­ial. The descrip­tions were short and mem­or­able. They also have some awesome inter­act­ive exhib­its such as video sequences that you can control the speed of, in order to see just how fast the reflexes are of dif­fer­ent creatures.

Scales of a pre­his­toric fish. This is only one small portion of its body. Photo by Chris Beauchamp.

I had the best time learn­ing random facts like there are 24 species of Piranha but only 3 species even pose a threat to humans and that’s only if you wade through a shallow pond of water where the fish are most likely irrit­able because they are cramped and hungry. However, if you went into the Amazon River and encountered Piranhas they’d prob­ably swim right by. I was also fas­cin­ated to learn that Sole are born looking like a normal fish, with an eye on each side of the body, but as they mature one of their eyes migrates to the other side of the body to be next to the other eye! Amazing!

If you plan on vis­it­ing the aquar­ium and you find your­self hungry while you’re there, I suggest the hot dog vendor only meters from the front door of the museum. It’s a lot cheaper then the snack bar inside.

Sharks

The shark dance! Photo by Chris Beauchamp

Photo by Chris Beauchamp

Jelly-belly. Photo by Chris Beauchamp

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Dinner at the Millers’

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Fresh mussels. Shrimp.  Steak. Asparagus. Broccoli. Zucchini. I love food. Des, Dale, myself and Chris all did dif­fer­ent tasks to create an amazing dinner at the Millers’ place.

Chris and Dale making dinner at Dale’s home in Vancouver.

The next day we went to Dale’s parents house (also Millers) for dinner. Margie whipped up a fant­astic red meat pasta sauce which we washed down with two red wines: “Gnarly” and “Gnarlier”. I pre­ferred the “Gnarlier”.

The Millers’ home for dinner.

After dinner Mr. Miller brought out the Scotch and Port. We ended the evening with a crash course, delivered by Chris, on how to clean your camera sensor.

Front and center is Dale and Des's beautiful daughter Isla!

Front and center is Dale and Des’s beau­ti­ful 3-month old daugh­ter Isla!

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