Big Veggies, Crappy Weather, and Water Skiing at Shawnigan

Yeah, another Shawnigan post... But that's what we've been up to, weekends at Shawnigan. The weather on this particular weekend wasn't nearly as nice as the others, but that's quite alright considering the amazing weather the other weekends had. Plus, this weekend had a new visitor (Colin) to the lake and a second-timer (Anna).


We grew these luscious zucchinis in our urban garden, not at Shawnigan Lake. They were terrific zucchinis. We are quite proud of how they turned out.

Colin and Anna.

So Sunday morning we decided to get out and do some water skiing. Meg is an old pro...she used to do crazy slalom courses on one ski. Mark (pictured here), on the other hand, had never been on just one ski, and it had probably been 20 years since being on two skis. Excitement levels were running high.



Video time! This video shows some Orcas swimming along. A crappy video, but Orcas swimming along nonetheless. I've been on that ferryboat probably a hundred times, and this was only the second time seeing whales... So you understand the reason for including them in this post.



Meghan and her badboy slalom skills. Stylin!



It had been a long time for Colin as well...



Yeah, I made it across the wake eventually...

Next stop...Whistler for some Cheese Rolling!!

Another Weekend of Awesome-ness at Shawnigan, Part 2

That just happens to be the largest fish caught with this setup to date. Smallmouth Bassfish, probably 16-18 inches long, and maybe weighing in at 2 pounds, or somewhere around there. Put up a pretty good fight...

Meg was the first to catch a Brown Trout...damn...

This shit was amazing, but boy did it make your entire upper body sore. Booze didn't help cure the soreness either. Meg and Mark, bitchin' tube ride, 2009.

That's Fi on a bitchin' tube ride.

Meg caught another fish. Think this one was a Smallmouth Bassfish, a very small Smallmouth Bassfish.

Booze crooze to the Macfarlane's. That's Liz and Fi.

Meg on booze crooze.

The Macfarlane's dog Mo. He is awesome.

Didn't expect for Brian to be there...what a surprise!

Ken says "Get Pumped".

Meg, just doin' some fishin'.

Mark, just doin' some fishin' as well.

This was hilarious. The footage doesn't do justice for the humor factor. Fi on a tube ride.

Meg on a tube ride. Many scorpions went down this day.

Another Weekend of Awesome-ness at Shawnigan, Part 1

So in Canada, each province has a holiday smack dab in the middle of summer. Monday, August 3 was BC Day, so we headed over to Shawnigan for the long weekend. This weekend was also smack dab in the middle of one of the hottest streaks the province has ever had...made for a weekend for the ages.


Saw this madness in the ferry terminal en route to the island.

This is basically a guppy, but who cares, first fish of the weekend.

Patio vibes on a warm Shawnigan summer night.

There are two cabins at the lake. Liz rents the bottom one out in the summer. These two critters' parents rent it out for like 3 weeks or so. Brooke and Cole came over to hang with us a bunch. We didn't mind...pure entertainment (and great kids)!

A lovely spread...

This is the largest Walmart in North America apparently. It is in the town of Duncan, which is about a 15 minute drive north of the lake. I've been to some big Walmarts, and really couldn't tell the difference in size. Either way, this one was indeed mahoosive.

Meg + New Hat in Duncan Market.

Summer flotation devices blow up exercises Part II. Part I can be found here.

Ditto above caption.

Kool Lounge loungin'.

Booze crooze!

Fi and Nat, booze crooze.

Vegetable BBQ mayhem.

Lots to manage. The salmon was yummy.

The end to another splendid day at Shawnigan Lake.

Ditto above caption.

Purty Skies...or the End is Near

The sky was radical last Saturday night. A nice sized thunderstorm preceded the lovely colors in the sky.

This blog.

Is all out of order. Friggin' posts are not going to the top when I publish them. Frustrating.

Argentina Day 19 - The End.

Our last day of vacation, our last day in Argentina (for now anyway!). I think the first 3 photos are actually from the previous night, but who cares. I think the first 2 sum up our vibe perfectly...a bit tired and wore out and sad to leave this wonderful place and end our wonderful vacation. This was definitely the vacation of a lifetime and I can't wait for our next vacation! Japan, Europe, back to South America?? Who knows? Looking forward to it though!!!


Bitter sweet.

Bitter sweet x 2.

Meg got pretty wild on the last night.

We started our final day at this restaurant called Olsen. We read/heard all about it and was a fitting start to our final day.

That's the menu. We really liked how they organized the choices. Keep in mind the amounts are in pesos...

Breakfast spread! Notice the champagne...think we had a couple each!

Big balls.

Mercado de Pulgas. This market was full of antiques and random oddities. We bought a few things, but wanted more. Would be real tough/expensive to get furniture back, but so much of it was so nice and dirt cheap! Maybe we'll start a shipping fund for when we visit again.

One hallway from the market. There were a ton of these hallways, all filled with tons of different stuff. Basically, this is a flea market/garage sale on steroids.

The main entrance to the market.

This booth sold lanterns.

This one sold weird shit.

The last photo of the trip, taken from a cab on our way to the airport.

We'll be back!

Argentina Day 15 - A Long Drive around the lake (kinda)

Ah, a wonderful morning at Los Juncos in Bariloche. Woke up on this morning to another lovely day, and a wonderful breakfast to get the day started. We weren't quite sure what we were going to do, but during breakfast we decided to drive to the other side of the lake to check out this small town called Villa la Angostura, and to take in the amazing views. You cannot drive completely around the lake, so we were in for a long drive (2 hours each way). But this is vacation, time doesn't exist...


Another view of the B&B, from the road. Very lush.

This is the inside of the B&B. We spent our last night chillin' on these chesterfields with Gabriel. A wonderful place to spend a couple days.

Another view of the insides. That's Mark eating breakfast in the left side of the photo.

A large cup of coffee and a wonderful breakfast spread. We were the only ones eating breakfast at this particular time, on this particular morning.

A very beautiful scenic view, from our drive around the lake.

This is the small harbour of Villa la Angostura. That peninsula you see has a 12km hike, from the tip back to town. More on that in a later post (we didn't hike it this day, but came back the following day).

Lunchtime! Mark found a neat hat.

More beautiful views of the lago.

Mark and Meg. Self-portrait. Should it be selfs-portrait, or selves-portrait??

The bar at the B&B.

Night vibes at the B&B.

Another shot of the bar.