Weekend at Shawnigan

We spent this past weekend at the always wonderful Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island. Amazing, amazing, amazing! The weather was wonderful (except for the wind). We caught fish, ate good food, did a bit of moseying [sic], and of course had some beers and wine. Here are some of the general vibes from the trip.


Liz (Meg's Mum) gave me a fishing rod/reel set for my graduation. This is the first fish caught with the setup. This was caught off the dock, which is the reason for it being quite small. Need to venture out on the lake to catch some big ones. This is a smallmouth bass. It put up a decent fight.

Went to Bucky's in Duncan, which is a general outdoors/fishing/hunting store. They sell 'Butt Juice'...I didn't buy any.

Meg chillin' at the cabin.

Liz chillin' at the cabin.

Mark chillin' at the cabin.

Meg and Mark chillin' at the cabin.

BBQing is mandatory at Shawnigan. On this particular evening, we had Maui Short Ribs. They were very yummy.

The BBQ got real hot.

Meg about to enjoy some vino.

Meg enjoying some vino.

Meg caught a fish as well! Pretty sure this is a Lake Trout...little guy.

We went to a Lavender farm on Sunday morning. There is a labyrinth there, which I was excited about.

There is the labyrinth...not what I was expecting...

Lavender for days at the Lavender farm.

The crew on the ferryboat, returning to Vancouver. Mark, Meg, Jen, and Chris walking in the background. They stayed at the cabin Friday night, then went to visit family on Saturday and Sunday.

Can't wait for the next Shawnigan adventure! More fishing!!!

Film Vibrations, Seattle and Birkenhead Lake

Got some film back from the trips to Seattle and Birkenhead Lake. Here are some that we like.

Argentina Day 10 - First mission to the Andes.

Somehow Day 10 got skipped. That's unfortunate 'cuz it was an amazing day! This was our first trip into the Andes, and involved lots of driving. We rented a car and went on a crazy mission that involved beautiful scenery, random perros, a long drive on a sketchy dirt road, and wild times in the main plaza in Mendoza. This is a long one. Hope you enjoy it.


This is where the Andes begin.

Starting our ascent into the Andes, we stopped off at this spot to snap a couple flicks. The lake behind Mark there was a real nice aqua blue color. Tough to tell in the photos...

Us.

The license plate on our rental car. Nice and simple.

We put this badboy to the test.

Random perro marking his territory. We ate lunch in this town, called Uspallata. This is the area where Seven Years in Tibet was filmed. Weird...

The start to the off-road adventure.

That sign loosely translates to animals on the loose.

Andes vibes.

Meg in the middle of the road to nowhere.

Time to ponder.

Uspallata is where we were. 28km down, a shit load more to go.

So Mt. Aconcagua is the highest peak in the Southern Hemisphere. We couldn't see it as it was so damn cloudy. We made an attempt though. Translate if you like. The altitude where this photo was shot is 3,100 meters, or roughly 9,500 feet. Mt. Aconcagua is 22,841 feet high (thanks Google).

Sketchy, winding dirt road. Mendoza is somewhere down there in the background.

Yet another random perro. This guy was pretty cute. Scraggly is good.

This random band started playing in the main plaza in Mendoza. We stayed a while and watched. Can't remember if we were drinking in the plaza...probably. If not, we were likely a bit inebriated.

Oh, proof of inebriation [sic]. Cotton candy is good. It also doubles as a goatee.

Mark had had enough of the cotton candy.

This is a short clip of part of the drive. It was an amazing drive...this portion seemed to be where maybe some water had once flown. There was a larger clip, but would have taken forever to upload it.

Weird scene. They were jammin'.

360 degree view of the middle of nowhere, Andes.

Argentina Day 13

Day 13 was all about getting to know Bariloche. So that's what we did.


This one goes out to Wanda.

They had a little market in the town centre (wow, centre spelled with an re at the end comes natural now). This booth sold Rastas.

Little market in town centER.

We took this sketchy gondola up to the top of Mt. Cerro to check out some amazing views.

Mark in sketchy gondola.

Why is David at the top of Mt. Cerro? Weird...

Gorgeous views from the top!

Gyrating cafe at the top of Mt. Cerro. Altitude 1405 meters, or somewhere around 4200 feet.

F*cking amazing!

Picnic at the top. It was so hot that the wine tasted a bit funny. Didn't matter though as we probably paid about 3 bucks for the bottle.

More views from the top.

That's Bariloche down there, or at least a portion of it.

This is by far the biggest chocolate store we've ever seen. It was mahoosive, and filled with madness.