Ferry to Nanaimo

This morning I was first in-line for the boarding on the ferry to Nanaimo; I had expected the drive from the condo to the Horseshoe Bay to be longer. It was a nice smooth ride on the ferry....

Lemongrass chicken

During a nice long walk, my lunch was a Vietnamese lemongrass chicken sandwich, while having a view over the bay and Vancouver downtown. On a display on the route of my walk, I found this photo of a bird's eye view of North Vancouver.

A few days ago, Hilary made this photo of me making one of my posts for this blog. It is chilly these days in the mountain and ocean area of Vancouver, but their fire pit kept me warm (on one side)...

Deep Cove

Deep Cove is a small community on the far-east side of North Vancouver along one of the inlets of the harbour bay of Vancouver. It is about 15-20 minutes driving from where Hilary and Shayd live. One of my favorite spots in the Vancouver region so far.....

Looks to me like a perfect spot to have a small sailing boat moored. It is probably a few hours sailing from the ocean, but with likely some spectacular views from the water on both sides of the bay of the city. There is also a sizeable rowing and kayaking club...

I think I will be back here a few times before I fly back to Hamilton on the 20th. It is a chill place. Back at the condo of Shayd and Hilary, I find Jess, the fellow adventurer of Hilary. They are working on a nice Thanksgiving dinner together...

Hope you enjoyed reading the post of today. I am enjoying my visit to BC after the fantastic experience of the drive all the way here from Niagara. Next Spring I will come back to get the CRV and make that drive the other direction back to Fonthill....

East Vancouver

Hilary and I went to visit Ben & Kelly, old friends of my MSF time. At the moment they live in East Vancouver where their oldest daughter Savannah also resides. Later this month they will move to North Vancouver, not far from the condo of Hilary & Shayd. They took us (and Poncho) for a walk in the area including the Queen Elizabeth Park, situated on a hill with great views over the city.

First time I saw some outside "pickle ball" courts (well used) in this park. For the rest of the weekend both Hilary and Shayd were working on their UBC and CBIT courses, while in Fonthill they had a nice Thanksgiving dinner in the house of Sue & Ralph...

Walks with Poncho

Yesterday I went to a park in the north side of North Vancouver with beautiful old forest. I let Poncho walk free and he was good, until - on the way back - he took off on me. A brief moment of panic with the thought of losing the puppy, but he just went to say hello to other people....

Poncho did not like the hanging bridge much, but the view over the canyon and waterfall was great.

Hilary and Shayd cooked a wonderful meal; not bad hanging out here!....

Old friends

Last night dinner was with Ben and Chris, old friends from the days we started MSF Canada. Ben was the first official employee of MSF Canada, worked later in my HR team in MSF Holland (Amsterdam) and went on field project work in the French speaking East Africa regions. He managed MSF Denmark for a while and came back to MSF Canada before doing his MBA and going into the CSR/Sustainability field with several mining companies in Madagascar, Vietnam, Uganda and at the moment in Burkina Faso. Two years ago they settled in Canada in Vancouver. Chris lived most of his life in Vancouver where he worked in a legal firm; Chris was the legal expert on the Board of MSF Canada for many years and has always been an enthusiastic world traveler. It was great to see them again after so many years. Chris and family live in North Vancouver (where Hilary and Shayd now live) and Ben & family will move there soon as well. Before dinner I went for a long walk in the area and passed the hospital where Hilary works in the ER...

The rest of the day I did some writing, reading and hanging out with Poncho.....

West Vancouver

Hilary drove us to West Vancouver today where we had a nice walk in the Lighthouse Park. Poncho acted as if he was a mountain goat climbing up all the rocks....

The old trees are beautiful and some host other flora species. The views over the ocean along the many walking trails are spectacular....

From downtown waterfront West Vancouver one has a beautiful view over Stanley Park and the bridge. And the views in the other directions are equally nice (especially on a sunny day).

We had a good lunch and had dinner packed for Shayd (a terrible cop out from me because I had promised to cook supper tonight). Ah well, another day I'll do that.... (nose growing)...