This weekend we drove to Boundary Bay. We weren’t the only ones out there, several cars were parked along the road. We walked up to the dyke trail and it didn’t take us very long to figure out where the owls were. We scanned the marsh and were able to count 4 or 5 owls in a blink of an eye.

Really impressive! Gorgeous bird! Turns out the snowy owl is one of the largest owl species.

Snowy Owl at Boundary Bay

How many snowy owls can you spot?

Snowy Owl at Boundary Bay

Another snowy owl (picture taken by Ine)

Anyway, pictures! Enjoy

Steller Sea Lion Naptime

Who says you can’t do bird photography with a wide angle lens? I present you: Wide Angle Pelican

Conquering the waves

Lone Cypress on the 17 Mile Drive

Monterey Sunset

Ine and Grizzly enjoying the Monterey Sunset (aka. waiting for me to finish taking a single picture…)

We decided to change that this year, and so we ended up booking a longer ski trip. Together with a few friends we went to Big White Ski Resort, BC. It was our first time ever out there and it was truly amazing! It’s so different than any other ski resort we’ve been to. The resort is located in the interior of BC and therefore the snow is quite different than the snow on the coastal mountains. The snow is very light and powdery and the resort offers some amazing opportunities for glade skiing.

Something really spectaculair: the snow ghosts. A snow ghost is a tree that has so much snow on it that you can’t really see the tree anymore. The trees often have odd shapes because of the wind. Makes for a very unique sight!

Ben

Kris

Snow Ghosts

On the Paradise Run

At the top: Kris, Dulcie, Ben and Claire

We stayed in a really nice chalet that offered a Ski In / Ski Out option and had a hot tub!

Christmas Tree

Hot tub

Our Ski Chalet (picture by Kris)

Ski In/Ski Out, Big White Ski Resort (picture by Kris)

View of the front of our Ski Chalet, Big White Ski Resort (picture by Kris)

Townhouse, Big White Ski Resort (picture by Kris)

Big White also offers lots of activities for those who prefer not to ski or snowboard. There’s a very nice Nordic area, an ice tower you can climb, tubing, snowmobiling and lots more.

Ice tower

Last time we went snowmobiling, Kris was the driver and I was he passenger. This time I wanted to do the driving so a few of us decided to go snowmobiling for the day rather than skiing. It was just the three of us and the guide, so we were able to cover quite some ground. We drove a little over 60km in a couple of hours. First we went on some logging roads but we ended up finding some nice fresh tracks as well. Something completely new to us: riding on groomed tracks is so different than making your own tracks. We had a wonderful experience and I’m even more addicted to the snowmobiling concept.

Fresh Tracks

Big White in the distance

Getting going again

I will have some better snowmobile pictures in the next little while, but this will have to do for now.

I would like to finish this post by thanking everyone that joined us in Big White for an amazing holiday!

Below some pictures of one of our activities from the last few days.

Instructor explaining everything

Kris

Kris waiting to go

Mom and Dad getting ready!

Having fun on the lake: Mom, dad, Kris and Ine

Lot and Fred

We had an awesome time! First we went on some trails with the snowmobiles and after riding around we were guided to a frozen lake. Because it was an open space we were allowed to play around and get some speed:). Kris managed to go at 90km an hour which was pretty cool! Definitely something we’ll be doing again!

Anyway, pictures:

Morning mist at Morro Rock.

Grizzly enjoying some morning playtime.

The dunes factory…

More Grizzly playtime

A Marbled Godwit, aka bird

Morro Rock Sunset

I’m pretty certain Cypress has the biggest ski area of all three and therefore would be our new favourite local mountain.

Cat and Kris

Top of Mt. Strachan

Cat on Mt. Strachan

Facing East

Ready to go down

Kris, Cat and me

Pretty cloudy down there!

Sea-to-Sky

On Sunday we hiked the Buntzen Lake Trail. We figured Grizzly was in desperate need of some exercise and to make it even harder on him we let him carry our water in his little backpack. I’m sure it was a pretty decent workout considering that he fell asleep as soon as we came home and he even started barking in his sleep (something he’s never done before).

Kris and Grizzly

Buntzen Lake Trail

That’s it for now, hope you guys are enjoying your week!

One of our first stops was San Luis Obispo and even though our hotel was located there, we actually spend most of our time in Morro Bay. A beautiful little town in California. Lots of little gift stores, artist galleries, nice restaurants and very dog friendly.

Below some pictures of our route along the coast.

Morro Bay

Dinner at the Gallery (awesome restaurant, amazing chowder!)

Sea Lions

Wildlife spotter Grizzly

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Pelican: Kris’ best friend, he got slapped on the head by one!!!

Surfer in Monterey

Picture of Griz and me: entertaining myself while Kris was taking sunset pictures.

This time, we sadly enough didn’t really stop in San Francisco. Our plan was to grab some chowder from Fisherman’s Warf in San Fran, but it was Naval Fleet week. It’s was ridiculously busy and we couldn’t find a parking spot.

But we did see some neat things while lining up in traffic!

Not entirely certain but I think this carrier was The USS Bonhomme Richard

Skywriting

Below a picture of “Cupid’s Span” by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The statue was inspired by San Francisco’s reputation as the home port of Eros.

Cupid’s Span

Golden Gate Bridge

We also managed to visit some fun touristy things.

One of them was the Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree Park.
Now I do have to admit: I’m superstitious and I won’t let anyone take pictures of the outside of our car, so I had to get out and take a picture of someone else’s driving through the tree.

Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree

Another tourist attraction along the way (in Redwood National Park) was Trees of Mystery
It’s an interpretive trail that leads through a forest of redwood trees. At the end of the trail you can go up in a gondola to a viewpoint. The best thing about it: Grizzly could even come along:)

Entrance of Trees of Mytery

Grizzly’s first gondola ride

Soaking wet!

Coincidentally, we also discovered a very tiny coastal town called Trinidad. We went on a short walk to Old Home Beach which was truly amazing!

Starfish at Old Home Beach

Next stop, the world largest sea cave: Sea Lion Caves in Oregon
It was pretty impressive, but sadly enough we didn’t see any sea lions. I don’t have decent pictures but Kris does. So you’ll see some soon!

The last stop on our trip was Portland. We didn’t really spend much time there, but I really want to go back. Not only do they have this huge bookstore, but it also seems like it’s a very pleasant city!
Fun fact of the day: Powell’s Bookstore is actually considered the largest bookstore in the world based on shelf-space (together with a bookstore in NY).

To finish this blog post and my report of our trip, a little video of a Sea Lion Orchestra in the harbour of Monterey.

We left Vegas and chose to drove along Route 66. I didn’t think about it at the time, but when you decide to take that stretch of road, you probably want to be well prepared. There’s no gas station, houses or restaurants (civilization for that matter) for miles! We obviously made it to our destination but just something to think about.

Our first stop was Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree National Park

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the park, because it was too hot to leave Grizzly in the car. It’s a nice park, but I do think that the best time to visit the park would be spring when the flowers are in bloom.

From Joshua Tree we drove to Palm Springs.

No shortage of wind mills in that area!

We weren’t sure what to expect, but we really loved it. I think most people stay at the bigger resorts, but we decided to stay at this locally owned small hotel called “The Chase”. It was definitely the best hotel we stayed at during our entire trip.

It was very centrally located, walking distance from all the shops and restaurants. A newly renovated hotel, extremely pet-friendly (Grizzly could spend time with us at the pool and even breakfast). Breakfast was great, the hotel room was huge, definitely a place to go back to.

Our room

Kitchen

Pool

For dinner we decided to go to Pomme Frite. A very pleasant surprise. It’s a Belgian restaurant with very traditional plates. The food was marvelous and even the restaurant was a very pet-friendly place. Grizzly was allowed on the deck (this rarely happens in North America).

Moules Frites

Framboise

Vol-Au-Vent with Affligem

After Palm Springs we visited Los Angeles. We didn’t really like it all that much but I’m happy I’ve seen it.

Kris, Grizzly and Shrek

This one is dedicated to Bert. Hope you like it! (Vollenbak Humperdinck)

Welcome sign for all the dogs staying at our hotel in LA

Mailbox of the Playboy Mansion

Santa Monica Pier

Baywatch!!!!

And to end this post, a short video of Grizzly at the off leash park in Long Beach. I have to admit there’s nothing really exciting in the video but I wanted to post it anyway:)

On our way to Midvale, we drove through Grand Teton National Park. We asked the rangers what the best location was to spot some animals and he told us to take a little dirt road called Pacific Creek Road. It was a very nice route, but we didn’t get to see any animals sadly enough.

Grand Tetons

Next stop: Vegas Baby (only 666km to go!).

The famous Vegas Sign

We stayed at the Treasure Island hotel and besides sitting at the pool and relaxing we didn’t do all that much. I have to say though, the pool parties are totally worth staying at TI for!

Stripview from our room

Empty pool

We did manage to check out Holly Madison’s “Peepshow” and surprisingly it was quite good!