all quiet on the western front...

It's been very quiet the past couple of weeks.. which is good of course.  The fall colors were in full bloom when I got back from my trip out west.

Jewels and I spent 4 nites in Minneapolis last week/weekend and I got to go to the Exxel Centre and watch the Wild humiliate my Winnipeg Jets but, it was on my "to do" list so that can be crossed off for now.

We noticed the trees were starting to get bare on the ride home so we decided to head out on Sunday and just check out the colors before the snow flies...  A trip out to Hawk Ridge was nice and I took a few pics....

We finished the day with a short jaunt out to Brighton Beach .. a favorite spot of ours that somehow got missed out on a few too many times this summer.. not sure why but it was a nice way to end our Sunday tour...

It started raining on Monday and poured all night.. they are calling for heavy frost this weekend and perhaps some snow...

sooooo... I'm getting out of Dodge again.. actually, some work with EZ Street in Vancouver this weekend.. a project I've been waiting for with bated breath since early in the year... I'm driving up to Winnipeg tomorrow and will fly out to Van City Thursday or Friday...

Life is Good....

A busy day today....

The weather has been cold and wet.  The only nice part is that if it was South Dakota, today would be a shovel day.

We started out the day with a trip to Canal Park.  We figured that the way the wind was howling that the waves would be crashing.. and we weren't disappointed.

That last wave hit the rocks - REALLY GOOD -  and although I was a good 45 feet from them, I got soaked.. fun/fun/fun...

After our visit to Canal Park, we headed to the Cranberry Festival in Stone Lake WI which is about 90 miles from Duluth... the drive was great and although it was overcast and raining, thefall colors were spectacular.

The Cranberry Festival is big.. very BIG with over 300 exhibitors.  We were planning on buying some freshly picked cranberries and bot 2 bags (5 lbs each) for $16 which apparently is a great deal.  Then, we stumbled onto an exhibitor selling cranberry wine.. 3 bottles later and with Julie $30 dollars lighter, we stumbled into a tent selling fresh Honeycrisp apples.. and ... yes, we brought a big bag home.. on the way back to the truck, we passed a tent where they were selling fresh goat cheezes.. yes, of course we picked up a couple of containers of our favorite cheese...

A nice day... looks like dinner tonite with Kim and Scott... and then some Contra dancing..

Life is Good.

Washington state and Grand Coulee - ALWAYS amaze me..

Funny.. I look forward to getting out of the mountains.. and western Washington state is a relief as the terrain gets hilly and lots of agriculture... then you get to Grand Coulee which amazes me every time I go through this area...

These dams generate power for almost all of the NW United States.. it is a huge project...

Then, about a mile away, you get a perspective of the "little guy".  His power source will light up his AM Radio.. and/or his toaster... as long as he doesn't try power them both at the same time..

Life is Good...

A quiz for my American (USA) friends....

Yesterday morning I went for breakfast at a very famous restaurant at Gibson's Landing...

And two of the people that made it famous were sitting at a table discussing what is the best ketchup for your eggs...

Who are they.. and really... of course they weren't there... (Why Not?)

Life is Good.

Almost Tofino-Like...

The place I'm staying at tonite has a pub next door... "The Lighthouse Pub"... It's funny because Jewels mentioned earlier that my photos from today reminded her of  Tofino.. I didn't really see it until I was sitting on the deck at the Lighthouse and it was exactly like the place we hung out at in Tofino....  sailboats, commercial fishermen, float planes.. exactly like Tofino...

Now, there were a few subtle differences... the seagull ate the crab...

And Jim now enjoys the IPA....

Life is Good....

Heading south on the Sunshine Coast...

I left Powell River this morning and it was bright and sunny which made me soooooo very happy because I had a feeling that this would be a good "scenery" day.. And I was right!

The pics above were taken just south of Powell River for the first one and the rest were off the ferry ride which crossed over to Earl's Landing (not sure of the history on that but it might be interesting).

The photos below were taken from some side trips off highway 101 as I drove down to Sechelt which is the name of the place I'm in tonight. The last two are the same spot which is the view from the restaurant I stopped at along the way.

The day was AWESOME....

Life is Good.

Sunday.. must be Powell River BC...

I have a couple of extra days to travel to Vancouver so I decided to take the ferry from Comox to Powell River on the mainland.  It looked like some great scenery off the ferry but it was just pissing rain so I wasn't able to take any pics.

Arrived into Powell River around noon and found a motel for the nite and a fish and chippery for lunch.. Both left something to be desired but at least the guy at the fish place gave me some sight seeing advice.

On his recommendation, I headed north on Highway 101 to the "big" town of Lund ( named after my very good Kim in Moose Lake MN)...  well, actually it was named by a couple of Swedish rogues that stumbled into the area in the late 1800's..

Highway 101 is the world's longest highway stretching 15,020 KM starting at KM one in Lund to Castro, Chile!

Tomorrow, I'm heading a bit to the south.. sounds like I'll be driving into a very lovely area which has a history as the home of the world famous TV show, "The Beachcombers" which ran on Canadian TV for a number of years.  Molly's Reach, here I come...

Life is Good.