Herongate

We were at Herongate to pick up Suzie their border collie for a month while Brian and Marilyn had a holiday in Turkey. We were meeting up with Bob and Nancey and taking the two motor homes, going camping north of Kamloops, then over to Pemberton, down to Whistler and back to Whiterock. But the day before they were to leave we received a phone call from Mum to say that Dad had had a stroke. He passed away in hospital later that morning. Suddenly arrangements were made for Suzie to stay with other friends and another friend to take Brian and Marilyn to the air port in Kelowna the next day. Meanwhile, Bill was able to get me a flight out of Kamloops the next day as well. He spent the next three days winterizing the motor home and getting it and the car ready for a long cold winter, then flying out himself.

Coquhalla Hwy to Kamloops

Early August we were heading north up the Coquhalla Highway to Kamloops on our way to Brian and Marilyn's in Vernon. This is the first time we have taken 'Dutchess' towing 'Granny' up this highway due to the steep grades but after our trip across Canada and around the United States, thought that we had not traveled anything quite as long and steep. 'Dutchess' handled the climb very well and the scenery is spectacular to say the least. Although it is the middle of summer you can still get snow falling here on the highway. Ahead you can see were avalanches have smoothed the side of the mountain.
One of several snow sheds that we passed through and you can see on the windshield that we have light rain.

Sailing on Alcyone

Yvonne invited us to go sailing on Alcyone with her. We had three lovely days but very little wind. We left from Semiahmoo Marina near Blaine by the Canadian/U.S. Border and spent the first night at the Marine Park at Stuart Island. The next day we motored down the channel to Friday Harbour on San Juan Island and rowed ashore and wandered around the town. Then the next day headed back past Shaw, Orcas, Waldron and Sucia Islands to Semiahmoo Marina.

Ships

Just a few of the craft we saw out on Haro Strait.







This freighter came out of the fog.








Pollution! ..... This craft has some serious engine problems.

Brian and Marilyn's Victoria Townhouse

We spent a month in Victoria at Brian and Marilyn's townhouse at Royal Links over looking the 3rd tee of the nine hole golf course. A very nice area with a large wooded park on the other side of the complex. The weather was very warm when we arrived but the temperature steadily rose in the month that we were there to break the hottest temperatures that Victoria had recorded. There was no breeze off Juan de fuca Straight to cool the city down and on the back deck we were recording temps of 40c to 43c.

Jaguar Classic Cars

On Sunday of the August long weekend Victoria hosts a very festive Jaguar 'Show and Shine'. It was a hot and sunny day with Jaguar models stretching back to the 1940ies right up to the current 2009 model years.




















This near perfect Mark 2 has less than 20,000 miles on the clock and is one of my favourite sedans of all time.

Some of the older models

A beautiful example of a late 1940ies Drophead Coupe.








The red XK140 and XK150 show a number of changes between the 2 models.










Oh, the memories as this black XK140 is exactly the same as the model I had except for the leather interior which was red in my '140'. This is the car that Mike and I drove when we moved from Montreal to Vancouver so many years ago!