Last Weekend in September

We're finally getting our usual warm September weather and everyone seems to be taking advantage of it after weeks of cool and wet. This photo is a semi-cheesy self-timer shot on one of my rides on Rattlesnake Mountain -- I've been mostly riding by myself, so I don't have any other recent photos of me on my bike.

This morning I made pancakes and then later on I hiked out to our favourite spot on the Trans-Canada Trail with Ivy and Ella while Tannis climbed her bike up Conkle Mountain above us. She joined us for a pizza picnic before walking back with us.

This afternoon I explored the Riddle Road trail network near Penticton. It was truly beautiful in there, with views across the lake to Giant's Head, a bubbling creek and lots of big old ponderosa pines. The trails were mostly mellow singletrack with easy climbs and simple, fun descents. As soon as I got back, we all went up to Scherzinger and had some wine, grapes (picked from vines above our heads) and cheese on the patio. Meanwhile, Tannis had lasagna roll-ups baking in the oven -- good livin'.

Yesterday we enjoyed the sparkly autumn water at the beach -- it's getting pretty chilly, but still nice enough to swim a bit...and we felt somewhat guilty for not helping my folks move into their winter rental home. We brought food for everyone later in a lame attempt to make ammends.

We've also been marvelling at the fall crops coming in, especially the pumpkins and apples (apparently a bumper crop this year). And finally, two random shots of Ivy from the last few days: riding her bike in the curling rink with her Puddle Jumpers friends, and trying some field hockey at the toddler park.

Hot Springs Tourists

Kaslo Bay
Larry and Pearl have been telling us for years that we've got to go to Ainsworth Hot Springs in the Kootenays, and we finally made it there this weekend with my folks. The rain and steam made for excellent soaking but not such great photos, unfortunately. The pools were really busy, but we saw a stellar rainbow over the lake and the girls were amazing for almost two hours there. I also forgot to take a few pictures at the Borscht Bowl in Grand Forks on the way and the Rock Cut Pub outside of my favourite town Rossland on the way back home...but I took a bunch of touristy shots from the rest of the road trip.

We stayed at a great bed and breakfast in Kaslo. The owners run a small bike-repair shop out of the basement of their comfy home and made us awesome pancakes this morning. Most of us toured an old passenger steamer that they've turned into a museum in Kaslo. It wasn't super-exciting, but interesting enough, and somehow yielded some great pictures:

• amazing woodwork from 1898
  
• extremely cheesy museum dummies that included creepy soundtracks for a more "lifelike" experience -- they were truly scary
  
• Tannis being her usual photogenic self...and again
  
• I'm not a big engine kind of guy, but I just love this photo of the engine room

We had an excellent supper at the Rosewood Cafe in Kaslo after boiling in the hot springs -- the place even had a toy room for the girls, which they dutifully turned into chaos, and local Nelson Brewing After Dark for daddy.

Before lunchtime, we spent a bit of time in Nelson. The highlight was probably the Oso Negro Cafe for some excellent coffee. Photos from there: Grandma and Ivy, Ella and Grandpa. We had hoped to eat at Idgies in Rossland on the way back, but it was closed and most of the town was pretty quiet. Ella got thoroughly sick of the car with about 150kms left to go, reminding us why we don't go on more road trips. And now we sleep...

Goodness Me

Life is good: mellow day at the office, a relatively quick drive home from Kelowna, two six-packs of cold Classic Nut Brown Ale for $17.00, Team Canada tied with Team Finland going into the second period, and Tannis's Mediterrean bake making delicious smells in the oven.

Update: And it only got better, with Canada emerging victorious and a great hike up to Cactus Flats with the girls.

Camera Back

We finally got our digital camera back from being repaired, so I have no excuse for not putting some photos up occasionally. As a side note, Ella has pretty much slept through the night the last few nights, which has me doing spontaneous happy dances. We walked to the Beanery for coffee this morning and I took this picture of her that is almost identical to a shot I got of Ivy two years ago. I'll see if I can find it and scan it in here for comparison. We also went down to the sparkly beach for a bit before heading back here for lunch.

Quick Update on the Girls

Ivy still loves to listen to us read to her. After multiple trips through the Pippi Longstocking trilogy and Ramona/Henry Huggins series, Tannis has been reading the Little House on the Prairie series to her...I think they've gone through five or six of them already, with some selective reading of the less politically correct references to the "savage indians". Now I'm going through the Narnia series with her.

A couple of her quotes from the last couple of days:

• (watching Ella poking the side of her butt in the tub) "Ella, don't scratch off your bum cheek -- that would look super weird."
  
• "Daddy, do you know what gets me all stoked?" No, I didn't know. "Star Wars." She insisted last night at the beach that I make a Darth Vader (actually "Dark Invader") sand sculpture, although R2-D2 is her favourite character by far.

Ella's in all kinds of transition these days, experimenting with words, often words that resemble the actual labels for the things she's pointing at, chewing on, or throwing across the room. She's also been taking some tentative, wobbly steps and standing up on her own. She's officially weaned, and she's even been doing some decent stretches of sleep at night, which improves the quality of life for all of us.

Angelo Goes to Hollywood

Shortly after arriving home from an epic road trip to Crested Butte for mountain biking and to accept more awards for the short film he wrote, Angelo took off for Hollywood, where Flickering Blue is also showing at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival this week.

He didn't waste any time getting acquainted, meeting famous producers and actors at the first event he went to. He somehow managed to avoid asking Andrew McCarthy what it had been like to work with the first actress I ever worshipped, Molly Ringwald, instead bringing up one of his excellent recent films, New Waterford Girl. Go JOE!

Fall Mountain Biking Season

You'd think I would have learned my lesson last fall -- last week I took my first big crash of the season on my jump run. There's a steep approach that speeds you toward a little rise and a small wooden ramp that kicks me into the air, maybe 15 or 20 feet out and three or four feet off the ground. I had jumped it a half-dozen times already and was feeling a bit cocky, I guess, because I hit it with way more speed and really launched. I even landed it ok, but too flat, so the suspension rebounding pitched me off pretty hard. Luckily, no injuries, and I was back on the jumps two days later.

This afternoon, Tannis dropped me off on Three Valley Lakes Road and I circumnavigated Cartwright Mountain. It's a great cross-country ride, with not much climbing or steep descending, but great views and some nice mellow singletrack. This time of year is ideal for riding, because the temperature is perfect. Aside from having to McGyver my brakes to make it home (switching front and back pads when the back ones disintegrated), I was pretty stoked and started looking forward to doing some more exploring in that area -- apparently the big loop out there is something like 40kms long.