Views from the Space Needle

On the Tuesday in Seattle we went with Andrea and Stephen to the Space Needle at the Seattle Centre.

This is a little movie of the brief monorail ride from the Westlake Center on 5th Avenue Downtown out to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is located

David and I in front of the Space Needle

Views from the top in a North Easterly direction towards Mt Baker.

A close up view of Mt Baker

Views to the North West


David and Andrea

View South towards Downtown.


Close up view showing Mt Rainier on the horizon. Although it was a generally clear and sunny day unfortunately it didn't make it easy to see the volcano as it was South of the Space Needle.

David and I at the top

Looking down on the Komo 4 News offices and helicopter

Views to the West

Looking down on the Experience Music Project & Science Fiction Museum. Apparently this building is supposed to look like a mangled guitar. Ummmm.

A brief piece of movie of an eagle that was flying around close to the observation deck

Andrea back down at the base of the Needle.

Cates Park

On Sunday David was working so I decided to have a change of scenery and walk with Charlie at Cates Park, which is at the south-east corner of North Vancouver, close to Deep Cove, about 10 minutes drive from home. We had tried to visit here in the summer when Anne & Ian were visiting but they don't allow dogs from April - September and it was too warm to have left him in the car that day.

The length of the trails is a bit limiting, but there are lots of swimming opportunities for Charlie and the views are great.

This is a view north-east towards Indian Arm. Deep Cove is just out of sight, but is on the left beyond the headland.


Plenty of opportunity for swimming


Below is a some movie taking on our stills camera of an unintentionally long swim for Charlie. After hitting the water, the stick skimmed the surface almost as far again, but C faithfully paddles after it.

An oil tanker, waiting close to the refinery which is in Port Moody on the other side of the inlet, close visually but actually about 45-60 minutes drive as there are no bridges linking.

A close up of the waterside village of Belcarra

Looking North up Indian Arm

Finally, another bit of movie showing a panorama of the north-eastern edge of the park as it meets a residential neighbourhood of Deep Cove showing the views up Indian Arm and across to Belcarra Regional Park on the otherside of the water.

The After Swim Shake

Spring is on it's way

The snow may not yet be completely gone, but Spring is definately on it's way.

Walk in the forest on Mt Fromme

This Saturday was the first (relatively) warm and sunny weekend day we have had for some time, so to avoid the inevitable crowds in the park I decided to walk with Charlie on the trails on the side of Mt Fromme - which is the hill that rises up from the end of Princess Avenue, between us and Grouse.

We only completed our usual hour or so round walk as I still haven't managed to find any trail maps and as it's Crown Land and not BC Parks managed, the trails are all natural and there are no direction indicators up there at all. I had an open house to hold during the afternoon and wouldn't have been very popular if I had managed to get lost in the backcountry.

So we had a bit of gratuitious posing

Found a completely moss covered ex-tree

Did a bit more posing on a long since fallen tree

And did more than a bit of stick fetching (he's pretty camouflaged against the red soil & red wood trees)

We also splashed about in the creek, that since we were last there someone has very kindly built a rustic wooden bridge over (it used to be a case of jumping on precariously balanced stones to get across)

Charlie in the creek at Mt Fromme

SeaWall Walk Slideshow

Thought we would share some pics from a recent walk round the SeaWall that runs around Stanley Park with you using this newly discovered Slideshow thing,

D&A

Snow Fun

More Snow

Ok so we have had snow alot this winter so far; a few inches each time that lasts a few days and then clears but this is the most in one go so far!! Actually we have had about 15 - 20 cm each day for 2 days now and expecting more tonight. Of course this is localised to our North Shore mountains and the snow is less downtown.
Makes the snow at christmas seem like nothing. Mostly all OK; just a bit of extra work to get the car out. However, it has to be said that they clearly are not used to much snow in the city as they don't clear the roads well and they think it's driving as normal.


Charlie Loves it and has so much fun in the Garden I had to join him and make a snow angel. (Big Kid!)



D & A

Eagles II

So here is a little video of our day out watching eagles as promised. A bit shakey really so we may have to invest in a little tripod for such zoomed in filming.

Views from Cypress Bowl Road

On our way home from Brackendale we decided to stop for a quick photo opportunity at Cypress Bowl Road in West Vancouver. It's the road that leads to Cypress Bowl ski area, but about a quarter of the way up there's a pullout where you can stop and enjoy the views.
This photo shows the North Shore, Burnaby and Mt. Baker on the horizon.

Lions Gate Bridge, downtown and Stanley Park.

A close-up view of Mt. Baker

A wider view of the metro area.

Vancouvers Westside, with the University of BC campus in the foreground and the mountains on Vancouver Island in the distance.

Finally a close-up of downtown

Panorama of Metro Vancouver

This is a panorama shot we took of the metro area from the viewpoint on Cypress Bowl Road. Click the image for the full size version.

Howe Sound from the car

On our way home from Brackendale (see post below) David took a few random snaps out of the car window of Howe Sound. Our new camera has an excellent anti-shake feature which meant we actually came out with some OK snaps.
The first three images are of Howe Sound, south of Squamish.



Below is a view of Bowen Island

The Bowen Island ferry

Looking straight across the entrance to Howe Sound to near Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast.