Strike Lake Camp

Probably the best Labour Day weekend I've spent so far has been this last one. John and I had the privilege of spending it with Milly and Quoc in beautiful Manning Park. When I say beautiful, you may have some sort of image in your head of a cozy little campsite that you drive into next to other little campsites that are driven into by other people yearning to get away from city life by sleeping in a trailer for a night. But this simply was not that kind of camping.

The campsite we enjoyed for two nights (called Strike Lake Camp) is about 7 km from a parking lot and nestled inbetween tall tall trees. The trail to it follows three sparkling lakes through the forest and the sound of rushing water is the last thing you hear as you fall asleep and the first thing you wake up to in the morning. There are ready made fire pits, a pile of wood to fuel the fires and logs surrounding them for stools.



The food cache is where the bears hang out, waiting for an unsuspecting camper to leave the door to the food open.



Quoc made use of the fresh water for his water purifier device. It served us very well.




We ate oatmeal for breakfast, supplemented by hotdogs and marshmallows. We ate hotdogs for dinner and marshmallows for dessert. Basically, whenever we were hungry we ate hotdogs and marshmallows.







We washed in the river. It was very cold and refreshing.





We hiked back to the lodge to get more food and to eat our traditional camping trip icecream.



It has been confirmed: camping with Milly and Quoc is a good time. Despite blisters, bad night sleeps, fear of bears (that was all me I think), weiner and marshmallow diets (I only mention this one as a con because by Monday afternoon the others longed for a salad - I could have gone on eating marshmallows for another week), setting up camp at the wrong location and having to take it down and march a little further on, ash and soot coating everything - camping is worth it.



The gorgeous landscape, eating everything over an open fire, being able to see millions of stars at night, spending time with friends in a unique setting, discovering again and again how blessed we are to live in British Columbia, seeing a black bear 15 meters away - it's all pretty rad. I give Manning Park two thumbs up.

Easter Balls

So I had grandiose plans for Easter crafts this year. I saw a picture of a papier mache bunny and I vowed to make one for each of my nieces. Here is what I did:

Step 1: Prepare the paste and the newspaper strips (courtesy of SFU's newspaper, The Peak).



Step 2: Cover balloons in strips of gooey paper.




Step 3: Repeat step 2.





Step 4: Hang your creations to dry.



*****WARNING*****
Papier mache takes a long time to dry! Longer than you could ever imagine! Please prepare your craft well before it's needed.

After a day and night of drying (with only two layers) it's time to paint.

Step 5: Paint a base coat.
Note - If you have lame paints like I do (Crayola washables from Superstore bought the night before 10 minutes to close) it will take a few coats of paint to cover the newspaper satisfactorily.



Step 6: Let dry.

*******WARNING******
Having to do several coats of paint will probably leave you behind schedule if you don't plan for it. Please prepare your craft well before it's needed.

If you have run out of time like I did (a couple of hours before we were supposed to head over to my sister's for Easter dinner I was still applying base coats) the best project you can probably do is an Easter egg. The bunnies require more time and effort, unfortunately.

Step 7: Apply designs onto egg.

Step 8: Fill with candy.

It's no lie that I'm ashamed of my Easter balls (that look nothing like eggs) however hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes; hence, pictures and a detailed record of my bungles.

I ended up putting them in a plastic bag to take over to my sister's while the paint was still drying so they got a bit smudged. However, the candy inside the eggs made up for the deficiencies in aesthetics and my nieces were happy. Success!!




Here are a few photos of the lovely Easter dinner Amelia provided. She's quite the host. Happy Easter!

Favourited Spring Activities

Yesterday my sister, niece, boyfriend and I tried to swing like monkeys on a jungle gym. It's more difficult than I remember. But playing with exuberant enthusiasm is just as fun as it was when I was 10.

Welome, Spring. You make me feel young again.