Travelog for: Marty the Moose

Today we are going to Whistler!  It is where many of the events of the Olympics were held last year.

It is a fairly nice drive...when the weather is nice.







Aha!  Snow!  We must be close.



There are many places to ski and snowboard in Whistler, but Blackcomb is accessible right from Whistler Village.





Here is the village.







No visit to Whistler is complete without going to the Cows store.  Everything is cow-themed here.



Here are the Olympic Rings.



The tour being complete, I went to David's Tea to warm up.



We also got some lunch.  Mmmmm, crepes.

Monkez has arrived!

Today we went to the Raincity Chronicles, which is a night of story-telling that happens about once every two months.  The stories are from real-life, funny, and all of them are loosely based on a theme.  Tonight's theme was Arrivals and Departures.



There was freshly-baked goods for sale to eat while you were listening.  I bought a cookie.

It has been snowing, but snow never lasts long here, so we decided to make the most of it while we could.



Everyone decided to make snow angels.



Can you see mine?

Abby's family recently got a new cat, so we decided to introduce ourseves and welcome Emma.

Today Abby took me to her school.  Simon Fraser University opened in 1965.  It is on top of Burnaby Mountain, and was designed by Arthur Erickson, who is known for liking concrete and water features.

This is the Academic Quadrangle, where many of the classrooms are.  Below the ground there are two floors of lecture halls and places to study and eat.



See the construction behind the trees there?  They are constructing something for the movie Underworld 4, which is partially being filmed here.



This is what it looks like.



This is the Convocation Mall, where graduation ceremonies and student gatherings are held.  Earlier this week there was a clock constructed on the platform, and flags everywhere that said 'Antigen.'  The library is on the right.



This is on the roof of one of the buildings, looking North toward the mountains.  On a clear day the view is really pretty.



This is looking back toward the Academic Quadrangle from the roof.



This is back toward the library.





Here is some more information about the filming happening at SFU.

Here is a list of some of the other movies they have filmed at SFU.

Tonight was the night of the Super Moon.  It didn't look much bigger than usual, but it sure was bright!  Can you see my shadow?

Today we are going on a field trip to a lot of different places to learn about archaeology and Native oral tradition.  The first place visited is the site of an extensive fish trap that is 1300 years old.  Sadly you will have to take my word for it that it is there, because the tide was up.

Our next stop is Horseshoe Bay.



Horseshoe Bay is a ferry terminal now, but underneath this park is an old village site.





We went down onto the beach to look for cultural material.





This is an example of what was found.  As you can see, it is not the easiest to spot (it is right in the center).





There is not much cultural material left on the beach because people come down and collect it.  Before you get any ideas, this is actually illegal.  We put everything we found back on the beach.

This is The Chief, which is a popular climbing destination.  Many people climb up the rock face, and there are many hiking trails on the other side.  It is also part of a local Squamish legend, which I will tell as best I remember it.  There was a two-headed serpent that lived on the top of The Chief.  It caused a lot of trouble, and so a man trained very hard to defeat the serpent.  He climbed to the top of The Chief and chased the serpent out of its cave.  The serpent slid down the front of the rock face.  Can you see that straight line near the center of the picture?  That dark line was created by the serpent's saliva as it came down the rock face.  The man came down after it and wounded it right where I am standing.  The serpent tried to escape Southwards.

The serpent arrived at this lake, which is said to be bottomless.  The man wounded it again when it was in the lake.  The serpent burrowed under the lake and into Howe Sound, which is just West of here, past the hill.  The man followed it through this tunnel and chased it all the way back to Horseshoe Bay, finally killing it in the bay.



There is an archaeological feature in this area, but due to its sensitive nature, I am not allowed to tell you what or where it is (sorry!).  It does have to do with this story.

Lastly we visited Porteau Cove, which is known for its scuba diving, but is also an archaeological site.





As you can imagine, it is very difficult to find a rock among rocks, but here is a core that Abby managed to spot (a core is a larger piece of stone where smaller flakes are broken off and turned into tools).



In this area, anywhere that there is a flat beach is probably an archaeologiacl site.  I would very much like to come back and look for more lithics!

Lintilla has arrived.

Today we are helping with renovations by tiling the backsplash in the kitchen.  These are the tiles we will be using.



First you cover the wall with a thin layer of special mud, then apply more mud and texture it.





Next, you place the tiles on the wall.



This is the result of our handiwork!



It still needs grout in between the tiles, but that is a job for another night.

Today we were introduced to Abby's new stay-at-home ToyVoyager, Wallace.