Spectrum Lake Hike/Camping

What a great trip!

Friday, July 28th we took off from Kelowna at 3am (6 am) and headed up to Spectrum Lake for three days. Because of the 14 hour hike (2.5 hour) that was almost vertical (it was fairly flat) and the fact that we could only carry about 180lbs (40ish lbs) on our back we weren’t able to bring a lot with us, completely ruffing it.

The first day, after the travel and hike, we didn’t do a whole lot. Set up our tents and ate most of our food. Second day, half of us went up to an amazing water fall on the other side of the lake and the other half of the group went to the Glacier (Maybe post those photos later?). From the photos you’ll see how incredible it was.

The terrain up to the falls was quite steep and being guys, we had to push a few rocks down the hill :)





That night and the next day we spent a lot of time getting the local wildlife used to us being there (We were running low on food you know) , fishing and carving walking sticks… among other things that we can’t talk about… "what happens on the mountain stays on the mountain" :).






Enough chat, here are some photos;

CLICK HERE

Kalamalka Lake

What a great day!

We rented a boat this past Saturday for Lynn’s Birthday (Happy Birthday Lynn!) on Kalamalka Lake, just outside of Kelowna. The weather was perfect, next to no wind and hot. We were out ripping all over the lake for the afternoon, sunburn and bruises to prove it.

Here are a few of the photos of the day

HERE

And a little video of me tossing Rob of the tube in less than 10 seconds… sweet.

Sad, sad day

Well, it had to happen sometime… odds were against me, it was inevitable. I can only be the guy who pulls Pathfinders out for so long before I need to be pulled out myself and, very humbly, here it is. My buddy Noel is the commentary for the video… thanks for the emphasis on “…Jeff’s STUCK Jeep” Noel.

Here is a link to the photos taken of the day

HERE

Otherwise, here is the video
Jeep-1, Pathfinder-4

Little Jeffy

Sheila and I went out to a friend’s (Julie and Rob) ranch just outside Armstrong BC on Easter Monday to meet a horse that was named after me (long story). Julie and Rob breed horses for racing here in the Okanagan Valley with good success which is also really cool… but not the point of this story.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Every horse I’ve ever met in the past has been timid and fairly unsocial. These horses were almost like dogs where they loved attention and affection, with the exception of one stallion that tried to eat me or something… he was behind a big, strong fence for which I was grateful.

CLICK HERE FOR A LINK to a few photos we took that day. Little Jeffy is the lighter brown color with a white spot on his nose, forehead and left rear leg.

Caribbean trip

Here are a few pictures of Sheila and my journey to the Caribbean this month. Our friends Rob and Lynn joined us, looking at some of our trips over this last couple of years you’d think they were fun to travel with or something:). Rob had filmed the trek and made an amazing video, kind of a summary of the whole trip… I hope to get it posted soon as well.

Our itinerary looked like this;

Landed in Fort Lauderdale on January 29th, rented a car and traveled to Miami, through the Florida Keys to Key West and the Florida Everglades. Then we jumped on a boat and toured the Dominican Republic, Antiqua, British Virgin Islands, Barbados and St. Lucia.

I want to go back (I know, duh), what a great trip!

For the slideshow;
Click Here

Alaska Trip

I know, I know...

It's been awhile since I've posted anything but, here are a few photos of our trip to Alaska this summer

For the slideshow;
Click Here

Not as a slideshow;
Click Here

The story of a hero…

I was in Prince Albert this week visiting my Mom and thought I would share one of our adventures.


One morning I saw this BIG black and red… thing in her apartment. I went to get something to kill it with and when I got back it was gone. We searched everywhere; it was nowhere to be found. Of course all day I was freaked, feeling it on me or seeing it somewhere… but nothing. I knew it was watching…waiting. We were just about to turn in that night and there it was looking at us from the hallway, hunger in its eyes and drool in its jaws, slashing into the air like we were already being fed upon.

But this time, we were ready…

I had the can of raid spray and mom armed with a fly swatter and paper towels. I squared off first and sprayed, like a flash it dove and rolled left… I missed! Getting reset I then took the super-duper leaping dive ninja roll and sprayed right, the demon saw it coming…missed again! I landed hard on my side this time and was injured. The beast, seeing me in a vulnerable position took his opportunity leaping straight for my throat! I knew it was over for me and with what I thought was my last breath, I looked back at mom and squeaked out…

"Run Mom, save yourself! I’ll hold it off as long as I can!"

Instantly Mom’s motherly instincts kicked in, she grabbed me and ripped me back out of harm’s way. With fire in her eyes and the swatter in her hand, like a blurred frenzy she beat the stunned beast within an inch of its life. With one fluid motion she grabbed the paper towel, wrapped up the stunned and defeated animal and tossed them into the toilet… flush. Round and round, down and down it went, back to hell where it had come from.

After I flushed four more times… the black and red beetle was gone.

THE END

Postil Lake fun

This is the video collage is from our adventure 4x4ing up at Postil Lake. As you’ll notice the video quality is much higher than previously posted… thanks Rob!
(Jeep-0, Pathfinder-4)

Jeep verses Pathfinder Day

I don’t really know what to say beyond what the pictures will tell you of the result but Pathfinders do make the photos for our journey more interesting… thanks Michael :)

This is the start of the trek (Rob & Lynn) , notice how everything is clean.


This is the scene about 20 minutes in the day.

Stuck = Jeep 0, Pathfinder 1

So after much tugging and Michael getting all muddy, we finally get back on the road. 5 minutes after that...

Stuck = Jeep 0, Pathfinder 2

After all that got figured out things went pretty smoothly or… roughly (we were 4x4ing). It was lots of fun, the last postings are short videos of some of the events.

My Mom at 3

I thought this was kind of cool to share. This is a video of my mom at around three years old.

Click here

Hope you enjoy this mom:)

Seattle Trip

We went to Seattle this last weekend for Sheila’s birthday (the other couple with us are friends of ours, Rob & Lynn). We had a great time and just thought I would share. (Just click on images for full size)

Day one:
We left Kelowna quite late on Friday due to some unforeseen incident, a purse being left behind…Sheila. We arrived in Everett, Washington quite late and drove around a bit. Found a cool new Hotel (Holiday Inn) and that’s about it.

Day Two:
We went to Boeing first thing, quite cool. Apparently the building where all the planes are built is the largest covered building in the world… Did the big tour there and also the new Future of flight museum, which was ok… It wasn’t completely finished yet.



Then we drove downtown Seattle to check out a part of downtown that had burned out over one hundred years ago. I guess they had rebuilt over top of the old (Underground) and a few caverns underground still remain. Kinda spooky and touristy at the same time. Found a great little authentic Italian restaurant and had a delicious Bday meal.



Day three:
This was a long and boring shopping day… hence no photos of the day time. And on top of that we all were going to a Circus that evening. Thank God I have some good news, the Circus turned out to be a neat experience. It was better than I was expecting, it was a good show… I laughed, I cried, ya know



Day four:
This was a good day, not because we were heading back home but because we were on the hunt for go-carts… and boy did we find them. I have no photos of that other then one with Lynn in her racing overalls… nobody could keep us still long enough for one. We have some video footage of the craziness; maybe I’ll be able to post that sometime if possible, Rob?

That’s pretty much it, Cheers!

We all that…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to my Blog so I thought I would get started again with something we did last weekend, we as in “our bad selves”. It may look funny but the fun! The whole gang zipping around “beeping” at everyone. We spent two hours, non-stop “zipping” for a whole $1.80 in fuel…

4x4ing up in Myra Canyon

Well, this weekend Sheila and I went 4x4ing up in Myra Canyon just outside Kelowna. We found a little puddle, which I had to drive through…duh

Here is the video clip

Also here are a few photos of our journey… whenever I managed to actually stop driving and take a couple of pictures :)

(Just click on the image for full size photo)

coffee from monkey poo

Kopi Luwak is a rare, gourmet coffee from Indonesia that is made from beans passed through (Yes... Poo) the digestive system of monkeys.

Here is the "rest of the story"

Driving skills

Now This guy can drive

Odd... I think?

I tried; I watched it three times to give some kind of description of this…flick. If you get an idea, please let me know.

Here it is

How to catch fish without bait.. or poles... or hooks... or...

This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen… well as far as fishing is concerned.
You would think mosquitoes and black flies are bad while fishing… this flick will make you want some-kinda fish repellent.

Check it out here

Google Mars

Sorry about this space kick I seem to be on but… You’ve got to check this out.
My buddy Edgar (dawg) pointed this out to me. Leave it to Google to map out mars, Google Mars.
Here is the link

Amazing new pictures of Saturn taken by NASA's "Cassini" spacecraft.

Cassini launched on Oct. 15, 1997… and it’s still 111 million kilometers from Saturn. Total trip to Saturn is in about 3.5 billion Kilometers… At a total cost of $3 billion to build, let’s see… I guess that’s not bad mileage.
It is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever constructed by NASA. It measures 6.8 m in length and weighs about 5,655 kg. Here are some more larger photos if you like...

Saturn pic 1
Saturn pic 2
Saturn pic 3

Men’s Rules (that women should know)

I know this have been done before but... this one is pretty good:-)

Women, learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

Ask for what you want. Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That’s what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

We are not mind readers and we never will be. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.

Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us. We’ve been tricked before!!
If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, expect an answer you don’t want to hear.

Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not considered by us to be opportunities to see if we can find the perfect present . . . . again!

Sometimes we are not thinking about you. Live with it.

Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

If you won’t dress like the Victoria’s Secret girls, don’t expect us to act like soap opera guys.

You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing,” we will act like nothing’s wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as navel lint, the shotgun formation, or car racing.

Thank you for reading this; Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight, but did you know, it’s like camping.