Tuesday, October 09, 2007

thanksgiving

big weekend! thanksgiving involved eating pumpkin pie and dahl, dress-ups, fabulous mountains, watching the salmon swimming upstream to spawn, scrabble and card games, swimming in a public pool (very exciting, as vancouver's pools have been closed for three months now) and a minor car accident (i'm unhurt). it was all very good fun, except the car accident bit.

miriam, her sister and i drove to the okanagan, which is about four hours east of vancouver. there were stunning, stunning mountains:


and we went above the snow line (and celebrated appropriately):

this is okanagan lake, which is huge and stunning. the far bank was wiped out by bushfire last year (i think), which is why it looks so bare:
it's actually quite a dry area, and gets very hot in summer. we went for a walk and found prickly pear cacti. we also went on a walk to see the salmon swimming upstream (pretty stinky from the dead fish, but cool, cos they have funny hooked noses) and a walk to show off our dress ups:
very entertaining! there was much good food and hilarious games of "demon" and "up and down the river", which is a kickarse game that involves sticking cards to your forehead.

on the drive back we stopped and went for a walk to a beautiful lake just below the snow line, called falls lake. it was incredibly cold, but miriam's sister went for a dip. she steamed gently afterwards. . .

that is snow up the top:
you just let me know when you're sick of photos of mountains. . .

such a beautiful lake.

and on the way back:

unfortunately on the way back we got involved in a five car rear-ending on the freeway. nobody was hurt and only one car was too damaged to drive, so it wasn't too bad, and within about five minutes of phoning 911 there were two fire engines, an ambulance and two cop cars on the scene. it was scary, but i'm fine. miriam and her sister have slight whiplash. drive responsibly, people! this accident was due to massive amounts of holiday traffic and, probably, the car that drove away from the accident at high speed. i got all of its license plate except for one letter, which is pretty useless, i think. bah.

now i'm back in vancouver and it's raining a lot. surprise, surprise. i love this city, but damn, it's wet!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Epponnee-Rae

First, Congratulations on your graduation my friend - you looked quite the part! Well done you.

Your little holiday with Miriam and M's sister looked lovely - spectacular scenery - I wish I'd seen the salmon. You looked damn perculiar in your dress ups (loved the pink knickers esp). Was there a specifc reason? I have the three of you pictured after the pile up, with police and fire brigade dressed in your capes...

The Frau and I went to Vienna for the weekend (I was there for work for part of the week and Frau came on Friday night). And we had such a lovely time - such a grand city, you'd love it. It was our 5th aniversary (doesn't that make you feel old).

Anyway, glad all well, you seem really happy!
Lots of love Kath

itchy fingers said...

divine decadence, darling!

Anonymous said...

P.S. Do you have Missy Higgen's new CD? If not we have two copies. Let me know. MMR

Gauri said...

have you been accepted by miriam's family ?

gumtreefid farmer said...

hello kath! there will hopefully be a picture of the salmon soonish. i was trying not to be tooooo much of a tourist.

the fire men were most impressed by our capes, thankyou! one of them tried on my crown.

so jealous of yr vienna excursion! must much exciting than my weekend. . .

gumtreefid farmer said...

itchy, thankyou, dahling!


gauroxen - there was a small blood-letting ceremony, yes. my new tribal name is master epponnee-rae the third.

Anonymous said...

up and down the river is a FAB game. i have only played it during one week long camp at Falls Creek. I remember that it was great fun, but can no longer remember any of the details, but the card on the forehead bit is familiar.

gumtreefid farmer said...

this was a variation on it called rounders, but the elements were the same. such good fun! i was there for that week, remember?

i will teach you if i remember. i also learnt a game called "demon", which is fast and furious.

do you like scrabble?