Photo Hunt - Blue

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Blue

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I've been very busy this week.

Last week was incredibly beautiful and BLUE!
Victoria at Sunset - so Blue...

Hope you have a great weekend, happy hunting!

Time Flies

When you are way too busy... Time just flies.

I haven't blogged all week, or read any blogs, but I'll post a photo from the past week or so..






A few photos just around where I live. We have had incredible weather lately. I hear the forcast might be changing..

Not too Scary

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Scary

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This photo was taken back in 2006 near Vancouver in Ladner, BC

Do all pumpkin signs lead to a scary entrance?

OR something more like this?



I hope to visit a pumpkin farm again this weekend.. Will you?

Enjoy your weekend!

2009 Tour Route Announced

I'm so excited to see the new 2009 Tour De France route, which was announced yesterday. The route heads through Switzerland, Spain, and Andorra this year also! My immediate thought was how do I get there to watch the race! One can dream right?

The 2009 Route

Two exciting stages for me are stages 17 and 18 of the 2009 tour which take place on Friday and Saturday July 17, 18th. The two routes do not show enough details yet, but it appears to go through the Haute Rhine of Colmar and onto Switzerland in such cantons as Fribourg and Vaud before entering the Valais.

One interesting past note of Stage 17 is a 6 time stage for the tour. The stage leading to Besançon during the 1905 Tour gave cycling a new boost. Armstrong was the last rider to win the stage and the tour, in the 2004 Tour’s final time-trial.

The Swiss ski resort of Verbier is a new stop over on the Tour de France and has already played host to a number of decisive stages on the Tour de Suisse. The final climb, more than 9 kilometres long, provides the possibility for riders in top form to forge gaps, or at least triggers head on confrontation.

Km 135,0 - Col des Mosses - 13,8 km climb to 4 %

Verbier is proud to announce that the Tour de France 2009 will stop in Verbier on Sunday July 19th followed by a day of rest. On Thursday 21, Martigny will be the starting point of the stage going over the passes of the Grand Saint Bernard (top of the tour 2009) and the Petit Saint Bernard, arriving finally in Le Grand Bornand.

I am very excited to see the Tour come back into Switzerland to place close to where I used to live and bike myself.

A Visit to Goldstream Provincial Park

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting Goldstream Provincial Park on a beautiful sunny day, located roughly 17km's from down town Victoria.  The park is the center of attention of the annual salmon run, with beautiful old-growth rain forest as part of your surroundings.  The salmon are found spawning up stream with many onlookers participating in the spectacle.  If you are very lucky, you can also see some Bald Eagles.

The best time to visit the park for the Salmon run is from October until December.  Hike down to the visitors centre to visit the mouth of the river and the Goldstream estuary or through the tunnel to visit the famous waterfalls.

Here is a look at some of the photos from my visit.  Unfortunately I wasn't too pleased with my photos I took.  The weather was tricky for single camera shots as I did not have a tripod with me.  That just means I need to get out and take a few more shots!

 The highway is located just to the left of the park and can be very busy!

You walk into a lush forest with green trees and moss everywhere.

 Head down to the estuary to check out the birds of the area, including eagles.

Walk through this tunnel to find the water falls.

A look at the famous waterfalls.

Fall colors are everywhere.

 

Blue skies.

My favorite shot of the visit along the stream.

In case you wanted to visit this park, Goldstream Provincial Park is located off of Trans Canada Hwy (Hwy #1), and can be best accessed only by car.  Here's a small map of the location.  I plan on going back for another visit soon.

About

Expat travels came to life after finally learning what a blog was after returning from 2.5 years of living in Switzerland. I had already been living in Canada for a short time and was trying learn about my new adopted country and customs. ET also known as Jen Schilling to those who meet her in person is a photographer, a swimmer and triathlete and an outdoor traveler. She grew up in Northern California, lived in Switzerland for 2.5 years, but now calls Victoria, BC as her permanent home.

ET's obsession with traveling started when she quit her corporate job in 2001 and moved to Switzerland for a marketing job. The work permit didn't exactly go through and she found herself leaving her new found Swiss friends and learning how to teach English in Prague. While in Prague she figured out she was falling in love with Switzerland and had to find a way back to Switzerland to stay.
Her first European adventure started in Montreux where she taught a 20 month old toddler English 4 days a week, with one free day a week to improve her French. She soon grew fond of her travels and her time exploring Switzerland with her tiny camera. It was during her time living in Montreux that she got to travel extensively around Europe and learn so much about Switzerland. She also met a few great friends who she still keeps in touch with to this day. You also might find them photographed in some of my adventures.
In August of 2003, ET relocated to St. Louis, France just outside of Basel. She realized although her love for the country was infinite that her time was coming to a close and another adventure was to be had in Canada.

Expat Travels was started as a way to write down all of the great times she had while living in Switzerland and reach out to meet other people who were going through much of the same trials as herself as well as providing some awesome tips of great places to travel. She was hoping to become a landed immigrant of Canada and was looking for information to make the process move smoothly.

Once she began meeting more expats, she realized there were some that she probably met while living in Switzerland. Her stay in North Vancouver led to a more permanent stay in Canada after becoming a landed immigrant and Citizen of the country.

Four years later, ET is still exploring Canada but mostly now on Vancouver Island. Expat Travels serves as an outlet to enjoy her photography as well as keep in touch with other expats from Switzerland and around the world as well as document part of my expat life from one culture to the next....

A Family in Photos

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Family

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I took some photos of old for this hunt.

My brother and I in 1999 in Seattle, Washington - just family

A new Family - from my house in Montreux in 2002

A small family in Burnaby

Have a great weekend. I plan to be out photographing the Autumn colors.

The Lochside Trail

Over the weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to go out on a beautiful Thanksgiving Sunday and ride down the Lochside trail towards Departure Bay and Sidney. The ride is beautiful, full of fall colors and full of peaceful forests and fellow bikers and walkers.

Apparently this is also a great area to find some rare birds if you are patient enough to look out for them along the Lochside Regional Trail. Some of the photos from this link show just how beautiful the trail is and what you can see along the way.

I started my ride out near Beacon Hill park and the Galloping Goose trail until I met up with the Lochside trail, roughly 8km later. Here's a look at 2 of the maps from the area.

The regional trail of the area.

The route I took.

Here's a look at the trail as I was out there riding on it.

The thick forest is so refreshing, lush and green.

You might run into a few deer along the way.

The trail runs for kilometers on end on a quiet road.

Some very large swine.

A beautiful treat at the half way mark in N. Saanich.

In total, I biked 40km's for the ride, and beautiful as it was.

Happy Columbus Day

Thanksgiving dinner has come and gone for many Canadians, as it did for me last night nearly in the dark. The irony of it all is that many people in the US do not know that Columbus Day , which is often not even celebrated, is in fact the time Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving and giving thanks. Columbus day is of course the celebration of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492 .

Our Thanksgiving started out with a massive power outage. Nearly half of Vancouver Island was without power from roughly 5:45pm until 7pm, prime time for cooking the turkey and getting the rest of the dinner ready to eat. The irony is they still do not know what the cause of the outage was.

All in all, our dinner turned out just fine. We all stuffed ourselves over the limit as usual, loosened our belts and enjoyed chatting away. I also have a new favorite dish with yams, which I plan to find a photo of and post for others.

I don't feel all so guilty seeing that I did a 40km bike ride during the day to a new area which I never had biked, the Lochside trail. Let me tell you, it's a must ride! More to come as I'll give a detailed report on the Lochside Outing, full of maps and possibly a few photos.

Time for Change

From Wednesday 10/8/08 at 3:47pm

I'm in the middle of changing templates. Things might be missing a bit or comments might not be there, but I'm pretty sure once I finish, all things will work out.

In the mean time, hang tight! See the next post for Your Photo Hunt.

Bare with me also, I can't seem to get the Haloscan comments to work. There is a script error do to the xml script or a javascript tag missing. I'm trying to figure out the problem in due time, but I'm not so versed in javascript. =) If anyone knows xml or javascript, please comment or email me.

You can still comment via blogger for now.

I'll be doing some tweaking on the colors, links and additions. Please Tell me what you think.

***UPDATE *** I've finished the color tweaking. Apparently some of the javascripts aren't working yet. If you have additional suggestions, please let me know! All comments I'd love.

Lazy In Montreux

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Lazy

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I wanted to put a bit of a twist on the theme for lazy. For me being lazy means, escaping from work indoors and taking a walk, reading or just relaxing & watching the beautiful world change before your eyes. That's a lazy day and exactly what I was doing in Montreux while enjoying the views on a park bench.

Escaping work, relaxing on a bench and being lazy,
would you agree?...

The band Deep Purple who appear regularly at the Montreux Jazz Festival also recorded the song Lazy in Montreux, Switzerland. A bit ironic to coin the term lazy, but to me the history behind the band is so interesting to me.

The festival was originally held at the old Montreux Casino, which burned down in December 1971 during Frank Zappa's performance. ("Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple tells that story.) They even recorded the album in Montreux.

Here's the song Lazy.

The Lyrics for Lazy

Youre lazy just stay in bed
Youre lazy just stay in bed
You dont want no money
You dont want no bread

If youre drowning you dont clutch no straw
If youre drowning you dont clutch no straw
You dont want to live you dont want to cry no more

Well my trying aint done no good
I said my trying aint done no good
You dont make no effort no not like you should

Lazy you just stay in bed
Lazy you just stay in bed
You dont want no money
You dont want no bread

And this is a lazy day in Victoria, enjoying the beach, laying around soaking up the sun. What do you like to do on a lazy day?

Sheryl Crow Detours

Sheryl Crow
Originally uploaded by lightgazer

Last night I was busy watching an incredible woman as Sheryl Crow came to visit us in Victoria. Sheryl put on an awesome show and she's as beautiful as ever at 46 years old! She spoke about her son, engagements and broken ones, surviving cancer and some about politics in the US.

Her show was a mix of old and new. She played nearly all of her new album Detours and brought the crowd to cheers for 3 last songs before exiting the stage at nearly 11pm. She also had 2 other bands before her starting at 7pm sharp, one of which was The Jim Cuddy Band.

Her new songs from the night range from the demise of a relationship to Lance Armstrong, the adoption of the man in her life - Wyatt, a public bout with breast cancer, the war in Iraq ("Peace Be Upon Us," featuring Arabic lyrics sung by Ahmed Al Hirmi), environmental disaster ("Gasoline" featuring Ben Harper), and the ravaged New Orleans of Hurricane Katrina ("Love Is Free").

I believe Sheryl is now off to Seattle and has ended her stay in Canada. I'll be reliving her inspiring spirit for months to come.

Sad Weather

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Sad

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SAD but true: winter's blues

Many times people have A Gloomy outlook ... the darker, colder months herald depression for many people as does this photo to me. However, this photo does have many ironies in it, especially the beautiful blues.

Of course, I love sunshine and the spring and summer months. When the weather starts turning, I seem to enjoy the weather that much less. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not depressed at all. I think there is always beauty everywhere and I'm in such a great city as Victoria to experience it all.