Thomasso’s weblog » Vacation and Travel

A Trip to Sooke, BC

September 12th, 2011 Thomasso

This was my trip to Vancouver Island on September 11, 2011, in photos, when I went to buy my sister’s SUV. So me and a friend went on the long trek from Fort Langley, to Sooke, BC, to drive a vehicle what may, or may not have, made it back under its own steam. We made it, with minor issues with a dead battery, but the trip was great. Lots of stories for the dinner table now!

Yes, JM, I made it back! Safe and sound. The Pathfinder did die on us while on the Ferry, but they were nice to help us with the jump-start. We did get home, although hours latter than expected, but it was worth it. The truck passed Air-Care, and Cam had a blast while on Vancouver Island. If I did not know him better, I think he really likes Southern Vancouver island–a lot?

So, here are some photos I took of the round trip while on the Ferry.

Posted in Events, Family, General, Holiday, Photographs, Vacation and Travel | 1 Comment »

The Blacksmith’s Shop at the Fort

June 19th, 2011 Thomasso

One of the first places me and Mother went to when we visited the Fort Museum back on June 11, 2011, was the Blacksmith shop. I have always had a fascination with metal working, especially these historical methods without the use of modern methods of heating and casting that we have today. It was well informative as the demonstrator used his furnace and showed us the various techniques of bending and heating the iron to make all the tools and things people needed back then to have the creature comforts they wanted.

The Blacksmith made everything from farm equipment and tools, to everyday household goods such as knives, barrel-straps and eating utensils–even the nails to build the houses they lived in. There is quite the history when these first settlers came over.

It was very fascinating to see this guy (who I have no idea his name, but he was part of the staff that worked at the museum) shaping and customising this piece of metal into a very cool looking hook for hanging tools on in the barn with. It took him about five mins to create this hook. He gave it to my Mother becuase at the time she was from the farthest place visiting. She in turn left it with me because of her fear that they my not allow it on the bus. The Blacksmith also make the comment that if you are flying, then it would not be a good idea to take it with you also. Oh our modern times are something, eh?

Posted in Around Town, Events, Family, General, Photographs, Vacation and Travel | 2 Comments »

Spending Time with Mother: Hiking!

June 18th, 2011 Thomasso

As some of you now know, my Mother has left back to her home in Alberta, as her visit here had come to an end last Sunday, but it has taken me all of this week to catch up on this blog, entering in the backlog of posts that I want to write in it. I have several hundred photos, both stored on my camera and hard drives, and going through them all has been a test of endurance. With so many photos, and so little time, choosing the best of the best has not been easy.

In this post I want to write about the last evening that my Mother stay with me in Fort Langley, BC. We agreed that a hike along the Fort to Fort trail would in order for the quest of the allusive rabbits (bunnies) that inhabit the forests in the thousands along the shores of the Fraser Rive and beyond. So I captured the journey, and lots of bunny photos from that hike, with my camera.

Perhaps the best part of the trail is along the Derby Reach leg of the hike. Shown above, you are walking through some well groomed, and wide open area that is managed by the Park at the Derby Park end of the trail. You are walking along the edge of farm land and a bird sanctuary by the Park. At this point of the hike, the trail stays along the river after a short detour when it follows a road for about a kilometre. Remember that this photo was taken around 7:00pm in the evening. Still lots of light, but getting late.

Above: The marker says, “Fort Langley – the original Fort Langley was built here in 1827. James McMillan in charge. The site of the first permanent settlement and cultivation of the soil in the Lower Fraser Valley, later known as Derby, home of the Royal Engineers. 1858 – 1859.”

Reaching the marker of the original site of the fort at Fort Langley, BC, this sort of marks the end of this section of trail. There is lots of trail left, but this was as far as we went due to the lack of time we had. Now, from here, we started the trek back to home.

We also took time to admire the setting sun. This section of the trail we incredible for viewing the sunset through the forest and farm land. Oddly enough at this the bunnies started hopping along the trail more frequently too as they crossed it when we walked by. My camera sucked for shooting photos of them becuase of the low light, and crappy flash that I had.

It was good hike, and I did feel it in my legs. My Mother insisted that we do it, and she never complained about the distance. This proves that she is super stubborn, or she is in way better shape than I am?

Posted in Around Town, Family, General, Photographs, Vacation and Travel | 2 Comments »

Mom in the Fort

June 12th, 2011 Thomasso

Since after the Convocation from Wednesday, me and my visiting Mother did some sight seeing around Fort Langley, BC. I have no vehicle right at this moment, so I could not take to her places that I wanted to go, so we did lots of walking and local sight seeing. We went to places I have not gone to in years. Yesterday we did the Fort Langley “Fort” heritage park, and the Fort Langley Farmer’s Museum. It was amazing how much time went by when we were finished.

Above is a panoramic photos of the Parks Canada Historical Fort Langley.

We first went to the “Fort” where we could see what it was like to live in the 1820, or an re-enactment of life back then. I have to say that Fort Langley has quite the history, and I learned lots of interesting facts that I did not know about our little town up until now. The exhibits and the history of people there were very good and well put together. It was an awesome place to go and be, and very family friendly too!

Above, according to what I have heard from the tourer, is that this building is one of the oldest–still standing building in all of British Columbia circa ~~1830s~~ 1840s (according to the handout Parks Canada gave me about the Fort). I have to do some more research to check into this, but I can say, the building is built out of the huge cedar planks, so it could have another 200 years before it starts rotting!

Then is was off to the Fort Langley Farmer’s Museum. This was a great place to walk around becuase they have everything form old farming equipment to general every day household times from the 1800s right up to the 60s and 70s. Most of the times came from donations right here in the town of Fort Langley and the surrounding area.

This one made me laugh. It is a gasoline powered MayTag washing Machine (circa 1940s). Just imagine the excuses you could have with this unit!

“Mom, the washing machine will not start. I think it needs a new spark-plug!”

“Yeah, who forgot to fill up the washing machine… with gas.”

“How come the cloths are not done”? “The washing machine ran out of gas…” LOL

“Don’t over rev the washing machine – it’s not a race car!”

Posted in Around Town, Events, Family, General, Humour, Photographs, Vacation and Travel | 3 Comments »

Is It Time for a Mini Vacation?

January 27th, 2011 Thomasso

I was flipping through some of my old photos and came across some that I took when I was on Vancouver Island a few summers ago. It made yearn for those days to come back, as I remembered all the fun I had, driving, exploring, and meeting friends and family, but mostly the hot summer days.

With my life on hold from University and work over the last four years, getting out and doing all of these wonderful things, well, was very tough to do when time was damn tight. For the last four years, the only time that I had were the little bits of time between semesters, say 10 days maximum. So planning and finding a place to go for that kind of time-frame was hard to do. I found myself limited with time and money, as tuition just conveniently popped up just before the end of the previous semester. I am so glad that that is over with.

Now, I’m in a period of freedom before I hit the 24/7 routine again, so I want to capitalize on it. It is one thing to sit at home and think about it, but another to actually get out there and do it. I know my time is short before the rat race really gets going, but the question is, when and where to go?

Going locally would suck because of the time of year it is, so Vancouver Island is out of the question. Sorry sis. I want warm, tropical weather. I have a friend who is going to the Dominican Republic, but the airfare is too rich for my pocketbook right now. So I guess I will have to really think this through and see what my options are.

There is a very good chance, however, that I may just stay home until I go full steam at work. That would undoubtedly suck, but that is the way it is right now. But every time I look at these pictures of myself back in the summer, I yearn for warm sunny weather.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Photographs, University classes, Vacation and Travel | Comments Off

Back from Vacation

January 13th, 2006 Thomasso

Now that I am settled in and ready to get back into the swing of things, I have so many tails of adventure that I may tell them over a weeks or two. The dilemma of leaving for such a long time and coming back to my house means buying food that I cleaned out before I left and catching up on all the Post and Emails that have piled up: mainly bills and letters. With the transition of changing jobs is now at the halfway point and I now need to deal with my new scheduling and time table. On top of that, I am still taking classes over at the College and although my courses are light this term, they are still demanding. The cleaning issues with replenishing my fridge and shelves with food has been irritation because of weather and driving in it. Know one wants to walk to the market so driving is the mode of transportation and that means parking and poor visibility are causes that make a 10 min trip turn into a 30 min drive of terror. We are getting some really bad rain storms that have caused local flooding and that nice trip to the market has turned into a exercise of man versus nature: soaker’s are common today.

For friends and family, I have being working on my video; creating a DVD of Tom’s Vacation, and should have the full compilation out soon. I basically shot 4 1/2 hours of it and I am going to edit it down to one hour– it could kill my audience watching that much crappy camera work if I don’t. Again, I will send you out copies through the Post and you should have it by the end of the month. Send feedback if you can on how what you thought about it—please.

It also appears that we are going to break a weather record too regarding rainfall here along the West Coast. The weather office said that by next week we will have broke that record for the most rainy days consecutively in 50 years. If you look around here now, you would really notice it. Like I said before, flooding is becoming a really problem around here, even our golf course is under water at the moment!

Posted in Bitching about weather, General, Vacation and Travel | Comments Off

Vacation Continued…

January 8th, 2006 Thomasso

I am back for a little bit here. I’m getting ready to leave again, going over to Vancouver Island to see my sister and her kids. Vacations are so much fun! I decided that I would take another couple of days off before I hit the grind because you never know when you will get the opportunity like this again. I am finding that vacationing around this time of year is great and probably due to the fact that so many people are at home nursing their credit cards by focusing on making extra large payment towards that debt or just staying at home resting from the “season.” Everywhere I went the lineups were small with waiting times only a couple of minutes, you can’t ask for more than that!

I made a home movie DVD for the family, so those of you who are on my “good” list will receive a copy of Tom’s vacation adventures, and for those of you what are not, well, you’ll just have to borrow it from one of us or suffer.

Please note that I’ll not be looking at my Email until the end of the week. Once I’m back I will be heading straight for classes, so my time will be very tight. If you really want to get a hold of me, the weblog is the best place to reach me. I’ll have my laptop with me and I’ll check my web site at least once a day. I won’t be posting here until I get back unless something really big happens, but I’ll be looking. So, until then, you all take care!

Posted in Family, General, Vacation and Travel | Comments Off

Vacation!!!

January 3rd, 2006 Thomasso

As of 1:30 pm today I will be off starting my vacation and traveling far, far away. I am oh so looking forward to this! I will try and update while I am off having fun. I will not guarantee anything as the last time I did this I ran into problems finding an open Internet connection. I have the lap top to keep me connected, but that may not be enough. So armed with a video and SLR camera. I am so excited!

Posted in General, Vacation and Travel | Comments Off

Lots of Stuff Going On

May 30th, 2005 Thomasso

This has certainly been an action packed week. One, that if it were not for the fact that I could not of taken time off from work, would of ended up in a panic-attack or failing grades and unfinished work. Nevertheless, being granted time from work has saved my first series of mid-terms examination; the extra much needed time certainly lowered the stress level to a much more manageable pace and allowed for qualitative study time.

*WORK:*

As I mentioned before, I’m taking some time off; “time for good behaviour,” as I call it. As a Criminologist, I sometime equate situations in life to penal, or prison jargon. This helps to add humour to a dull ritualistic employment setting. Although my employer may not see this in the same perspective as I do, they seem to go along with it? So, I’ll be posting at unusual times than my normal pattern. Its amazing how much time in one’s life work really takes up, isn’t it?

*COMPUTER/TECHN ICAL:*

In the LINUX world, for those of you who follow the LINUX RedHat and FedoraCore projects, FedoraCora4-test3 (FC4-T3) has just been released, and the final release for FC4 will be sometime around June 10, 2005. I’ll be upgrading my current Operating System to FC4-T3 effective Thursday, because I find that installing bug-fixes are much faster than installing the final cut, then, install bug-fixes afterwords. In short, someone has already taken the time to make the RPM files (I know, you MS people have know idea what I’m talking about, do you..) and they install more cleanly.

*FAMILY:*

Mom, your computer is on it’s way! Yes, I shipped it though the Post and you should see it on Friday, barring any mishaps and natural disasters. The unit is insured for total cost. And NO!!!! I did not send it C.O.D., as Dean jokingly stated! How could I do that to my own Mother! LOL.

Posted in Bitching about work, Criminology, Diatribe, Family, General, Holiday, Homework and deadlines, University classes, Vacation and Travel | Comments Off

Drove up to Rocky Mountain House

April 25th, 2005 Thomasso

I’m so tired right now. You see, I just got back from my road trip, visiting my mother, leaving Friday morning and getting back tonight (Monday) that I just did too much in such a short period of time. I’m wiped! But it was all worth it. The drive, which I was dreading, turned out to be great. It was not as bad as what I thought it was going to be. Of course, being with Mother was a real treat too, I had not seen her in over a year, but it was her news that made the trip worth while. I’ll talk more about that a little bit later…. But for now, please click on the link right below to read the rest of the story.