I just noticed the Legend in the document referring to both Women and Ladies.  Seriously, WTF?

So if you’re female and you’re in Curling, Biathlon, Bobsleigh, or Ice Hockey, then you’re a “Woman”.  If you’re in Speed Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Alpine Skiing, or Figure Skating, then you’re a “Lady”.  Interesting concept.

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The 5-hour drive took us along Hwy 1 (aka Trans-Canada) up along the Fraser Canyon, Boston Bar, Lytton, Cache Creek and eventually to 70 Mile House. Marivic and Jeffrey had reserved a tent site which was waiting for us. We paid our fee, chopped some firewood, set up our tents and we were all set.

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The weekend was spent basically de-stressing and unplugging (i.e. no cellphones, Internet, and TV).  We didn’t really do much but we did spend a lot of time just sitting around the fire and our eating area.

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Our campsite was a stone’s throw away from the lake and we got a chance to snap a few pics on the floating dock.

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Watch Lake is stocked with around 50,000 Rainbow Trout annually. So we figured it might be easy to catch some fish here. But the fish weren’t biting. Jeffrey seems to think it’s probably due to the change in weather from cool to hot and some turbidity in the water. This made us more determined to catch fish. On Saturday, Jeffrey took me on his dad’s small dinghy to go trolling for trout using Luhr Jensen Ford Fenders. After a while a fish struck Jeffrey’s line. In a most unselfish gesture, he quickly handed me his fishing rod to give me the honours of reeling one of the few fish biting this weekend. As an added bonus, Anna brought along her special seasoning for that special fish.

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Nearby Green Lake is a larger lake where faster boats are allowed. There are many private residences along the shore but there also many public access roads. We found a road and drove up to the water’s edge to set up our chairs.

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On Monday, Jeffrey took us all on his dad’s bigger boat. You won’t see waterski boats on Watch Lake; there’s a speed limit of 8 km/hr in effect so the lake is always nice and calm. Marivic also managed to catch a fish.

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This short trip was a nice getaway. I was pleasantly surprised by Tall Timbers Resort. We had running water at our campsite which was really close to the water. The common building had flushing toilets, showers, and laundry facilities. It was also very clean and well-maintained. Make sure to check out their website.

Special thanks go to Jeffrey and his family for their generosity. I can’t wait for the next time we go camping.

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This is a long post but I’ve broken it up into several pages. Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

A Room with a View

Hotel room views are generally grouped into 4 broad categories in descending order of ocean view: oceanfront, oceanview, partial oceanview, and garden view. Our first three nights were spent at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. This is a huge complex with many towers surrounding pools, shops, and amenities. The tower we stayed in was the one closest to the beach: The Rainbow Tower. Anna got us into the 17th floor of the 31-floor building with an oceanfront view overlooking Waikiki beach and the famous volcano crater Diamondhead.

Anna and Claire enjoying the view from the 17th floor of the Rainbow Tower

Sunrise over Diamondhead

Enjoying the view

Photo tip: the background will be very bright and will cause your foreground subjects to be dark and somewhat backlit. Here, I metered for the background and increased the camera’s flash exposure compensation to help light the foreground (notice the flash’s reflection in the lanai door glass).

Claire chilling and enjoying the view

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