mushing our way along the Dawson trail

So, my vacation is now officially over. It was good times. The recurring theme characters of the road trip were moose and bugs. We actually only saw one of the former and only a few hundred thousand of the latter (mostly in splat format on the front of our car), which was too bad (moose) but also a relief (bugs). I was afraid we'd have Ontario- or Manitoba-style mosquito swarms, but it really wasn't that bad at all. One night I told Aaron a really really good bedtime story about a moose and some bugs, and perhaps I will post it sometime when I don't have a million other things to talk about. Ask me about my epic bug tragedies sometime.

The wedding of Samarie was also good. I discovered that Aaron and I work quite well together as a husband-wife photography team. Aaron is the artistic director, and I am the practical implementor and collector of family members (for large group portraits). I was proud of our accomplishment. We took many pictures in hopes that a good number of them will be stellar. Professionals always take many in order to increase the chances of getting the perfect facial expressions in several shots.

Fun stuff surrounding the wedding included hanging out with all our university friends again. We composed a poem to present at the wedding called "The Courting of Samarie" to the tune of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and it was quite clever thanks largely to Paul. It was also culturally appropriate because it's all about the gold rush and the north and such, and that's where the wedding was held! Another big fun thing was the friendly prank where we all took pictures of ourselves in the happy couple's new apartment and then posted them in the places where they were taken. This way they can have the company of friends when they move in and not feel so alone. We wuv dem (spoken in Annemarie's cat voice).

Due to a comedy of errors, we began our return road trip by driving two and a half hours north towards the Yukon instead of south towards Vancouver. This made me very exited, and I wanted to keep going because I've never been to any of Canada's territories before, and I even got Steph on my side, but Aaron vetoed due to my having to be back at work on Friday. But at least I got to go to Pink Mountain. I'll bet you've never been to Pink Mountain! It's about as far north as I've ever been. Another plus was taking a different route back south and discovering the absolutely gorgeous Peace River Valley. I swear it is Canada's incarnation of Valhalla, Shangri-La, the Happy Hunting Grounds, or whatever Eden floats your boat.

I also saw purple flowers in a yellow field, and bison.

We (Aaron, myself, Steph W. and Laura) camped for two nights at Nairn Falls near Pemberton. It was lots of fun to relax and do nothing but sit around, read, go for a few walks/hikes, and make food. Tin foil dinners were the most exciting, as they included roasted garlic, yams and steak in addition to the standard potatoes, carrots and oninos. We also discovered the cleanest gas station bathrooms EVER at Lightfoot Gas in Lillooet, BC. I felt like tipping somebody, I was so impressed.

I was surprised to find that returning to the southern coastal mountains and later Vancouver felt like a real homecoming. I guess this means that I'm feeling more at home here "out West" than I had realised. Cool.

I shall now end this post, and put What I Found When I Returned Home in a new post. (Don't worry, it's not bad.)