why I like canoes better than kayaks (avec prelude)

Prelude
Many things have transpired since my last post. In a nutshell, I had a week of vacation and Aaron and I went camping, then my best friend Liz showed up in town and we hung out, and then I went away on a work retreat. And now I'm home again.

Aaron and I went camping on Galiano Island, and we enjoyed nature. We spent time in the sun, on the beach and kayaking. We played in tidal pools. We saw deer, even baby deer, and they looked so wonderful when they bounded away! We saw phosphorescent micro-organisms in the ocean at night. We also heard some seals who suffered from night terrors and sleep apnea. Or at least that's what it sounded like.

Our camping trip was also pest-free except for the occasional wasp. Galiano Island does not have any bears at all, and apparently their raccoons and skunks are not interested in garbage or dirty dishes left out overnight. I got one mosquito bite in three evenings of sitting by the campfire in a tank top. Honestly, it was kinda creepy to be that unmolested by nature.

Visiting with Liz and her mom was also fun. Aaron got to spend more time with them than I did, because they were still in Vancouver the whole time I was away on the work retreat.

Finally, I spent three days and two nights in a cottage with my colleagues. It was pretty chill. My favourite part was canoeing. I have been both canoeing and kayaking in the past two weeks.

Here is why I like canoeing better than kayaking:

- The whole means of steering is far more tangible in a canoe. Foot pedals that turn a rudder simply do not have the same effect as a well-wielded paddle. I imagine the difference to be much like driving a standard as opposed to an automatic. You gain a more tangible control over things when you cut out the "middle man" machinery. You can't turn a kayak on a dime without resorting to canoe tricks (which are more difficult with a super-long buttless kayak paddle).

- I like the point of view better in a canoe. You are higher up, which means you have a better angle for looking down into the water, and the scenery in general looks better in my opinion.

- The seating arrangement is more comfortable. In a kayak your legs are stuck straight out in front of you and resting on foot rests. I like the properly seated or kneeling positions better, and you have more options to find a comfortable position without knocking your knees on the bloody kayak.

- I prefer taking powerful individual paddle strokes rather than trying to be a smoothly fluttering kayak whirly-bird. Again, it just feels more tangible somehow.

- When canoeing, you can switch the side you're paddling on and give some of your muscles a rest while still moving forward. When kayaking, the only rest your muscles get is when you stop.

- Finally, I simply feel more at home in a canoe. I have developed a full complement of canoe habits over the course of my lifetime, and I feel like a canoe is somewhat like a natural extension of my body. Not so much with kayaks.

I win!

This post is an Annemarie-style post in that it talks about housecleaning that I have accomplished today. When Aaron came home from grocery shopping, I challenged him to think of a visible surface (i.e., not inside cupboards) in the bathroom that I had not cleaned. So here's the scorecard:

Diedre's points (stuff I cleaned):
mirrors
faucets
bathtub
the soap dish in the wall of the bathtub
light fixture
the fan in the ceiling
the outside of the drawers
the ceiling
on top of the wall cupboards
the floor

Aaron's points (stuff I didn't clean):
the shower curtain rod

Other points I would have had if he had asked:
the back side of the toilet tank (and the wall behind it)
the toilet paper holder
the walls
other obvious stuff like the sink and the toilet bowl/seat

blarney

Tee hee! There are five honest-to-goodness Irish in the office today! They're chattering away with THICK accents and it's both fun and funny! I have to ask them to repeat themselves half the time, I can't understand most of what they say the first time around.

crazy bus drivers

Yesterday I walked past one of those bus waiting areas where bus drivers take their breaks between runs. I heard a strange noise coming out of one of the busses. When I looked closer, I realized that there were two bus drivers hanging out in the bus, and one of them was playing the BAGPIPES. How's that for a lunch break activity?

thou shalt watch Stardust

Aaron and I watched Stardust yesterday, and it was awesome! It was a good fairy tale/quest/adventure movie, filling the same sort of niche in my heart as The Princess Bride. It made me laugh lots too! I fully intend to buy it when it comes out on DvD (and that's saying something, because I usually just rent movies), and I fully intend to watch it many more times over the course of my life. And show it to my kids. And my parents. And everyone else. I believe this movie is completely appropriate for anyone who is old enough to cope with the largely goreless killing of disposable characters, the off-screen killing of animals, and scary witches.

I'm not very talented at writing reviews, so let me cut myself short and simply say: Watch it, it is highly entertaining. Now turn off your computer and go watch it.

fabulous frolics

Everybody should go and look at Annemarie's picture-filled post about our camping trip.

What are you waiting for? GO LOOK AT IT!!!

camping at Wells Grey

We spent the long weekend camping with Sam and Annemarie. We live in opposite corners of British Columbia, so we decided to drive to the middle and camp at Wells Grey Provincial Park.

It was fun and relaxing and we got to use our tent outdoors for the first time! (You may recall that we had already set it up in our living room and slept in it for two nights.) This is the summer of buying camping gear, so we also broke in a new tarp, camp chairs, camp pots/pans, and a new air mattress for Aaron. It was tres exciting. Maybe next time we'll buy our own cooler. And remember to bring dish soap.

We spent Sunday driving around the park and looking at various natural and historical sights. There was a carbonated mineral spring that was bubbly and covered in bright orange goo. When you threw rocks in, the goo closed up immediately over top and you couldn't tell that anything had changed. There weren't even surface ripples. It was as if the rock had ceased to exist the moment it touched the goo!

The other pleasant surprise was Helmcken Falls. I figured we were just going to go see a bunch of mediocre-but-cool waterfalls in the park, but Helcken Falls are the real deal! They are three times as tall as Niagara, although they are of course much much narrower. But there is a still quite a significant amount of water pouring over (they are not wispy), and there is a cool hollowed-out part in the cliff that has mainly been eroded by winter ice from the mist. Here is a picture that I found online, although I don't think it really does the falls justice, they're WAY bigger than that!