Jacksonville and Key West

In early December I was invited to join some members of ourr sales team on a trip to Key West for a team building exercise - a chance to get to know the team better and spend some quality time in the sun. It was coupled with a trip to meet with a customer and a partner, so it was an effect trip, and one that I will try and remember the details on almost 2 months after-the-fact.

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Netherlands: Leiden and The Hague

We arrived in the Netherlands and picked up a rental car for our couple of weeks of exploration and family visits. Our first stop was less than an hour south of the airport in Leiden. Leiden is a university town where a friend of the family lives, and who invited us to stop in and visit for the day before we headed on to The Hague for a couple of days.

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Canada Day! Saturna and Hanging Around Galiano

With Canada Day being on a Monday, we used the holiday to spend 10 days on Galiano. We headed over the Friday before, and had the weekend to relax, get some work done and enjoy summer (finally!). On Canada Day, our friend David was picking us up for our 2nd annual trip to Saturna for the epic Lamb BBQ. The rest of the week was working, then our friends Cindy and KJ were coming to stay - but we’ll cover that trip in the next post.

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A Spring Visit to Reifel

With spring upon us, we were long overdue for a visit out to Reifel to check on the birds. And with the spring migration in full force, and with it being time for baby birds, we were hopeful that we’d have a good day out. Alex has moved out to Vancouver for the summer for her “summering” at a local law firm, and as she had expressed an interest to come along, she and Matt joined us for a fun day out.

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A Last Couple of Stops in Ontario

I think this will be the last post from the Ontario trip. We have two more stops - one with our friends Carolynne and Graham at their home on Stoney Lake, then a quick stop in Alton with Mom and the rest of the family. It’s been a great trip - very relaxing and we got to catch up with a lot of different people. There’s never enough time, but it was time well spent.

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Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory

Wednesday, we were excited to join Risa for a day exploring the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory and general surroundings. I had been looking forward to this almost (but not quite) as much as the eclipse, as it gave us a chance to to see a bunch of birds we normally wouldn’t see out west. So yes, you can skip this post almost entirely if birds aren’t your thing.

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Total Solar Eclipse and Visit with Risa and Jeff

for the second leg of our trip, we headed east to Prince Edward County, as they were going to be in the path of totality, and by great coincidence, our friends Risa and Jeff live in the area! So we could watch the eclipse and get caught up. The other cool opportunity was to spend some time at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory, where Risa has been volunteering. So yes, be prepared for lots of bird pics…

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Snowy Vancouver

Starting on Tuesday night, we got a serious blast of winter. By the time it was all done with, we apparently got 28cm of snow, making it something like the 4th biggest single day snowfall in the city’s recorded history. On Wednesday, we got out for a walk in the afternoon, as it was still coming down, to enjoy the snow. We don’t get a lot, and it is a bit magical when we do.

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