I’ve been having some monitor calibration problems, so I hope these turn out ok. It seems like my cheapo monitor is pretty bad… Well that’s what you get when going for the cheapo big one I guess 
The Winter Olympics (Winter itself not so much 
) have arrived in Vancouver and everybody in Vancouver is hooked. At work everybody is working with the intranet TV broadcasting on their second monitor and cheering every time Canada gets a medal or scores in hockey. So far Canada has 5 medals of which 2 in snowboarding events and we are of course very curious of what the Belgian Ladies Bobsleigh Team is going to do.
Tomorrow we’re going to one of the nightly Victory Ceremonies where they hand out the medals to the winners and have a concert of a different Canadian artist every night. Tomorrow seems to be Alberta night, so they have an Alberta country artist named Paul Brandt on the schedule
We’ll be Alberta bound when visiting our friends Oli & Saartje in Cochrane, Alberta in a month and a half, so it seemed like the perfect song
On Thursday we’ll be at the Ladies Half-Pipe snowboarding event on Cypress Mountain, which we’re both very much looking forward to and this weekend we’ll spend the whole weekend in Whistler with friends experiencing the Olympic atmosphere over there. It’s going be a great week!
I know I haven’t posted a lot of pictures lately and I’ll try to pick that up again once I get some more spare time.
This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago in Callaghan Valley in Whistler which is right next to the Olympic Nordic sports center where the Ski jumping, Biathlon and Ski Cross events take place.
One of the nice things about the state of Hawaii (except for the obvious stuff) is that none of the beaches are private. Basically this means that you are allowed to access any beach at any major Hotel. We were on our way back to our hotel when the sun was setting and I wouldn’t have made it there in time. We quickly pulled into the Four Seasons hotel and went to the beach and experienced this lovely sunset, accompanied by some local sea turtles.
USS Arizona was a battleship of the United States Navy. Arizona is best known for her cataclysmic and dramatic sinking, with the loss of 1,177 lives, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the event that brought about US involvement in World War II. The wreck was not salvaged, and continues to lie at the floor of the harbor. It is the site of the USS Arizona Memorial National Park which commemorates the 1,177 lives lost on that day.
Update by Ine:
USS Arizona: The ship that weeps for her dead.
The black seepage in the water (on the last picture, left) is described as “Black Tears” of the Arizona. Up until today there’s still oil that seeps out of the wreck.
I was lucky enough to talk to one of the survivors: Robert G. Kinzler.
He is spending his time as a volunteer (actually, one of the longest serving) in the museum of the memorial. He informs tourists about his experiences and provides them with his personal interpretation of the events surrounding the Pearl Harbor attack.
On the 7th of December 1941 he was a Morse code radio operator assigned to Headquarters Company, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks.
Not only was it very touching to hear his stories, I also have to admit, this is something that really stuck to me throughout the time we’ve spend in Hawaii. There’s still lots of military areas so even though Pearl City/ Pearl Harbor is a specific area on the island, you’re constantly driving by those restricted / prohibited areas. I even saw a submarine heading out to open seas… Kinda neat to see one that’s still active:).
I also wanted to add a picture that I took. I was really fascinated by this control tower (on Ford Island). At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the tower structure had been completed along with a portion of the platform on the top. They’re planning to clean up the tower which would allow public access. Would love to visit that one!
I hope everyone has an enjoyable week! We’re heading out to Stanley Park on Friday evening with some friends, for a ride on the Ghost Train. I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully we can start painting again this weekend (pick up where we left off before Summer started).
A diamond head shaped cloud passes by diamond head at sunset in Honolulu, Hawaii.
We’re back from Hawaii and back to work.
During our stay in Hawaii, we decided to search for some Lost film locations as I am a big fan of the series. First thing we found was the location of the camp of the Dharma Initiative. Turns out this was filmed at a YMCA camp called Camp Erdman (map location), there was a band camp (yes, the one with trumpets etc like in American Pie) going on, so we couldn’t snoop around, but Ine managed to grab some sneaky flyby pictures like the next two:
Here you can see the camp in some screen captures of the series:
After that we decided to look for the survivors’ beach which according to our search on the internet would have been filmed on police beach (map location). We found the beach quite easily by parking on Papailoa road in Haleiwa and walking to the beach using the public shoreline access road. The movie location was a bit further to the left. When we arrived at the site, we saw that the destroyed survivors camp was set up and security was patrolling the scene. Apparently they had been filming there 2 days before for season 6. Below is a picture of Sawyer’s Tent with a piece of Oceanic Airlines flight 815
The following picture is a screen capture from the tv series showing the tent before the camp was attacked.
We discovered some more movie sites like Hurley’s golf course, … and eventually found out that they were currently filming in a specific location. While we couldn’t enter the place since security had it blocked, Ine saw Hurley while driving by.
Yesterday, after arriving home picking up Grizzly at the breeders, we passed by a movie set of Twilight: New Moon I think (map location), could have been something else since they are running close to release date, but I know they were still filming 2/3 weeks ago. They have been filming all over the place.
So far for nerd posts, next posts will be more “pictury”/”touristy”
We woke up yesterday morning, and made another last minute decision: we were going to Mount Baker.
It’s been a little bit less than a year since we’ve been there, and the weather was nice so we decided to head out there.
Last time it started snowing, so we were unable to see how far you could actually drive up. We made it to up the ski area but that was it.
This year we first stopped at the Visitor Center and the park ranger told us that we definitely needed to go to Artist Point. On clear days there are stunning vistas of some of the most breathtaking scenery in northwest Washington. There’s a very accessible path around dazzling Picture Lake with views of Mt. Shuksan brilliantly reflected in its waters. On the other side you can see the top of Mount Baker.
Artist Point’s elevation is 1600m while Baker is about 3286 meters high in total. Definitely worth mentioning, it’s an active volcano… It is the second-most active volcano in the range after Mount Saint Helens.
Below a little video of Mount Saint Helens. This what could happen to Baker…
We definitely had a wonderful day, and Grizzly loved the lakes and the snow! Some pictures we took on our hikes:
Fun fact:
Mount Baker Ski Area is one of the snowiest places in the world. It set the world record for snowfall in a single season, 95 feet or 28.96m
I know I haven’t been updating this blog frequently, but lately I didn’t feel like blogging/taking pictures/… so I didn’t
I won’t be writing a lot in this post, just wanted to post some pictures from the last month and a half.
The first picture is a panorama from Canada Place, Vancouver, which is the main cruise ship terminal in Vancouver. It also hosts the Vancouver convention and exhibition center, the Pan Pacific hotel and the 3D Imax theater.
If you look closely, you can see the “Island Princess” cruise ship docked in the middle of the picture. If you ever want to do a cruise to Alaska, Vancouver is your starting point
The next three pictures are taken during a visit of Fort Langley, “The birthplace of BC”, a former fur trade post of the Hudson’s Bay Company. It is called the birthplace of BC because it played a key role in the establishment of the 49th parallel as the international boundary with the U.S. and was the staging point for prospectors heading up the Fraser Canyon in search of their fortune.
The fort is now a museum explaining the history of the fort and showing life in and around the fort. They have presentations of weapons used during the 1800’s, explanation on the fur trading routes,… Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.
The last picture is taken during a hot day in Lynn Canyon. After a short walk over the suspension bridge and down some rocks, you hit this small natural pool with a waterfall in the back, which is very popular with locals during summer.
That’s it, hmmm… I guess I talked more than I planned to…
The weather has cooled down a bit (quite a bit actually, from 40C to 23C) during the last couple of days, which makes life a bit more enjoyable for Belgians Even the deer were seeking shade and didn’t seem to bother if you approached them. This picture is not cropped and my zoom lens was not even zoomed in to the max (the EXIF says 135mm).
Kris Taeleman | 
