Sunday, August 31 to Thursday, September 11, 2025 (Puntledge RV Park, Courtenay - and Lake Cowichan, BC)

The hot humid weather continued for the first few days of the week. We didn't do anything of great significance...just the usual morning walks, errands and chores around the trailer. On our walk Sunday morning (Aug. 31) at the Airpark, Steve watched a plane with RCAF markings taxi into takeoff position and got a short 18 second video of it taking off...

Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 2), Steve decided to take a walk to the river to check out the fishers. Lots of activity with folks fishing as well as swimmers. Not many fish were being caught...

He took a 1:11 minute of the activity...

Wednesday morning (Sept. 3) we had some errands to run and as we returned to the campground, a doe and her fawns were near the entrance...

At 1:30 Earl and Allison picked us up and we headed up to Mt. Washington to a favourite hike at Paradise Meadows. We have done it numerous times and really enjoy it...

Ahhh shade...it's a very warm 27C/80.6F!

Mount Washington ski hill in the distance...

Friday (Sept. 5) we are going down to Lake Cowichan for the weekend. Deb and Ray have invited us, along with our son, Rob and his family (they won't arrive until tomorrow). After a quick trip to the hospital for a mammogram at 8:30, I was home and finished packing. We actually got away earlier than I thought we would, arriving at Ray and Deb's at 1:30.

Like the August long weekend, we quickly unloaded the car, got settled, changed into our bathing suits and went down to relax on the dock.

Steve took a dip in the water...it's warm at 23C/73F...(Deb's picture)

After a few hours, it was time to go up to the deck...

Love this view, even if smoke from wildfires is rolling in...

Deb basting the pork tenderloin on the barbecue...

Dinner time! Deb's Char Sui Barbecued Pork with Fried Rice was absolutely delicious!

The day ended with a lovely sunset...

Saturday (Sept. 6) morning Rob, Angie, Conner and Bryce arrived at about 10:30...and after getting settled, the first order of business was inflating the tube so the kids could go tubing!

Steve did all the driving...

Bryce was in the water more than out...

A 28 second video of Bryce jumping off of the neighbour's tower...

Bryce checking out the fish under the dock...

Conner spent a good bit of his time fishing...

Steve (boat driver), Rob, Conner and Bryce are heading back out in the boat...this time to let the kids try water skiing...

As much as Bryce tried, he couldn't get up on the adult size skis. Conner said he had a soar knee from basketball and didn't want to aggravate it more... 

So they came back in and changed to the tube...now it's Angie's turn in the tube with Bryce...

I decided to venture into the floatie...

The trouble began when Ray brought out the water sprayers...(and me loosing my drink in the water!) Fun times playing in the water! 

Looks homemade...

More fishing for Conner...

And more jumping into the lake for Bryce...

And more relaxing on the dock. Even if it wasn't a super sunny day, it was warm enough...

Ray took Rob, Angie and the boys for a final tour in the boat...

And they're back...

Angie made some yummy appetizers...

Rob and Angie took the kayaks out for a spin...

Time to go up to the house and do the final preps for dinner. Deb smoked a turkey on the Traeger...

Dinner was fabulous...Deb did turkey, dressing, gravy and cranberry sauce (i.e. turkey jam), I made layered salad and potatoes and Rob/Angie brought corn-on-the-cob and dessert. A great collaborative effort made for a delicious meal together!

The "clean-up crew" (Deb's pic)...

After dinner relaxing on the deck with the fire and heaters on...

A wonderful full day of fun! Needless to say it was a pretty early night for all.

Sunday morning (Sept. 7) Conner made blueberry pancakes under the direction of Deb...

The pancakes were delicious...good job, Conner! As were the bacon and sausages that accompanied them.

After the breakfast cleanup, we all went our separate ways...gathering our things and packing up. It was about 11:00 when we all gave Deb and Ray big hugs and were all on our way home. Rob, Angie and the boys have about an hour and a half drive south, and we had a two hour drive north. Thanks so very much Ray and Deb for your hospitality...we all had a blast!

Monday (Sept. 8) ended up being a rather cloudy, drizzly, dreary kind of day...for a change. It never really rained hard, just sprinkled off and on.

We have had deer visiting again...

A 22 second video of our visitors...

I did some shopping and by late afternoon, it had cleared enough to take a walk around the campground.

Tuesday morning (Sept. 9) we were back at Nymph Falls Regional Park for our walk. As you know, we walk here frequently and love it. This time instead of pictures of the falls and river, Steve captured shots of interesting things...nature at it's best...

Ok...one picture of the river and some falls from further down...

A homemade soaker pool...

A dead tree covered in moss...

There are some huge trees! Take a look at this 22 second video of a "one becomes four" cedar tree...

After lunch we went to check out the Puntledge River Fish Hatchery. Unfortunately our timing wasn't good...it was basically closed for maintenance. We did manage to talk to a fellow working and he was very informative and interesting. He told us there were a few fish in one of the catchments but the best time to come would be mid-October.

Even with it was closed, we were still able to walk around. This dam forces most of the salmon into the fish ladders...

There were only about a dozen salmon here...

That pretty well wraps up the last couple of weeks...nothing very exciting to report for Wednesday (Sept. 10) or Thursday (Sept. 11) other than just the routine stuff!

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