Simon says

After 14 hours in the air and landing in Vancouver, we had decided to get straight out of the big city and head instead to the Squamish Adventure Inn Hostel for four nights of jet lag recovery.  An hours drive from the airport this was a good decision.  The time difference is 7 hours from Sydney but we were tired enough from the flight to get to sleep by midnight or so and the kids slept until 1pm the next day.  A glimpse of teenage years to come? The outdoor space at the hostel next to the river and with the 3rd peak of Stawamus in the background Squamish is climbing central so slack line comes as standard at the hostel Dinner al fresco at the hostel   We took a jet lag busting hike up the Stawamus Chief 1st peak, a short trail but one that gains more than 500m elevation over its 2.5k length, much of it up wooden stair cases and rock steps, as well as a couple of iron ladders and chains. The views from the top are really great, down to the Howe Sound, our hostel and across to the stil

Squirrel taking an interest in our lunch, Stawamus Chief First Peak  Recent posts have been a bit more "we did this, then we did that..." than "we did this, and I thought about that, and she said this...).  Blame it on the covid or the travel fatigue or the laziness, but as we come to the final stages of our year away, we're all reflecting a bit more and wondering what the indelible legacy of this grand foray will be.  It's hard to see the wood for the trees when you are in the forest and even harder not to let the day to day stresses and strains cloud your day to day enjoyment.  As is human nature, we have moments of wonder at what we have been given and of pride at what we have achieved.  We also have moments of regret and shame at what we didn't do more or less of.   A recurring trigger for feelings of guilt and despair is human-caused climate change and environmental damage.  The three tracks of this story are broadly: we have seen so many wonderful place

Opera house and iconic green and yellow ferry, taken from our ferry back to to Milsons Point  Our east coast express tour continued with an overnight stop in Glenwood, part way between Burnett Heads and Brisbane.  In the morning Toby had a chance to let out Mario's chickens and we played with Max, the big fluffy "guardian" dog, all the while enjoying another cool, cloudless morning in Queensland.  Our flight to Sydney was short and we arrived at our apartment in Kirribilli early evening to enjoy the views of the Harbour Bridge lit up in the night sky.   The bridge at night, from the Mary Booth Lookout Reserve The bridge from our apartment balcony We only had one full day in Sydney but we made the most of it with a walk across the Harbour Bridge to a too-quick stop at the Australian Museum, a fun visit to the Policing Museum and plenty of time lazing, walking and wrestling in the beautiful Botanical Gardens.  We took the ferry back across the bay and got some great views o

Felicity Cousteau getting ready to explore the depths Our original plan had been to go further north and to visit the great barrier reef from Cairns. Once that was off the cards Crystal looked for the southernmost place where we could still get to the reef and found Lady Musgrave Island. The day before, we had a day off in Burnett Heads where our neighbours were horses and from where we visited the Mon Repos turtle centre which was a good warm-up for seeing them in the wild. Chatting with the neighbours at our place in Burnett Heads Research scientist practicing safety in the workplace and considering this giant loggerhead Felicity studying some blood samples It is winter but even for winter it has been really cold, 5 degrees cooler than normal and with a brisk wind. The last couple of nights have been 7° and with windchill it felt like 4° when we lined up for our boat at 6:45 in the morning. Luckily we could be inside for the crossing to the reef which took just over two hours. And on