Friday, June 25, 2010


Of late it has been hard to find a few days that are free to visit my daughter Ale who lives in Lillooet. She teaches at an elementary school there. The reason for not going until yesterday was that she was working on her report cards. Rosemary and I enjoy going with the granddaughters. But they have been busy with classes and it was Lauren’s birthday party on Friday. So when Paul, who is on holiday, suggested that the two of us go for a visit I immediately jumped on the idea.



We arrived on Thursday exactly at the time when Ale arrived from school. Even though we had left Vancouver early we had spent some time on the Cisco Bridge. A couple of hours into the afternoon I cooked some hot dogs on the barbecue and a couple of Ale’s friends, Teresa and Sandra arrived for a visit and happened to bring a case of Corona Beer. The guitars were soon out and Sandra (she teaches music in the two elementary schools in Lillooet), Ale and Paul played. Since this is the 21st century, Ale brought out her laptop and the songs they wanted were found on the net with both lyrics and chord patterns. In fact when I was asked for a request I asked for Nick Lowe’s Cruel to Be Kind and I was immediately satisfied by a fine rendition from Ale who is a fantastic sight reader.

Because Lillooet is really a desert you can expect some sort of dramatic sunset every evening. The cloud patterns are fantastic and Ale's house sits smack in the middle of Fraser Canyon. You can see weather come and go. I am not into taking pictures of sunsets but here is one, anyway shot so easily with my iPhone. The evening grew cool and Ale lent me a sweater. She told me I looked good in it and gave it to me. It is a nice one. I am wearing it as I write in this cool not quite summer evening in Vancouver.



By the time Paul uncluttered Ale’s computers (Paul is a whiz for these things) it was past midnight. We woke up at dawn and I made thick bacon slices (Rosemary knows how to buy good bacon), toast and two teapots of tea. We said our goodbyes and left for Vancouver. It was a trip, where we were not in a hurry, so it became a kind of photo safari. We stopped to take pictures wherever we chose to.



Paul had to drive a bit on the slow side as we returned via Pemberton and the curves between Lillooet and Pemberton make my dizzy if I don’t drive.

We stopped, again on a lark in Brackendale. For more on that, see tomorrow.