The Owl Cafe

Tokyo is pretty famous for its cafe culture in a WIDE array of niches from maids to robots to anime to a wide range of animals. Being pretty nerdy and about to embark on a long bird watching tour at the time, our natural fit was an owl cafe in the heart of Akihabara.

We booked months in advance as spaces fill up quickly (even months in advance there were hardly any spots left) and were very pleased with our experience. The place was run by a married couple that clearly loved their 40+ birds. Entries were timed, everyone was quiet and respectful, and they had a system for rotating through the various owls to stop them from getting overstimulated.

 

From the owl "menu" I couldn't pass on "Mr President" the Malay Eagle Owl and his magnificent eyebrows. For the larger birds the owners not only provide a glove to keep the talons out of your hand, but a nice rest to lean on so you can admire the bird without worrying about spooking it. The two of us hung out agreeably for most of our visit but I was still somewhat startled when our time was up and he flapped back to his perch in the corner.

 

Kathryn was more interested in mixing things up, so after a bit of time with Gorilla, a spectacled owl (we have an affinity for these birds, having seen them in both Costa Rica and Belize) she swapped out for Potsticker, a tropical screech owl, who was undoubtedly a lighter bird to carry.

 

Tarpon Feeding

Steven took us to special places in Belize, both in San Pedro and Caye Caulker, where you can buy a bag of sardines and hand feed the local tarpon. Growing 4-8 feet long and weighing 60 to 280lbs, you have to be a little extra cautious in this process, just keep your palms flat as they really burst to the surface with force.

These fish are interesting for a number of reasons. Their modified swim bladders allow them to breathe air, surviving in oxygen-poor waters of brackish marshes but also leaving them tethered to the surface to breathe.

This flexibility around air also lets them take large gulps for short bursts of energy such as lunging for sardines, and this same jumping makes them popular game fish, although they are typically released afterwards as their flavour is not great.

We had our insta360 camera and an underwater housing along on this trip as well to share this tarpons-eye view of their feeding group under our boat.

Secret Beach

Given how widely advertized it is right from the airport, Secret Beach is certainly more of a “wink” secret than an unknown gem. In fact, it is possibly the most visited area of Ambergris Caye and perhaps all of Belize.

Until very recently, all development on Ambergris Caye was along the (eastern) reef side as the fishing, diving, and trade winds that brought people to the island were all there. 

However, in the last decade developers have built a road through the mangrove lagoons that form the centre of the island, making the (western) leeward side more accessible. Currently there are a number of scattered residences being built up along this road, but whether they are foolhardy or ahead of the curve remains to be seen.

 Once on site at Secret Beach there are a number of venues to choose from but the general theme of the spot is consistent: swim, eat/drink, sunscreen, repeat.

We took an afternoon trip by golf cart across the island and down to the crystal waters for a mellow afternoon of floating and eating nachos in a semi-submerged palapa. Despite my best efforts I am not really a natural-born loafer so after half an hour relaxed in the sun I was ready to be off on our next adventure.

Fortunately, the drive to and from the beach was a big enough part of the outing to fill out the day and provide some fun stops and detours to along the way.

Cockscomb Basin

Established in 1986 and deriving its name from the nearby mountain ridge which (to some) resembles a roosters comb, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is 400 square kilometers of rainforest. One of its key reasons for creation was to preserve jaguar habitat, and it remains on of the premiere sites for these cats in the world.

With only a single morning of hiking near the entrance, it is unsurprising that this is as close to a jaguar as we got.

The park consists of two water basins (west and east) with access and trails getting more difficult the further west you venture. Wildlife highlights in our self-guided hike include coati, aracari, toucans and guans. There were also some tracks we believed to have been recently made by a tapir, but that was as close as we came to sighting one.

One guaranteed sighting in the park is this crashed plane, which occurred as a result of an attempted landing on an access road during a thunderstorm in the early 1980s. A researcher used this plane for tracking jaguars via radio collars to learn more about their behaviour before the park was formed, and it remained an artifact of his efforts when the park opened.

Fortunately, none of the pilot, photographer and researcher on board at the time were seriously injured in the crash.

Xunantunich

Xunantunich means “Maiden of the Rock” in Mayan and refers to a ghostly woman with fiery glowing eyes that has been reported ascending the stairs of El Castillo since 1892. As an indicator of how long the site has been abandoned and how completely the Mayan empire collapsed, the settlements original name is lost to time.

Strategically located on a limestone ridge overlooking the Mopan River, local Maya established control of the valley but were themselves vassals of the city state of Calakmul. Construction began as early as 200AD, halted following an unknown violent event in 750AD and then took off again by 800AD, ultimately outliving many of its rivals but still collapsing by 1,000AD and lying dormant until its rediscovery in the 1890s.

The core of the site is dominated by the pyramid known as “El Castillo” which, at 40m in height, is the 2nd tallest structure in Belize. Magnificent stucco friezes depicting the birth of a god and the tree of life are still visible near the top, with portions having been reconstructed for the benefit of tourists.

This focal point is in turn surrounded by 2.6km2 of plazas, temples, palaces and ball courts. As with most Mayan ruins, the remains of the city extend far beyond what has been excavated, offering only a hint to what the original city would have looked like.

The view from the top of El Castillo is stunning. At the peak of Mayan civilization it would have offered an unrestricted view to Tikal and Cahel Pech when all the rainforest now between the sites was developed farmland and city.

Access across the Mopan river requires a simple cable ferry, which is free to take but gives local guides an opportunity to pitch their value to you while entering the site (protip: they are worth it, if Edward is there, he is fantastic). The operators were also more than happy to sit back and let Kathryn take a turn on the crank to put her captaining skills to use in another country and kind of boat.

Seasonal Lights

Winter in Vancouver is long, dark, and rainy, so we are very grateful to the artists and creators that bring unexpected light and colour to our soggy grey-blue city every year.

Lumiere is a great example of precisely this sort of effort, with an 11-year track record of lighting events around downtown Vancouver. We have enjoyed them ever year and its been fun seeing it expand from a few lit up animals in our neighbourhood to a festival like we get now. This year they had an experience that included laser beams and lights on the trees also lighting up dry ice smoke being pumped through the air. The raindrops were similarly picked up by the light, making for a very cool experience.

While experiences are all well and good, we were very relieved to find some of our old favourites again this winter after an over-long hiatus. Although we miss having them in our area, we found Davie, Barclay, Luna, and Stanley scattered around downtown as well as this delightful squirrel (that you would be forgiven for mistaking for a fox)

At the top of our list of unexpected surprises was this dragon. Better still, there were enthusiastic people on hand saying "Would you like to ride the dragon and make it breathe fire?" Its design included a tractor seat beside a lever that would open and close the mouth and emit an audible belch of fire.

Other highlights for the evening were fire dancers, opera singers, bubble blowers, and a general sense that the city had come out of hibernation for a few hours. Not so bad for a dark winter night, and at least we don't have to shovel rain...

FWOOSH!!

So what'd I miss?

That was a pretty wild ride wasn't it? If you lived in the same reality as me then you endured the same global pandemic, lock downs, travel restrictions, and general buzzkill that made us all quit trying to anything. Remember when all the buildings in your downtown were boarded shut and you couldn't sit next to your wife on transit? Not really adventure material I am afraid...

Another reason I have been slow to get back into this groove was a 3-year stint at a local tech company. It began as an incredibly rewarding and engaging place to work, but after we were acquired it turned into a capitalist nightmare. There were a ton of great people being run by a few monsters I'd rather not sacrifice further mental bandwidth to and both working there and then spiritually recovering afterwards required some downtime on my part.

 

So that was a little bit of a hiatus, but I'm going to make a sincere effort to reboot this little blog back into a twice-weekly log of our adventures and travels again. We shoot a ton of photos in beautiful and interesting places but only a fraction of a fraction of them are ever put into books, and those are typically hyper-focused to just the very best 10 per trip.

Like the above - that is a wonderful picture of us both that I will never find a better use for....

Learning to Fly

I wanted to do something special for Kathryn's birthday this year, so I bought her a flying lesson with Sea to Sky Air, out of the Squamish Valley. The airport in Brackendale is little more than an airstrip, helipad, assortment of fuel tanks, but the area around it is stunningly pretty and well worth the trip.

Our flight was onboard a small Cesna. Made of fiberglass and aluminum, this little four-seater (which the fish eye makes look bigger than it was) was light enough that our captain could pull it out and position it by hand. We had a very informative orientation session, walking around the entire craft and discussing how all of its pieces fit together and work before getting inside.

Covid continues to make everything a little more complicated, but since there were only 3 of us onboard, we were able to mask up and put Kathryn in charge. The plane has two sets of sticks with the rest of the controls in the middle, so she was able to try her hand at everything and could feel how the plane responded to the takeoff and landing (which she was part of but not in charge of)

Strangely enough, on the ground these planes are steered entirely with foot pedals which brake on the left or right to turn the craft, and the sticks are only used during flight.

Some of Kathryn's sea captain experience with currents and navigation was directly applicable to flight. While air is clearly a different medium than water, the fundamentals are similar and some technical controls, such as trim tabs, are comparable in nature between water and aircraft.

We were quickly in the air and soaring over the highway on our way to Garibaldi Park.

Paradise on the Coast

 On many of our trips to Telegraph Cove we buzzed past the "Paradise Mini Golf and Fun Park" without time to stop. Mount Washington was a far shorter drive and we had an early start, so there was plenty of time to stop in and play a few rounds while taking in all the obligatory mini golf nonsense landmarks. Giant shoe? Check. Castle. Check. Pirate ship? Check. Orca statue with lurid blue water coming out of the blowhole? Double Check.

 Lighthouse? Check. We have a lot of fun playing mini golf together because neither of us is particularly better than the other or super invested in the score (both factors I believe are the key draw of the sport in general) so we have a goofy time with generous opportunities for do-overs and the occasional fluke hole in one.

 Another key draw to the area were the bumper boats. Kathryn hadn't been whale watching at all in 2020 yet and the ferries were JUUUUUST getting started back up, so she was raring to go out on any kind of watercraft. So keen that she even brought her captains hat for a special photo op to sit and sulk in a tiny putput boat. The actual bumper boats are pretty fun and also feature a water gun which I was not expecting and which shot higher on mine than some, so I got pretty soaked and had trouble returning fire. But, being a glorious summer day, we dried out and warmed up pretty quickly as we got back on our way to the mountains.

Quarantined with a Kitty

My friend Serena is maintaining both her relationships and eye for composition by taking pictures of colleagues outside their homes, while maintaining appropriate physical distancing, during the pandemic. She asked us to participate in this series and was kind in providing the original files from her shoot for me to share on our blog and keep for the future. I really appreciate opportunities like this, since normally one or the other of us is behind the camera and we don't have enough photos of the pair of us.

On March 12, the entire office at PDFTron was told to work remotely until the ongoing Covid situation was under control. I felt fortunate to have job stability and to be working at a flexible company that could implement such a change quickly, but was also quite new to the position and somewhat concerned about meeting our ambitious next few months of targets with limited access to our team.

Kathryn was driving a ferry 3 days a week on the Sunshine Coast, which was considered an essential service, but neither of us were relishing the distance during such a stressful time. She had signed on to work that gig over the winter, with an agreed end date of March 31.

I have now worked for PDFTron longer from my home than in their office and everyone has come to terms with the challenges of distances. Kathryn is back at home, but her usual summer jobs are all scuppered until Transport Canada gives the go ahead. Even then, it will be some time until the cruise ships are in town and the demand for tourism is high enough to keep their services in demand. Throughout all of this, Wesley has been a total joy.

He is full of energy and affectionate around the clock, following us both like a little ginger shadow and making sure we always have someone to talk to. When we first got him, it felt like it was too soon but he was just irresistible, but with the circumstances of the last month he couldn't have fallen into our lives at a better time.

The Langdale Skipper

 As many of you know, Kathryn recently had an interesting opportunity fall into her lap out of nowhere. She is currently spending 2 and 2 half days captaining a foot ferry which connects the Sunshine Coast terminal with Gambier and Keats islands. Since this service starts early and finishes late, she is spending 3 nights a week in the town of Langdale. The downside is a little time apart for both of us, the upside is a new job experience and a little bit of rural living.

I made a short visit one day over the Christmas break and, as you can see, the scenery is pretty darn picturesque out there. The terminal is in the lower left corner of the picture, and she is staying with a nice couple just a few minutes walk away.

 The dock for her commuter service is right alongside the BC Ferries docks. All pedestrian traffic exits at the front of the ship's car deck and it's just a few dozen meters to the side. The majority of customers are locals who live on remote islands with limited services and therefore need frequent access to a larger community for food and various other goods. It sounds like there are more out-of-towners in the summer months, but the winter is predominantly regulars.

The company (Kona Winds) owns several boats, but Stormaway IV is the workhorse for these runs. Kathryn handles the driving and navigation in all sorts of weather, but has a deck hand available to take fares and assist with docking and tying up the vessel. All in all, a good opportunity to put her 60-ton ticket to use and get more experience in the waters of BC!

Kitty Cat Bath Time

 Kodiak has been getting pretty old of late and we decided that he was both having trouble fully washing himself and getting a bit whiffy in the process, so it was time to experiment with bath time. We had never tried such a thing with him before and we're sure exactly how much blood we'd lose in a fur-throwing frenzy in the process. Much to our surprise, he has mellowed in his dotage and, except for a few kicks here and there going into the sink, was VERY good about the whole thing.

 Look at that little face! He sat patiently while we washed and shampooed his back and barely caused a fuss at all.

 It is pretty cold in our place in the darkness of the Canadian winter, so we made sure to swaddle him in a few towels to keep him warm and help dry out. Once the towels were too damp we replaced them with an electric blanket just to keep him from catching a chill. Don't think we'll make this a routine event, but it was undeniably a success.

Thoughts Upon Turning 40

 Recently I was fortunate enough to do something which millions of people throughout history have been unable to achieve. If you haven't done it yet already yourself, I hope that you put in the time to make it happen eventually because it is absolutely worth it. I turned 40. I was also fortunate to have very kind and enthusiastic coworkers that refused to ignore my notion of not drawing attention to it and making a very special day.

 Key to the process was my dear "Work Aunt" Michelle, who made a truly monstrous cake for me. Take a minute to process it and I'll walk you through it. It was triple-layered with jam and custard inside and the whole thing was wrapped in fondant icing. And there was a bottle of Jack Daniels embedded in it as well. I brought through everyone in the company that I could think of for a slice and still had leftovers for a week.

 When I was younger, 40 seemed like such a faraway time and big number, but the closer I got the more I realized that most of "being a grownup" is paying your own bills and presenting the facade of having everything in check and under control. I also realized that I had shared about a third of my days on Earth with this beautiful girl and they had been the very best days of my life.

I can see how it would be easy to be nostalgic for childhood or the foolish indiscretions of a young adult, but honestly the very best years have been the recent ones with Kathryn, and all I want is to continue forward with my wonderful best friend for many more to come.

Travelling to Portland by Rail

 Getting from Vancouver to Portland by train is surprisingly easy provided you are willing to get started VERY early in the morning. The train leaves town at 6:30am and since it is an international trip, you are encouraged to arrive at least an hour early for ticketing and customs while some websites suggest an earlier arrival to ensure a good seat. Since we did not expect to be the only people going down for the eclipse, we were at the station by 5:15am and even that left us fairly late in the line. Protip: if you leave early for this trip, make sure you remember the delicious lunch you packed or it becomes the delicious dinner you return to.

 Once we were seated and the train was underway it was a very soothing chance to sit back and enjoy the scenery as it goes by. The trip is about 8.5 hours all in, but since you can get up for coffee and to stretch your legs anytime (except briefly at the border) you never end up cramped or uncomfortable. We had heard that the best view is from the right side (going south) and would certainly agree that its worth trying to get a seat on the seaward side for the journey.

 The train station in Portland is right downtown and we were easily able to start exploring the city as soon as we got off. In comparison, the airport is further out to the east and would have required a little more time tinkering with transit and collecting baggage before starting the adventure. All in all this is a very enjoyable and highly recommended means of getting from BC to Oregon.

Wandering Washington Park

 Somewhat confusingly, Washington park is neither in the city of state of Washington, but rather on the west side of the city of Portland in Oregon. Regardless of the unexpected given the location, it is a large and beautiful bit of land close the the heart of a sizeable city, much like our own Stanley Park. Near the train station, is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which does a great job of commemorating the people who served while also being a pleasant place AND including some lighthearted moments of Oregon history during those years to remind us all that real life continues during times of war.

 Next up, the International Test Rose Garden is apparently the oldest rose test garden in the USA, boasting over 7,000 plants from more than 500 variations. However you count them, the flowers in the garden were stunning and a delight to walk through, covering a large space to help diffuse the large number of people visiting at any given day.

 Also close to the main entrance was this neat old locomotive which I was unable to pass up the chance to have my picture taken in the cab of. Despite being decommissioned years ago and severely burned in an accident not that long ago, it has been very nicely restored and creates a great photo op.

An Introduction to Falconry

Earlier this summer, Kathryn found a voucher for a 2-for-1 raptor encounter, and we recently made the trip out to Maple Ridge to make good of our plan. For about 2 hours, we were able to spend time with a pair of Harris's Hawks, which are a neat bird native to Arizona and parts of South America. They are particularly good introductory falcons as they have a more gregarious social structure than most raptors, making them easier for beginners.

 The lesson began with an introduction on handling the bird via a traditional large leather glove. Their feed have a thong on the legs which stop them from running too much (Harris's Hawks have surprisingly long legs and are sometimes ground hunters in the wild) and help keep them tethered to your glove. Once we were comfortable with each other, we took a short walk through the forest to get used to the weight of the bird and for them to adjust to our voices.

 Then we had pieces of food placed on the top of the glove which the hawks collected in a series of short flights from nearby perches. It was very enjoyable to see them fly and to watch them land and eat on your hand (though you are certainly grateful for the thick glove). All in all a very fun (albeit short) experience which may have fully whet Kathryn's appetite to take a more extensive falconry course in the future.

Overseas Visitor

 My cousin Simone and I have always gotten along and go way back. Unfortunately, being grownups in different continents, its hard to find time to visit as often as we'd like. In the early days of working in film I would have a lot of banked holiday time and go to Europe every year or two, but trying to fit all your family visits into 2 weeks a year gets a little trickier.

 Luckily, she was in town visiting our mutual friend Riley and we were able to find an evening that lined up in everyone's schedule to have a meal, a few drinks, and a chat. My how we've all grown :P

 Kathryn and I haven't been over to England since we got engaged, but we're hoping to make a visit next spring. With any luck we can have a bit more time to check in and chat in the near future.