i like vancouver

I got to attend an awesome conference last week... the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference. I learned so much--I'm still digesting it all!

While the conference itself was amazing, I don't have any photos to share from it. However, my colleagues and I took some time to explore Vancouver a little bit and of course I snapped a few photos with my trusty iPhone!



I was on the 15th floor of the hotel... with amazing views of the churches across the street and the city beyond. I spent a lot of time staring out those windows!

they still got it

Some of the veteran (7+ years old) Tollers did a fun retrieve during the lunch hour of the working certificate testing on the Saturday of our trip to Calgary for the Toller Specialty.

The Beauty of Lake Louise

I saw that a friend of mine (via Facebook, of course) recently went to Banff National Park with her husband and some friends. Since I knew we'd be going through the park on our way to Calgary for the Specialty and working tests, I asked her where she recommended that we stop on our way. Her top two places were Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.

We initially planned to stop on our way to Calgary but our car issues put us behind schedule and we went through in the dark. Not so much fun. After talking to some friends at the show and hearing about how amazing it really is, we decided to back-track back into Banff and stop at least at Lake Louise... it is my middle name after all. That's got to mean something.

The Specialty!

The main event of our trip to Calgary (via Chilliwack and the DeMille's Farm Market) was the Alberta Kennel Club (AKC) All-Breed Dog Show and the Canadian Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever National Specialty, which included conformation, obedience, and working certificate testing (in the field).

It was a long weekend.

SQUIRREL!

If you see them from a distance, standing on their hind legs, you might mistake them for prairie dogs.

Then you remember you're in the mountains... do they have prairie dogs in the Rockies??

DeMille's Farm Market

After we got our suburban and left Chilliwack, we continued on our way to Calgary by going north and east through Kamloops (where we were supposed to stay) and into Salmon Arm. Mom spotted a tall water tower on the side of the road that read "DeMille's Farm Market" with signs for fresh corn and made the quick decision to pull over and check it out.



Best. Decision. Ever.

Chilliwack

My mom and I, plus the three Tollers, went on a road trip to Calgary to participate in the Canadian National Toller Specialty. It was a long drive... but well worth it! The trip was packed full of events and I took over 1000 photos... would have been more, but I was busy for much of it. (I am going to break the trip into multiple posts...)

We headed north to Canada, took some back-roads around Bellingham, and crossed the border at Sumas on our way to Kamloops, where we planned to stay before continuing to Calgary. But we noticed a strange spray of water on the windshield as were pulled off the freeway to go check out a nearby waterfall... and then steam coming off the hood. A bypass hose (or something) burst. Not good.

they have antiques in Canada, too!

We passed by this amazing building on our way to see the Toller puppies...



Oldish, barn-like building full of antiques in another country? Oh yes, it's a necessary pit-stop.

a mini get-away

My mom's pup, Sunny, was recently bred to a Toller girl from Vancouver Island, BC. This is Sunny's first litter... so of course mom and I had to take some time off to go visit!

We took the ferry from Port Angeles up to Victoria. It's been years since I've taken it... I'm so used to the 35-minute ferries off of the Kitsap Peninsula, but the hour-and-a-half ferry ride still went quickly. (Probably because I passed the time taking random photos.)