Boston can wait no more.

We arrived in Boston last Friday after connecting in Seattle and Chicago. After a minor issue locating our bags, we took a taxi to our temporary apartment in Boston's South End neighbourhood. Before leaving, the taxi driver managed to slam the rear door of the van on Don's head. Nice guy.

We knew our apartment would be small, but we weren't expecting this:





Yep, that's the whole place, and yep, that's a murphy bed. But we don't fold the bed up because we have all our stuff stored under it.

On Saturday we worked on getting settled and on Sunday we met with our realtor and began checking out some more permanent places to live.

On Monday, Kate had her first day of work:



As you can see, there were a lot of tears, but I managed to convince her that she'd be fine, it would be fun, and that she'd make lots of new friends.

I also had my first economics "review" session on Monday, although there was not much reviewing since I've never done much in the way of economics before. More of a crash course. I also got to meet many of my classmates, and boy do I feel like an old man. Most of them seem to have one year or less of work experience. What a fresh-faced bunch they are!

Last night we met up with my old roommate, Moz, from UBC. He finished his PhD at MIT last year and is now doing a post-doc there. It was good to catch up, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him.

My orientation kicks off next week, and classes begin the week after. We hope to have a place to live soon, though it probably won't happen overnight. Wish us luck!

-Don

Murtle Lake, BC

The morning after we arrived back from Tofino, we met with a couple of former colleagues of Don's, then started driving northeast, to Blue River, BC. Blue River is about 2.5 hours north of Kamloops, and 6 hours from Vancouver. Don's mom, Peggy, and her partner Garnet joined us that night, and on Saturday, we all drove another 15 miles up a logging road and portaged our canoes 1.5 miles in to Murtle Lake, the largest canoe-only lake in North America.



Our progress the first day was hampered by strong winds, but we managed to find a sheltered spot to wait it out:



The next day, we made it to the end of Murtle's West arm, and set up camp. No sooner had we done so than we were pummelled with hail:



In the evening, the weather improved and we went fishing just offshore from our camp. Kate caught her first fish before Don could even get a line in the water. We kept three nice rainbow trout, which made for a tasty dinner that night:





The next day we did some more fishing. Here are Don and Peggy near the outlet of the lake:



And the day after that we hiked to McDougall Falls on the Murtle River:



On our way back to camp, we saw this family of river otters:



It was time to start heading back out, but the fun wasn't over. We were treated to more incredible scenery:





And on our last day, just as we were getting back to the take-out, we saw a cow moose with a calf, and a few hundred meters away, a young bull moose.





All in all it was a great trip and a wonderful chance to soak in BC's natural wonders!

Hotsprings Cove, British Columbia

On Tuesday August 7, we drove from Maple Bay to Tofino, on the West side of Vancouver Island. It was about 4 hours from Maple Bay. We checked in with Tofino Air and prepared for our flight to Hotsprings Cove. Kate was excited for her first trip ever in a float plane:



Imagine! Something travel-related that was new to Kate but old news to Don!

Our aircraft was a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, probably the most revered and storied bush plane in Canadian history. Although production ceased 40 years ago, hundreds of Beavers remain in service today, and are much sought after for their reliability and ruggedness. Very cool:





Once at Hotprings Cove, we set up camp in the campground across the cove from the village. The springs themselves were a 30-minute walk away along a good boardwalk through the forest. There are some great views along the way:



The springs were crowded during the middle of the day, but we were still able to enjoy them.



An especially neat feature of these springs is that you can soak in them right where they flow into the ocean, which means that you get an invigorating hot-cold-hot cycle as the waves surge in and out of the lower pools.



On the way back to Tofino, we were lucky enough to spot a humpback whale. Our pilot circled a few times at about 500 feet so we could watch and snap a few photos:



Once we were back in Tofino, it was just a 4-hour drive across the Island, a 4-hour ferry wait, and another 2 hours on the ferry and driving through Vancouver, before we could rest again. But we didn't rest long!

BC Day - Welcome Home

We flew from Tokyo to Vancouver via San Francisco, and promptly hopped on a ferry to Vancouver Island. We arrived at Don's dad's & stepmom's place in Maple Bay on the evening of Sunday Aug 5. We sat out on the deck and visited with cousin Margaret, and Nathan:



That's the BC flag in the background, in case anyone was wondering.

On Monday, which was BC Day, about 15 members of Don's family came over for a mini-reception and "welcome back to the continent" party.

We were fortunate to visit with Don's grandma, Donnie, whose health had forced her to miss the wedding at the last minute. She is doing better now and was in fine spirits:



It was also wonderful to see her consort, Ray, and Don's great-aunt and great-uncle, Joan and Joe:



Also present were Neil's brother, Andy, his wife Cathy, and their sons Connor and Jamie:



As well as Mary Beth's kids. Brent, Brooke, and Lee:



It was great to see everyone and to enjoy some fine BC summer weather!

Mt Fuji

On Sunday we flew from Singapore to Tokyo, and took the train to Zama City to stay with Kate's friend Trisha and her new daughter, Ainsley.



On Tuesday morning we took a bus to the Kawaguchiko Fifth Station, at 2,300 m (7,500') on the North side of Mt Fuji.



We started hiking and a little less than 3 hours later we arrived at the Taishi-Kan hut, our home for the night at 3,020 m (10,000').





We went to bed early and made an alpine start at 1:20 AM yesterday. After making good time for most of the remaining distance to the summit, we ran into a little congestion:



It wasn't so different from the commuter train at rush hour:



We arrived at the summit a little before 4:00 AM:



and got front row seats for the sunrise. As we waited, the parade of headlamps continued its steady creep up the mountain.



The sunrise was one of the most spectacular we have ever seen, with the sun appearing to rise directly out of the cloud layer:







And still the parade continued up the mountain:



After the sun was up we grabbed some hot drinks and began walking around the crater.



On the west side, we were afforded a remarkable view of the mountain's shadow, cast across the countryside:



The hike up was a cakewalk compared to the descent, a 4-hour ordeal of blisters and pounding toes.



We made it back to Zama in the afternoon, and Trisha took us for some of the best sushi we've ever had. Better yet, it came on a converyor belt:

Singapore Slings

We stopped in Singapore for a couple of days after leaving Thailand. The biggest attraction in Singapore (as far as we could tell) is shopping...too bad we don't have money to partake in the attraction! We did manage to visit with Kate's Uncle Bill:



And we also got together with Don's family friends Karen and Christer, who took us out for the requisite Singapore Slings at the Raffles Hotel: