Kayaking Adventure - July 2011

Wow!!

I've got to give Marie credit for organizing an AMAZING family vacation to British Columbia (lots of pictures).

We began the trip with a kayaking adventure through Gwaii Haanas National Park in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Incredibly beautiful scenery, amazing wildlife, and a wonderful opportunity to learn about the Haida culture. A few nuggets for myself:

First, I did not realize that the Haida had three distinct types of totem poles:

• Ceremonial - to celebrate the wealth of a family indicated by the number of potlatch rings
• Memorial - to honour a special person what was killed at sea and who's body was not recovered
• Mortuary - like a tombstone. An inverted tree with a mortuary box on top with the bones of the dead.

Two, the Haida had the food chain figured out. The killer whale was at the top of the sea, the bear for the land, and the eagle for the sky. There were originally two main clans of Haida people on the Islands - the Eagles and the Ravens.

Three, the logo for Gwaii Haanas National Park is the sea otter and urchin - representing the balanced relationship that these two play for the ecosystem. Once the sea otters were exterminated for their pelts the sea urchin population had no predators and they ate lots of kelp resulting in some areas becoming "deserts" - kelp free.

In terms of the kayaking trip - it was definitely an engaging experience as we had to learn to become "one" with the elements - mainly the rain and the wind. Fortunately, it was not that cold and I think we all kept warm with the constant paddling on the water. This is definitely one family holiday that we'll always remember!!

After finishing our kayaking adventure - we flew to Vancouver where we had a few days to visit the sites and sounds of the city. One of our prime destinations was the University of British Columbia (UBC) to see if the campus would be the "right fit" for Eric. UBC's setting is definitely amazing and it sounds like they have a very impressive undergraduate science program - the only catch is the "cut-off" for acceptance into this program last year was 91% - go Eric go.

We also had a chance to visit Granville Island and Stanley Park before heading back to Calgary - en route to the cottage :)