Wednesday September 7^th

Kate isn't back to work today as her boss has insisted she takes the whole timee off that mum & I are here. Today we are headed up the Howe Sound to Squamish.

As ever it's a beautiful drive up the sound, tha last time I came this way they were still building some of the road in preperation for the winter olympics, now it's dual carriage-way most of the drive.

We stopped off at a copper (?) mine to have a look around the gift shop where mum bought a pair of earings for Jude. I hadn't realised that she had bought silver ear pins which normally react badly with her ears but when she later tried them on just to see they were fine, it appears that her ear chemistry has changed and she can now wear silver again. A serendipitous discovery.

Just across the way was another tourist shop where I bougt an amber necklace for Jude's birthday. It seems she did well out of this random stop. We declined to go down the mines as they were cold and wet and we'd only brought the lightest of clothing for this boiling hot day.

A little further up we spotted a nice beach to stop at.

We carried on up to Squamish which is not much more than a one strees town centre but it had an excellent native art shop where I purchased a raven which now hangs in our dining room. Heading back down the sound we were on the coastal side of the road so could stop at several laybyes to admire the view or grab a picture as we zoomed past.

We came back in through the posh part of West Vancouver where people buy an island for their house. It must be a real pain when ordering a Chinese takeaway, the cats won't get run over though or eaten.

We stopped at some woods on a promatory where there was a walk to a lighthouse, or so Kate said. After wandering donwhill and uphill for half an hour we weren't sure where to go so we gave up and headed back.