day trip – wee little lovelys

The Historic Kinsol Trestle

August 5, 2014

Sunday seems to be our go-to day of the week to do some fun adventures. The kids are enrolled in a sports class on Saturday mornings and after a busy work week we like to relax on Saturdays.

This past Sunday we drove to Shawnigan Lake to visit the historic Kinsol Trestle. It is a wooden railway trestle located north of Shawnigan Lake which is about a 45 minute drive from our house. A description on the parks website is:

“The Kinsol Trestle is one of eight trestles along the Cowichan Valley Trail route and by far the largest and most spectacular. The Kinsol Trestle is one of the tallest free-standing and most spectacular timber rail trestle structures in the world. At 614 feet in length and standing 145 feet above the salmon bearing Koksilah River, the Kinsol is an incredible structure and was worth preserving.”

We had to walk along a trail for 1.5km to get to the trestle from the parking area and it was amazing! The views were really pretty with a river down below. There were hiking trails that led to the river and we could see some people swimming in the river. The kids had a tonne of energy and we ran races the whole way to the start of the trestle. We had packed a lunch and snacks and sat at one of the available picnic tables and enjoyed the beautiful day. This was a great spot to take kids.

Elk Lake

July 28, 2014

On a hot Sunday morning we decided to pack up our swimming gear and head to Elk Lake which is about a 15 minute drive from our house. Jimmy spent a lot of time at this Lake and the conjoining Beaver Lake in his youth. I ran the trails of this lake when I went to University. The trails are really nice and if you run the whole lake it is 10km. Elk Lake is the training area for Canada’s Olympic Rowing team and is a popular fishing area as they stock the lake with fish annually.

We arrived fairly early so there were not many people. We played in the sand and then quickly made our way into the warm lake water. Claire and Rhys love swimming. Particularly Claire who is a fish and once in the water does not want to come out. After a few hours we packed up and headed home to host our friends for an early evening BBQ. A great Sunday!

Claire being a ‘baby turtle’ on her daddy turtles back 🙂

Lory Park Zoo

October 30, 2013

The sun was shining as we headed to Lory Park Zoo in Midrand, a quick 30 minute drive from home. With our remaining time in South Africa now measuring in weeks, we are trying to make the most of it by seeing as many nearby attractions as possible.

This animal park ended up being very well maintained and it was the weekend hot spot for birthday gatherings. There must have been 4 parties going-on at picnic tables etc. I thought Claire & Rhys could be burnt out on animal observation but they were so excited to see them all…. We saw lots of birds, cats, and reptiles. We had lunch, played at a little playground, walked around, fed the bunnies then made our way back home for nap-time.

Pretoria

October 25, 2013

What you just scrolled down from is a pretty photo of my stunning wife in front of a jacaranda tree. They are starting to bloom here and their bold purple colour is quite a sight. What you also scrolled down from is the inspiration for our latest Miller roadtrip; Pretoria.

Pretoria is one of the South Africa’s three capital cities; it serves as administrative capital while Cape Town handles legislative business and Bloemfontein tackles judicial issues. Pretoria is also dubbed “The Jacaranda City” due to it’s high volume of this variety and at only 45 minutes away (and limited time left here in SA) we opted to pack up the car and go for a visit.

We have to be honest though, the trip ended up quite stressful due to high traffic volumes, muggy heat and less than cooperative children. After our obligatory tourist stops we found an outdoor park for all of us to blow off steam. The kids nodded-off easily on our return ride and we arrived back home thankful, collapsing back into routine.

– Jimmy