A Visit to the Roots of the Area
Thursday, July 26
Wake up time is getting back to what Annabelle and Seb are used to...I'm told. So I think this morning they were up around 7:30. They are very good though. They slip quietly down stairs, turn on the TV very low (their child size ears pick up every murmur), and are quite content until one of us appears around 8:30, or even around 7:30 when I do a workout with my friend Ursula NX offers breakfast. Annabelle is keen to make toast, and boiled eggs, which is cool. I think we chilled pretty well in the morning: a little badminton, a little TV, and a little reading. Then we ate some lunch and headed down to The Britannia Mine Museum. This was once the largest copper mine in the British Empire and remained an important source of copper for over 74 years. It now offers an underground train ride through its 200+ k of tunnels, an opportunity to "pan for gold," and a lot of information and pictures about its processes through the years, the development of the "company town," and the clean up operation which has been successful in restoring many native plants and marine life in the Howe Sound. Would you have wanted to work there in the 1920s, 1930?? I doubt it. Life for the miners was pretty grim and filled with disease.
The train ride took about 30 minutes, and was well lit so you never really felt that you were that far underneath the ground, not at all like the Potasi Mine in Bolivia, or the 91 stories down to the hydro electric power plant in Churchill Falls in Labrador. I think the Britannia mine people could learn a little "sensationalism" from the Bolivians!! After the train ride, we were introduced to Mill No. 3, also called the Concentrator where all the "muck" from the mine was sorted to find copper. Then a few minutes in the "museum" with its information on the company town and the Howe Sound Clean Up, and finally, something fun: panning for gold!!! We did end up with some small flakes of gold but also some other colourful rocks such as amethyst, carnelian or citrine, aventurine, and sodalite or blue agate. After the mine, we took a quick drive up Copper Drive till we ran out of road and marvelled at the beautiful views over Howe Sound. One thing the kids aren't short of on this trip, is amazing views!!
We headed home and Ray took Seb over to the bike course at Brennan Park and I took Annabelle into town. I think Seb had an interesting time on the mountain bike course, which he wanted to tackle first: he did really well on the first few "huge" ups and downs, but ran out of energy on the next one and toppled over. No matter. He is riding a much bigger bike than he is used to over ground he has probably never seen before!!
Annabelle and I walked up one side of the main street in Squamish and down the other, but there only one shop open....which was the "Be Clean Naturally" shop! It is quite interesting and was good for about 10 minutes.
After all of this we went to the Howe Sound Brewery for dinner, came home, watched a movie, and bed. I think I was in bed before Annabelle!!
Wake up time is getting back to what Annabelle and Seb are used to...I'm told. So I think this morning they were up around 7:30. They are very good though. They slip quietly down stairs, turn on the TV very low (their child size ears pick up every murmur), and are quite content until one of us appears around 8:30, or even around 7:30 when I do a workout with my friend Ursula NX offers breakfast. Annabelle is keen to make toast, and boiled eggs, which is cool. I think we chilled pretty well in the morning: a little badminton, a little TV, and a little reading. Then we ate some lunch and headed down to The Britannia Mine Museum. This was once the largest copper mine in the British Empire and remained an important source of copper for over 74 years. It now offers an underground train ride through its 200+ k of tunnels, an opportunity to "pan for gold," and a lot of information and pictures about its processes through the years, the development of the "company town," and the clean up operation which has been successful in restoring many native plants and marine life in the Howe Sound. Would you have wanted to work there in the 1920s, 1930?? I doubt it. Life for the miners was pretty grim and filled with disease.
The train ride took about 30 minutes, and was well lit so you never really felt that you were that far underneath the ground, not at all like the Potasi Mine in Bolivia, or the 91 stories down to the hydro electric power plant in Churchill Falls in Labrador. I think the Britannia mine people could learn a little "sensationalism" from the Bolivians!! After the train ride, we were introduced to Mill No. 3, also called the Concentrator where all the "muck" from the mine was sorted to find copper. Then a few minutes in the "museum" with its information on the company town and the Howe Sound Clean Up, and finally, something fun: panning for gold!!! We did end up with some small flakes of gold but also some other colourful rocks such as amethyst, carnelian or citrine, aventurine, and sodalite or blue agate. After the mine, we took a quick drive up Copper Drive till we ran out of road and marvelled at the beautiful views over Howe Sound. One thing the kids aren't short of on this trip, is amazing views!!
We headed home and Ray took Seb over to the bike course at Brennan Park and I took Annabelle into town. I think Seb had an interesting time on the mountain bike course, which he wanted to tackle first: he did really well on the first few "huge" ups and downs, but ran out of energy on the next one and toppled over. No matter. He is riding a much bigger bike than he is used to over ground he has probably never seen before!!
Annabelle and I walked up one side of the main street in Squamish and down the other, but there only one shop open....which was the "Be Clean Naturally" shop! It is quite interesting and was good for about 10 minutes.
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| Dessert: a chocolate brownie and ice-cream. Annabelle and Seb both had one!! |
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