1. eat turkey 2. go for hike

I love Thanksgiving weekend. This year we decided to have our big dinner here (ten people, 16 lb turkey and my mother's amazing pies) on Sunday and the choice was perfect as it rained buckets all day while the holiday Monday dawned clear and beautiful. To work off the after effects of the turkey orgy we did the two-hour drive up to Chilliwack Lake in the south-eastern Fraser Valley with some friends, then hiked the almost two kilometres up (400 metre elevation gain) to Lindeman Lake. Who says our autumns can't compare to Ontario's? You're just looking in the wrong place!

Once up the mountain, negotiating the scree (my new vocab word) was workable for the humans but a bit trickier for the dogs! They had plenty of play time once we reached the lake, though. In this photo I'm pretty sure Zappa is saying to Simon, "I dare you to hump me again!"

We had our lunch on the beach at the far end of the lake. Then, take five 13-15 year olds, add an empty pop can and great hiding places and you get an hour of Kick the Can. The resulting laundry (plenty of mud and slippery sand) was daunting.

Some generous hiker left an emergency stash in the burned-out hollow of a tree with everything from an axe to Kraft Dinner in a pouch.

After we hiked back down we found a camping spot on the edge of the Chilliwack River and barbequed hot dogs for dinner. The following is just an example of the fantastic variety of mushrooms and fungi you can find in this region at this time of year:

Being in the Disneyland of scenery, I couldn't help but take dozens of photos. If interested, go here for the edited version.