Two Wheels move the Soul

This year is Canada's Navy's 100th Birthday and recently ( June 14th) they had a 8 country celebration in Victoria. We hadn't been out to Fort Rodd Hill Park, the best vantage point for the celebration, so we went and had a wonderful day getting sunburnt. So did a lot of other people. The Governor General Michaele Jean was on hand to welcome the 8 country vessels, including the USS Ronald Reagan, an impressive nuclear aircraft carrier with 4600 people on board. Japan, New Zealand, basically the Pacific fleet plus France and Germany were on hand. GB wasn't?? The Skyhawk parachutists did airborne acrobatics, and the venerable snowbirds did their usual bag of tricks as well. SNOWBIRDS Now they just all need to know how to deal with moving traffic!

Weather has turned much better in the last few days. we head out to a water fall west of Port Alberni for a daytrip and picnic via V strom. Once we got there the weather was so good and only another 46 kms to Ucluelet so we rode on. On the way back we stopped at the Mars Bomber (water) fire station where the last two water bombers are kept. While there they loaded up the one for a test flight and had the helicopter go up for observations. Here are some pics. There were 7 bombers built during WWII and an 8th nose. All but 2 are extinct. They are invaluable to California during the late summer early fall and are credited with lots of house saves there.