Annabelle Arrives...and dives!

Benj is so happy to see Annabelle as you can see!


Annabelle has been excited to see Canada for a while.  She flew in on Kenmore Air this morning, went to the Moss Street Farmer's Market, went diving with Naomi in the HBOT, ate at White Spot, and then went to the Soundings concert.

Buck by side of road in Urbia

A Soundings Concert with our Friend Kathleen!

The Soundings are an excellent acapella choir in Victoria.   They sing a wide range of songs from Gregorian chants, to traditional Scottish ballads, to the Beetles.  Favorite songs:

Alex, Benj and Marna:  Loch Lomman
Annabelle:  I am a Train
Naomi:  Mexican NO song


Annabelle:   Im so excited to finally see Marna, Alex, Naomi and even Benj again and explore some of Canada with them. This is my first time out of the country and Im really happy to be here, I've already seen some awesome stuff and I'm ready for more!

HBOT and How It Demonstrates the Ideal Gas Law

Marna:       How does HBOT demonstrate the Ideal Gas Law?

First, what is the Ideal Gas Law?    PV = nRT    

Pressure*Volume = number of moles*universal constant*temperature

in the case of diving in the HBOT, V, n and R are constant, then the variables are P and T

Pressure varies directly with temperature, so as pressure increases we would expect temperature to increase.  Conversely, as pressure decreases, we would expect temperature to similarly decrease.

As it turns out, we three can all testify to the temperature of the chamber increasing (whew!) as pressure increases during the dive (to about 20 feet) and decreasing (brrrr!) again while we are going up.  It's so cool to see the Ideal Gas Law work in reality!!!!

We saw a buck and doe in a front yard on a VERY busy street (Foul Bay)

Benj is going Canadian and will soon start busking on street corners in his toque, eh?

Sibling Bonding....

Naomi:        The great highlight of today was going to White Spot a fantastic restruant that can only be

found in Canada my opinion Go for the Ribs! as you can see Benj really enjoyed them as well as me and Kathleen. :) Also we got a bunch of clothes to the best of which for me was a purple Jacket all in all a truly amazing Day.

Today also was a good day of Hbot I noticed that I personally can breath a lot deeper than when I first started and my lungs feel a ton better pretty cool. Today also happened to be the first day I started to learn how to play a guitar and what better way then to learn from a master that spends hours play the one and only Benj thank to him i can now play big  E, something,  something and more somethings!

Thanks Benj.

                                          Our friend Kathleen and the kids at White Spot!

                                          Benj showing Na how to play guitar.  What a great big brother!

                                          Awesome Gold LEED Standard Condo's by the Waterfront!

                                         Right on the Galloping Goose!  Love the colors!!!

Big Brother Arrives!

Naomi: Katie my mentor came up for a week it was really fun.  We went to the Government House about 5 minites from where we are staying took a lot of beautiful pictures and hung out, it was fantastic!

Then my older, brother Benj came back with mom. Pretty cool, he brought back all the laughter with him :)

                                      Naomi and Katie, Bachlerettes for a week!

                                        Kid's Diving Together.....

                                                 Totem pole and cool architecture on the
                                                 Galloping Goose.

Benj:
So, this is it.
he final frontier.

CANADA!

Full of Canadians who dart in from of cars at the most inopportune times.

Flooded with people who are cheerful for no apparent reason.

Exploding awesomeness in every direction.

Not a bad place to vacation, ay?

Day 4: The Birds!! (and updated Picture Glitch)

Editor Note:  Apparently some of my pictures weren't appearing on the blog correctly.  Now instead of cutting and pasting from e-mail, I am copying and saving in Photoshop.  Amazingly, the picts are 100% better.  If you missed the picts the first time through, go look now.  They are there, and they are better!


Naomi:  Naomi is taking the night off after having a Peat Bath and going to bed early.

Our view while making lunch in Kathleen's Kitchen.





Marna: Today was my bizarre day of the birds.  On my first walk down to Starbuck's to download my podcasts, I was DIVE BOMBED by two crows in the Garry Oaks.  When I took out my camera to take their picture, they would go exactly far enough up the tree to make the picture worthless.  Then I would start walking and they would start DIVE BOMBING me again.  Weird!  I must look like a former enemy of theirs.  So I was meditating on the cause of such bird scorn, when I arrived at my usual outdoor table at Starbuck's.  As it was raining, I was the only soul outside.  As it was 11 C, I wanted to be outside, not in.  After I opened (my new super cool MacBook), one chickadee came and landed atop my screen, and another came and looked at me nicely from beside the computer, as if to say, "You're okay, we don't know what those crows are about."  They stayed for a very long while, until someone in a hurry came up the sidewalk and ruined the moment.  Birds Part 3:  Then as I was making lunch, I kept hearing very loud seagulls on the roof.  I looked up and took this picture above.  Boy, they are a noisy bunch!  Lastly, when I went back to SB, to download this pict, I was treated to 2 very lovely Anna's hummingbirds drinking nectar from the hanging flower baskets.  All-in-all, a great bird day!

Day 3: Bicycling to Therapy Both Dives!

Naomi:  Today was better as you see from the pictures below. Sun and little wind another great day well almost great day. Only slightly marred by my bike coming loose. Luckily we found a fantastic, place to fix my bike, called "Fairfield Bicycle Shop." They fixed everything on it that needed which was quite a lot in a half hour that is impressive If I do say myself. the first dive in The Hbot chamber was great, the second one was harder because I think the Darth Vader mask was loose too. But again I felt better afterwards. That's Naomi's report for Day 3.

The view from the Galloping Goose (about 2/3 of the way to HBOT)

Marna:  I wish I had a better camera!  This is a picture of the FANTASTIC bicycle shop that is about a block from where we are temporarily living.  Naomi's chain kept falling off when we went across the tressel bridge on the Galloping Goose (see first pict of the day).  When we got there, they fixed us right up and kept insisting on giving us a free water bottle with water in it.  Our overall impression of Canadians:  they are always SO DARN NICE!

On dive 2 I figured out how to adjust the Darth Vader mask so it isn't so darn much work to breath in the contraption.  Now I don't feel like I am suffocating half the time.  We had technical difficulties with two different versions of Pride and Prejudice on two different mediums today.  It just was NOT going to be a Pride and Prejudice day!  However, the value of an engaging movie while you are in the tank cannot be underestimated.

Day 2: Beautiful Weather and Biking!

Naomi:  Blue skies, sunny, and slightly windy was on the menu for today's weather. In my eyes, the perfect day. It was a fantastic day for riding your bikes. Speaking of bikes, today was also the day of biking to Hbot from were we are staying we found a nice trail called the "Galloping Goose".  Riding on it was quite delightful, if I do say so myself. Day two of the Hbot was better I can now breath through my nose a lot better than my mouth still, but I still sound like Darth Vader--who wouldn't want a little Darth Vader action? Anyways that's the report from Naomi, on the second day here. :)

A view of Naomi in the tank breathing through the Darth Vader oxygen delivery device while watching Harry Potter....

Look how gorgeous it was out today!  This is our view from our strata (condo).  We are on the 4th floor and get to look at the Olympic Mountains from a different side.


Marna:  Yeah!  It was 17 degrees C out today, and clear blue skies.  I only got lost once trying to navigate to the HBOT center.  At home, if I walk to Safeway, I might pass one person on the way (its 3 blocks from my house).  Here, the store is 1k away, and the sidewalk is dotted with SO MANY pedestrians!  Given that Victoria is a small city, I am always amazed by how many people walk or ride places.  It is a bit unnerving to be passed by grannies with their groceries moving so much faster than I though....

Making new remembering the old.

Naomi:  Today we started the process of HBOT.  It was a little longer than I expected, but effective never the less. Sitting in the tank brought back a lot of memory's yet today I started making new ones for example last time I had on a continues flow mask on. This time I had what I call the Darth Vader mask you make a great impression of him with it on as I found out tried the Darth Vader stand by "Luke I'm you father." I'm  quite proud of myself. I forgot what the diving was like. You know how your ears pop when you dive underwater because of the pressure? Same thing here when they put more pressure in the tank the more your ears pop pretty simple. Anyways that is the report from about old memory's and new ones.  

Marna:  Here is Naomi after two dives, climbing on top of rocks on the way to the market.  Today was good, yet exhausting.  Breathing oxygen under pressure is just plain exhausting; as is getting used to the Darth Vader masks.  I know we will get used to it all AND have energy, but for now we are all exhausted.  Looking forward to tomorrow, and riding our bikes to the clinic.

BACK AGAIN!

Naomi:  We arrived in Canada at 5:15.  Unloaded all are stuff, and....  I was fried. But its totally worth it. After I was settled in all I could think about is "I'm here again and ready to go." I'm totally ready to dive once again and come back bigger, better than ever. I'm back again and ready to role!

Marna:  What an easy boarder crossing!  We made our 3:00 PM sailing from Tsawwassen and had a beautiful voyage.  What a lovely day!  We explored riding our bikes to the HOC instead of driving every day.  It's about 2 miles to hook up with the Galloping Goose (think SRT), and that takes us directly to the HBOT center.  We are going to drive the first day, but then take our bikes 2x/day whenever it isn't raining.  We are both happy to be back in Canada!!