This July we embarked on our most ambitious family vacation so far! We flew to Vancouver, rented a van, took the ferry to Vancouver Island to visit Aunt Susan, then took the ferry back to Vancouver to visit Aunt Alix, then rented an RV and drove back home to Ontario through BC, Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

On Vancouver Island, Aunt Susan and Uncle Ian took us to the Malahat Skywalk, which is the most bizarre and impressive observation tower that I have ever seen. It is a HUGE spiral ramp up into the sky, with a corkscrew slide in the middle (not pictured) to get back down.

I could not decide which image to use for my Picture of the Week, so you get a little collage of all of the best pictures I took that day. From top to bottom, left to right:

• A panoramic view from the top of the observation tower, looking roughly east.
• A view of Angela, Aila and Finna walking up the spiral ramp.
• Mount Baker in Washington State, as seen from the tower through about 131 km of atmospheric haze. Bonus points if you can find Mount Baker in the panoramic photo. It's quite difficult to see since it was so hazy.
• It is rare for me to watch large birds of prey from above! I took a few photos of them from the tower, trying to get them in front of impressive backgrounds. Based on the colouration, I think these are actually Golden Eagles, which are really cool!
• Another view from the top of the spiral ramp, looking slightly down, with Angela and Kai just beginning to walk down to where the slide starts a few levels below the top. Bonus Golden Eagle soaring overhead, and a cool Bald Eagle sculpture at the top of the platform.

Technical Details: These photos were taken with my 5D Mark II + EF 17-40L and EF 70-300 IS, mostly at ISO 100. The panorama was stitched together using Photoshop's automatic PhotoMerge feature. The closeup of Mount Baker had some heavy curves applied in Photoshop to enhance the mountain through the atmospheric haze.