Bits and Bobs, 29th June - 15th June 2010

The 28th May 2010 was our first year anniversary in Vancouver. On the 29th we headed out for dinner with some of our new friends and old friends to the Local Public Eatery. We had some nibbles, dinner and few drinks to celebrate. Turns out there was another reason to celebrate, our friends Andrea and Laurence are expecting a baby. It was a great evening out with friends to celebrate our time here so far.

June the 1st we went to see the Eagles at the Pacific Coliseum, this was my second time seeing them and Cam's first. We were a little far back at the venue and it was a bit hot, but they put on a great performance as usual which made up for this. Such an amazing band.

We had decided to move apartments and the rest of this week we had several appointments to look at our options. Turns out there were quite a few options out there, and lots of nice places. We had a few more places to look at next week then thought we would make up our mind after that.

Saturday 5th June we went round to Misa's house for dinner. Randall was leaving to go walk the Camino de Santiago, an old pilgrimage walk in Europe. This is about an 800 km walk and can take up to 3-5 weeks to walk, depending on your speed etc. A nice dinner out, even better when you don't have to cook anything.

On Sunday it was pouring down with rain, so we took our umbrellas and headed to Commercial drive for the Italian Day. This is another one of the street days where they block off the streets to cars, and different places set up different stalls. I must admit I have been to better ones, there weren't many stalls this time, perhaps this was due to the rain. We met up with Kim and stood in line to find a place to eat and have a drink, I think every other man and his dog thought this was a good idea in the rain. After lunch and bit of a chat we headed home for the day.

Saturday the 12th was a beautiful day in Vancouver, the sun was shining and it was warm out. We had chosen an apartment over the last week and today we headed around to sign the lease. It was a perfect place, we have a view of the mountains and the ocean in between some of the buildings. We are on the 16th floor and are on the west side of the building so can see to the west, north and south. Can't wait to move in on the 23rd of July.

After this we headed to Kits beach to meet Andrea, Laurence and some of their friends, for a picnic. We laxed out on the beach, ate strawberries, watermelon, cheese, crackers and cinnamon buns. Some went for a cold swim in the ocean while the rest of us hit the volleyball around. A nice relaxing afternoon. After this we headed around to Andrea and Laurence's for a beautiful Salmon dinner, out on their deck in the sun. Just beautiful!!

On Sunday we met up with Andrea and Laurence

again to go on a trip and picnic to Golden Ears Park. It was a slightly overcast day and a little chilly out in the forest. Once we got there we set up for our picnic, I think next time we need to organise who is going to bring what food. We had so much food to eat between the four of us, think we were going to have to take some home. After our feast we headed off for a walk, well more like a wild goose chase. Andrea decided to take us off the beaten trail, around the waterfront, through some streams and through the bush. After a while we decided against her judgement and headed back to find a proper trail.

Turned out to be quite fun actually. We jumped in the car and went to find the falls. This time we found the real trail, the weather had started clearing now as well and it was a beautiful day.The trail was absolutely beautiful and went right next to the water. After our walk, a few picture and several hours later we headed back to our picnic spot for round two of our feast. It was getting a bit late now and we had a bit of a drive back to Vancouver so we packed up and jumped in the car for our trip back. It was a really nice day away, great to be able to just jump in car and head away on a road trip.

Tuesday 15th June we headed to a pub called venue to watch and English band called Athlete. It was a great concert, I love watching bands in a smaller venue, makes it feels much more intimate. The band even stuck around afterwards for signatures and photos.