Rest of April, 2010

No other big trips happened in April. Just a few little day things and evenings out. I'll mention some of the highlights.

They are filming a series in Vancouver now called the Fringe. It used to be filmed in New York. It's very exciting walking down the street and all of a sudden being in the middle of a movie set. Tonight it was set up like there had been an explosion in the street. All the main actors were there including Joshua Jackson and Leonard Nimoy (AKA Spock), we managed to get a couple of photos and videos from a far. Still exciting.

Wednesday 14th April was a beautiful day in Vancouver.

I met up with Sharon from work for brunch at a nice place on the waterfront called Bojangles. They do nice comfort food. It was still a bit cool but we were able to sit outside in the sun. After this we went for a walk around the waterfront. Sharon had a few things to do that afternoon so I met up with Andrea and we continued the walk around Stanley Park. Over all we walked about 15-20 km's. It's so easy to just walk in this city and end up walking over 10 km's each time. We had some nice afternoon soup and scone then headed home. A nice relaxing day.

The following Sunday we headed around to Andrea's house for a Wine and Cheese evening. We all paid a little bit more to buy the cheese. We had all sorts of different crackers and breads to go with it. For a change I actually enjoyed the cheese, I think it had something to do with being more expensive and not being from Canada. We had another great evening with friends.

Monday was another beautiful day in Vancouver. It was a friends birthday so we headed out for the day. Lauren, Lynne and I went for a walk to Lighthouse Park. I think we stopped to sunbathe, eat and enjoy the view more than we actually walked, oh well we still got some exercise. We had packed a picnic lunch so sat on the rocks and ate this. I love the fact you can just go somewhere this beautiful on a public bus, and you get to see birds of prey just fly right by. After our walk we headed back to the town. We caught the bus to Granville Island and sat down to have some fish n chips before Lynne had to head off to work. It was a nice day and afternoon.

Sunday 25th I took Cam on a surprise trip to Bowen Island. Well it was mostly a surprise however once we got on the bus he kind of knew where we were going as the bus only goes to one place. Bowen Island is a 15 min ferry ride from West Vancouver. It's a small island with cafes, gift shops, restaurants, bars and lots of hiking trails. We went over for the day. It happened to be another really nice day. Once we arrived on the Island we went searching for the information centre to get a map of the place. It wasn't open but we managed to find a map anyway. We decided to go for a walk around the lake. This walk took about and hour to an hour and a half. The path was a bit boggy at times as it's still quite cold at this time, and has been raining. We weren't quite prepared for this but we carried on anyway. It was a nice quite walk with not many other people on the path.

After our walk it was lunch time. We went to a place that had been recommended to us for their fish and chips. We found a nice spot out on the deck in the sun and looked out over the water.

Once we finished lunch we had a walk around the shops looking for some gifts. We were successful and purchased a few items. I love walking around these small places you get to look at things that are made within the area and you don't usually find in just any store. You can find some real bargains. We had spent several hours here now and didn't really have much else to do except buy and ice cream and wait for the ferry. Turns out the $13 we paid for the ferry covers the trip back as well. Overall a really nice day which turned out to be quite cheap also.

Wednesday 28th was a very exciting day. The day of my next trip back to New Zealand. I went out for brunch with Lynne and Lauren from work before heading home to finish packing and headed to the airport.

Easter Weekend in San Francisco, 2nd-5th April 2010

This weekend we were off to San Francisco for Easter Weekend. We arrived bright and early at the airport for our flight to find that it had been delayed by a couple of hours. We thought the culprit must have been fog however turns out it was wind. This was not going to dampen our day though, we jumped on the plane at about 10am. Turns out we were wrong, it did dampen our day, well that didn't but the rain sure did.

We arrived in San Fran and got the train to the city centre where our hotel was. It was pouring down at this stage. Lucky we had our umbrellas, Vancouver has trained us well. We checked our bags in at the hotel and decided to head out for some lunch and a wander around. We went to a pub/restaurant and had some lunch. After this we walked down through the city, admiring the cable cars, to the ferry building. It was a very beautiful building which was built in 1898. It was one of the main focal points for travellers coming to the city by train. From the Gold Rush to the 1930's this was the only way commuters and travellers could reach the city, via ferry boat. Now days it's main attraction is a peoples marketplace full of different stalls. Anyway enough about umbrellas I'm sure that's not what you came here to read.

We decided to brave the weather and headed for a walk along the waterfront down towards Pier 39. Pier 39 is well, a Pier, but not just any Pier, this pier features several waterfront attractions such as restaurants, rides, live entertainment, shopping and sea lions. On our walk here which was further than I imagined we tried to spot Alcatraz, this proved quite difficult, not only could we not see it because of the rain and the fog, we couldn't see while we were trying to tame our umbrellas. It was one of those days where it was pouring down and then the wind couldn't decide which way it wanted to blow. Lets face it we may as well just have thrown the umbrellas away with all the fighting that went on between us (the umbrella and I, I mean).

We walked around the pier, unfortunately we couldn't see Alcatraz

or the Golden Gate Bridge so we decided to settle for the sea lions for a while. Weird to see nearly 50 sea lions just sitting up on the docks. We were getting fed up with the rain so decided to take a toilet break. Now I know San Francisco is known for it's changeable weather but I wasn't quite expecting this. After 2 minutes of being inside I walked out to find I was in a completely different city!! The sun was out, there was blue sky and the clouds were almost gone. We could now see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, not that I'm complaining. It was just weird.

We headed back to the waterfront for some photo

ops and a proper look around the Pier without having to fight the weather. It's really quite a beautiful location and scene.

After the worlds worst coffee or warm milk depending on your point of view we headed back towards the city. We walked around union square for a while and found somewhere to eat for dinner. A nice little pub/restaurant right in the city. We'd had a long day so far and had to get up early the next morning so headed back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday was probably one of the best days I have ever had. The day was absolutely stunning and I can see why everyone loves this city. There is just such a nice vibe to the city, I think it helps being on the waterfront. This morning we caught a bus to Pier 33 to

catch our boat over to Alcatraz. Now if anyone goes to San Fran this is a must see, probably one of the best attractions I have ever been to. I would recommend catching the early bird boat over in the morning as you get to beat the crowds this way. It was a little cool on the boat, but the day was perfect for a great view of the city and surroundings. After our boat across we were "Welcomed to Alcatraz". After a brief introduction to the place we were on our own to tour around. We went to watch a quick video about the Island before heading inside for the tour. Once inside you get your own headset (which is free, I might add), it's such a great idea, as you walk around there is a narrative about the prison, talking to you about different people that stayed there and differet tales about the prison. The story is told by prison guards and inmates. This was very interesting. You could even pause the story along the way which is great for someone like me that likes to read everything (so I'm told anyway).

Such nice views back to the city from here, they says that inmates either loved this fact or hated it. Some loved having the view and some hated the fact they could see what they were missing out on. We had finished the tour inside so headed for a walk around the outside of the building, trying to see where they did filming for The rock. We found a few spots that we think were in the movie. After more photos we headed back to the boat. You need a decent amount of time here, we spent three and a half hours.

Once back at the mainland it was time to find the Cable cars. No visit to San Fran is a visit without these!! We tried to get on theF line, this is where you can catch one of the many historic vintage streetcars. Now streetcars do differ from Cable cars,

instead of using a mechanical cable streetcars are propelled by on-board electric motors which require a trolley pole to draw power from an overhead wire. Turns out we couldn't get on as they were so full, it appears everyone had the same idea that we had today. We decided it was a nice day for a walk anyway. We arrived at the Powell-Hyde Cable car to find a huge queue, we decided we would take our place in the line as we figured it would be like this again other days. Not a bad location to wait with beautiful views out to sea and to the Golden gate bridge. The wait wasn't as long as expected and after about half an hour we were on the Cable car. Now words can't describe just how fun this experience is, hanging off the side while you go up and down streets, people jumping on and off and the crazy driver. Just awesome!! We were going to get off at Lombard street (America's crookedest street) but decided we would never get back on, so took this right into the city.

It was getting close to dinner time, we had been recommended an Italian restaurant in Little Italy, San Fran. We jumped on a Cable car to take us as close as we could get to the restaurant, just because we could, don't think I would ever get sick of them. The restaurant was called The Stinking Rose, I believe because of all the garlic they use, pretty much everything had garlic in it, on it or around it.

It was a very interesting restaurant and I think it's fair to say we both really enjoyed it. Everywhere you looked there was another little room off the side which had tables in it, was like a rabbit warren. After eating it was time for another recommendation. We went to a bar called Saloon, I'm sure the owner was about as old as the building, well sure looked it anyway. Now I'm sure I asked for vodka and something else in it, but pretty sure it was just straight vodka. So cheap as well, its fair to say after a few I was really feeling it. Was a nice little place and what more could you ask for with cheap drinks and live music. We walked back to our hotel through the city, wow what an amazing day :)

Sunday was a horrible day weather wise, it was cold and very wet. We couldn't let this stop us though as we only had limited time here. We decided something in doors would be the best. We jumped on a public bus and headed towards the California academy of sciences. Turns out the bus to take us there went right up to the Golden Gate bridge.

We jumped off the bus in the rain to get some pictures, we though while we were out this way we may as well. It was a bit miserable so we headed to some shelter to wait on the next bus. Once at the academy we decided perhaps today wasn't the best day to come, it was pretty busy. I think once again everyone had the same idea that we had. The academy was alright, nothing too spectacular but a good way to fill in the time. They did have a pretty cool rain forest even for someone like me that doesn't like birds and things that fly around. There were some big moths and butterflies, lucky I had someone with me that I could hide behind. Once we had, had enough of reading and walking around we left.

We had been told about a Chocolate shop that was a must visit in San Fran called Ghirardelli Chocolate. It's all around the United States but is in Ghirardelli Square in San Fran which has become an official city landmark since 1965. We made our way here on the bus.

It was still poring down and cold so was nice to get inside a warm building, with lots of Chocolate and Ice Cream. The place was really busy, we had to order then hang around near tables waiting for somewhere to sit. We were so cold to begin with we had to have a hot chocolate, European style. We finally found a seat and waited for our drink. While waiting we looked around at all the beautiful desserts that were coming out, turned out this was a bad thing. After our drink we decided to get an ice cream as well, so naughty but so nice!! There were so many amazing choices I think we would have been happy with anything.

We thought the cable car on a day like today would be a good option. Thought the queues wouldn't be very long, turns out we were right and wrong at the same time. The queue wasn't as long but it was still a considerable wait so we decided to go to the streetcar for our ride back. We had to wait a bit but it was worth it. It's fun getting on all this old style transport. Once back in town we headed back to the hotel to change and head out for dinner. After walking around for a bit we settled on a Chinese restaurant, then went back to the hotel after dinner. We were both stuffed after our long day.

Monday was our last day in San Fran, very sad, I could have spent so much longer here. Think we'll have to head back some time. We left our bags at the hotel and headed to the pick up point for our movie tour. This was great fun, you travel around the city in a small shuttle looking at places where movies have been filmed.

There is a guide who is an actor in San Fran. Inside the shuttle there is a TV and as you go along looking at places they show the part of the movie on the TV that corresponds to that setting. Along with this the guide gives you information about the movie and how they film some of the scenes. It was very interesting for movie fans like us.

Some famous scenes were: the building where Will Smith works in Pursuit of Happiness, the street where Robin Williams walks across and gets his purse stolen in Mrs Doubtfire, some Dirty Harry scenes, and where the cable car roles down the hill in The Rock. We got to visit the park at the start of full house, Mrs Doubtfire's house, the house in Princess diary and we saw where Sean Connery meets his daughter in The Rock. Of course we also went to the Golden Gate Bridge where many films have been done one example being Vertigo. I would recommend this tour if your ever in San Fran. It happened to beautiful day so we got some real nice photos by Golden Gate Bridge which worked out well.

After the tour had finished we walked around Pier 39 briefly before heading to the hotel to pick up our bags and then to the airport for our flight home.

What an amazing trip in an amazing city!! Cam and I absolutely loved it here, would love to go back for some more fun. Definitely a city I would recommend to visit if you are ever in the States. I hear the best time to go is August/September for the nicest weather and April for the least fog.

March 2010

Not much happened this month so I'm able to to write about it in one post.

We decided to head over to Victoria on Vancouver Island for the weekend of the 6th and 7th of March. As we had been over here before we were able to just relax and take it easy. We didn't have to be tourists, well not completely anyway. We didn't do much throughout the day, it was a beautiful day however still a little cool being Winter. We managed to see the flame for the Para-Olympics and hung around listening for a while. After this we headed around the waterfront for a stroll. Its such a beautiful walk around there and the scenery is stunning. We went to get the best fish n chips, however they were closed today. We'll have to go next time.

That evening we went on a ghost walk around Victoria, this was well worth it, not only did we get a ghost tour but it also tells you a little about the history of Victoria. We got to walk around the streets, go into dark alley ways and even into an old building which has a history of being haunted. Was a little scary but I don't think we got to experience any ghostly spirits. Would definitely like to do other walks in different cities if I can. What we didn't know until we did the walk was that the pub we had been sitting in that evening was one of the places that was believed to be haunted. Therefore we had to head back afterwards to have a few more drinks and a better look around inside at some of the things he had pointed out. A very nice old pub, and even better with live music.

The next day we were quite tired and decided to just have a coffee and then head back towards Vancouver.

March 11th, I headed out for dinner with some of the girls from work, for a Birthday dinner for one of them. We went to a restaurant called Goldfish and then out for some drinks and dancing at a bar called bar none. Not really somewhere I would have normally gone, and not the door price I would have normally paid but it was fun anyway. Had a little more to drink than expected but I didn't have to work the next day so who cares.

On March 14th 2010 in New Zealand something very exciting happened. I became and Aunty to beautiful Hannah Sophie Boud. I was talking to Mum and Dad on skype when Vanessa rung them to say she was heading to the hospital. That morning at around 4am I got a phone call from Vanessa to say Hannah had arrived very fast at 11.59pm March 14th. Its all very exciting!! Can't wait to meet her.

March 17th I went to lunch with a couple of girls from work. It was such a nice day we went for a walk around the waterfront then headed to a nice place for a coffee. I must say this was the best Cappuccino I have ever had while in Canada, I don't normally get them here as they are so bad, but this one was exceptional. I must go back.

This evening we had a Para-Olympic Ice Sledge Hockey game to go to. I left the girls and jumped on the bus to go and meet Cam. This was fun to watch basically they have what appears similar to a wheelchair that sits on one blade. They hold onto sticks which have a head to hit the ball with and a claw on the other end to pull them along the ice. Very skillful I must say, and they definitely hit into each other hard as well. It was a good game, Sweden pulled out a win against Korea. After this we decided we had to have one drink in the pub for St Paddies day so stopped by the Irish pub for one.

The last weekend in March we ended up doing a couple of things, nothing too energetic but fun none the less. Friday 26th I was off work and went for a walk along the waterfront again and headed out for lunch with Lynne and Lauren. This evening I meet Cam for some drinks and dinner at Cardero's, one of the restaurants we like here in Vancouver. It's right on the waterfront and you can get nice views from here. This particular day we had a few bald eagles circling around the water with crows chasing them. Saturday 27th was a relaxing day, we stayed home and watched a movie with some pizza, nice thing to do when its cold and raining outside.

Sunday 28th we headed to a small vegetarian place to meet up with some friends, not really my choice of food but it turned out to be not too bad. I was meeting up with an English friend Andrea that I was chatting to in February at our nursing exam. She was celebrating being in Vancouver for 1 year. The place we went to was very hippy like, we were served our drinks in jam jars, very unique we thought. We ordered some food for lunch/afternoon tea as it was 3pm at this stage and hung out there for a while drinking as the food and drinks were super cheap. We ended up leaving at about 6 or 7pm, I can't quite remember, well we tried to leave anyway except we all kept talking to each other, so decided to head to Cactus club for dinner as well. It was a great afternoon and evening, we met lot of nice people.

Winter Olympics, 12th-28th Feb 2010

February 12th was the start of 2 weeks of absolute madness in Vancouver. Olympics you say? They are just the Winter Olympics! Well that's what we initially thought anyway, its strange. I guess coming from a country that mainly focuses on the Summer Olympics, you forget the Winter Olympics are actually something important as well. Now I'm just sounding ignorant but actually I'm not haha, 2 weeks before the Olympics it felt like any other city, then all of a sudden a week before the city was starting to buzz and so were we.

Friday was the opening ceremony, I had finished a night that morning and Cam finished work at 5.30pm, we didn't really think about this day. Thought we would just head out and find somewhere to watch the opening ceremony, however every man and his dog was doing the same thing. After heading around for ages and not being able to find anywhere, we decided to join all the other people with the same problem and watch the ceremony on the street, in the rain, being projected onto the side of the sears building. It actually worked out quite well and it was a great atmosphere.

So its the end of the ceremony and we find out unexpectedly that they are going outside to light another cauldron, so we are watching the guy (Wayne Gretzky) with the flame travelling in the back of the car. We can see what streets he is passing and realise he is coming towards where we are all standing. Its funny you look around and see the expression on every bodies face, its like one big penny just dropped. People are looking at the screen, then down the street to where the car is going to drive past, then back to the screen. When the flame finally goes past the street everybody just decided to start running, they're running down the middle of the street after the flame and the car. I'm not just talking about a few people, this is about 10-20 thousand people, running down the middle of the street, a street which is open to the public I might add. The cars just don't know what to do, there are thousands of people in the middle of the road, they just have to sit there ofcourse. It was the most fun and crazy experience ever!! Everyone is yelling out, screaming and running down the street, reminded me of the scene in Jumanji where they are being chased by animals, it was madness, but awesome!

We finally arrived at the waterfront after a 1-1.5 km run, unfortunately the cauldron had already been lit, but we were just in time for the fireworks. There was a huge pile of people yahooing, and singing the national anthem, with the cauldron and the fireworks in the back ground. This, I could tell, was going to be the start of 2 awesome weeks. We headed off for dinner and a few drinks after this to Cactus club.

I was off for the weekend so we decided to head out and about to experience some of the fun. Saturday our first stop was Granville Island. Most of the teams in the Olympics had a venue set up all around Vancouver, it was called their house. The Swiss house and Atlantic Canada were set up on Granville Island. The Swiss house was too busy to sit down in so we headed to Atlantic Canada where we had dinner and several drinks before heading on.

We were told NZ didn't have a house but there was a bar called Sin Bin where the athletes were hanging out so we walked there. Unfortunately it didn't look like any Kiwis were there, actually it didn't look like they were supporting Kiwi's at all. Oh well we still watched some of the moguls, had a few drinks and met these Canadian girls that had friends in NZ. After a few photos with them we left for town.

Once again it was very difficult to get into anywhere with out having to queue for ages, so we just wandered soaking up the atmosphere, town was crazy! Every night they had special events on at Robson square. This is an area right in the middle of town that they hadset up for the Olympics. This night Jeremy Fisher was playing so we stood around listening to him for the rest of the evening. We did attempt to get into the Irish house, but as it was 1pm and it closed at 3pm we didn't really want to pay $20. So we went home.

Sunday was Valentines day, we had a booking at Seasons in the Park a beautiful restaurant at Queen Elizabeth Park which over looks Vancouver from the top of a peak. During the day we went to Plaza of Nations, an area set up with foreign foods and a big screen for watching the Olympics of course. We hung out and had lunch, watched some Olympics and took a stroll around the waterside. Of course there were loads more people as there are a few Canadian Province houses down here. We couldn't get into the Russian house so queued for the Canadian Houses.

After walking around the Ontario and Quebec house, we stopped in the Saskatchewan house (easy to draw, hard to spell) for a drink and some music. A nice relaxing day so far. We didn't have too much time till our dinner booking so went to Doolin's for some drinks and to watch the final of the Mogul's (my favourite event in the Olympics). It was pretty awesome the Canadian came through in the end to beat the Auzzie, pretty good we all thought! We weren't even in a room filled of Kiwis either. After this it was time for dinner, as usual the meal and view were fantastic from the restaurant, we even got to see the fireworks from Livecity Vancouver from here, a bonus. All together another great day.

Unfortunately work got in the way of things again, it was back to work for the week. Monday night we did head down to Robson Square to watch the firework and display there. We didn't realise until the Sat night that they actually did this show every night at 9pm, we had arrived just near the end of it that night so came back to watch the whole display. It was actually really good, can't believe they can do things like this every night, must have cost quite a bit.

We had a few days of rest then went to Live city Yaletown on Thursday 18th to wander around. Live city are 2 areas that had been put together so people that couldn't go to any of the games cold hang out there, drink and watch the Olympics. This one had a coke tent which gave you free coke and you got to participate in some activities, quite fun actually. There happened to be a Canadian band playing that night also, they are Marianna's Trench. I really enjoyed them, think I may have to get the album. Kind of similar to Green day we thought. After that we enjoyed the fireworks display, once again another thing that was put on each night. This one comes with music and a visual presentation while the fireworks are going. North America really does know how to do fireworks.

Friday night Paula from work joined us for a walk around Robson Square, we watched the fireworks again as Paula hadn't seen them, this night happened to be particularly busy, people just filled the streets. We attempted to be on camera, standing behind one of the news stations, we may have been on there, but I guess we'll never know. After a few drinks at the Art Gallery Cafe we headed for a walk along the waterfront to see the cauldron. There were still loads of people walking around and getting photos with the cauldron. It was hard to get a nice photo as there were plenty of barriers surrounding, and the only way you could get a good view was by standing in another huge queue. I swear if we had waited in every queue we would never have seen as much as we did.

The next week we didn't really get up to much Olympic stuff. I guess work was getting in the way. Plus we had, had some full on Olympic days. We decided to just watch some events on the TV.

It was coming up to the last weekend of the Olympics and I am glad I

happened to have the weekend off. Vancouver was absolutely packed this weekend, it was great to see all that effort put in to organising stuff for the city paid off. Friday we went to the other Livecity Vancouver, it happened to be raining lots that day, we stood outside and watched the semi final, I think, of the hockey. Canada won anyway but they were very lucky. After this we went inside to listen to some music and for some drinks. There was a crazy but nice guy there from Montreal who provided a bit of entertainment. A relatively quite night for us I guess.

Saturday we went to the Rowing house can't remember who they were supporting, maybe Austria can't remember. There wasn't much going on here just some drinking and food. We wanted to find somewhere to stay for the night as it was the Saturday night and we knew it would be difficult to get in anywhere, which it turned out it already was. In the end we just found a good sports pub where we could watch the Olympics and drink.

Sunday 28th was the last day of the Olympics with of course the match of the Olympics. Today was the final of the Ice Hockey and the game was Canada vs USA, don't think you could wish for a better game really. Once again everyone was up super early to get a spot somewhere for the game, we thought we were up early enough but it appeared this was the one thing people wanted to do today, felt like the place had stopped. We found a place finally in front of the big screen at Plaza of Nations. What an amazing game!! It was so intense, including the times that the big screen failed and all we could do was listen to the game and not see it except for a tiny corner of the screen. I thought a riot would break out, luckily for them they got the screen working, however this happened several times throughout the game and always at the worse possible moments. So with not long till the end of the game the score was 2-1 to Canada, very intense. With about 1 minute to play USA pulled their goaly to have one more player on attack and they scored a goal with about 20 seconds to play which forced overtime. Overtime is 20 mins and its the first to score a goal. Of course the screen decided to turn off one more time in this moment, lucky not for the final section of play. Cam was filming the end of the game. It was very tense and both teams had shots on goal. Finally Canada got the winning goal and the crowd went absolutely nuts, screaming and jumping about, us included. Cam got so excited with his jumping that the camera turned off. Oh well the memories are more important.

Throughout the Olympics there was a intersection

that everyone decided was the area you would just go, have music playing, do the conga, dance and sing. It was a massive street party every night. None of the nights however compared to tonight. I have never seen so many happy and excited people. There were thousands of people just everywhere you looked. So much fun! We sat at the art gallery over looking Robson square and thousands of people. We sat there people watching, chatting and drinking. Why pay to go somewhere when you could have this. The big screen happened to be back up on the Sears building which we could conveniently see from where we were sitting, so we watched the closing ceremony here. Finally we watched one last fireworks before heading home once everything had finished. There were people playing hockey in the streets, dancing and of course singing the national anthem. It was one big city street party.

Overall this was one of the most busy and amazing 2 weeks. Definitely a once in a life time thing. If you ever get the opportunity to be part of something like this do, don't head away to be out of the madness just join in!