More Visitors

On Thursday the 7th Pam and Kev arrived from London. They were tired and I was working so we took it easy on them. On the 8th Anna, Alex and Webb all arrived from NZ. Anna and Alex had a very brief stopover on their way back to London. Webb was joining us for a week 'on his way to Mexico' (???). Rach was able to go out to the airport and pick up Webb and grab a quick coffee with Anna and Alex before they had to catch their next flight.

On the 9th the weekend finally arrived so I was able to spend some quality time with our visitors. Rach was on night shifts so I put on my tour guide hat and went for a walk around Stanley Park trying to find all the Canadian nature I could. I think I did pretty well, found a squirrel and raccoon and I think I saw an eagle but everyone else seemed to miss it.

When Rach woke up we headed back to our apartment - after a mojito at English Bay. It was also time for Pam and Kev to get ready for the wedding they were over for.

Webb, Andre, Nerissa, Rach and I went out to catch another Vancouver sight... The Cambie. They claim to have the cheapest beer in town and I think they might be right. Also being near Vancouver's downtown east side it attracts an interesting crowd, this night was no different. We ended up having boat races with some European tourists (can't remember any more than that sorry). It was a fun night out, and from experience very typical for a night at the Cambie.

For some reason we weren't feeling 100% on Sunday. Pam had arranged a birthday present for Kev downtown so they were up early for that, we slept in a little. When we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed we decided to make the most of the cheap transit on Sundays and take Pam and Webb over to North Vancouver on the seabus. While we were there we found a nice lunch at Burgoo - great feel good food for a typical winter day. We then picked up Kev and completed the tour by exploring a bit of Gastown and an evening stroll home around False Creek before Pam and Kev had to race off for dinner.

It was an early start on Monday, we caught the early morning greyhound up to Whistler. The weather didn't exactly cooperate and kept most of the scenery out of sight - this wasn't the end of the world as a few people were struggling to stay awake anyway. After we checked into our accommodation we decided the best way to make the most of this weather was to grab something to eat, grab some beer and sit in the spa for a few drinks - we were so right.

Rach and I had a small surprise organized for the evening. All of us had got engaged in the last 6 months so we arranged a nice dinner out for us all to celebrate. Its just a shame that Niki couldn't be there too. We had a nice bottle of bubbly and some real good Alaskan King Crab - it was such a nice night.

Tuesday was Rach's birthday so we had to have a bit of adventure. We headed to the Whistler tube park, the same place Rach and I went at Christmas. We were a bit confused to start with because the signs at the base of the mountain said that the park wasn't open. Luckily Rach went inside and asked, it was open and the sign meant that it was nice and quiet for us.

When we were tired of climbing up and down the mountain we caught the bus back to Vancouver and went out for dinner. We ended up at our local favourite, The Templeton. Typical North American diner food in classic diner style.

Wednesday was another miserable wet day so we found something inside to do - explore the museum. I had to work so I was secretly glad they weren't doing anything too exciting. When the weather cleared up a little they had a wander around Granville Island and false creek again. For dinner we headed to a great restaurant right on the water in Coal Harbour called Carderos. They have great food, great drink and an amazing view.

Thursday was a quiet day for us. Pam and Kev headed down to Seattle and Webb caught his flight down to Mexico - I went to work. It was so great seeing Webb again, he's one of those friends that no matter how long its been, we pick up as though it was only yesterday that we saw each other.

On Friday Rach had a nice walk to enjoy the sun that had finally arrived then later Rach and I headed to the movies to watch Avatar (average story but great effects in 3D) while Pam and Kev were coming back from Seattle.

Saturday was the day Pam and Kev headed home. We said goodbye to them early as they had another day planned with other firends in Vancouver. We then headed down to Yaletown for a nice brunch in the sun before a games night with Emily.

It was a crazy busy week with all our visitors but it was so much fun and exactly what we needed. You're welcome back anytime!

New Years

We were a little disappointed to discover that New Years is a bit of a non event in Vancouver - no fireworks, no concerts.  Most people here seem to pay $50+ to go into clubs all night, we weren't so keen on this plan.  We decided to to find a nice restaurant to celebrate the end of 2009 and join people in Granville Street to see 2010 in.

We started our evening at Al Porto Ristorante in Gastown.  Here we had a nice Italian dinner and a few drinks.  The place was very busy, everywhere we pretty much booked out being new years eve.

It was a rainy miserable night so when we finished dinner we weren't sure whether to head up to Granville Street or find somewhere dry to wait till closer to midnight.  There were already a few people gathering in Granville street at 10pm so we decided to wander around taking it in.  The whether got worse before it got better and we were both cold and tired.  Fortunately there were people dancing around with drums providing entertainment and a little bit of warmth.  It was also fun watching the police 'manage' a few people that had started the night a little early.

The major flaw with having an unofficial countdown in the middle of Vancouver is that the clock doesn't have a second hand.  This made the countdown rather disorganized.  There were at least 3 different countdowns separated by several minutes as people noticed their watches.  The one around us must've been about right, the clock hand moved to midnight at about the right time.

We were both pretty tired after a long day after a snog and making a mess of Auld Lang Syne we headed home to bed.

More Visitors 7th Sept - 12th Sept

With Rach working on Sunday night we made Monday morning a quiet day. Jacki, Katie and I headed up the Vancouver Lookout. The weather forecast was bad the entire time we had visitors so unfortunately there was a bit of cloud around. After about an hour of me playing tourist guide up the lookout we headed for a nice walk around the waterfront to Stanley Park.

Like we were when we first arrived, Jacki wanted to get a photo of a squirrel. In Stanley Park that's usually an easy task... for some reason it wasn't this day. What was weird was that Raccoons were suddenly more common. We managed to get some good photos of them instead and had to abandon finding a squirrel. Rach had got up while we were 'going on a squirrel hunt' so we headed back to regroup.






It was still relatively early in the day so we decided to squeeze a visit to Granville Island in. Its always nice wandering around doing a bit of window shopping. We also grabbed a quick bite while we were there and watched a couple of the buskers. Once we had explored all the Island streets and had enough on the swings we headed home for some dinner. Rach, Jacki and Katie went back up the lookout after dinner to see the city at night since the tickets were still valid.






On Tuesday we we caught the seabus over to the north shore to go up Grouse Mountain. If you remember back to our post on June 28th, Rach and I had already been up here and its great cheap fun. Its really cheap if you do the Grouse Grind but none of us had the energy or desire to do that. We got the cable car up this time which I found rather over priced - but I'm comparing to a free walk up there. There is a good amount of entertainment up the top for free so I guess its not so bad.

Up the top it was a lot busier than last time, not with people it was animals. The bears were roaming around their enclosure giving everyone a good look. There was a family of Black Tailed Deer and we even saw a Grouse up Grouse Mountain. There was also a bit of wild Black Bear activity up there this day. We didn't see them but did find a fresh looking foot print - I honed all my tracking skills to identify it. We watched the lumberjack show again, for Rach and I it was our third time now. Its a little different when you know all the secrets but its still a good show. We got the chair lift up to the very top peak which we didn't do last time we were up here. There were spectacular views of Vancouver from up there, you could see right down into Washington too.








It was a long day and we were all exhausted, too exhausted to cook so we went out for dinner at The Keg. Its a chain restaurant but like most chains here the food is fantastic. We then walked around the corner from home to visit one of Katie's friends and her spoiled dog. Had a quick drink there before heading home a collapsing in bed.

We were finding it exhausting being tourists so took it easy on Wednesday morning - all we had planned for the day was heading to Vancouver Island. I got some good news (and bad timing) that morning; UBC wanted me back for a second interview... this week, when I was meant to be at Vancouver Island. I couldn't really reschedule too much so made a time Friday afternoon so I could have a day on the Island still. It was about 2pm when we headed off for the Ferry. It was a bit of a trek, but also surprising how far we could get for only $18. We first got the Canada Line to Brighouse Staton where we caught a bus to Tsawwassen where we got the Ferry over to Swartz Bay. It was funny that we were able to use a train, bus and ferry all in a couple of hours to get over to the island. Jacki's uncle, Bruce, picked us up from the ferry terminals and took us round to their place in Sidney. They have an amazing place right on the water, we were so spoilt there. Bruce had been out fishing that morning so we had fresh Salmon for dinner that night, just like real Canadians.




Thursday was now my only full day on Vancouver Island so we packed as much touring of Victoria as we could. Bruce gave us the scenic route down to Victoria and did a good job as a tour guide to get us started. Bruce eventually had to head off and do some work so we were on our own. We started with a short walk around the waterfront past the Legislative Buildings and the Empress Hotel. We didn't get far before deciding to catch one of the water taxis for a quick tour around the harbour. The first boat we got on to was great, the driver offered a great commentary. We were told it was a hop-on hop-off type thing so we got off at Fisherman's Wharf. It was a dock full of house boats and one local Seal. The poor old seal looked like it had bad cataracts and would surely be dead if had to fend for itself. It survives now on fish that people feed it at the wharf. It was unusual to have a seal follow you while you walk around. When we jumped back on the water taxi it was more of a taxi on the water, we just travelled straight back to the main dock where we'd started without any commentary at all - it was a little disappointing.

With limited time we decided it'd be best to plan the rest of our Victoria tour so we headed to the information center. We grabbed pamphlets and got some information on buses and headed up Government Street to grab some lunch. We ended up eating at Irish Times Pub - we seem to love the Irish pubs in Canada. While sitting in the pub we had a look through the pamphlets we grabbed and found one of the maps included an Alley Tour and we happened to be sitting at the start of it so we decided to follow it. It took us down some great back alleyways, my favourite had to be the last one, Fan Tan Alley. It was no wider then two people and about four stories high on both sides. There were a few quirky shops down the way and when we came out we were in Chinatown. We headed back down Government Street toward the harbour stopping at a couple of places to try and find a shirt for my job interview tomorrow. I really didn't enjoy my Victoria shopping experience, I felt like I was in a mini 'Queer Eye for Me' episode, and I really didn't like it. We eventually found a polite way to get out of that shop and found a shirt in Tip Top Tailors, they had the right level of helpfulness there.

After that stress we needed ice cream so we all grabbed sundaes and sat around the harbour eating them. We were then ready to continue our tour. We headed up and explored The Empress Hotel and then the Legislative buildings. Unfortunately we were 5 minutes too late to go inside the legislative builds so we wandered around the grounds and stumbled upon horse and carriage tours - between the four of us we couldn't come up with a reason not to. We took a 15 minute tour around Beacon Hill area looking at all the old houses - it was very romantic :-). It was almost 6 when we got back so we found a bus stop and got a ride back to Bruce and Debbie's place in Sidney.







Friday I had to get up early and catch the 8am ferry back so I could be ready from my interview at 3pm. The interview went ok, it was a practical test this time and I got the impression it had gone well - even with a few answers that I was disappointed with. The guy interviewing me basically said at the end of it that I knew what I was doing and he was just concerned about my work permit and me being over qualified - not in those words of course. It was good to hear that after three months of disappointing job hunting.

Meanwhile - on The Island Rach, Jacki and Katie had a quiet day in Sidney. Checking out the museum there and walking along the beach. They then left Jacki behind and headed back to Vancouver. On their ferry ride home they were lucky enough to see Orca's breaching - that was disappointing because I really wanted to and had been looking hard for them on both rides. Rach was also loaded up on frozen Salmon before leaving so we now have a freezer full, we're so stoked about that but need to learn some recipes - we've never cooked Salmon before.

Katie had an early flight home on Saturday morning and Rach was working again. I gave Katie a hand getting to the airport and watched some more planes before heading home and back to reality.

It was so nice seeing familiar faces again and it was fun being tourists again - the budget hadn't allowed us to do that for a while. It was also tough going back to reality.

Many Changes 31 Aug - 6 Sept

We seem to have managed to get ourselves into a bit of a routine so not much tourist-ing going on and not been too much to write about - hence the fact we had nothing to write about last week.

Monday was packing day. It was a brilliant plan to have Monday free to pack so we could move on Tuesday morning. According to our lease we had to be out by noon so preparation was key. Fortunately we got a little more time to move because we couldn't arrange a time to meet the landlord to hand it over, unfortunately someone slipped too much alcohol into my Beer on Sunday night so I wasn't contributing much. Rach put her OCD tendencies to good use and had the place looking better than when we moved in by the time I managed to roll out of bed.

Moving day went well. It took us four trips on the bus with our suitcases to move. The buses were relatively quiet. The new train, the Canada Line, opened a week earlier which made the 98 B-Line bus a ghost train at times - this worked well for us trying to squeeze on with our suitcases. While lugging our suitcases to the bus stop on one of the trips I missed a call on my cellphone - they didn't seem to leave a voicemail so I thought nothing of it. After the fourth trip and finally putting my feet up in the evening I got a txt saying I did have a voicemail after all. It turns out someone wanted me to come in for a job interview - tomorrow. It was now 5:30p.m. so I left a voicemail message for him saying that was fine and I'd call back tomorrow to confirm. That was the best I could do in the circumstances.

I got up early (by unemployed standards) on Tuesday to call back about the job interview. It turns out that they couldn't do the interview that day anymore so we rescheduled for Wednesday. This worked well for me, it gave me more to to decide what I'd wear and to unpack it.

After the successful move and me finally getting an interview after three months of trying we thought we'd earned a night out. Sunday was still haunting me so it was never going to be a big night out. We headed down to Milestones in Yaletown - a nice wander from our new apartment. Emily joined us for our celebrations - I blame her influence for Sunday so I was on high alert. We had a fantastic meal and some nice Mojitos - it was a great evening out. Being the gentleman I am we walked Emily to her apartment before heading back to ours. On the way we saw this:


Its a skunk in case you can't tell. I never thought we'd see one of those in downtown Vancouver. We still find seeing squirrels exciting so we were ecstatic about this sighting.

I hate interviews and this one was no exception. I felt the overall feeling of it was good; conversation flowed, I came across as knowing what I was doing. I was however disappointed with a few um... err... ahh, answers. Generally when I feel good about an interview, as I initially did about this one, I don't get the job. So I wrote that one off as a good practice run.

Friday was a day we'd both been looking forward to for a long time - Jacki arrived today! I like watching the planes land at the airport so I got there about an hour before Jacki was expected and stopped at Templeton station to watch planes for a bit. I timed it well and saw a 747 and a couple of A340s. After escorting Jacki back to the apartment she was surprisingly wide awake so we went for a quick walk. The weather was fantastic and it was expected to pack up for the rest of her stay so I wanted to show her the mountains while they were still visible. We walked around Gastown and along the waterfront to Coal Harbour. A nice quick look at the highlights of downtown - in my opinion.

Rach was free the next two days thanks to an LOA so we bought a pass for the Museum of Vancouver, the Space Centre and the Maritime Museum. It was good value getting the pass for all three and we've get plenty of time to use them - apart from Jacki's short stay of course. We did the Museum of Vancouver (The MOV for locals) on Saturday. It was fun, they had a lot of interactive displays and things for me to act like an idiot with. On Sunday Rach and I explored the Space Centre. Jacki joined us for most of this time but wanted to go next door to the Maritime Museum in the afternoon because otherwise she wouldn't get a chance. The Space Centre has a lot of shows and scheduled displays so we were basically moving between a theatre and the planetarium. It was a great way to spent a rainy Vancouver day and I think we all learned a thing or two. Rach had to work that night so we rushed home to grab something to eat. Jacki and I had a lazy night in front of the box to rest our aching feet.








It was a busy but not very exciting week. With Jacki and Katie here next week there'll be more to write about then.

Richmond, Botanical Gardens, Vancouver Lookout and CANADA DAY!

On Monday we realised that our 2 zone bus pass expired in a few days. We decided to make the most of it and have a trip down to Richmond. Richmond is a City just south of Vancouver, it has a large shopping centre, a Buddhist temple... and not much else that we could find.

We headed straight to the Buddhist temple. Its a nice garden and buildings modelled on the Forbidden City. It was really nice but similar to temples we had seen in Thailand not that long ago. It didn't take us too long to put a tick in that box. From there we headed back to Richmond Centre which is a massive shopping centre - and also the main bus terminal in Richmond. After a couple of hours wandering round the mall we had had a nice lunch in the food court, found Rach a new earring butterfly and found Rach some clothes for her first week at work (which was getting close fast). After wandering malls and gardens all day we were stuffed and our feet were sore so that was all we could manage that day.

On Tuesday we carried on with the garden theme and went out to UBC to see their botanical gardens. Given that we had to pay admission, I'd have to say I was a little disappointed. It wasn't hugely expensive, but it wasn't a huge garden either. To be honest, Hamilton Gardens are better and free. After that we wandered around the coast starting at Wreck Beach... Vancouver's "clothing optional" beach. Based on my experiences at most European beaches, you only see things that you really didn't want to. It was hard work, despite keeping our eye's on the ground right in front of us we were slipping on rocks the whole way around the beach and Rach got some massive blisters as evidence of the pain we went through. Here's a look at the mission/walk:
It took a lot out of us so we headed home after that to put our feet up.


Wednesday was a big day... it was Canada Day! We started the day down at Granville Island. The place was crazy, people were everywhere and the atmosphere was fantastic. We wandered the stalls and watched the performers before grabbing ourselves a spot for the parade. It was just a small parade, only took about 15 minutes to pass but it was really well done with a lot of effort put in by most participants. After the parade they had speeches and the National Anthem on a stage in a park on Granville Island. I think everyone there had goose bumps after the anthem, it was really nice to see everyone so passionate about their country.

After Granville Island we headed into town to catch the celebrations there. They had four areas setup with stalls, stages and hundreds of people! We had a small brush with fame here too, at the main stage we stopped for a quick bite and sat right next to where Elise Estrada walked past. Unfortunately we didn't have cameras ready and we didn't know who she was. After that excitement wound down we wandered up Thurlow St to grab a spot for the day's second parade. This parade was fantastic! It went on for ages and finished with what was basically a street party. We left the party and headed to the conference centre to hold a good spot for the much anticipated fireworks display. We got a fantastic spot, right on the water only about 100m from where the fireworks were being fired from. We had a bit of time to kill while we waited for the display to start so we took some great photos of the sun going down over Stanley Park. After the sun was gone, we took some more fantastic photos of the fireworks.

Canada Day was fantastic. It's such a good thing to get everyone outside together just celebrating their country. I really think New Zealand should do the same, the only thing NZ has that compares to these celebrations is New Years.

We got home late after the Canada Day celebrations so took it easy on Thursday.

On Friday we packed a picnic and went to second beach. We had a nice afternoon sitting on the beach watching the world go by. We packed up early and headed home because we wanted to catch Transformers 2 that night. We had grabbed our tickets on our way to the beach, which was lucky because it was insanely busy. We got to the theatre about 20 minutes before it started... and we were lucky to find two seats together. It was a nice evening but the movie was disappointing. It was like an 80's movie had been made with modern CG effects - which i guess it is in a way, shame the story line was of that era too.

Saturday was a fantastic day, one of the best since we've been here. We started the day with nothing planned so decided to make the most of the good weather and go up Vancouver Lookout. Unfortunately it wasn't as clearer day as Friday had been, a bit of a haze had rolled in. It was still a good day and an amazing view from up there. While we were up there we got a txt from Sarah who had flown in from NZ on Friday on her way through. She was at Kits beach and invited us to join her. So once we were done up the lookout we headed there. She had already spent a few hours there when we eventually arrived so they were starting to pack up. Instead we went round to Marie's place - she was a friend of Sarah's from when Sarah lived here. Marie was lovely we attempted to make burgers while drinking Sangria. The burgers were a small disaster but it was still a really nice evening. After dinner we tagged along with our new found friends to catch some of the Vancouver Jazz Fest... unfortunately we arrived half way through the last song. Instead Rach and I headed back to Vancouver Lookout to see the city at night. It was surprisingly different and I'm glad we made the trip back there.

Sunday was a day we'd been looking forward to for a while. We had heard good reviews for the local Les Miserables production so we grab a couple of tickets a few weeks earlier. We were not disappointed. It was a fantastic production and so well done. They've extended their production another couple of weeks because of the demand so we're obviously not the only ones that were impressed by it. After we got out of the theatre we headed back to the park to try again at catching the Vancouver Jazz Fest.

We meet Sarah there this evening and had another good catch up with her. Its so weird catching up with another Kiwi on the other side of the world. The music was quite different this night and wasn't really do it for either of us so we headed home early so Rach could get a good sleep for work the next morning.

Our Vancouver "Holiday" Continues 8/6/2009-14/6/2009

We took a small break from our holiday on Monday. Rach had a visit to her new job and I spend a couple of hours applying for jobs. We were like normal people for a bit.

On Tuesday we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It was a well timed visit because they had a Beluga baby born on Sunday. Unfortunately this also meant that they weren't letting people to close to their environment so they can bond. We got a few photos from the side but we need to go back so we can see from the underwater viewing area. The Aquarium was good, we were a little disappointed with the outside areas. They were smaller than we expected and really only three animals. They made up for it with their indoor exhibits. They had a nice range of animals and good informative displays - its all about education!

Wednesday was a quiet one. We went in to town to do a few things and I applied for another job or two.

Thursday we walked MILES. We headed down to False Creek with plans to head round to Kits Beach. We go to Kits and thought we've "come this far, so thought we might as well keep on going'. So we ended up at Jericho Beach, all 10kms of walking. It was really nice there and we'll we were there we noticed a bald eagle circling above - we'd learned about them on Tuesday at the Aquarium.

On Friday we needed a rest. We laxed around home and did a few jobs then headed to the pub, it was a Friday night after all. We started at the Frog and Firken, it was great, we sat at the bar and had a couple of drinks while watching the Stanley Cup final. After that we wandered down the Earls for a nice dinner, the place was packed because of the Stanley Cup final. It was a nice meal so we might have to go back there next time we feel rich. After dinner we headed into town hoping to find some live music... we wandered Granville Street and tried a few places, nothing had what we wanted so we headed home. We've done more research since then so we'll try a few more places next time.

Luckily we didn't have enough to drink Friday night so we weren't hungover on Saturday so headed to Lighthouse Park. It's a nice small park with some beautiful post card Canadian coastline. Its amazing how far from the city we seem to be able to get on a city bus.

Sunday was a great day so we headed to the Main St Car Free Day. It's exactly what it sounds like, its a day on main st when cars are blocked off. There was a great turn out and the weather was perfect. We spent a couple of hours wandering the street visiting the stalls. Vancouver is great for always having something on to see and do - this is a great example.