Yo should be home now, Ryan and I are back in Calgary at Aunt Mary & Uncle Rob's place. Tomorrow night (Sunday, midnight-ish) we fly out, back to Toronto. Vacation is winding down... so sad... though it'll be nice to stop living out of a suitcase for awhile. Load the car, unload the car, load the car, unload the car. That's vacation life =)

Tuesday I got up late (the guys are always up early), and spent a bulk of the morning making reservations for a bed & breakfast (B&B) in Tofino for that night. After breakfast (at Joe's Grill...again) we wandered off to the Capilano Susupension Bridge. Anyone who's been there will laugh, cause they know how hokey it is. Essentially, there is this one suspension bridge that is over a canyon. That's the only interesting part of the entire place, but they try to turn it into a full-fledged amusement park. Doesn't really work, I think we were in and out of there in under 20 minutes.

Then came our lovely experience with BC Ferries. We wanted to get on the 3pm boat to Nanaimo Departure Bay, Vancouver Island. The ride takes 1:35, so with loading and unloading, we'd be driving from Nanaimo to Tofino starting at 5pm. It takes 3 hours to get to Tofino, so we'd arrive 8pm. It'd still be light out, and the owner of the B&B told me the roads are really windy, so everthing's perfect. right? WRONG. We had no idea what the lineups for the ferry would be like. At around 2:15pm, right on the highway, there was a lineup on the shoulder for ferries. So we stopped and waited there. And we waited. And we waited. And then we drove to the toll booths. And then we waited. And we waited. And then we paid a ridiculous price of $55 to get the car and the three of our bodies onto the boat, pulled into another line, and guess what we did? We waited again. We waited until the 5pm boat, but the boat was late, so we didn't end up leaving the docks at Horseshoe Bay until 5:20pm. By the time we got off the boat, got gas, and was starting to drive to Tofino, it was 7:30pm. It was already dark out. Grrr.

But then came the ride to Tofino =) The lady was right, the roads are really winding, and really narrow, with a mountain on one side, and often a cliff or a cement block on the other side. There were times when you went up a little hill, and until you were at the top of the crest it wasn't certain whether the road was straight, or if it veered to the left or the right! We had a crazy ride, felt very much like a roller coaster, but it was great =) Though I still managed to fall asleep, so we couldn't have been going THAT fast =)

We arrived at Water's Edge B&B around 10pm. It's owned and operated by an older couple, and their son and daughter-in-law. The last time I was at a B&B it was in Port Hope at the Woodlawn Inn. There were about 10 rooms, and the dining area where breakfast was served was also the restaurant's dining area. Needless to say, the Woodlawn Inn had a full kitchen, with kitchen and wait staff. Water's Edge was much different. It was like we were sleeping over at someone's cottage. There were three rooms upstairs, and the owners lived downstairs. The couple in the biggest suite were already in their room by the time we arrived. I got the queen room, and the guys got the room with two twin beds and ensuite bathroom. My bathroom was in the hall. The kitchen was a normal kitchen, though bigger than most homes. And the dining area for breakfast was just a normal dining room. Nothing at all like what I was expecting.

Since we arrived so late, we really couldn't see much. Although we could hear the water, and assumed it was the Pacific Ocean, not a single thing could be seen. The moon must have still been behind a mountain.

That night I slept with my drapes open. Good thing, because breakfast was at 8:30, and if I had closed them I most likely would not have woken up! In the morning, when light started shining in, I managed to peel open my eyes, and saw the beautiful colours of the morning sky, as a backdrop for the nearby mountain islands, and the flowing water. I was thinking about getting up to take a picture, but I was too tired to get out of bed, so I went back to sleep =)

Breakfast was homemade and really yummy. Then we went whale-watching =) We wore these one piece suits called Survival Suits, which were like full body life jackets, and they were bright red. Think Armageddon. We pretty much looked like that, except without the astronaut helmets. It was really funny looking =) We got into this little boat that had a rubber thing all around it... kinda looked like a giant bumper boat, with a capacity of 12 and a really powerful motor. We raced out to the ocean, and our friendly captain showed us around, and pointed out the animals. We saw 2 bald eagles, a bunch of grey whales, and a whole island of stellar sea lions. We'll put up pictures soon, they were awesome looking!

After that we had lunch at a restaurant called The Loft. I'll let Ryan or Adrian explain about our adventures involving lunch.

After lunch we headed back to Nanaimo, and on the way we stopped for a hike through an old-growth rainforest. It was really gorgeous there, everything was lush and moist. The trees were HUGE, most of them you can't hug because your arms can't reach all the way around. The weird thing was that I rememeber in high school a couple of the teachers talked about the clear-cut logging controversy out in Clayquot Sound, with the old-growth trees, and that day, I was standing right in the place they were talking about. But the sad thing was that later on, as we were driving, we could see the evidence of clear-cut logging, and the tragic consequences.

Oh yeah, did we ever mentioned that we went to Tofino because our waitress Jacqueline from the James Joyce pub where we had dinner the first night in Calgary mentioned that it's a great place to visit? =)

We headed back to Nanaimo, got on the boat, and went back to Chrissy's place. We were pretty tired, and needed to sleep, since Thursday was the day trip to Whistler.

Speaking of sleep, that's something I should do. It's 2am your time, midnight Calgary time.

It's 6:30am. Vancouver time anyway. I just got back from the Vancouver Airport. Our vacation is starting to wind down. I saw Adrian to the airport for his 7am flight back to Toronto, and Ryan and I are scheduled to hit the road at 7:30am.

I'm tired =) I got up at 5:20am to drive Yo. I know you're all impressed, especially since Ryan and Yo like to comment on my sleeping habits. Today is the long drive back to Calgary...which is mainly uphill. I hope gas is cheaper than when we filled up to go to Whistler...78.9!!! Can you imagine that. I don't think I've ever seen gas so expensive before!

Things that we still need to blog about:
- Tuesday, which was the Capilano bridge, and our *fun* experience with BC Ferries. Oh, and the rollercoaster ride to the B&B.
- Wednesday, which was whales, sea lions, "David", and the old growth rainforest
- Friday, what did we do again guys?? Oh yeah, Yo got carded... heheh =)
- Ryan's road rage & "car" fever (think cabin fever, but in the car...)

Yo, since you'll be back at home this afternoon, with high speed, instead of the dial up we're using at the hotel, wanna make a second blog appearance? =)

Time to play with the jacuzzi tub before meeting Ryan for breakfast...

Blog time again!

Today was the day to tie up loose ends in Vancouver. Today we did, in order:

1) brunch with Christina Lui at Denny’s
2) did a driving tour of the University of B.C.
3) took a drive to Pearl’s house (friend of Janeys)
4) wandered around the Park Royal Mall (north and south)
5) drove to the hotel near the airport, unloaded
6) ate dinner at the Irish Pub across the street, Adrian got carded... ha ha


Some small observations on life, the universe, and everything:

1) Land Rover is to Range Rover as Toyota is to Camry
2) In Richmond, B.C. there is a Chinese store named “Big Crazy”
3) Did you know that nowhere in Nanaimo is there a bar. There are pubs, grills, restaurants but no bars. Weird, no Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo =)

Fetché la vache! Quoi? Fetché la vache!

Thursday was spent in Whistler.

Adrian's cousin Gavin took us on a hike to the train wreck. In the 40's a freight train took a turn too fast and derailed.

Actually, derailed is an understatement. As you can see from the picture the box cars are a long way from the track. 5 box cars flew through the air 200 feet and were so twisted and entangled in the forest that they were abandoned.


Whistler is a beautiful village and you can tell that it's constructed specifically to suck money from tourists. Every hedge was perfectly trimmed, sidewalks were swept, every building had been recently painted and everything matches everything else... in short it's right out of a fairy tale. It was gorgeous to look at and also a little eerie at the same time.

Adrian's cousin works at the Nicklaus North Whislter Golf Course so we got to "borrow" some golf carts and take an "unsupervised" tour of the facilities. The course was so beautiful I tihnk I would be afraid to actually play there - it would be a shame to put divots in that beautiful grass.

Brunch now, tummy monster angry, must feed...

Tooldles.

I just realized how convoluted our blog has become.

Just to clarify,
Sat Oct 12 = drive to Vancouver, sushi dinner
Sun Oct 13 = wander downtown, Thanksgiving dinner
Mon Oct 14 = Stanley Park
Tues Oct 15 = Capilano, BC Ferry to Tofino
Wed Oct 16 = whales, back to Vancouver

Monday. Well, the only thing I want to clarify is what happened at Stanley Park.

We went to the Aquarium. That was cool, and lots of fun. Then we decided to go for a walk, following one of the many trails available in the park. Problem was, we did so without the guide of a trail map. So we figured, can't get lost on an island park, we'll just walk (no, that was not said out loud, just in our heads, I assume). So we walked. Followed this trail, then that trail. Got to a point where I could hear the water, so I wanted to go there. So we did. Started walking around the seawall. Problem was, we got tired, and wanted to stop walking around the seawall. That's when we realized we couldn't. We had to either turn around, or keep going all the way around the north end of the park, till we could get back on a trail. And that was why we were SOOOOO tired on Monday =)

The other night I fell asleep writing about Saturday (Oct 12), and since Yo has already blogged (see, he's real, not our imaginary friend) about Monday (I'll prolly add more details), here's Sunday's story.

Sunday morning Chrissy and I got up and went to church down the stairs. Literally. Since she lives in an ex-convent, Point Grey Inter-Mennonite Fellowship holds their Sunday services in the chapel.

Church was interesting. I'm not used to liturgy, so service was a different worship experience. The really cool thing was that they sing traditional hymns from the hymn book, and the entire congregation sings in four-part harmony. Sweet! I've been told Mennonites come from a very rich musical background, so I suppose Sunday's melodious sounds were typical for them.

Being Thanksgiving, we had communion. It's always interesting to see how different churches partake in the Lord's Supper. At my home church (Toronto Chinese Baptist Church), the deacons (leaders chosen by the congregation) pass out small (tasteless) wafers and tiny cups of Welch's grape juice. At my church in Waterloo, (Community Fellowship Church), we use broken up pieces of crackers (like the Premium Plus ones) and the same tiny cups. At both churches, the congregation stays seated, and the elements are passed along row by row.

On Sunday, we used pita bread, a wine goblet, and we had to get out of our seats. The leader asked people to come up in small groups. Chrissy and I waited until the end and joined the third group. At the front, the leader tore off a small portion of the pita bread, passed it to the person on the left, and said "This is His body, broken for you" ("His" refers to Jesus, see Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-26, Luke 22:7-23, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The next person did the same thing, and said the same thing as he passed the pita bread along. When everyone had a piece of the bread, the leader picked up the wine goblet of Welch's, dipped the piece of bread into the grape juice, ate it, and passed the wine goblet to the next person, saying "This is His blood, shed for you." The next person did the same, all the way around the circle.

After church I took a BC transit bus all by myself (=D) to meet up with Ryan and Yo. Unfortunately there was a huge miscommunication, and I ended up walking along the seawall on the south side of False Creek from the Cambie bridge to Granville Island until I could find a payphone to call and find out where they were -- which was at Vanier Park, on the other side of the Burrard bridge. We finally met up, and loitered at Granville Island for awhile. Then we had to figure out dinner.

Being Thanksgiving, what do most people eat? Turkey. What did we have? Crab and ham =) YUMMY!!! And to impress my parents and anyone else who knows about my cooking skills, or rather my lack thereof, we steamed the crabs ourselves. Actually, truth be told, I called home, and I called my dad's cell, but since I got the machine on both, I figured what the heck, we'll figure it out ourselves. I shouldn't have worried. I forgot that Yo is an expert chef, so he amended my cooking suggestions so that the food was edible.

We went to TNT, which is a chinese grocery store in Vancouver. The cost of the crabs we bought was listed as $5.99/lb on the tank (and yes, I "ordered" from the fish guy in chinese). The funny thing was that by the time we bought everything else (minced garlic in a jar, gai lan which is chinese choy, more fruit flavoure gummies, beef jerky, and other random things), the price per pound listed on the tank was $6.99 =) What a deal!

Our menu was as follows:
- Corn (from frozen)
- Mixed Veggies (from frozen)
- Gai Lan (chinese choy, not from frozen)
- Mashed Potatoes (mashed by Yo, with lots of butter and milk)
- Gravy (courtesy of Chrissy's floormate)
- Ham (Ryan's not into crab, though most of us ended up eatting some of the ham too)
- Steamed Crab (YUMMY!!!)
- Garlic & Butter dip (for the crab)
- Red Vinegar & Garlic dip (for the crab, when the butter solidified and looked really gross)
- Orange Juice (from frozen)
- Non-Alcoholic wine (from Erin's mom)
- Cherry Cheesecake (from Safeway bakery)
- Hedgehogs (from Erin)

Oh, and I cooked the ham all by myself too! Well, really I just doused it in a lot of honey, and put it in the oven to bake. But it was fun, and it tasted really good =)

Dinner was a lot of fun. I haven't sat around with so many people to eat in a long time. And it was cool, cause we were all from UW, yet we were all in Vancouver. In case you don't know who they are and you care, from left to right, is Brian Lee, Andrew Ma, me, Ryan, Adrian, Erin Chew, Dylan Lum, and Chrissy. Alexis came afterwards, but I haven't found the digital pic of the group shot yet... I think Andrew has it...

After such a filling dinner, what better thing to do than exercise? Ryan, Andrew, and Luke (a friend of Chrissy's floormate) decided to exercise... take a look at their choice of equipment... Luke is in the background of this one...

The rest of Sunday night was just sitting around chatting, with friends all around. I have a lot to be thankful for, God continues to bless me with so much =)

Hello.

Since the last entry we've been to Capilano suspension bridge and to Tofino to go whale watching and back. I'll leave it to one of my esteemed comrades to fill in the details of those things later... this entry is an attempt to record all the small fleeting details of the trip that I fear will be forgotten if I don't document them now.


Small World

Since arriving in B.C. I've been seeing the same people in many different places.

1) There were 2 policemen in Joe's Grill while Yo and I were having breakfast - I later saw them on a police cutter in the harbour on the other end of town.
2) While crossing the street to Joe's Grill we passed a pregnant lady pushing a stroller - while walking in Vanier Park I passed her again.
3) While waiting in line for the ferry to Nanaimo there was a lady in a Budget rental car ("Budget lady") behind us. While getting gas in Nanaimo she pulled up beside us. A day later while getting take-out from Boston Pizza in Nanaimo she came in immediately after us and ordered take-out. A half hour later while waiting to get on the ferry to the mainland she was behind us in line again. Weird.


Peter

The waiter at the cafe within the Lake Louise hostel was named Peter. Peter is a humourless sort of fellow, never smiled, and seemed to silently broadcast the fact that he had worked every shift at the restaurant for a very long time.

Most retaurants have a bell for the cook to ding when an order is ready but in this particular establishment the cook kept yelling "PETER!" across the restaurant. Every time the cook did this you could see Peter wince. The following is a sample of what we believe he was thinking:

1) "What do you want from me!?! I'm only 1 person!"
2) "Stop yelling at me, I'm 5 feet away from you and can see you put the order up!"
3) "Why, in the name of all that's holy, won't you leave me alone?"

Please keep in mind these are only hypotheses, and that despite his deteriorating mental health and imminent nervous breakdown, Peter was one of the better waiters on our trip.


"Slippery like fish"

On Monday we went to a charming little Italian restaurant in downtown Vancouver (this would be immediately after the 16 hour walk around Stanley Park) and our waiter (very good waiter) had a thick accent. While he was handing us the menus he dropped one and immediately said: "slippery like fish".

It struck me as funny and I have been using that line as often as I can... I think the other 2 are starting to find it irritating. =)

Tired, must sleep.
Banh, booga booga, thbbbbbpthhh, toodles.

Good Morning.

The three of us tired ourselves out yesterday by walking every trail in Stanley Park! and so now it it 11am and we're just beginning to stir.

As I speak reservations are being made at a B&B in Tofino (tourist town on Vancouver island) and we intend to go whale watching or some other touristy thing.

Driving in Vancouver

This topic deserves a section if its own in this blog.

1) Cars park everywhere! I mean everywhere! The side streets are so narrow and everyone insists on parking on both sides of the streets so that it is difficult to drive a Sebring down without taking everyone's mirrors off.

2) Flashing green streetlights. These are not advanced green, but are "pedestrian controlled" This means that they will remain green until someone presses the crosswalk button. Imagine my confusion when I drive into town and notice that most intersections have advanced green signals in both directions....how does that work?!?

2b) Where there are pedestrian controlled lights the lights are only on one axis (ie, north-south) while the other axis (east-west) has stop signs. So when you pull up to the stop sign you're allowed to pull out into traffic. Very counter-intuitive and I tihnk I've anoyed many Vancouverite drivers in the process =)

3) Parking rules. To go along with all the sidestreet parking are those signs that tell you where and when you can park. People from Ontario will be familiar with these and they usually go something like this: no parking from here to corner. In Vancouver however, they need 4 Ontario sized signs to convey the parking rules and the typical one goes something like this: 2hr parking, except on Monday - Wednesday, only with permit, not between the hours o 6:30-9:30am and 3-6pm, holidays excepted.

I don't know about anyone else but I don't know when I'm allowed to park there. I could construct a logic diagram or an optimization problem to find the intersection of all the conditions but I simply don't have time while I'm driving down the street looking for a place to stash the car. Result: I park anywhere anytime and hope that I fall within the allowable parking conditions. Grrr.

Have to go pack now - going to feed ourselves and then to Tofino.

Toodles.

Saturday morning, we had one final chance to take pictures at Lake Louise.. and finally, it was a wonderfully clear day =)

The rest of the day was spent driving to Vancouver. On the way, we got to see the Spiral Tunnels which are the tunnels through the rockies built for the CP Rail. Kinda neat seeing all those tunnels, knowing that a lot of people, and in particular a lot of Chinese people, died while trying to blast holes into the mountains to lay train tracks.

I also had wildlife experience number three. We saw salmon swimming upstream =) And to be more precise, we saw a TON of salmon swimming upstream! We pulled off the side of the highway to go look, and we were standing so close, I could have easily reached my hand out and picked up a salmon! It was so neat.

We arrived in Vancouver at around 6:30pm Vancouver time (three hours time difference now, not two) at Christina Lui's residence, which is an old converted convent. There to greet us upon arrival was Andrew Ma (up from Seattle) and Alexis Kwong, as well as Chrissy. Alexis was kind enough to make reservations for dinner...at a sushi buffet =) So at 9pm, we headed off to Richmond for seafood. Brian Lee was picked up on the way there, and Ryan didn't come with us, so the six of us pigged out and fully made a glutton of ourselves before heading home. And of course, because Chrissy and I are silly girls, we stayed up talking until some ungodly hour before finally drifting off to sleep.

Friday morning, we woke up covered under another heavy blanket of snow. We drove to the Lake to get pics, but it was snowing so hard, we'd be lucky if there was much in the pic other than the white stuff.

Not much to say about Friday. We tried to get to Jasper, but couldn't. Ryan's posting on Saturdat October 12 pretty much sums everything up.

Thursday morning we awoke to...snow. Everywhere. And it was SO cold.

As you can imagine, when it snows there is usually clouds in the sky. Which meant even if we hiked all th way to the top of Sulphur Mountain, there would be nothing to see. Even just walking down the street in Banff we couldn't see any of the mountains anymore. Obviously, we ditched the idea of hiking (none of us are THAT into exercising...).

So instead, Ryan and I went to the hot springs, and Yo Adrian went in search of a massage. He didn't end up finding one that was suitable, but Ryan and I had fun at the pool. It's the strangest feeling, sitting in an outdoor swimming pool filled with water from a hot spring, yet having snow land on your face. Other times I shifted, and had most of my body immersed in the water, with my toes feelings the cold wind. Kinda neat. The other thing that was really cool was that the outdoor pool faces one of the huge mountains in Banff. But it was so cloudy and foggy that day, not only could we not see the mountains, other than for a brief instant when the winds changed, there were prolonged moments when I couldn't see Ryan, and he was just sitting on the other side of the pool.. on the short side too!

The drive to Lake Louise was fairly short. We got off the main highway, and took a smaller, parallel highway instead. On the way, we saw mountain goats on the side of the road =) So like proper tourists, we slowed the car down and took lots of pics =) It was neat, my first encounter with wild animals.

At Lake Louise, Yo Adrian went to take a nap, and Ryan and I hiked along the Bow River. Ryan noted that the river we hiked along becomes the same river that runs through Calgary. Interesting thought, since the river is narrow and shallow enough for a baby elk to cross. That's right, I had my second encounter with wild animals while on the hike. We were walking along, minding our own business, when up ahead, Ryan spotted a gigantic beast with antlers. Later identified as an elk, we froze until daddy elk finally stopped staring down the path at us and looked away. As we followed his gaze, we noticed that mommy elk was already halfway across the river, and daddy was trying to urge baby elk to follow. We crept closer slowly until the instant we could see daddy in the river as well. Then we raced forward to take closer pics of the family crossing the river. It was definately cool, though I'm sure I took too many pics of the elks =)

That night after dinner, we decided to see what Lake Louise would look like at night. Like Ryan already posted, it's dark. But you should have seen the stars!!! With no moon out that night, the stars at Lake Louise beat even the most amazing night out on the rooftop of the Shakespeare appartments! =D

Since we essentially couldn't see any mountains nor water (at least not enough to get decent pictures) we decided to return in the morning.

Wednesday was the start of a new adventure. Ontarians meet the Rockies. First stop, Banff.

By the time we got to Banff it was lunch time, so we ate, and we were planning on climbing Sulphur Mountain in the afternoon, and relaxing in the hot springs afterwards as a reward. We got to the mountain, and discovered that if we wanted a free ride on the gondola back down after hiking to the top, we would have to reach the summit before the gondola closed. The gondola closed at 4pm, it was 2:30, and the range was 2-5 hours to hike up. Result: hike tomorrow.

So instead we hiked up to the summit of Tunnel Mountain. Although it was substantially smaller than Sulphur, it was still pretty neat to be standing on top of the mountain =)

Some things I noticed about being at the top of the world:
- it's no fun unless you're there with friends
- it's really cold and windy, so windy that it's easy to get blown off...and if that happened, the landing would be devastating
- even when you're at the summit, there's always another mountain bigger than the one you're standing on
- at the end of it all, it's nice to come back down to earth

So to kill some time, after the hike we went shopping =) Banff is fairly commercialised, lots of shops, and not just cute boutiques either. They had GAP, amongst other stores. I had a tendancy to walk into every chocolate store... =)

I'm back =) After being out in the Rockies, WITHOUT RECEPTION (so disconnected without my cell!!) for such a long time (three days), it's good to be back on the internet. There's so much I forgot to tell you about. Let's start with Calgary.

On Monday (October 7th), we wandered around downtown during the morning. I found downtown Calgary to be really... familiar.

For example, downtown TO has First Canadian Place, Calgary has First Canadian Centre
TO = TD Centre, Calgary = TD Square
TO = Toronto Eaton Centre, Calgary = Calgary Eaton Centre
TO = Scotia Plaza, Calgary = Scotia Centre
TO = Commerce Court, Calgary = CIBC Place
TO = BCE Place, Calgary = BCE sculptures wannabe
TO = Path, Calgary = +15 Walkway

Pretty amusing? I was amused. The one consistent thing is that TO has the Ernst & Young Tower... guess what Calgary has =)

So that was Monday... Tuesday was COP, the zoo, and The Keg.... Wednesday.... start of a new adventure... =)