2nd - 4th April, Vancouver - LA - Sydney (delayed)-Perth, Australia

Well, my Canada trip had to come to an end. The work I was doing turned out well and now I can focus coming back to Australia to finalise our wedding. Vancouver again was unusually sun drenched and flying out with the mountains loaded with snow was again a great sight.

I passed over one of the US volcanoes, don't know which one though.

LAX was the usual shit hole and I am trying my best to avoid it future. Needless to say, our flight was delayed in taking off from there even though they boarded us nearly an hour earlier.

I did see an Air India jumbo with the wierdest window frame design.

On arrival in Sydney, I had views of the harbour bridge and CBD. Sydney is on the cards for one of Tan and my future trips.

I had to hang out in Sydney for an extra four hours but did bump into an old work mate from Kalgoorlie there. The world is very small.

Tan was waiting for me at the airport and amazingly so were my bags! It was great to be back with her again!!

29-30th March, Vancouver, BC

Back in Vancouver, snow was falling, ironic as it is supposed to be spring conditions. Sitting in the office on Saturday watching the snow fall and fall as large clumps sliding off the building was quite nice.

By the following the day the snow had all melted. Here is a shot from my apartment window.

After a big half day at work on Sunday, Leo called up and asked if I would like to come fly his kite at Jericho Beach. Why not? It was a beautiful spring day in Vancouver, a balmy 8 degrees Celsius. We caught a taxi and the driver spoke loudly to his mate on his mobile phone in pahsskwami or some language like that for the whole trip which we thought was quite rude. The wind was gusty and awesome to fly a kite with. The sun poked it’s head from the clouds for most of the afternoon while Hornado and I got the kite in the air. Leo was getting in some practice before heading to Mexico for some kite surfing. Leo dominated and I went better than the last time. Towards the end I swooped some kids walking along the beach unintentionally and landed the kite numerous times like a John Denver plane ride. Ooops! It was a great way to spend an afternoon. Vancouverites love seeing the sun and if it isn’t raining they embrace the fine(-ish) weather.

A few beers at the local sailing club and then back into town. Leo and I caught up with Belly, the guy that pushed me around the slopes of Whistler months previous, We were lucky as the Loose Moose did $6.95 surf and turf. We washed that down with a few tins with another bloke and his missus, who we have snowboarded with, Jason.

16th March, Perth - Sydney - Los Angeles - Vancouver

I had to go back to Canada to complete some consulting work. Tan and I got up early Sunday morning. It wasn't much fun saying bye to Tan, but the trip is only for three weeks.

In the tranist lounge, Ben Lee was hanging out and he caught the same bus as me. A chance encounter and it was a spin out seeing him again. In Sydney, I hung out in the lounge and took some shots of the CBD. It is amazing, both Tan and I have been to Sydney airport a number of times but never got out and visited it. Overseas, as soon as you say Australia, they say Sydney and then ask what it is like. It looks great (on the TV and magazines). We both agree Sydney is on our travel list for this year.

An overnight long haul flight and like ground hog day it was Sunday again, a function of travelling over the international date line. I arrived in LA, and grateful to see my bag come off the plane. Last time, LA lost my bag which pissed me off. I put my bag through connecting luggage and walked to another terminal to catch the flight to Vancouver. Ben Lee was in front of me in the queue at immigration. In the distance, I could actually see snow capped mountains!!

The flight was nice, seeing the Pacific Coast states of the North-West. Like twice before, I flew over the Cascades and got to see volcanoes. This time covered in a lot of snow and the surrounding lakes were frozen over. Cold! In comparison to the 41 C day in Perth last week this place has a big difference.

On arrival in Vancouver, I sorted out some immigration stuff and then I got that sick feeling. I had arrived in Vancouver but my bags hadn't. Now I'm a fairly relaxed guy but not having a bag of clothes in cold Vancouver made me feel very disappointed.

I have a little word of wisdom for you travellers out there.

STAY THE F*CK AWAY FROM LA AIRPORT AS THEY ALWAYS LOSE YOUR BAGGAGE!!

This is the third time in three months my bag has gone missing and it is the only pitfall in the fun of travelling!

Brendo cooked a great roast with fantastic gravy. Catching up with Leo, Andrea, Brendo and Lesley was awesome. Brendo and I ended up hitting the town until everything closed. I was a little tired.

It took four days for my luggage to turn up and I was mildly f*cked off with Alaskan Airlines and dreading going through LA on the way home.

It wasn't until the weekend, until Leo and I hit the turps. We had beers including the massive 250ml French beer called Boris. A group of ended up at the Copper Tank, which has lots of memories and then back at Jen's place where we played Rock Band on PS3. I am crap at the Playstation Guitar! Another late boozy night.

17th-19th January - Vancouver, Canada

We had forgotten just how cold Canada was. First job on the list was to go and collect our thermals, jackets and other warm clothing so we could actually function outside. The forecast for the next few days sits somewhere between 4 and 1 degree during the day. Bring back the shorts and t-shirts we say. Our daily average temperature from Mexico literally dropped overnight by around 30 degrees. We also had so spend today (17th) trying to find a notary to witness Dan’s passport. Long story why but we found a solicitor who charged us a fortune for the pleasure. But most importantly of all make acquaintance with out favourite sushi train again- hooray! At the moment Vancouver has the “Dine Out Vancouver” festival happening for the next fortnight. Which basically means that participating restaurants are offering three course meals for between $15 - $25 dollars. For two people who have cooked about one meal since August this is good news. We tested it out and Jaeggers and had a great feed. We also visited our other local haunt Malones where they have introduced these ridiculous wine glasses with no stems.Dan went to work on Friday which has probably resulted in a change of plans about when we come home but more to follow on that once confirmed.

Yesterday we headed to the Vancouver Aquarium. It was a cold, wet and grey day and it was best spent indoors. Cheap n’ Nasty (now affectionately called CNN) came out again for a visit. I’m still betting it will last the distance.

We had to look hard to see the sun. There was something bright in the sky. It could of been it?

Dan had been to the Aquarium back in July when I returned to Australia and had an annual pass but it was a first for me and we both enjoy visiting aquariums around the world in our travels. This one had Beluga Whales which look like a mix between a dolphin and a whale and they were white. There were four of them and one of them would blow a huge bubble underwater then spin around and pop the bubble in his mouth. It was kinda cute. The seat otters were both our favourite and they would like on their back eating and swimming around. Very cute. The Aquarium is quite large and we spent the best part of the day just wandering through the different exhibits. We walked back along the Seawall. Even with a gray day, the city is beautiful.
One of the things that we wanted to do whilst in Canada was attend an Ice Hockey (just plain old hockey for you Canadian readers) game. The ticketmaster had said that the game had sold out but we wandered down in the evening and managed to jag a couple of tickets just before the game sold out with 18,500 people. The lady placed us in the wheelchair section (I did have to ask if this might be a problem seeing… well…. we weren’t in a wheelchair!!) No problems and we were on our way to the nosebleed section. We could not have sat any further away but the wheelchair section did afford good unobstructed views and the stadium is small enough that it doesn’t matter if you are sitting up that high. Dan sat next to a man in a wheelchair who had a carer that warned him that when he got excited he had random muscular spasms that might knock him around a bit. Dan took a few hits but nothing too bad.

Knowing nothing about hockey, I asked the man next to me how long the game went for. Ah, 3 lots of 20 minutes with two seventeen minute breaks. Righto – easy.

The Vancouver Canucks (at least we knew they wore blue to barrack for them) played against the LA Kings (boo hiss). The Captain was given a standing ovation at the beginning and a presentation for his 1000th game. We had no idea who he was but cheered and clapped just as loud as the rest of the stadium. The national anthems for the US and Canada were sang (we ate our pizza during the US one and pretended that we knew the words and sang proudly for the Canada anthem).
The game started with the dropping of the puck (not kick off as I had asked the ticket lady as to what time the game started) and it was on. It was fast and the skating and stick skills of the players were amazing to watch. We cringed everytime we heard a player slammed into the wall and cheered even louder with yells from us – bring on the biff – when it looked like a fight was starting to break out. By the end of the night the Canucks lost 4 to 2. It was still a great game and we had a load of fun. We even picked up a few rules along the way, always a bonus!

12th-16th January, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico - Vancouver, Canada

We had good intentions of doing lots of things upon our third visit back to Playa Del Carmen. Tulum and Cozumel were just a couple of things on the list and we did…. Absolutely nothing. Our few days here before our return to Vancouver consisted mainly of the beach and soaking up the sun (far too much on one day when I turned a nasty shade of red) before heading back to the cold and wet of Canada.

Now, it’s fair to say that we like a good curry and Babes, the noodle house across the road does good curries and huge daiquiris. So in four nights in Playa, Dan had green curry, red curry and yellow curry and finished with another green curry. All with prawns (shrimp in North America) and with the most awesome mixed roles. The kittens were pleased to see us again.. and again.

Mother Nature got us ready for our Canadian return with lots of rain on our last couple of days. Still the days and nights were both warm so we didn’t let it get in our way.

The sun finally set on our Central American odyssey and after two months it was time to head back to Vancouver. We had to say goodbye to the owners of the hotel, Thed and Pia who Dan has fondly renamed Piassed and Wasthed as they are ALWAYS at the bar and generally drunk (we have obviously been there too long when we get hugged and kissed goodbye) and Jez the Manager who had some great travel tips. We wore our thongs and shorts to the airport and changed back into our cold weather gear (what little we had – most of it is still scattered around Canada) and hopped on the plane for our four hour flight to Phoenix.Ridiculous immigration procedures in the US again meant we had to clear customs, be finger printed and photographed and clear security to continue on with our three hour flight into Vancouver.

Coming into Vancouver the cloud cover was low but once we got below it, we could see the ski fields lit up on the mountains!! We also flew in a different way above the city of Vancouver instead of the sea. It’s very easy to forget what a beautiful city it really is. So our plan from here? Watch this space.

14th - 15th November - Vancouver, BC

Planning. Most people will agree it’s really not one of our strengths. We never really seem to know what on earth we are doing from one week to the next and love to fly by the seat of our pants. However, that’s about to change because we now have a plan that takes us up to 22nd December and it goes something like this.

17th November – Drive to Seattle – USA

21st November – Fly to Phoenix, Arizona – USA – we’re going to see the Grand Canyon… woohoo


24th November – Fly to Cancun – Mexico – spend a week relaxing on the beach on the Mayan Riviera… bliss…

1st December – Drive to Playa Del Carmen to begin a 22 day tour taking in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Check it out here.


22nd December – Fly back to Vancouver… all going well head for Whistler for a white Christmas… yeeha

Then, we think (remember we don’t like planning) we will spend the bulk of the next few months in Vancouver with some side trips thrown in, but most weekends we’ll be heading to the snowfields and then heading home in March. That is the plan, for now, but remember, it’s subject to change!

So lots of blogging to come.

7-9th November - Calgary, AB – Vancouver, BC

A lazy morning and after yesterday most of the snow laying around had almost disappeared, quite a contrast to when we arrived where there was abundant snow. We walked around Elbow River and found some squirrels to play with. The big black squirrels like Toronto are here as well. We ended up on 4th St and 17th Ave in the Mission district. Along these streets are some great sculptures. We finally got to the airport and jumped on WestJet to Vancouver. Leaving Calgary was pretty good as we got to fly over where we had walked this morning, the downtown complex and even the Olympic Park complete with man made snow and bob sled track. On arrival in Vancouver, it was raining but surprisingly warm (8 – 12 degrees is warm isn’t it?). The fall colours were still in the trees where the place we have just visited were bare. The Urban Hideaway, where we arrived on our first day in Vancouver in June which seems so long ago, was our choice of accommodation. Feels like we have come full circle!

One thing that was weird is that at 5pm it is already dark. A little miserable when it is raining and quite odd. Our body clock was telling us to go to bed at 8pm.

The next two days we have been re-acquainting ourselves with Vancouver and some of our previous top spots. We could’ve went to Seattle with Brendo and Lesley but it was a touch short notice. Oh well, next time!!

21st June - San Fran to Vancouver, Canada

We caught our airport shuttle to our International Flight to Canada (from the Domestic terminal - go figure?). Alaskan Airlines did the job and after an intense security scan including a very thorough explosive scan with a cabinet that puffs you with compressed air to get any traces of explosives. Tan got a fright when the jets of air hit her body!

We left the U.S. and A in our polar bear plane to Vancouver. The flight was really good but 2 hours and 12 minutes was classified as too short to give a meal. Dan gets a meal on a 48 minute flight from Kalgoorlie to Perth. Not to worry, Dan helped out a Dutch woman and her children when she couldn't turn off her new iPod. The hostie spotted us later on and gave us complimentary drinks for that little intervention. Noice. We flew along the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. This area is loaded with volcanoes and we all remember the Mount St Helens eruption from the early 80's. Mt Hood and Mt Rainier and the others were all small capped and sitting proud of the surrounding hills. Dan was quite wrapped to see them.

Oh Canada. The hills were snow capped as we flew into a sunny day at Vancouver. After a lengthy queue we got through customs and we were in. Hooray!!!

The taxi took us into town to the Urban Hideaway, a guesthouse in Downtown with two really nice cats. We were starving and ended up having a very late lunch of Vietnamese. Yum! There are so many varied places to eat in Vancouver and a distinct lack of McDonalds (this doesn't worry us as we only use Maccas as a last resort and that's only to go to the toilet!).

We ended up going down to Yaletown to catch up with the boyz. Brendo, Tan, Leo and I shared a beer on Leo's balcony (16 stories) up on a nice sunny day (with periods of rain). We made it down town with Lesley and Andrea for a tin and had a ball of a night. We walked home in the light rain after a few tins. Canadian beer is quite good but Dan needs to sample some more to find the best ones or so he keeps on saying.