Forests and Fireworks!

So last weekend was a three day one due to Canada Day, and boy did we make the most of it. The weather has recently blossomed into a gorgeous summer and I'm loving the constant sunshine, but not the heat of our bedroom, I swear its a sun trap.

Friday night we frequented the pub that we have fallen in love with, and somehow spent quite a lot. The food there was nice but not amazing (apart from the Yorkshire puddings which were great!) so we're going to stick to just drinking there. Saturday we had a chilled day, we had a chilled out morning with a jugo juice protein shake and short walk and later in the day I precooked our picnic for the next day. Sunday was our cool planned day out at Lynn Canyon Park so I wanted to make the most of it. Sunday morning and we were up bright and early, we took the Skytrain down to the waterfront, and then made our way to the Seabus (I was slightly apprehensive about the boat thing as last time I was at sea I was on a a catamaran for 8 hours and seasick for a large majority of the journey, however on the 12 minute crossing I was absolutely fine.) The seabus is pretty darn cool, you get amazing views of downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park as you cross the harbour. From there we took the #228 bus, (you can take the #228 or #229 to get there) the journey takes about 20 minutes, driving through North Vancouver, which I would say is very pretty, but much more suburban than downtown. It's more kids and families orientated than any other part of Vancouver I've seen so far.

On our way in we spotted a bear warning sign, which both excited and intimidated me equally. I have yet to see any bears, though I am tempted to soon go and see the ones at Grouse mountain, it's on my to do list!

Anyway, onwards we went and came to the canyon and suspension bridge. We choose Lynn Canyon as a day out mostly because it costs nothying. There is another, the Capilano Suspension bridge which is also in North Vancouver and is supposed to be amazing, but costs $25 to get in while Lynn Canyon is completely free. That being said, it was not disappointing. The bridge is quite big, and the drop is substantial. The damn thing moves and the more people who walk on it the more it sways. It might be safe as houses but when it wobbled I did not feel it. I'm a bit of a wimp sometimes, so I clung to the sides. Our first trip over the bridge wasn't too bad, as it was still relatively quiet, but later in the day when it was considerably busier, I was quite apprehensive at crossing.

Crossing it is very much worth it though. On the other side is the 30ft pool, a stunningly beautiful water pool where you can swim and play or in our case, as we hadn't bought any swimwear with us just dipped our feet in. On the plus side it was so hot outside your feet dry off very quickly, and the coldness of the water was very refreshing. We walked more around the area, checking out the Twin Fall waterfalls further down stream and walked through the gorgeous Park, which is classed as a temperate rainforest. We snacked on our amazing picnic of homemade salsa (Mango, cucumber, red onion and lime juice) and cold pizza and crisps, and finished the day with ice cream from the cafe. (They love their peanut butter flavours out here! T'was delicious!) And finally on our way home I managed to take some cool shots of Downtown from the front of the Seabus!

The following day was Canada Day, so we got up with the aim of wandering down to Canada Place to check out the festivities. But on our way we were waylaid by the Busking Festival going on along Granville Street and we spent most of the morning there instead. Some of the artists were so talented, there was the artist who drew a Pit of Terrifying Doom on the ground (see right) Bendy Em, a contortionist who fit her body into a small box, Reuben Dot Dot Dot, a strength and gymnast type act who performed feats of strength on a pole (It's more impressive than it sounds) and many more to take in.

In the evening we headed to the Canada Day parade, where we enjoyed seeing floats and exhibitions from different communities of Vancouver. The emergency services and army, (we saw mounties!) UBC, people from so many different ethnic communities it's impossible to name them all, Chinese, Japanese, Saudi Arabian, Philippinno, Thai and Latinos are just a handful. There were also representatives for Gay pride, dance troups, Vancouver Canucks, BC Lions, the list goes on and on. From there we had a cheeky dinner, then hit up Canada Place again for the fireworks. We got a pretty good spot just behind the Olympic Cauldron, and though my firework photography was awful, I got some pretty good videos. Below is some pictures of the parade, and then the firework finale for your enjoyment. And then we trekked home and collapsed into bed, ready for another week!

Mounties!

 

 

 

And the video:

Recent Shenanigans

So I've had a somewhat hectic week of events, including a packed out weekend where I decided to squeeze in as much as humanely possible, I had lots of things I wanted to be doing, and not enough time to get it all seen to! In an effort to make more progress and to stop my woeful procrastination I am treating job hunting like a job. Monday to Friday 9 (ish) to 5 I am putting my efforts into finding a job and on the weekends and evenings I'm relaxing and doing the fun stuff.

Crazy good xylophone skills!

Make Music Vancouver!

So Friday evening rolled around and Ian was working late, and I had nothing planned. I heard that there was a free music event down in Gastown so I grabbed my bag and headed for the Skytrain. On route I came across a small community event where a group of young people were playing xylophones (very skillfully I might add!) so I actually spent a good portion of the evening standing on a patch of grass 2 blocks from home just marveling at them. I got a bit jealous. If my school had a band like that, I would have 100% joined. Eventually I tore myself away and hopped on the Skytrain down to the Waterfront and checked out the Make Music Vancouver event in Gastown. It was relatively early when I arrived, but packed! There were around 25 different locations across the event, and each one had 4-5 acts throughout the evening so there was a lot to be seeing, I slowly wandered up and down Water Street, picking out acts that appealed and listening for awhile. My personal favorites were the Vancouver Didgeridoo Players and a Samba band named Bloco Energia (who I am very tempted to contact and try and join!) Just wandering and soaking up the energy and atmosphere made for a great evening and hung around till around 10, and then headed off to meet Ian for a cheeky Subway!

Saturday was a packed day. I had planned on spending the morning exploring Kits, but a lay in somehow worked its way into my schedule, and we had a relaxed morning just chilling out. Ian headed off to meet a friend, but shortly after he left I got a noisy phone call from him to tell me that Robson street was all closed off and the Jazz festival was in full swing, full of people and music and to get my butt down there and check it out. I could hear it all in the background and excitedly grabbed my stuff and power walked there! I wandered through the venue and loved the atmosphere, but I only had a quick look round, I had plans! I then met up with the lovely lady I have mentioned before (Louise, you got another mention!) and we made our way to the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. There we watched a few races, dragon boats looking somewhat like canoes and come with a rich Chinese history, we enjoyed taking in the views, the racing and chatting away the afternoon.

Dragon Boats mid race and Science World.

Later that evening, Ian and I made our way to Chinatown, to check out the Chinese Market which is held in the evenings every weekend from May to September. It's a great little place, with food stalls on one side and shops selling clothes and other such things on the opposite side. To be fair we were only really interested in the food, so I'm not entirely what they were selling. We tried a few dishes, some of which were delicious, I had a sweet and sour one which was so moreish! And then we hung around and waited for the real reason we were there - an outdoor cinema! Around 9:30 we plonked ourselves in the middle of a car park (armed with pillows we'd brought from home for our comfort, I swear we were the only ones who did, it must have been crazily uncomfortable!)  and waited for the sun to go down. Steadily the sky darkened and the screen being projected onto the side a building emerged. And then the fun began! The film was Iron Monkey, not the best film in the world I must say but it was more about the experience, being outside and surrounded by people. It just has a great feel about it, and we'll definitely be returning for Enter the Dragon in a few weeks time!

Sunday was Jazz day. We wasted a few hours doing boring household type things like shopping and such (yawn!) and then finally we got to visit the Jazz Festival. After my brief wander round the day before I was really excited for it, so we had a walk around and took in a few sights, then plonked ourselves on the steps of Vancouver Art Gallery and spent a few hours listening to some great music.

 

Tuesday is ordinarily quiz night, but this week we switched to another, so we took the opportunity to visit the aforementioned Vancouver Art Gallery, as Tuesday nights between 5-9pm its entry by donation. (Ordinarily its $20 to get in!) It was quite a small space, with 2 main exhibitions, one on Flemish art work and another on Hotel architecture, we whizzed around it, there were a few pieces we liked but honestly most of it wasn't quite our cup of tea. The whole thing took us about an hour, and I'm pretty glad we didn't pay full price to be honest.

Yesterday was quiz night, and I'm not sure the quiz was quite as good as the Lamplighters, I think we might try somewhere different. Following the quiz Ian and I hunted out a pub on Granville Street. We've been after a more pub style establishment rather than the bar type places that make up the majority of drinking holes in Vancouver, we'd done some online research and with this place we struck gold. It has a cool vibe, its smallish and quaint, the staff were great, the drink selection was wide, it even had a pub kind of smell. In celebration we had a pint each and a bowl of poutine. Great way to end an evening! Its not even very far away from where we live, and now plan on going there for dinner soon, roll on pub times!

Downtown

Oh.

And I cannot stop humming this ruddy song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUSYb3igXzI

Moving to Downtown Vancouver.

The last few days have again been hectic, but everything is progressing perfectly!

Thursday was a day of job hunting for me, and a day of dragging poor Ian around all day and boring him senseless. But I got my Resume out there, and it's all a good step in the right direction. At the end of the day we were both too tired to go back and cook, so we indulged in what is quickly becoming our favorite haunt, The Templeton on Granville Street - the chicken burgers there are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Yesterday we had the most incredible day. We hotfooted it to Oakridge and bought naughty snacks, then got a Jugo Juice drink each for breakfast. The most delicious and filling protein shake I and I think Ian might agree, we, have ever had. This was all planned to give us energy for our long awaited trip to the beautiful Stanley Park. The weather was scheduled to be great that day, so we'd waited to go and see it in all its glory and we really weren't disappointed. We walked half way around the sea wall, taking millions of photos as we went. Ian gallantly climbed down onto a section of the beach to get me shells (which I kept, I think I have a slight hoarding tendency.) We got half way round and started to tire (its a long old walk!) and I also wanted to get into the middle to experience the full effect of the trees. So we went down one of the trails, past the stunningly photogenic Beaver Lake, then across to the other side. We we're walking for a good 6 hours minimum, and with not great shoes either, so by the end we were absolutely exhausted. As this is our last weekend of non working and being together we went out for a meal at the Flying Pig restaurant in Gastown. I highly recommend!

Then we crashed in anticipation of an early morning today...

It's surprising...the amount of 'stuff' you can accumulate over a short period of time is really quite something. Today we moved into our new place in Downtown Vancouver, on Howe/Davie Street. We checked it out a few weeks ago after we found it on Craigslist, but now we've got a real feel for the place, and love it.

And now we're here, tucked up in bed with the blinds wide open and I can't stop looking outside!

Can you blame me, with views like this... (and to be quite honest this doesn't do it justice)

Anyway. We're settling in. We share an apartment with a Japanese couple who seem friendly and a Canadian guy who seems to keep to himself. We're in a great location, rent is comparably cheap for the area and I'm just really chuffed at the moment. The agenda tomorrow is to relax and take it easy I think, then Ian starts work on Monday, and I'll plow on with the job hunt!