Laying Over in L.A.

The Rockies from 40 000 ft

Well as many of you know I safely arrived in Auckland this morning. I felt pretty good this morning, but am now feeling very jet lagged. I am trying to force myself to stay up and customize myself to the time zone here. I might grab a nap after writing this one, and do the one about today later. This one is about my layover in Los Angeles.

I left Calgary good and early, but not at the crack of dawn. My flight left at 10:30am so I was there about 8ish. It is a good thing I was there so early, security was backed up and it seemed like it took me forever to get through all the customs crap. The flight down to L.A. was good, it was only 3 hours so it was a decent time and I was able to catch a quick sleep on the plane. I am getting better and better at that sleeping on the plane thing. I arrived in Los Angeles just after 12 in the afternoon, but my flight for New Zealand didn't leave until 9:30pm, so I had lots of time to kill. I collected my bags and went in search of a visitor information booth or someone to tell me if there was anything close enough I could go do while I waited for my flight. I found an information booth and the lady there told me that there was a tour leaving at 1:00pm from the Hilton hotel and that I could take a free shuttle from LAX to the Hilton it was very close. By this time it was now 12:40pm so I ran back down the stairs ("ran" as best I could with my life crammed into two backpacks) and caught the shuttle just in time. Made it to the Hilton at five to one and headed straight for the concierge.

He told me that they could store my bags for me, the tour was $65 and left the hotel at 1:30pm and returned at 6:30pm. Knowing that I had to catch a flight after the tour and that security at LAX may be a little time consuming 6:30pm was the latest I could be. I said to the concierge, "Are you positive it gets back at 6:30?" He said yes, if not before. I told him that it was very important that I not be back later then that because I had to catch a flight, and asked him if he could guarantee it would be back by 6:30pm. He said it absolutely would be and that the shuttle back to the airport ran every 20 mins. So I told him to book it. I waited outside in the LA sun for the bus to pick me up. It did come by at 1:30 and I got on ready for a tour. The driver, Mark, welcomed me and told me just to have a seat. We drove around and picked up a few others before we stopped at the tour company's office. We had to hop off the bus, pay for our ticket then get back on to start the tour. There were also some people waiting at the office already. So I went in to pay for the tour and I asked the woman at the desk I said, " The concierge told me that it will be back by 6:30pm are you sure it will be back by then?" She assured me that it would be fine and that they would be back, but just to make sure she would check with the dispatch guy. She called him over and asked him if they would be back by 6:30pm. He said that he couldn't guarantee to be back on the dot, but it would be shortly thereafter if not. I explained to him that I had a flight and if they didn't think they could make it back then that was fine, I just wouldn't risk it and not take the tour. He assured me that it would be fine and to relax and have a good time on the tour. He took me out to the driver and told him what the deal was too. The driver, Mark, told me he would stop at the hotel and grab my bag and have it on board and drop me off right at the airport after the tour. This put me at ease and they were very focused on accommodating me and the other people on the tour that were catching flights.

Venice Beach

The tour started on Venice beach. We drove over the marina canals and he told us it was because of the canals that the area got its name, like the Venice in Italy. Venice beach is very famous for a number of reasons and has been featured on a number of movies and TV shows. It is the beach where Baywatch was filmed. Well Venice beach is a little sketchy in some places, and I was pretty happy that we were there in the day time. The walkway is lined with vendors and people begging for money. The beach is nice though, light sand, rolling waves sunshine, it has all the ingredients for a great spot. It has just, over the years, become plagued with vagrants, street kids, etc. We didn't have too much time to hang out at the beach then it was back on the bus for the next stop. The next stop was Santa Monica beach. This is another very well known and famous beach in California. It has the pier with all the rides and things on it right on the water. This end of the beach is much nicer then Venice, and it very high end. The celebrities stay at the Casa

After Santa Monica it was off to Beverly Hills. Talk about rich and high end! Beverly Hills was crazy with rich people and designers. We drove up Rodeo Drive but we didn't get out and look around, just from the bus. The streets were lined with designer shops like Louis Vitton, Jimmy Choo, Micheal Kors etc you name it they had it. We even saw a Bugatti parked on Rodeo Dr. Apparently those cars are over a million dollars. On Sunset Blvd we saw a guy driving a red convertible Ferrari with his daughter in her car seat. The people that live in Beverly Hills have no concept of real life. That city is filthy rich! It was fun to see all the famous places though, and the driver pointed out a few places along the way where stars lived, or filmed movies. We drove by a lot of places from the movie Pretty Woman. From Rodeo Dr we headed down Sunset Blvd. This had less high end shops but was littered with places the stars go to hang out, expensive cars and shops and billboards. Tons and tons of billboards. From Sunset Blvd we went on to Hollywood Blvd.

Hollywood Blvd is the busiest craziest street in Hollywood. It is home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, The Kodak Theatre (Where the Oscars are held), The Chinese Theatre (Where the Stars put their hands and feet prints in cement), and a view point for the Hollywood sign. There were so many people on that street! It definitely made for good people watching, that’s for sure. There were people performing street shows, people dressed up like stars that you can take their picture with for money, and tourists as far as the eye could see. The driver told us where he would be parked and told us to be back in an hour. My first stop was to go see the Hollywood sign and grab something quick to eat. I went up to the viewing platform to see the Hollywood sign, but you could just barely see it. I took a picture but it is in the distance. Some day I will go back and get a closer picture of the Hollywood sign. Then I looked around a bit, and grabbed a bite at Johnny Rockets. It was really good, but expensive in my opinion. However, with that many tourists wandering around you would be crazy not to charge through the nose for stuff like that. Then I walked a good section of the walk of fame. I didn't take pictures of all the stars I saw, for two reasons. One, it would have taken forever, and two, because my camera battery was dying. I walked up past the Kodak theatre and up to the Chinese Theatre, and saw all the hand and foot prints. Walking through the crowd is like walking through an obstacle course! There are people dressed as characters and stars wanting you to take their picture with them, people trying to sell you things, and crazy people just yelling things at passersby. Someday I will go back there and spend more time looking around. Because of the tour we were short on time, and hour is no time at all in Hollywood.

We met back at the bus and we had one last stop at the Los Angeles farmers market. When we arrived it was just after 6:00pm and the Mark asked me to hang out for a second when he stopped. So we stopped and everyone else got off. Mark said that we wouldn't be back at the time I wanted and that he was going to try to have me at the airport at 7:30pm. I was so mad, I could have slapped a bitch. Him and his assistant Caroline said, “Oh just ask them to take you to the front of the line, they will if they know you have a flight soon.” When I told her that I somehow do not believe that Homeland Security was going to bump me to the front of the line because I was late, she seemed surprised. Then I told her that American security wasn't about to do any favours for anyone. I was livid! I had asked several people if I would get back in time and now, at the end of the tour, NOW he is telling me I won't be. I asked him what my other options were as far as taking a taxi etc. He said that as of then no mater what transport I took it would be the same because of the traffic. I asked him if my $65 was so important to his company that he was willing to completely fuck me and my trip! Ol Marky Mark hadn't expected me to be so upset I don't think. So at that point I had no choice, I couldn't get to the airport any faster. All I could do was hope that the lines weren't too big and I would make it through in time.

After the farmers market, which if I hadn't been so pissed would have been way better, we headed back to Santa Monica to drop of one passenger and then to LAX. He kept saying that Terminal 2 for Air New Zealand was going to be the first stop, like he was doing me some kind of favour. Which only fuelled my fire. Caroline said, “Oh don't worry, last time I got through in an hour and I was so panicked. I know how you feel.” To which I replied, “ Now look! I don't give a shit about what you did last time you went through the airport, and for the record this feeling I have is both panicked and extremely pissed. This feeling could have been avoided but you all chose to lie to me and have put me in a position where I may miss my flight. At the start of this tour I thought it was going to be a great experience and you two seemed very accommodating. Now, because of you two people and this tour company L.A. Has left a bad taste in my mouth!” Caroline didn't say anything after that I think she realized I wasn't in a chatty mood. We pulled up to the Air New Zealand terminal just after 7:30pm. I grabbed my bag a jumped off the bus, refraining from telling Mark to go fuck himself! So a word of advice if you ever go to L.A. Don't bother using the services of VIP TOURS, tell your friends!

Luckily for me there was no line and I ran right up to the check in counter. William, the agent waiting on me asked how long I was going to New Zealand for and I told him I had a working holiday for a year. Then he asked if I had it in my passport, and when I told him it was electronic and I didn't need a stamp, he said he had never heard of that before. Awesome! So he had to go get someone smarter then him and ask about my visa. The other guy said that it was true, and verified I had a proper visa. So William checked in my bag and at the last minute asked to weigh my carry on. I threw it on the scale and he said it was to heavy. I was surprised because it was just fine for all of the rest of my flights. He said they had a 7kg limit and mine was 8 on the nose. I lost it! I opened my bag and started pulling stuff out and I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I pulled out a few things and hurriedly chucked it back on the scale. I knew I had to hurry, because of Williams stupidity, it took extra time to check in! The scale read 7.6kgs. The tears broke free and I looked at him and yelled, “ I don't know what the hell else you want me to take out! There is nothing in there!! A change of clothes and my friggin computer!” The TSA guy that came for my check baggage said, “7.6 is fine.” I looked at him and said, “ No! This guy is telling me it has to be 7, and I have nothing else to take out! What do you people expect us to carry on!!” Then William grabbed an approved luggage tag and threw it on my bag saying it was fine just to carry on. Oh yea, and I forgot to mention that upon checking in William told me they had a full flight and I was in a middle seat but if they could they would move me. Awesome! 13 hours squeezed between two people! I got through security fairly easily and lucky for me I could see my gate from the airport bar. I had enough time to pound back 2 beer before boarding, and that seemed to calm my nerves a bit.

I am going to leave the story of my flight for the next one, and my first in Auckland. Enjoy!

The Day I Survived The Avalanche: Vancouver Day 2

Our trip to Seattle proved to be sunny and interesting and then it was back to Vancouver for one last day of awesome before heading back to Cowtown.

We slept in a bit and got up ready for a day of adventure. Although it wasn't supposed to be sunny the good news was that they weren't predicting a lot of rain for our last day o the west coast. Our first stop in the morning was for breakfast at some crappy diner in English Bay. It took them three tries to get Amy's right and I had an omelet with canned mushrooms in it.......yum? After that we struck off for the aquarium! We were surprised when we went through admissions and they took our picture against a green screen for a souvenir  photo. I have a cop of it to take with me, but don't have one to post on here. The aquarium was really cool despite being crawling with bawling bratty kids. One of my favourite parts was the jelly fish tank. They used a blue background and great

lighting to really highlight the jellyfish. We toured around looking at all the interesting creatures and taking in the sights. We were also waiting for both a Beluga show and the Dolphin show. When we went to get our seat for the Beluga show the rain started a bit, but we weren't scared! There was one area with an awning, but it was labeled clearly with 'Splash Zone'. That tells me that that even though it might be raining, I would be better off in the spitting rain then in the way of a splashing Beluga. Some other people obviously didn't see the signs because that area filled up mighty quick. Before the show started the fella on the mic said to be warned that those people might get wet. They didn't listen....tisk tisk. The show was okay, not great but okay. It was mostly information about Belugas and they did some things while the guy was talking. Then at the end of the show the Beluga gave a huge splash to the crowd! It sure was funny watching that from the dry zone!

Next up was the dolphin show. It was certainly more exciting then the Belugas and the dolphins impressed us with their height flying acrobatic moves. They were very well trained and really impressive to watch. After that show we did the rest of the aquarium and hit the road in search of a food truck.

Amy and I are both fans of the food network and the shows, Eat Street, You Gotta Eat Here and Man vs Food. So before we travelled we looked up online if there was any food trucks that were featured on Eat St. in Vancouver. We found out that there were actually 4 different trucks featured on the show from Vancouver. Amy has the Eat St. app on her phone so we thought we would look up where the trucks were and then just go and find one. Turns out......the Eat St. app is crap! We spent a good amount of wasted time looking for the food trucks where the app said they should be. We went the whole time in Vancouver without eating from and Eat St. food truck! We did however have a great burrito from the Red Burrito on Robson. We were headed to Robson to go to Beard Poppas. They are supposedly the best cream puffs around! We bought some and took them back to Calgary with us. They were pretty good, but not life changing. I really thought they were going to be so good they would change my life.

After a bite to eat we hit up Cyprus Mountain before jumping on the highway and heading back to Abbotsford. The drive was shorter then we thought to the first look out and it was a really great view to downtown Vancouver. Not to mention there was a truck full of fellas that just got done mountain biking in the mountains :).  After snapping a few pictures we thought we would head up the mountain some more and see if there was a higher look out. There was in fact a higher look out but it wasn't nearly as good as view as the first one, so we didn't stay there very long. We did take a little drive up to the top where they had a ski hill. There was still lots of snow the higher we got on the mountain. At one point there were banks along the road that were taller then the car. Amy said, we should stop and get a picture of you next to the huge snow banks. So we did. The whole drive up the mountain there were caution avalanche signs along the road. We didn't pay to much attention to them until we got up on the road with the high snow banks. I was standing in front of the snowbank posing for a picture while Amy stood in the middle of the baron road taking my picture. As I was standing there a chunk of snow rolled off the snowbank and onto the ground beside me. There must have been 4-5 centimeters in that chunk........ For half a second the feeling I felt was sheer terror! When the snow hit the ground I thought it was the start of an avalanche and my face reflected that. I jumped out of the way just in time to see Amy doubled over laughing. Obviously there was no avalanche and Amy could see that from where she was standing, but mama didn't raise no fool. I was always taught to never turn my back to the snow bank.

After that we headed back to Abbotsford to return the car and fly back to Calgary. I don't know how many of you have been to Abbotsfordmins and early for our flight so we decided to go to bar and have a beer or two while we waited. The waitress just brought us our beer when the announced that our flight was actually early and that they would be boarding in a few minutes. Amy and I had to chug our pints of beer before boarding! The flight was short and painless, and we were back in Calgary in no time.

So there it is, my west coast vacation. Now I am relaxing and all packed and ready to go. It is a bit surreal that I am moving to New Zealand tomorrow morning! I hope all goes well and I am sure I will update you all once I arrive.

Amuurica, Amuurica! My Trip to Seattle Washington.

After a pretty eventful day one of our three day vacation we got up early and packed up the car for a day trip cross border in Seattle. This would be another first for me, because although I have passed through the United States several times, I have never actually visited any city in the states. Vancouver is only about a 3 hour drive away from Seattle so it made for the perfect day trip.

It was pretty easy to get out of Vancouver and head straight for the border. It was raining when we left Vancouver but we were headed south on the promise of sunshine in Seattle. The drive was okay, not greatly scenic but lots of things too look at for sure. Now, I don't know if any of you have every driven through Surrey BC but Amy and I have recently re-named it to Surrley. This is because boy is the smell there ripe! As we approached the exits for Surrley a waft of shart seeped in the car vents near gassing us death. It was just rancid! As we began coughing and gasping for air we wondered to ourselves what it was about Surrey that could cause it to smell so bad!? Luckily we weren't stopping in, just passing through so the smell was temporary but enough to give us a lasting impression of Surrey. Our border crossing was painless, and pretty quick and we were on our way! We jumped on the I-5 and headed towards Seattle. We stopped for a bathroom caffeine break in Skagit at the McDonalds where I had the most delish iced Carmel mocha (that we can't get in Canada). Then it was back on the road.

We got into downtown Seattle around 1:00pm and navigated their diagonal streets and one ways to park the car in a lot and travel around downtown by foot. We didn't have a really set plan of stuff we wanted to see while we were there. All we really had on the list was Pike Place Market, so that was our first stop. The Pike Place Market is pretty famous and has 5 floors of market vendors including the famous Pike Place fish mongers. They were featured on travel and tourism sites. They toss the fish around to each other and have whimsicle chants. It was very entertaining to see them in action that is for sure. Amy and I strolled the market stalls upstairs, downstairs, mid stairs and all around. I pressed some american pennies to send to the boys, and we had lunch at Lowells with a view on the water. We visted the copper piggy bank, and the first ever Starbucks. It was a very very interesting market and I really liked the atmosphere  there. We spent a few hours winding our way through the market and enjoying everything they  had to offer. After we saw all that we could see we walked out a side door that came out kind of in an alley way.

When we came out I looked to the right and saw and interesting looking wall and a few people looking at it. From the distance we were standing it looked very colorful and seemed to have some sort of finish on the brick wall. We thought we would wander down and have a peek. As we got closer Amy said, "It's the gum wall!!" She had previously been to Seattle and heard about the gum wall but had never gone to see it while she was there. When we got to the wall the sight I saw was both one of the most interesting and disgusting sights I had ever seen. A section of wall about 50 feet was covered in chewed gum several inches thick  and extended up the wall about 15 feet! There was all colors, stringy gum, balls of gum and some coins stuck into the mix. From the window sill long strings of chewed gum hung down like tinsil. Some people had taken the time to spell out their names, messages, initials and pictures out of gum! Apparently it started 20 years ago when for some reason people started sticking coins to the wall with gum as they went into the theatre.

The owners tried scraping the gum off but people persisted and it has turned into quite the tourist attraction. Even though the sight of all that chewed gum gave my stomach a vomitty feeling I knew I wouldn't be leaving that wall without adding to it. Luckily I had some gum in my bag so Amy and I started chawing while we were looking at all the gum. After a few minutes our gum was chewed enough that we were confident it would stick, and we could add our own contributions to the Seattle gum wall. I took a Canadian penny that I had in my pocket and proudly stuck it to the gum wall, maple leafs face out. I was very careful not to touch any of the millions of pieces of gum stuck to the wall, and then Amy did the same. So now, stuck forever, our DNA can be found stuck to the Market Theater Gum Wall.

After the gum wall we walked around downtown a bunch and visted my first ever Walgreens. I was shocked at all the flavours of things they had there that we don't in Canada. Lots of flavours of chips and chocolate things I had never seen. It was awesome! I bought some turtle chex mix and some reese whoppers to take with me. Before we left for vacation we had looked up things to do in Seattle that were off the beaten track. One of the things we came across was the troll under a bridge. We asked the woman at Walgreens if she knew where it was and she said she thought it was part of the underground tour. We knew for sure it was not part of the underground tour but we thought it would be interesting to see. We walked around downtown in the sunshine for a while taking in the sights. One thing we did notice was that Seattle has an abundace of beggars everywhere downtown. I gave one of them a few reeses whoppers. As we were walking we tried to keep our eyes open for someone that looked sane enough to ask if they knew where the troll was. We were walking through the park and there was a guy sitting on a stone and he looked sane enough to ask and hip enough to know where it was. So we asked and sure enough he did!  He told us where it was and how to get there, and that we would need a car to do so. Perfect! We planned that after a bit more walking around downtown we would head out and see the troll.

The troll was actually pretty easy to get to and in no time were were in Fremont to find the Aurora bridge troll. The troll was made out of mostly concrete and was very big. So big that in his hand he is holding and actual volkswagon beetle. He has one shiny eye made from a hub cap that shines among the dusty sandy concrete. The troll was sponsered by the Fremont Arts Council and has recently been becoming more popular among tourists. Amy and I took turns climbing up on the statue and getting our picutre taken. Don't mind the 'Keep Out' sign, we were actually allowed to climb on him, it was just an old sign someone left lying around under the bridge. After the troll we were headed to an American Wal-Mart for some cheap goods then b-lining north for the border so we could make it back to the hotel before too long.

American Wal-Mart is worth noting. I know that many of you may have travelled to the states before and this is nothing new to you, but I know many of you have not. I am here to tell you that you think Wal-Mart in Canada is cheap, you ain't seen nothing yet! Everything there was soooo cheap! And like the Walgreens, there were walls of several flavours of different things. Then we came across the alcohol section. There was a bottle of wine for $3.97 and a bottle of Yellowtail for 4.87! No wonder they are alcoholics! I would be too at that price! The boxes of wine were huge and cheap too. We all know that Carlo Rossi is a cheap wine but there it was in a 4 litre jug for $10.88! Amy and I bought a few things and then headed home.

We got back into Vancouver around 10:30pm and had a glass of wine before hitting the sack to enjoy our last day on the west coast.

The Town With No Left Turns: My Trip to Vancouver (Day 1)

As part of my western vacation my awesome cousin made it possible for us to take a three day excursion to Vancouver. One of these days was spent in Seattle Amuurica too, but that is another blog for another time.

This was my first time in the far west coast, and it was great! We left first thing Sunday morning and flew into Abbotsford instead of Vancouver. We were renting a car anyway and it was much cheaper than flying direct to Vancouver. We touched down around 8:30am in Abbotsford so we had the whole day in BC, and hardly lost any time to 'travel'. Smart planning on Amy's part! After collecting the keys to the car and exiting the airport I was instantly reminded of home in the valley. For there was a distinct aroma of cow shit in the air. We later found out that good ol Abbotsford smells like that all the time!

We collected the car and headed north to Vancouver. We were equipped with an atlas of the states and provinces and a map of downtown Van. We couldn't check into our hotel right away so we thought we would drive into the city, park and explore downtown (Gastown & Chinatown) by foot. Upon entering the hustle and bustle of down town, despite our map (that may have been slightly outdated) and planned route, we realized you can hardly ever make a left hand turn in Vancouver. Every intersection we came to had a no left turn sign! In an instant I, as the navigator, had to think quicker than my eyes could read a map while several lanes of traffic zipped by us in amongst the high rises. I felt like a three legged dog chasing its tail leaning to the right trying to get where we wanted. Eventually we found a parkade and after amputating our left arm and feeding it into the parking machine we set out on foot to Gastown.

 Despite the name, Gastown is a trendy touristy area in Vancouver's downtown. The streets are made of stone bricks and are lined with over priced authentic Vancouver artwork, jewelery etc. They also had pretty authentic prices too. It was very nice looking though and it was nice just to take in the scenery. After exploring Gastown a bit we decided to head up to Chinatown. We had accidentally left our map of downtown in the car but there were little information signs around that gave general directions so we were confident in winging it. We started up a street after following an arrow pointing towards Chinatown in search of an Asian invasion. As we neared the top of the hill we noticed an abundance of vagrants and 'street dwellers' passing us on the street. As we reached the top of the hill and were waiting to cross the street it became very apparent that we had stumbled upon somewhere we hadn't intended to. As we waited for the light to change and cross I looked at Amy and with a confused and frightened look on my face I said, "Where are we??" To which she replied, " I don't think we are supposed to be here, I think this is the homeless shelter." The light changed and we crossed the street. I had briefly noticed that the road we were crossing to was closed to traffic and  there was an obvious crowd of people. We kept walking and found ourselves shuffled into the crowd of people, shopping carts, garbage bags etc. The people around us may have had a collective set of teeth amongst them, and had hard worn looking faces. Evidently we had stumbled across, what appeared to be an episode of Binners Roadshow, only without cameras or appraisers. The people there had blankets and bags spread out with their 'wares' spread out for sale or trade. It was a gathering of vagrants hocking their stolen and found items. If we had bothered to have a look around I am sure we would have found some 'interesting' treasures but the feeling that lingering would have resulted in a mugging or stabbing loomed in our minds. We broke from the crowd at the next intersection, unsure where we were, and bewildered after bobbing and weaving through the crowd. We looked around to get our bearings and realized we were on East Hastings street. We had been warned to stay away from there before going. We looked down the street and there were large groups of homeless people extending all the way down the street. We didn't know where to go to get to Chinatown but it had to be close? At one point Amy said, "Lets just go down here (meaning walking through the mile of lost souls)" To which I replied, "Really!?" with a wavering in my voice. She turned and took about 3 steps and once a man stepped towards her (possibly because the voices told him to) she turned on her heel and just said, "Nope!" and we hurriedly walked across the road. We
noticed one of those information signs about a block away so we b-lined it for it. As we came into the intersection we saw the pagodas, and we thank the gold waving kitty, we were in Chinatown!

Chinatown was interesting. It was interesting walking by the open market stalls and trying to guess what part of the animal was piled in the bin. It was a bit on the shabby side, but it was interesting to walk around and see the sights. There was also a really nice little garden we walked around in. I was astounded with the greenness of everything out there. It really is spring on the west coast! Green lush trees and flowers everywhere in the sunshine, it was  like a breath of fresh air. We walked around downtown for a while, took in the sights, and stayed the hell away from East Hastings. We had a bite to eat at a new pub called, The Pint, and people watched in the sun before deciding that we would check into our hotel, drop our bags and try to make it to Granville Island and go to the market.

On the way to the hotel we drove down Davie street. As we were driving I said to Amy, "This must be the gay village." I wasn't wrong. That is possibly the gayest neighborhood I have ever seen. The only way it could have been more gay is if there was men in rainbow tutus riding unicorns and having anal sex on the sidewalk. It was very close to our hotel and we soon became no stranger to the gay village. It was a great spot to hang out with great cafes and shops. One of my fav areas of Vancouver for sure! We checked in, dropped our bags, checked out the view from our room (which included a nice view of the mountains and a little view of the water) and then struck off to do some exploring. Our hotel was located in English Bay and was about 2 blocks from a beautiful, well populated beach. The streets were lined with restaurants and cafes and there was a ton of people out enjoying the sunshine. We hung out on the beach for a few minutes taking in the view as we waited for the hop on hop off trolley we were going to take. We had a less than easy time trying to track down how to get to the Graville Island and the concierge at the hotel told us to take this trolley from the beach it would be no problem. Welllll it was a problem. There was poor signage, no timetable, and it was too expensive. Getting frustrated we went for some liquid relaxation at a really awesome spot called The Beaver and Mullet. After a Jaggy Bear, a Bottle Cap, a Tequila Sunrise and some very good advice from our server we set out to find the ferry to take us to Granville Island. It was a beautiful day and the walk by the water was awesome. We found the ferry and took it over without fail.

The Granville Island market was a very neat place to be. It had great atmosphere and lovely lovely things. The only problem was it was very expensive. I would to have loved to buy some of the things there but simply couldn't afford $9.99 a pound for raspberries. So we toured around a bit then took the ferry back to the other side. By this time it was heading on for evening, but still beautiful so we decided to go up to Stanley Park for a while and see some lookouts and totem poles. Stanley Park is a huge beautiful park with massive trees and lush green forest. If I lived in Vancouver I would go there all the time! We drove to some of the park sites and look outs and saw some really really huge trees. I took a picture inside the largest hollow tree, and we headed for the totem poles.

The totems were really cool. I found the aboriginal art very much different from west coast to east, and the artwork was beautiful. They stretched high above the ground, and were carved and painted in very interesting designs. After enjoying Stanley Park a bit we drove back to the hotel, got cleaned up a bit and finished our day with dinner and a beautiful sunset on the beach. We went to bed earlyish because we had to get up in the morning to drive to Seattle. We were chasing the sunshine and boy did it pay off!

Stay tuned for the story of our trip to Seattle, and Vancouver day 2!!

Off I Go!

I arrived in Calgary this morning on my first leg of my adventure. I am visiting here and Vancouver from now until the 29th when I fly out for Auckland. The flight was good, as good as a delayed over 5 hour flight can be really. I did manage to catch a few Zzz's on the plane so I wasn't a complete zombie when I arrived. It is funny, when we flew over a mini golf course close to Amy's house I saw it out the window and I felt like I was home. Since spending the summer out here I feel like this is my second home.

Amy picked me up at the airport and we headed for home. It is awesome to be here with my fave cousin and I think it is going to be a nice vacation before my vacation. We also have a trip to Vancouver planned, which I am totally looking forward to! I am so glad to be on the move again. I was craving some travel and adventure.

I have lots of new additions to my travel to do list, which I will update before I leave Canada. I am very looking forward to experiencing New Zealand to the fullest! So although this blog is just a short note, you all can stay tuned for the adventures yet to come! Thanks for following along.

New Zealand To Do List

Good afternoon readers! Today I am gearing up for my up coming trip to New Zealand, and I thought I would give you the opportunity to add to my travel To-Do list. You see, when I left work at the daycare in May and headed out west to start my journey to NZ they girls at work made me one of the coolest going away presents ever. It is a little photo album and in it are decorated pieces of paper that each one of the girls from work wrote on. They didn't write good-bye messages or well wishes, but things they want me to do while I am traveling. I thought this was the neatest coolest idea! So they all did some research on New Zealand and what it had to offer and came up with an impressive list to keep me busy while I am traveling. Since then other people have added theirs to the list too, and now it is your turn to put in your two cents. I am going to complete this list and create an album on facebook with all the pictures of me completing the list. I will tag the person that made the suggestion when I do it. Also, I will be writing about said list in this blog. Below I have included the current list, so there will be no repeats, so you can have a read and if there is anything any of you would like to add please feel free to post a suggestion for me to add to the book. It is about 2 and a 1/2 weeks before I fly out, and this book will be coming with me. So get creative peeps, and I look forward to the additions!

Travel To-Do List

• Find out what ostrich meat tastes like.
• A 365 day photo challenge. I photo per day showing something beautiful. (I am tweaking this one and it will be a photo of something awesome instead of beautiful.)
• Learn the Haka, video tape it and post it online.
• Kiss a Kiwi. The fruit, the bird and a person.
• Complete an activity from the Mokai Gravity Canyon World Class Adventure Activities.
• Visit Austria and cross the Alp on the Von Trapp route
• Visit Niagra Falls Waterfall along the Caitlins Heritage Trail in the South Island.
• Skinny dip in a cold lake
• Go to the Auckland Zoo and experience an animal encounter.
• Get a new tattoo in another country.
• Visit old volcanoes around Auckland, post pictures.
• Go on a tubing adventure in the Waitomo Glowworm Caves.
• Climb to the top of a volcano
• Go to Wellington, find Willis st and have a beverage at Johns Lunch.
• Swim with sea turtles
• Go to an All Blacks game.
• Send Michelle Obrien earrings.
• Go base jumping
• Go Zorbing.
• Go to White Island.
• Take a picture in the sunglasses of a new friend.
• Purchase a household item shaped like a moose.
• Find a french person in New Zealand.
• Post a picture of the most crazy animal I find.
• Run through Hobbiton humming the Lord of the Rings Theme Song.
• Volunteer to rebuild houses in Christchurch, paint a moose somewhere.
• Climb a tree in an urban area and jump out and scare a random person.
• Find someone equal to or exceeding 'Canary Crazy' and take their picture. Bonus if I am in the picture.
• Hike the Milford track.

So there you have it,the list as it stands right now. Think I am missing something?? Let me know :)