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 :)

Who Stole The Rhubarb?

Hey guys! Today I write to you with a challenge. How powerful is social networking and the Internet? Can we really be connected to everyone in the world via 6 degrees of separation? I would like to try a little social experiment and test this theory, but I need your help in the biggest way. First read this:

Nanny and Grampy on their wedding day.

So this past weekend I was at home visiting with my parents. For those who know me, know that it is very common for me to go home to my parents for a weekend every so often. I come from a close family and I enjoy their company, and hey, I need some place to do my laundry ;). So while at home this weekend my Mom and I got reminiscing about my late grandmother Greta. I was very very close to my Nanny, and my back tattoo is in memory of her. She was such a wonderful person with a spunky great, personality. We sat for quite a while talking about different memories from when I was a child, and the things I remember most about her. I remember pretending to figure skate on her kitchen floor and every time my sister and I fell on our ass we called that one a "flip or triple sow cow". Nanny loved watching figure skating on TV, and it started to rub off. I remember watching curling and wrestling with her, and boy you did not want to be sitting next to her during a heated wrestling match! I remember her knitting me countless pairs of mittens of all shades of the rainbow, and sitting in the living room while she combed my hair. I spent every summer I can remember as a child out at the lake at her cottage, my mother would come visit us because we refused to come home. My grandmother was all anyone could ask for as a Nanny, and I miss her all the time. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful memories that I can sit around and reminisce about it. There was also one other thing about my Nan that I have inherited to a certain degree, and that was her need to be in the know. My Nanny was pretty darn nosy! Haha. One time there was a note on the neighbors door and my Mom walked in on her in the pantry with binoculars reading the note through the window facing their house. Turns out the guy next door had a dentist appointment and wanted to communicate this to an expected visitor, Hahaha! Nan always had the inside track on everything but there is one thing, and as far as I know, only one thing she died never knowing.

My Nanny and Grampy lived in Wolfville on Highland Ave, for most of my childhood. They built that house and my mother and her siblings grew up in it. After they sold it when I was a teenager they turned the house into student housing for Acadia University. Well all the time they lived in that house they had a rhubarb patch in the backyard. It was a pretty big patch with lots of wonderful rhubarb that Nan used for pies, jams etc. Well every year, without fail, someone would come in the night once the rhubarb was ripe and rifle through the patch and take all they could carry. They never took it all, and always left some for Nanny and Grampy, but this happened year after year after year without fail. So much so that Nan had figured out when exactly they rhubarb thief would strike and set up a sting operation in the living room. The bay window faced the patch, so she figured she would stay up all night and watch the patch and finally be able to catch the rhubarb thief. So she lay in wait in the dark. Well she fell asleep and when she awoke in the morning, the rhubarb was gone! The thief had come and gone while she slept! She tried to stay up and catch them several years, but could never stay up long enough to catch them. The missing rhubarb continued until the year they sold the house and moved to Port Williams, and remained a mystery.

Shortly after moving into the new house my grandmother development dementia and went downhill at a fairly fast rate. She died six years ago never knowing who took the Rhubarb. So after laughing about this story with my mother on the weekend I said, "You know, now with the Internet and social networking, I wonder if we would ever be able to find out who that was." So here is my challenge to you: help me find who took the rhubarb. Obviously none of my family was ever upset over this, even my grandmother thought is was more funny then anything, and I remember laughing about it  when it was happening. I would love love love to find out who was doing it, and kept my Nan on her toes all those years. So in order to do this I need you to tell your friends, post it online spread the word and lets see if this experiment works. I am doing this more to see the power of the Internet, and to satisfy our own curiosity so lets hope it works. I have heard of crazier things before! Here is the information you need to know;

• Nanny lived at 108 Highland Ave. in Wolfville, Nova Scotia
• Directly behind her house was the Basinview Apartment buildings.
• The house was White siding with a Burgundy trim.
• The rhubarb went missing between the mid 80's until the year 2000.
• The rhubarb ALWAYS went missing by the cover of darkness, probably in the wee hours of the morning.
• For many years there would have been a big yellow Irving oil truck parked in the driveway.
• The patch was in the backyard between two houses.
• There were 4 pine trees separating the yard from the apartment building parking lot, and there would have been a fireplace and a dog house in the backyard for many years.

Wouldn't it be cool if this worked!? Lets see how powerful this is, my grampy would be shocked and amazed! Thanks so much for your help, post and share guys...post and share!

A Holiday Blog

Happy Holidays peeps! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their families, and are looking forward to a new year. I thought I would take advantage of this little break and do up a little holiday update for my followers.

I have had a most wonderful holiday with my family and friends and am most certainly not looking forward to going back to work! I was awfully sick and felt like 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag for the week before Christmas but once I got home and got under the care of Dr. Mom all that started to get cleared up. There is no match for the TLC of Dr. Mom! I had caught a cold from the infested little germ bags I take care of this time of year, which quickly escalated into a raging virus, sinus infection and ear infection. After going to the Dr. on Wednesday he gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way. Well by Friday I still couldn't breathe through my nose, I was deaf in my right ear and I still felt like bag of crap. So Saturday when my mom picked me up she knew I was in need of some motherly love. She took me home, fixed me up and I have been on the road to recovery ever since.

Despite the the illness I went out for an awesome light tour with the lovely Borgel family Friday evening. We did this last year and it was one of my highlights of the season! Darin is a crack navigator and knows all the sweet spots for looking at lights all around the HRM. We started our tour with hot chocolates in hand, and Christmas music on the stereo in Dartmouth. We have come to the conclusion that it is the middle class families that decorate the most. Just because you are rich doesn't mean you take time to decorate your obscenely large mansion, or even hire someone to do it for you. The low income families, well they have bigger fish to fry then Santa on the lawn. So it is the middle class suburbs you need to hit if you want a good light tour. We looped around cul-de-sacs and drove up and down side streets, faces glued to the window to see the sparkling lights. The houses and trees looked most festive with the recent fallen snow. We saw a lot of slightly decorated houses. A few things in the window, a strand of lights on the gutters, etc. I like seeing the beautifully done houses just like anyone else. The houses that take care with the placing of their lights, the carefully hung wreaths and spot lights that warm the cockles of your heart when you see the perfect little house. But what I live for is the real tacky, Griswold's type landing zones with a great big Wal-Mart special inflated on the lawn. I love me some tacky Christmas lights! I also love critiquing the lights with my fellow onlookers. I think we should go public with our critiques, and start naming names. Maybe start an annual publication of who's hot and who's not. A few of the comments from this year include; "It looks like they didn't know what to do with the lights, so they just threw them everywhere." "That house looks like some sort of Bordello in Vegas!" "I love the old style lights that let off enough heat to melt the snow on top of them......and burn your house down." Next year I am bringing a recorder in the car with us and I will transcribe our notes for the general public. The two winners of my favourite tacky Christmas lights goes to a house in Dartmouth, well a half a duplex, with inflatable figures as tall as the house. And my favs house in Fairview with the music lights and many animated features. The house in Dartmouth looked hilarious with the two big figures and multitude of lights filling their half of the house. It looked doubly as funny because the other half of the house was barely decorated while their neighbors looked like Christmas threw up on the lawn. Can you imagine being their neighbours?? Haha! The house in Fairview is my all time favs, and winner second year in a row. This house is no stranger to the decorating. They have lights often timed to music they play, presents that open and shut, and angel that moves her lighted arms, a waving Santa and so much more! Each house only has a small square footage to decorate but boy oh boy to they make the best of it! In all seriousness tho, as tacky and hilarious as these houses are to look at, that took some serious time and effort from the home owners. I say good on them for delighting the hearts, and senses of the passerby. We all love Christmas lights on a crisp evening! Thanks again to the Borgels for taking me on the tour, I smell and annual tradtion starting :)

Then Saturday morning my Ma came and picked me up and took me down to the farm for some good rest and relaxation. I spent Christmas eve there and on Christmas day we packed the car full and headed down to Bedford to my sisters for Christmas dinner and opening presents with the boys. It was very nice to have the whole family together for Christmas. Because of Marcus' visitation with his father and they way they divide holidays he wouldn't be coming back to the house until after 6 on Christmas day. I must say Jackson did extremely well and only opened one present from Santa and waited to open the rest of his gifts until Marcus was home. Not an easy feat for a 4 year old, but he did so well. As soon as Marcus walked in the door Jackson ran and gave him a hug and then made a B-line for the tree and grabbed the biggest box with his name on it. The boys were vibrating with excitement, and now it was time to open presents. I think it is so funny how different the boys are. Marcus has always been very anticlimactic and not easily excitable. So when he opened a gift he really liked you heard, "Oh awesome, that's really cool." Where as when Jackson opened a piggy bank he was yelling and throwing paper saying, "THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS I EVER HAD!!" So very different! They were very grateful and excited about all the gifts they got, and I am sure it will be a great couple of weeks playing with all the new stuff they got. After presents we snapped a few family pictures, and a few silly ones too. I think the silly represents our family. Through tough times and good our family tries to not take things to seriously, and have a sense of humor about us. I am so thankful to be able to have the relationship I do with my family despite and ups or downs we may have faced. After all the Christmas events we headed back to the farm where I spent the following two days relaxing and spending time with my parents.

Now I am back in the city, and getting ready to head back to work and I am satisfied and happy with my holiday.

Before I go I wanted to write about my travel to do list. I recently posted about this on facebook, but I thought I would put it on here too. You see before I was leaving for the summer the lovely gals at PPCCC made me the best going present I have ever had. Since they knew I would be traveling to NZ they all got together and made me a list of things to do while I am there. They are written on a card and placed in a photo album for me to take with me. I fully intend on completing as much of this as humanly possible, and would love for anyone who wishes to contribute to do so. Once I am away I will start ticking things off the list, and you can bet there will be blogging and photos to accompany these. So put your thinking caps on and let me know if you would like to add to this list. At a later date I will be posting the whole list for people to see, but I am open to suggestions before that.



Anyway, Happy Holidays and all the best in the new year!!