Notes from BC - A collection of writings about life in British Columbia

My second birthday in Canada

Today I celebrated my second birthday in Canada, my first in the country since I turned 1 in the 1980's! The weather was terrible so we couldn't have any fun outdoors but I still had a great day. In the morning I went with Lou to Denny's for brunch and with it being my birthday I got mine for free! Mine came on three plates, an unreal amount of food. I went for the "Lumberjack Special", I was seriously full by then end but it was very nice. After that we took the car back home and then caught the SkyTrain into Downtown Vancouver. I went in a few shops and spent some of the money I'd received on a new pair of walking shoes. I've been after a pair of those for a while so it was nice to finally get them.

After a bit of shopping we then went to a pub for a few drinks. We chose to go to the one next door to the hotel we stayed in back in 2005. We stayed their for a few hours and even had a couple of cocktails to go along with our beers and we then made our way back home in the early evening. When we got home I had some birthday cake and then put my feet up on the sofa for the rest of the night, it was a nice end to a good day. 

           
Click here to download:
my-2nd-birthday-in-canada-BcBklumrCcGkAqilsdlg.zip (10439 KB)

 

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Vancouver Whitecaps Vs Rochester Rhinos

Last night I went to The Swangard Stadium for the second week in a row to watch the Vancouver Whitecaps. I was fortunate enough to be given another free ticket for the game and unlike last week I got to some goals this time. The game finished 2-0 to the Whitecaps it was the best I've seen them play so far.

Below is a gallery of the photos I took last night which I uploaded to my flickr account earlier :


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Midweek walk around Stanley Park

After a couple of days of cooler weather (which I was definitely ready for) I woke up this morning, opened the blinds and noticed that the sun was back! So we decided to head to Stanley Park to take some photos and have a good walk around. We've been trying to get the full way around the park ever since we've moved here but each time we've tried it has started to rain so we've had to call it off before even getting halfway. 

We were hoping this would be third time lucky and that we'd complete the walk but it wasn't meant to be. What had started off as a fantastic day ended up being miserable with very heavy rain! I didn't get any photos of the turn in weather as I was paranoid about damaging the camera but believe me it was seriously lashing it down. Luckily we had realized it was going to rain (at the halfway point again!) so we quickly headed back. We were unprepared, Lou didn't have an umbrella and I was in shorts so we knew it wasn't worth trying to sit it out. You can never anticipate how long the rain is going to last for in Vancouver and we didn't fancy sticking around for hours waiting for it to stop. We were on our way home by the time the worst of it started but we still managed to get wet through. Lou was in flip flops and by the time we got home her feet were filthy. I couldn't help but laugh at the way she was walking back she was having to walk weirdly to keep them on her feet, it was kind of like watching how a clown walks when they wear those big boots! 
 
Before the turn in weather we were having a good time. Stanley Park is brilliant to walk around, the scenery is great, the air is super fresh and despite there being plenty of people around it always seems like a relaxing place to be. It's a good place to go and chat as you walk around and it's probably one of our favourite parks here (and it's certainly the most well known probably due to it's downtown location). I'd spotted a Heron fishing for it's lunch towards the start of the walk so I climbed down onto the mud to take some snaps. My trainers got filthy (I didn't realize how mushy it was until it was too late) but it was worth it.   
 
It's funny to look back at the first few photos I took today, it shows how much of a nice day it was to start with but then as they progress you can see the clouds getting darker. It was still fun though and it still means we have it all to attempt again. The only thing I was disappointed about was not getting to see any raccoons. According to my friends there are supposed to be plenty in the park (although I've never seen any there) and I was hoping to take some photos of them, oh well maybe next time. I'm pretty happy with the rest of the photos we took today. We're both starting to really get good at using the camera now and they seem to be getting better each time we use it, what do you think?
                           

 

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