Are we there yet?

What 36 hours in transit looks like.
After a rather quiet Christmas, Lee and I went to Vancouver Island for some R&R (like we needed it...). We arrived well past one in morning at the Tofino Botanical Gardens & Clayoquot Field Station, and actually woke up a lady who was in the room we were supposed to be in! Ooops! So we quickly left that room and found ourselves another room, this time empty, and settled in for the night. The next morning, we were blessed with sunshine and calm weather, which is unusual for the season, so we wasted no time in checking out the small town of Tofino. This was followed with a long walk on Long Beach (aptly named), where we were lucky enough to get a good look at a Bald Eagle. We had a late lunch (salami sandwiches in the parking lot behind the car), before heading to Ucluelet, south of Tofino, where we did a little more hiking and enjoyed a very windy sunset. After all that walking, we had worked up quite an appetite, and made reservations in what is likely one of the finest restaurants on the island, The Pointe Restaurant. Although it was a bit pricey, the food (the duck breast was to die for) and the service were outstanding. They also had a full panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean, but we'll have to save that for next time as we were there after dark. The next morning we got up early so we could do a few short walks before leaving for the ferry, but, alas, the weather gods had turned against us and it was pouring rain. We did manage to do a short walk in an area where the topsoil had prevented the trees from growing properly. The trees looked a bit like wild bonsais, which was very cool. The walk was supposed to take about 30mins, but because of the bad weather we did it in less than 15! After our very thorough soaking, we decided to leave the other walks for a return trip and decided to head for the ferry. Unfortunately, the rain turned into a very bad snowstorm, which delayed us so much that we missed our ferry and had to race to catch another. Fortunately, and due primarily to Lee urging me to drive like a maniac (don't worry, there wasn't any snow in Nanaimo), we were able to catch another ferry, which got us to the mainland in time to return our car rental.

Long beach in Tofino (that small figure in the centre is Ulrik).
Back in Vancouver we celebrated New Year's with Karen and Scott, and Julie (Karen's sister) and Colin, which started out with a very nice dinner and degraded into some pretty serious drinking (damn those drinking games). It was a pretty great evening all around. The next couple of days were mainly spent recovering, getting the last few items for our trip, and taking a few walks around the city. We even went five-pin bowling (we had tried to go skiing/snowshoeing, but the weather turned against us), and Scott kicked our collective butts. In good spirits (but with our bowling egos seriously bruised) we said good bye to Vancouver, and jumped on a grueling flight (we were in transit for more than 36 hours!) to Jakarta, Indonesia via Seoul, Korea and Singapore.

New adventures aplenty await us in the Southern Hemisphere. (By the way, we tried to check the rotation of the toilet flush, but the only flush toilet we've come across just wooshes down and doesn't swirl ... how disappointing!)

For more photos, see our Tofino & Ucluelet photo album, and/or our New Year's Eve photo album.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

A slightly belated MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Visiting Santa at the Bright Nights in Stanley Park on 22 Dec.

Christmas Day

Enjoying the view, and a breather, at the Buntzen Lake Reservoir.
As you can imagine, we spent Christmas a little differently than we have in the past.

Karen and Scott left on 22 Dec and 24 Dec, respectively, for Toronto, where they were spending Christmas with Karen's family. Christmas Eve was quiet. We got up fairly early in the morning to drive Scott to the airport. And we had to recover from practically non-stop dominoes playing since we arrived. So we enjoyed a bit of down time. On Christmas Day we got up at a decent time (about 8:45am), to drive to the Buntzen Lake Reservoir, where we did an 8K hike in about three hours. We were fortunate and got pretty good weather. It was periodically drizzly throughout the day, but no hard-core rain. We got home about mid-afternoon and, although we had planned to fullfill my lifelong dream of going to a Chinese restaurant for dinner a la the final scene from the movie, A Christmas Story, we were too relaxed to go anywhere, and ended up eating leftover spaghetti. Overall, it was a great alternative to stuffing our faces and falling asleep on the couch!

For more photos, see our Buntzen Lake photo album.

Deep Powder

Well, time for another update. We've left our friends Jen and Marc in cold Calgary, and have travelled to rainy Vancouver to visit Karen and Scott for a few weeks.

Searching for the Danadians.
Although we had initially planned to travel by car from Calgary to Vancouver to see the Rocky Mountains, after looking at the weather (and our budget), we thought it would be better to just Westjet it.

Even though the weather has been on and off (typical Vancouver weather; a combination of drizzling and pouring), we've had a great time so far. One of our first stops was Whistler Mountain for some alpine sports. The weather was uncharacteristically gorgeous with lots of sunshine; there was also plenty of that beautiful white powder (not the illegal kind). All in all, perfect conditions in one of the top skiing locations in the world. Lee settled for some serious downhill skiing with Karen and Scott, Karen's sister, Julie, and Julie's boyfriend, Colin (who was kind enough to drive us there), while I (foolishly) opted for a lesson in snowboarding, reasoning that since I've never done alpine, I might as well pick whatever looks coolest.

That Ulrik; he's so hot right now.
Despite taking a number of tumbles, I persevered and had a great time. I will certainly do that again.

We've also had a chance to check out some of Vancouver's other sites. While much of Stanley Park has been shut down -- there was a crazy wind storm the night we arrived that felled numerous trees and even trapped a man for five days! -- we did go to the Vancouver Aquarium, which was a lot of fun. We saw the dolphin show, the otter feeding, and the beluga whale training. Definitely a great place to spend a rainy day.

A jellyfish at the Vancouver Aquarium.
For more photos, see our Vancouver photo album, our Whistler photo album, and/or our Vancouver Aquarium photo album.

Go Flames Go!

One of the highlights of our trip to Calgary was attending a Flames game (on 12 Dec). Yep, that's right ... an actual hockey game. Now, at risk of losing my Canadian citizenship, I must admit that I have never been much of a hockey fan. But, when the offer came (Marc's friend Cairns got free tickets from his work), I knew we had to go. I have always felt guilty for not giving Ulrik this quintessential Canadian experience. (Ulrik is not much of a sports person, either.) Although at the beginning we went more for the experience than anything else (sorry guys!), in the end we were so glad we went. The game ROCKED!! The Flames kicked the Minnesota Wild's ass; it was actually a bit embarrassing to watch. Not to say that the Wilds didn't hold their own. They had about the same number of shots on goal as the Flames, the Flames just had the advantage ... in the name of Kiprusoff, their goalie. This guy is AMAZING! I don't even know hockey, and even I can appreciate how good this guy is, that's how amazing he is!

All we're missing is a big foam finger.
So we ended our time in Calgary on a very high note. But it wasn't the only high note. Ulrik and I had a great time in Calgary (see more of our Calgary photos here). We met a lot of really great people (Jen and Marc have some fantastic friends). But we especially enjoyed catching up with Jen and Marc, who we haven't seen for some time (since they up and moved out here from Ontario -- jerks!). They have a very cosy and welcoming home, and they were wonderful hosts. Thanks guys!

For more photos, see our Calgary photo album.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree ...

Today we went out into the woods to hunt down that the most elusive of Christmas prizes ... the perfect Christmas tree. Marc's friend Jeff (the one in the middle wearing the white bath robe ... see explanation below) organizes an annual Christmas Tree hunt, and we got to tag along.

So off to the woods we went, armed with nothing but a camera to document the fun. Those who were hoping to take home a tree were armed with saws; one guy even brought a small axe! The rules were simple: no trees taller than 2.5 metres, and no topping allowed (that means cutting the top off a big tree). The weather was a practically balmy 0C, and the sky was clear. A perfect day for the hunt. We probably ended up tramping around in the woods for two to three hours, and I think everyone was happy with the tree they bagged ... er ... sawed down. Here is the smiling happy bunch of us!

Back row, left to right: Michelle, Colleen, Lance, Jeff, Jen, Ulrik.
Front row, left to right: Lee, Cairns, Hyun-hee, Ted.
Oh yeah ... the reason for the bath robe? This year's theme was National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Jeff dressed as Cousin "The shitter was full" Eddie. And tonight, Jen and Marc are hosting a party where everyone has to dress as a character from the movie. Should be lots of fun!

For more photos, see our Christmas Tree Day photo album.

Brrr ...

At the Banff Springs Hotel.
We're now in Calgary. We weren't sure if we were going to make it as scheduled, because Ottawa (the city we were flying from) was hit with ice rain. But Ottawa is used to terrible winter weather and we got out no problem. We were picked up at the Calgary aiport by our friends, Jenny and Marc, and we will be staying at their house for the duration of our stay in Calgary. What great friends!

On the Saturday after we arrived (02 Dec), they took us out and showed us the city. And the next day (Sunday 03 Dec) they took us to Banff (that's us at the Banff Springs Hotel in the pic above) and Canmore.

We got to see the mountains, and we took a soak in the Banff Hot Springs!

Jen, Marc, and Ulrik enjoying a soak in the Hot Springs.
After our relaxing soak, we played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit: Battle of the Sexes! But it ended up being a draw ... the boys won the first round, but the girls rallied and kicked the boys' butts in the second round.

For more photos, see our Calgary photo album.

Just because he's so darn cute!

North Gower

The start of our big trip was delayed by a full five days ... a long story that doesn't need to be included here. The downside was that we lost five days of hanging with my sister and her little guy, William Christopher (see pic below). But the upside was that I got an extra three days' pay to pad our travel fund. Overall, it ended up working out well as we weren't entirely prepared to leave Toronto on 17 Nov (per the original plan) anyway.

The girls at work gave me a wonderful multi-staged send-off, although I think with all the delays they were finally ready to see the back of me!

So my last day (Wednesday 22 Nov) finally arrived. It started out well. I thought I was pacing myself to finish at a decent time. But I started to realize by about early afternoon that I still had a lot of stuff to finish up. By late afternoon, I knew I was going to be staying late. I had a small (big) panic attack around 8:00pm, thinking about all the stuff that still needed to get done. And I finally left the office at 10:45pm when the lights went out. I still don't entirely know what happened.

The next day, aka the first day of my unemployment (Ulrik had finished as planned on Friday 17 Nov), my boss' husband very nicely gave us a lift to the train station. We were on our way!!! The big trip was finally here! We were headed to ... North Gower?! Yep, the first stop in our meander around the world was a visit with my sister and her family. Here she is with her son, William Christopher (six months):


It was really nice getting to spend some time with my family. We even celebrated Christmas early with a full Christmas dinner on Sat 25 Nov that included my dad, aunt, and uncle. And it was especially nice to spend some extended time with William (and my sister and her husband, of course!), since were weren't going to see him again until 2008(!), a fact that didn't really hit me until our last day. He's six months now, and we're not going to see him until he's almost two years old! It almost made me want to change our plans ... almost ...