East Meets West... And All the Rest

After almost two years of casually bringing it up in conversation (and occasionally not-so-casually begging and pleading), we finally convinced Steph and Trevor to visit us in Vancouver!

The whole week before their arrival was spent tidying, laundering, booking, reserving and confirming. By Saturday we were ready! The funny thing is, I couldn’t even meet them at the airport because I was working that afternoon. Chris got to be the one who got to actually go to the airport and pick them up, and it was my job to scoot on down to the rental car place after work and pick up our wheels!


Yup, this beautiful Toyota Camry Hybrid was going to be ours for one whole week


Let the Vancouver vacation begin!

… by going to the Chinese mall. Oh, the spontaneity. Our plan was actually to just go home from the airport and have a fabulous BBQ dinner, but since we were sooo close already (and we had a CAR) we just had to swing by the Yaohan and T&T Supermarket. It was fun and a good welcome to Vancouver. In the words of Steph “Jen, I’m really questioning right now as to whether I’m still in Canada”.

Well, lucky for Steph, we eventually made it back to Canada safe and sound and did have a fabulous grilled salmon dinner courtesy of me, Chris and R2BQ II.

And thus begins our Vancouver vacation! I probably shouldn’t go into minute details about every part of our week-long adventure (however tempting that may be), so I’ll try to let the pictures do the talking… except for the first day… when Chris or I didn’t take any pictures.

So long story short, we took our two bikes, plus a couple of borrowed bikes, loaded all of it into the new Skytrain and headed out to Stanley Park for an excellent bike ride. Sound familiar? I did the same thing with Mom and Dad last December. http://chrisjenny.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html The scenery will be about the same, only it was summer so a heck of a lot warmer and more crowded. Maybe I can put up a few of Steph’s pictures later. That night we had Korean BBQ, which, again, we did not take pictures of but it would have looked pretty much exactly like it did the last time we were there:



Day 2 found us back in the car, bright and early, on our way to Whistler. Now, getting to Whistler entails driving up the Sea-to-Sky highway which is perhaps one of the most beautiful, frightening and car-sickness-inducing things that one can do. I think only Steph’s camera got pictures of the highway, but it’s hard to take pictures from the moving car anyway. You just have to imagine: mountain-cliff-highway-cliff-water… and on the other side of the water, more mountains.


I stole the front seat. How are you guys doing back there?

One very attractive pit-stop on this highway is Shannon Falls.


Steph was quite impressed


But how could you not be? Now let's play “Find the brother-in-law who snuck past the barrier and climbed up onto the actual waterfall”


Here Jen, this waterfall must be making you thirsty

Next, stop Whistler! This was our bed and breakfast. It was so cozy, tucked away in the woods with its pine beds, big comfy couches and a hot tub out on the patio. I can seriously imagine spending a wintery ski-weekend there, but having a summer getaway was pretty nice too.



After dropping off our bags, we headed straight for the mountain.


Up we go! And this is only gondola #1


Are we there yet? It was basically a long, hot ride in a scratched-up plastic bubble


Goodbye Whistler Village, see you later!


We made it! Welcome to Whistler Mountain


So pretty, and so high up!

But not high enough. We’ve got one more lift to go – then we hit the peak!


This was the best chairlift of all. No plastic bubble, riding up at an extremely steep angle, over top of real, actual glaciers to the peak of Whistler. Ask Chris how he felt when I started swinging my feet.


Hello, glacier!

At the peak of Whistler Mountain is where it starts to get really cool.



From up there, you can see for miles and miles around. We wandered for quite some time, and eventually found a little place to have our high-altitude picnic.


Greatest part of our picnic, the air-pressurized chip bag


We all found something to do up there. Trevor constructed rock-people…




While Steph and I played “mountain goats”. Yes, we are that cool.

And now, from Whistler to Blackcomb!

Blackcomb is the next giant mountain over, also part of the ski area, and just this summer they completed the “Peak 2 Peak”, a state-of-the-art enormous gondola that carries you from one mountain peak to the other.
You can see a live webcam of the mountain peaks here.
And also see its record-breaking technical stuff here.


Jump in everybody!


Here we go! Across a gigantic valley on tiny little wires…


It was such a gorgeous ride


Here we are on Blackcomb mountain!


Look at these two, seriously representing Altona

After sufficiently hiking around the peak of Blackcomb, did we go down? Oh no! We took the Peak 2 Peak back across to Whistler, then back again to Blackcomb. Why not? We had day passes :D Finally, as the mountain was threatening to close, we took a series of chairlifts back down the Blackcomb side. While riding down I was lucky enough at one point to see a ski jumper practicing by sliding down this big construction and landing in a big pool. Let us also take a moment to remember Steph’s yellow Loewen Insurance hat (as pictured above), which, while riding down, was carried away by a gust of mountain wind, never to be seen again.

Our mountain adventure was followed by dinner in Whistler Village, a comfy night in our B&B, then a superb gourmet breakfast.

Day 3 took us back down the Sea to Sky highway into Vancouver. I seem to recall that we made a spontaneous trip to White Rock that evening, and although we were planning on having Indian food in Vancouver, we ended up staying at White Rock for one of their always-beautiful sunsets and Greek dinner at Pelagos.


This was the view from our table


Steph and Trevor, digging in


This is the view from the beach afterwards, where we had coffee. Cellphone-wallpaper worthy if I do say so.


Steph liked it too

Day 4 and we’re back on the road. This time to Vancouver Island. We had to delay our departure by a few hours thanks to a very ill timed employment skills test I had to write, but we shall not speak of that again.

It’s ferry time!

I always like the ferry. I mean, I’ve never been on a cruise ship like these other two but it feels pretty big, and it’s so cool that there’s shops and a restaurant inside. Of course, you can always tell who’s a tourist and not a commuter because they’re outside hanging over the railings, no matter what the weather.


I’m always a tourist


Not quite Mexico, but having fun!


Oh so windy! Steph is making fun of me because I can't keep my eyes open.


Pretty little islands and things

Before long, we were in Victoria, checking in to our hotel, tying (unsuccessfully) to get ahold of my friend Jessica for dinner, and eventually just googling fish and chips places in the harbour and coming across this:


Upon first glance, it may look like just another shipping container, but don’t be deceived! It’s a totally amazing fish and chips shop!

In our further wanderings around the inner harbour, we came across the usual pretty Victoria sights.


May I present her royal fancyness, The Empress


Her majestic cousin, the BC Parliament Buildings




A fancy old building


And another fancy old building. Teehee! I feel so fancy and old!

After getting back to our hotel that night, we finally got a hold of Jessica. She’d not been having a very good day and had been out of touch, so Chris and I left the young ones to go swimming at the hotel, while we went and visited Jessica in her new house. We helped her with her internet and chatted with her and her roommate for a bit. We were itching to get back to the pool, though, so before long we were back at the hotel, splashing away. Jessica came by a little later and hung out some more.

We finished swimming but the fun wasn’t over! There were bathrobes and face masks and chips and beer to be had!


Oh! Look whose eyes are shut now!

Day 5 found us waking up in our fancy hotel room to complimentary coffee and tea.


Me, just enjoying a spot of tea in Victoria, reflecting on the fun had thus far

That morning, I forced everyone to eat at my favorite fancy organic breakfast place. Seeing as it was mid-morning on a weekday, we got the best table in the house. I’m also pretty sure everyone enjoyed their food. I remember Steph taking a picture of her plate, and I do recall Trevor agreeing that the “Costa Rican Rocket Fuel” coffee was excellent.

All fueled up, we were ready for the rest of the day! We returned to the hotel, picked up the car and headed north to Cathedral Grove. You will recall that Chris and I had been here before during last year’s camping trip to Tofino. This time, we got to spend a little more time in the old growth coastal rainforest, really taking it, learning about the trees and exploring.


What’s it like, waaay up there?





Steph was really looking forward to coming here.
… I think she ended up quite enjoying herself.


My highlight was the aqua-blue glacial lake that we stumbled upon. This was part of the park that we didn’t see last time.

Returning to the Camry, we realized that we had two choices: a) we take an easy drive into Nanaimo, find someplace to eat dinner and catch the ferry at 7pm or so. Or b) we drive like absolute maniacs directly to the ferry terminal to catch the 5pm ferry and eat dinner in West Vancouver.

Which one did we choose (and I use the term “we” very loosely)?

Let’s just say Chris was very proud of himself as he parked the car outside his favorite pizza place in West Van.

I'll admit, it was nice to be on that ferry because we got to ride in the sunset.




Now there's a real cruise ship

Day 6 already??

Where did the time go?
Well, this was another Vancouver day. I seem to recall breakfast at home and then, keeping in the spirit of old fancyness, a little visit to Queen Elizabeth Park.


How delightful!

Next was one meal that I’d really been waiting for – sushi! No trip to Vancouver is complete without a little taste of the Japanese goodness. Did you know that I never actually ate the “raw” sushi when we lived in Japan? There was just so much other crazy stuff to try, plus I could never make heads or tails of the traditional Japanese menus. But in Vancouver, my friend, the menus are in English and the sushi is top-notch.

Unfortunately, the Janzes were not very impressed, or perhaps we can just assume that their taste for raw tuna and seaweed will take a bit longer than one afternoon to develop. For the record, they both did actually try the raw fish, and I believe Trevor even tackled more than one kind! You guys get “A” for affort.

Next, in keeping with our fish theme, but yet nowhere to be found on our little vacation itinerary, is our spontaneous and awesome trip to the Vancouver Aquarium! I’d actually been here once before, back in 1995 while on the music trip with school (and a little part of me dies inside when I think of how that was almost 15 years ago!)

Good times at the Aquarium.


We caught the dolphin show


Saw a parrot


We visited their new baby beluga whale


Here’s the baby playing with its mother and/or half sister. I don’t quite remember exactly how the mating went on, but it was a little wonky.


That’s right, it’s Nemo! How could you not make a movie out of this little guy?

Later that evening we finally ended up having Indian food, another Vancouver must-do. Bringing back memories of Ajanta as it always does (but never quite measuring up, of course) we had a delightful dinner scarfing down curry and naan, tandoori chicken and lassis. Steph and Trevor enjoyed this infinitely more than the sushi lunch.

That evening, with our bellies stuffed, we finally cruised down to our favorite beach for a little stroll as the sun went down. Oh, how I would love to do that every day. If only the houses in this part of the city weren’t gazillions of dollars.



Day 7 and our last day together. Must we part so soon?

Since they had a late afternoon flight, we managed to squeeze in one more Vancouver adventure before they left. IKEA! It came highly recommended by Mom and Dad, and seeing as Steph and Trevor had just purchased an adorable little house in adorable little Rosenfeld, we just had to go! Unfortunately there wasn’t much room in their luggage for furniture and shelving and things, but they picked up a few handy souvenirs, plus we were able to have a fantastically cheap and yummy lunch before they left.

And then… the time came. We piled into the car one last time and drove down to the airport. We topped off our Vancouver experience with some lattes from Starbucks and off Steph and Trevor went back to Winnipeg for what is sure to be a delightful winter ;)


Bye bye, we’ll miss you!


Next time we see each other, it might just be in Rosenfeld!