Moose on the Move!

Our arrival on Sunday 13th March in Toronto was fairly standard, the nice Canadian airport official even let us bring in the last of our Seattle Beef Jerky (so there had been no need to eat as much of it on the plane as I did). Uncle Glenn picked us up from the airport and took us home to meet the rest of the family. The wonderful Tarvers had organised to have the whole family over for dinner, it was excellent for me to see them all again after 4 years and for Chris to meet that side of my family. Dinner was made by my cousin Laura who is studying to become a chef (it was as you might expect - excellent). Mark came home from Uni an hour away for the night, Kathryn came by after school and Brett came with his new wife Aleks. It was a lovely evening all around.

The following morning my Aunt Sharyn took us into the city. We had made plans to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), however once we arrived and Sharyn paid for parking for a couple of hours we discovered that it (like the Gallery in San Francisco) was closed on the day we had selected to visit. Bum. No worries - we are nothing if not flexible. So Chris and I wandered down the street to get a little lunch in China Town while Sharyn said she would wait to meet Kathryn.

While we had every intention of finding ourselves some quality authentic Chinese food we ended up in a Tim Horton's. (For those who don't know - Tim Horton's is a coffee chain in Canada that my Papa loves and that is definitely not Chinese.) So, we each had a sandwich, donut and coffee/hot chocolate. Mmmmm....

We headed back to the AGO and Kathryn (who had also paid for a couple of hours parking) took us all on a tour of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) which was just around the corner. The building recently had a rather large addition built. The original building is a fairly standard looking brick job but the addition sits over it like a table top. It is black and white checks on the outside and is supported by large brightly coloured pencil shaped poles. Kinda neat.

From there we headed to the Royal Ontario Museum, where Sharyn dropped us off. We spent the next couple of hours wandering the corridors, looking at old artwork, sculptures, insect displays, stuffed animals and stuffed people... That last bit was not a joke, they have a couple of Egyptian mummies which are pretty amazing to stand and consider for a few minutes. Chris found the Egyptian section the most interesting - in particular the fact that the collection included at least on sarcophagus which had been x-rayed but never opened!

When we got kicked out because the museum was closing we walked into the heart of town. We walked though Queen's Park which was just gorgeous. It must be pretty in summer when the grass is green and the trees are covered in leaves but this day it was really special. The ground was covered in a 20cm layer of white snow and the trees, although stark, were elegant. To make it all even better the sun had started to go down, so all the buildings beyond the trees at the edge of the park were reflecting a fabulous golden colour. How romantic.

We made it home a bit late that night - the trains/buses were easy enough to work out but just public-transport slow plus we missed our last stop and overshot it by about 20mins worth of travel, oops. I think we made my Aunt and Uncle a little nervous.

Tuesday morning Glenn dropped us off at the Ontario Science Centre which was several hours worth of entertainment. Lots of interesting exhibits including one on the science of roller coasters and why we scream and feel dizzy and why the loops have to be a certain size and shape - way cool.

From there the two us headed into town again to ascend the CN Tower. It (used to be at least) the tallest free-standing structure in the world. From the highest viewing platform, called the SkyPod, takes you up almost half a kilometre into the sky. The view is awesome on a clear day, which we were lucky enough to get. There were no cowboys at the top of this tower - I guess it must have been an American thing.

We got a good sense of the city from up there - we were able to see where we had walked to and from the day before and where we were headed that evening. As a new feature they have recently installed a section of glass flooring which allows you to look directly down between your feet to the ground hundreds of metres below. It was quite interesting to watch the way kids would throw themselves face down on the glass to get a better view while their parents stood back on 'solid' ground to take a photo. Brave souls!

More photos on our photo pages.

Chris's stomach demanded a stop in at another Tim Horton's on our way from the tower to Queen St to catch the trolley. I demanded that he be adventurous and try something other than the Boston Cream he had eaten and enjoyed the day before.

The trolley ride east along Queen St took us past all kinds of interesting stores and was a little bit nostalgic for me because the last time I rode it was with my Grandfather in 1993. He passed away a year later.

We took it all the way to where it terminates at Neville Park Blvd. This is the street that my Grandparents lived on for more than 50 years and where my Mother grew up. I wanted to show Chris the house but as we got close I knew I was going to burst into tears. Silly emotional Dous. I was trying to point out the various rooms of the house to Chris without letting on - but that just didn't work. I can just imagine the new owners glancing out their front window to see a blubbering woman pointing at their house!

At the other end of the street, on the other side of Queen St, just near the shore of Lake Ontario, live some of my parents' oldest friends - Helmut and Dianne. Papa was Helmut's best-man many years ago and in true Papa style he wrote the word 'HELP' on the soles of Helmut's shoes so that when he knelt down in front of the congregation during the ceremony he unknowingly sent out a desperate looking plea....well you can imagine.

We had a lovely dinner with them and their son Michael, catching up on news of the last four years and chatting. It is a great old house that has been in the family for years but it will be the last time we see them in it because they have decided that they are ready for change and a bit more travel. They will be moving in the next little while to a house even closer to a lake a couple of hours north of Toronto. The photos look awesome! We were discussed getting into town the following night to see Michael's band perform, they are called 'This Crooked Mile' (a little global plug for you there guys! :)) Their music is really good - check it out.
They dropped us home after dinner and we said goodbye - 'til next time.

Wednesday - already! This week was going very fast. We were a little slow getting going and so by the time we had caught the bus/train into the city it was lunch time. This time we had a proper Chinese meal in China Town (although we passed on the place that was advertising no added MGS. Good to know they don't add old cars to their food!)

We went to visit the AGO knowing that it would be open this time. It was great! They had a huge display up about the work of Christo and his partner Jeanne-Claude. He is the guy that has been 'wrapping' things for the last thirty years or so. 'Things'? I hear you ask. Well he wrapped a large section of the coast in New South Wales, the Reichstag in Berlin, fully-grown trees in Paris, he erected hundreds of umbrellas in Japan and skirted a series of islands in Florida in bright pink fabric. I like this guy! Click HERE for Christo's work

From there it was back onto the Queen St trolley to visit Brett and Aleks in their new apartment. They had planned a super 'North-American' themed dinner for us. A lot of thought went into it - every ingredient had to be from Canada (preferably) or America, and the dishes were all Canadian as well. It was great. Three courses carefully considered and all delicious. Chris discovered that he likes smoked salmon (this particular type know as 'salmon candy') and I found out that some very alcoholic beers do not taste very alcoholic.

It was a really nice evening which came to include a bit of live guitar playing provided by their downstairs neighbour and Aleks playing Canadian DJ with their CD collection - some good music is coming out of Canada!

The next day (St Patrick's Day) was the day to spend some time with Laura. She took us to see a friend of hers - a girl I met in '93 who is now a kick-ass hairdresser. I had said to Laura that I wanted to get a trim before we left and she figured that going to see Fiona would kill two birds with one stone. It was awesome to see Fiona again and I ended up with an awesome new do. Although I am not sure if I will ever be able to make it look as groovy as Fiona did, I am willing to give it a go and to try parting my hair on purpose (not just letting it flop).

We raced back to the house for a lunch date with the family. It was a great meal at a nice little Italian restaurant (we seem to write about food a lot) after which Sharyn took Chris and I to their local shopping centre so Chris could hunt down a CD he wanted. He didn't find it - but, as though to make up for that, it had started to snow quite heavily and we were both pretty excited. It was the kind of snow we had been hoping to see. Big fluffy clumpy bits that floated down really slowly and made the world a bit quieter. It put down a beautiful new layer over all the older grey snow and was just wonderful.

Kathryn took us to the Bluffs on the lake for an awesome view of the cliffs and the lake and then to one of her favourite pubs for a green beer. We ended up settling for a Heineken which isn't green but does come in a green beer. It was a cozy little pub called The Dog House where dogs are welcome. We couldn't stay very long unfortunately because we had to get home and pack before we left for the airport about three hours later.

The last little while was a bit rushed, packing eating dinner, asking Sharyn if we could do a quick load of washing (!! My jeans were really grotty!!) and then we were off. Glenn and Sharyn dropped us off and we said goodbye. We are hoping that, England being reasonably close, we will be able to get back to Canada some time soon again.

So that was it. All of a sudden we were on our way to London. The city we had been aiming towards for such a long time. Less than an eight hour flight away. So exciting!!!

Thursday 9th March we were picked up from the Samesun youth hostel just before nine in the morning. We shared the shuttle bus with only two others this time and surprise, surprise, they were Australians. From Perth. (There are so many of us over here it is a bit scary). Anyway, they had got married just two weeks before and this was their honeymoon. He had rolled his ankle quite badly and she had fallen and bruised her tailbone. As we were discussing our respective trips they expressed surprise at the length of time we are intending to be away and sugested that perhaps we had no-one at home to miss. I was a bit offended but didn't say so. Just incase anyone at home thinks the same, WE DO MISS YOU. Of course we have people at home that we will miss but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go and see the world!!
Chris has just told me to stop ranting... so I will. He is very wise.

At the Airport in Kelowna we discovered a very interesting selection of local delicasies - Beaver Droppings, BigHorn Droppings, Polar Bear Droppings and Black Bear Droppings. Curious, we investigated further and discovered (with some relief) that they were infact a selection of choc-coated nuts and raisins. Mmmmm.... animal droppings.

The flight back to Victoria was fine and we were kept giggling most of the way by our Steward (yet another entertaining guide)who assured us all that we were all happy to have had them as our crew during the flight and that we should be careful to take all our belongings with us because anything left behind would be evenly distributed between the staff.

From Victoria on Vancouver Island, which is actually south of most of the US border, we caught the Victoria Clipper. It is a ferry that takes about two and a half hours to get from Victoria to Seattle in the US. The trip takes you down through various islands and as the sun set it was a beautiful sight.

Photos here

We arrived in Seattle ok, and even made it past the suspicious customs guy who was tempted to go through our bags simply because they were pad-locked. Yes, security consious travellers are always the most suspicious! I guess he couldn't be bothered though because he didn't. It was cold in Seattle that night as we headed out to find Becca.

Rebecca is a friend of Chris' who he met at Uni 9 years ago when she was in Australia for a year. He had arranged to call her on our arrival in Seattle, and she would come and get us from the Ferry terminal. He didn't get her address, figuring that she knew where she lived so we didn't need to. However, when we went to call, the phone was out of service. So what to do? We asked a local at the terminal if she could try calling on her land-line, perhaps the problem was something to do with the phonecard we were using. Nope - same result. So we checked the phone book to see if we could find either an address or an alternative phone number. No luck there either. We decided it wasn't a good idea to leave, perhaps show up unexpectedly at Chris' aunt's house, a) because that might give Chris' aunt a bit of a shock and b) because if Becca showed up she wouldn't know where we were. No worries, we would just wait and see if she came anyway. Then Chris remembered that he had told her our ferry would arrive an hour later than it actually did. After investigating various other options and finally getting to the point where Chris called the phone company ("how did you get this number?") Becca arrived. Becca my hero.

She took us to a pub for a late dinner and then to her place. As it turns out she lives not far from the ferry or the city and we probably could have walked it if we knew where we were going.

The following day (Thursday) Becca and her house-mate Colleen (the pocket-rocket) had to work so the two of us walked into the city to check out the sights. It was an easy walk and we passed a lot of interesting places and characters. Our first destination was the Pike Place Markets in the heart of the city. It is a vibrant collection of local artwork, produce and fish-throwing. Lots of taste testing was done (fruit, beef jerky, jellys, honey etc.) and we bought a huge(ish) bag of jerky and some yummy plums.

Chris had heard about something called a 'piroshky' in our guide book, so when he saw the sign across the street for them we decided to give it a go, even though neither of us had any idea what they were and they sounded kind of scary. They were good. Essentially a kind of Russian pie, a kind of pasty crust wrapped around a multitude of different fillings. We both enjoyed ours and took a photo to prove it.

From there we walked up to 4th street to catch the monorail to the Space Needle. It is not like the monorail in Sydney that goes in a loop around the city and stops in several different places. This one does a straight (and speedy) run from one end to the other. So those of us who were hoping to make our tousist dollar go a little further and ride a whole loop extra were a little dissapointed.
We were not dissapointed by the Space Needle though. The elevator to the top itself was an adventure as it is on the outside of the tower and provides an excellent view of the city dropping away below as you rise up. At the top we saw cowboys. No kidding. At least half a dozen individual people were spotted walking around in cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Interesting. Especially the one who was wearing pink boots, pink hat, pink midrif-bearing top and white jeans...

One of the most amazing facts that we learnt about this tower is that despite its height (Top of the Space Needle: 605 feet, Observation Deck: 520 feet)its centre of gravity is only five feet (less than two metres) above the ground!! They did that by digging an enormous hole and filling it with concrete to base the needle in. Pretty cool.

From there we walked back to Becca's place to relax on the couch for a bit and watch some TV until the girls got home. Ordinarily we consider ourselves to be reasonable technology savvy but Becca's remote control was scary. It was a monster of a thing that had about a thousand buttons for seemingly every electical appliance in the house. After a little deliberation we decided to push the button called 'All On' hoping that it might just be that simple (and that the house wouldn't implode). It was that simple.

We went out that night for dinner at a great mexican restaurant, I figured that it was just dinner and we didn't really need to take the camera. This is a decision that I may regret for the rest of my life. The burrito that I ordered was one of the most amazing things that either of us has seen on this trip. It was enormous. It was gigantic. It was delicious. Even so, I could not eat more that a third of it and after Chris had a go there was still a third of it left. It was (completely without exageration now) the length of my forearm and about thirty centimetres in circumference. Although we have no photographic evidence of this monster we do have three eyewitnesses who will testify to the accuracy of this account if we pay them enough.

The following day, which was Friday, we got started a little late. We went into an area of Seattle near the University. We ate at another place that Chris had become enamoured with while in Chicago a couple of years ago and we just had to go there. It was mexican aswell (which after the last night's effort you might think would be too much) and the burritos were a much more respectable size. Both Chris and I had a couple of problems ordering though, due largely to the speed with which questions about our order were asked. "Doyawanmilehotbeanchillicorn?" After asking for each of three servers to repeat what they were saying I ended up just nodding. I am unsure exactly what I got in my lunch but it tasted good, Chris ended up with a little less in his burrito than he would have liked because he answered yes to the question "Izhatallyuwaninit?" The napkins in this restaurant were easier to understand. They had pictorial instructions on how to go about eating the burrito that you just 'ordered'.

From there Chris and I wandered down through the university district a little, checked out a couple of second-hand book stores on the way and bought ourselves a book on the south of england (to help us start to get organised) and one on France. We walked a few kilometres through the residential area between the university and an area called Fremont. We were looking for a troll.

Several years ago a group of people got together and with community help built the head and shoulders of a hugr troll under the Fremont Bridge. We found him and he really is worth a visit. From there we walked back to Becca's place and she took us on a driving tour of the city.

First stop was a drive-through Starbucks... we were tired. She took us out to West Seattle for a great (but freezing) view of the city centre, we went past Alki Beach and Madisson Park. Part way through the trip we noticed a very interesting, and slightly disturbing, phenomenon. There were several houses that we drove past that were under construction and in the front yard of each of them was a portable tiolet (know in Australia as a 'porta-loo' or 'porta-potty') for use by the men and women working on the site. This is not unusual. What was unusual, as far as we were conserned, is that the 'brand name' of the tiolets was 'Honey Bucket'... how weird is that? 'Honey Bucket'. And slightly gross...? Ahhh the wonderous things that travel can expose you to!

That evening we took it easy infront of the TV, we watched a couple of movies through the 'on demand' feature and drank a bit of beer.

Saturday was the day of the big reunion. The last time Chris saw his Aunt Suzy and Uncle Roy he was about three years old. So we were both excited. We had a lovely lunch at a place called Ray's with Cousin Mike and then went to the government locks to see the boats coming in to lake Union from the bay. We saw a salmon ladder. Salmon are an amazing fish, they come back years after they were spawned to the very same place to do their own reproducing. Since the locks were built to help the boats the ladder had to also be built so that the fish can still get in. Unfortunately it was the wrong season to see any fish jumoing but I imagine that at the right time of year it is a really amazing sight!

We had a really lovely afternoon catching up and even though we barely knew each other at first, by the time Suzy and Roy dropped us off they really felt like family.

We had a BBQ that night on the deck out side Becca and Colleen's place. It overlooks Lake Union and is a really special spot. Chris wrestled with the BBQ (and heat beads - right Becca?) for a while, until one of Becca's friends introduced a whole lot of lighter fluid to the mix. Then it burnt willingly. We got to meet several locals that night, a whole bunch of really neat people who were a lot of fun. We didn't stay up too late, except to pack, because we had to get up at about six to make it to the airport for our flight to Toronto. (Thanks for the lift Ed.)

I forgot to mention at the end of the last entry that after a long day skiing (which may only be a coule of hours if you are a beginner like us) there is little better than a soak in a hot tub (spa). I think we mentioned that our hostel had one. It was fabulous, largely because it is outside and so you sit amid the snow, steam rising slowly around you and feel yourself relax. Yum. Actually - if you stay in for a little while and get good and warm, then you steam too when you get out!!

The next day we had a bit of a later start. Elke was not feeling good at all (head and tummy aches), and we were considering giving the skiing a miss. However, after a light breakfast and a little walk around, she started to feel a lot better. We went into the ski school and signed up for another lesson. This time....we went for skiing level 2 ! Basically this means that you no longer confine yourself to the kiddies magic carpet ride, but instead, you take off and hit the slopes (the basic green runs). We figured we deserved to be able to step it up a level as we were both now spending more time on our skis than on our bums :)

Our instructor John turned out to be a great bloke. We arrived for our lesson, and found out there was only going to be one other person in our group. What's even better, is that the other guy never showed up, so it ended up being Elke and I with the instructor. He was happy for us to take things at our own pace (which happened to be a lot faster than I expected, due to the steepness of a couple sections on those green runs).

We headed off down the first green run which took us direct to a chair lift that takes you to the top of Silver Star where you can pick and choose which runs to go down. The run that we took to the bottom of the mountain was called 'Easy Street' - it wasn't as easy as we might have hoped. After several little crashes on the way down we made it to the big ski lift (known as 'Six Pack') and had our first experience of getting onto a chairlift. Not quiet true - we rode one in Threadbo a couple of years ago but we didn't have skis on. Getting on is not too bad, you just kind of ski up to a certain point and then sit down when the chair comes around behind you. Getting off again is not as easy. You have to not just stand up, off a moving seat but you immediately start to slide when you put your wait on your feet. We`both managed to pull it off... the first time. The next one we both fell over and although Chris was alright again after that, I continued to fall every time for the rest of the day. It got a bit embarassing.

Our instructor, John, was execellent and gave us each lots of very specific feedback on what to fix with our technique - bend your knees in the turns, hands low, hands wide, look forward etc etc. It was about forty five minutes into the lesson, carefully practicing turns, when I got cleaned up by a snowboarder. The little bugger was going way too fast for a green run. He came shooting down the hill and ran across the front of my skis. I think I put my left arm up to shield myself and got knocked around and down and out of one of my skis. Poo-bum-head snowboarder tumbled down the hill a little. John (my hero) after checking to make sure I was ok took off after the kid and after checking to make sure he was ok, laid into him. He told poo-bum that he had been irresponsible and took his name and number and promised to call poo-bum's dad and tell him what young poo had done. Despite my best efforts I cried a little and I think that scared Chris as much as the collision...

I thought I was ok, so we carried on with the lesson but I could tell I had lost my nerve a little, I wasn't being as brave as I had been before and everytime someone came down from above I got nervous. I kept falling over and after a bit I noticed that my left wrist had got quite stiff and it was hurting a lot to push down with my ski pole. We ended the lesson a little early - one more advantage to have a personal lesson - and Chris and I went down to the village clinic to see if there was anything we could do for my arm.

Basically the diagnosis (by our Australian medic) was that it was just a sprain and nothing life threatening. He strapped it and we went to have a very late lunch at the village pub 'Long John's'.

Sunday morning the wrist was quite swollen - my knuckles had all disappeared under a layer of fluid - and very stiff. We returned our ski gear, luckily we were able to postpone the third day of our renting, and then bummed a lift into the nearest town of Vernon to try and find a pharmacy for some anti-inflamatory medication. Vernon is a very small town (I think I offended a local by asking where the centre of town was "this is the centre of town")with lots of cool murals, and not much open on a Sunday. We did find a pharmacy though and got what we were after. Then we just wandered. The shuttle back to the village left at three thirty so we made it back quite early. We made dinner, Chris beat me at Chess several times and we went to bed early.

The next day was even slower. We decided to rest the wrist for another day so we spent our time playing a new game on our Gameboy Advance, reading, blogging, plaing chess - oh and we slept in for the first time in a while which was also really nice.

Photos here

That night after dinner I looked out the window and saw what we had been hoping for - falling snow!! We both raced upstairs from the common room to get our warm gear on and grab the camera - Chris was so excited that he almost ran out of the hostel in his t-shirt, beanie and gloves, forgetting his jacket altogether. It didn't last very long but it was lovely while it did.

Tuesday, come hell or high water, we were going skiing. I took an pill with breakfast and we headed down the hill to get our gear back. By this time I had two of my knuckles back and my hand was starting to look less like a bloated frog and more like a hand. Skiing that day was brilliant. We started on the Magic Carpet again until they kicked us off to bring in some more snow. Brown patches were starting to show through all over the hill and I guess they thought it was getting a little dangerous for the kiddies (and us). So we headed over to a green run that we hadn't been on before but that was nice and even and wide. We practiced our skills there for a hour or so and then after luch we decided to go back to the scene of the crime... back to the runs we had done a couple of days before.

It was AWESOME!! We had such a good time! Even though we only had a couple of hours until the slopes closed we were able to do the really long run called 'Far Out' twice and a couple of other little bits and pieces. It really was great. We practised turning and stopping and going fast. Going fast is fun. Chris got a little tired of staying on the flatter bits that I was aiming for and started trying jumps and weaving in and out of the trees. He ended up on his bottom quite often and spent much of the afternoon giggling. It really was great - he even got air at one point. A little bit. I took it a little easy on the wrist and it held up fine!! Yay! We ended the night with dinner and some beer at Long John's. Yay!

It was a really great day to end a mostly excellent week. We both love skiing and are hoping that we will get much more opportunity to do it again in the next couple of years. (We are sure to get more of a chance in Europe than if we were still in Perth!!)

(We have had a few issues getting photos uploaded so there are still none from Silver Star, but they will be there soon. Sorry guys.)

Thursay morning (3rd March) began very early. At least very early by our standards. We were up by at least 6am, for anyone who knows us, 6am is very early. Jochen and Helgi very kindly drove us in to the airport in Victoria where we had a bit of breakfast before our flight. Mmmmmmmm, airport breakfast's are lovely :) It was quite sad to say "Goodbye" and the Dous trait of bursting into tears at any slightly emotional event was once again evident.

The 50 min flight to Kelowna in BC took us over spectacular snow capped mountains and Elke went mad with the digital camera. Despite having seen this sort of thing on television before, seeing it for real was still a breath taking experience. Chris was not so keen on the turbulance associated with flying over mountains and claims that this is why he was short of breath.

We spent a little bit of time in the Kelowna airport (not a very exciting place) waiting for our shuttle bus to take us to our resort. Yes, it is our resort...we have now claimed it as our own :)

The bus trip took us past the shore of Lake Kalamalka, a stunning sight. Picture this - still waters iced over in some places and cristal clear reflections of the hills on the far side. Beautiful.

We were a little concerned by the apparent lack of snow in the area. However, as if by magic, no sooner had we entered Silver Star Park, the snow was thick on the ground. Snow is great.

We arrived and checked into our backpackers called the "SameSun Hostel". It is quite a neat place with a big common room, ski in/ski out and an outdoor hot tub ! Feel free to check out the link above and take the virtual tour of the Hostel.

The village is just a short stroll from the hostel, so we immediately headed down there to see if we could sign up for an afternoon ski lesson.

The village itself is mostly made up of one main street with a few stores, resturants and a couple of pubs, all of which are painted in various bold colours. There are turquoise walls, yellow window sills, blue trim, green, orange, pink and so on. It really looks like something out of a christmas story and when the road is covered in a layer of snow, as it is now, it is spectacular!

Ski Dazzle apparently was the place to hire skiing equipment so we headed in there to investigate (although we figured that seeing as how this was going to be our first time skiing we were unlikely to be dazzling anyone). A Discovery package proved to be the way to go, for $149 (plus tax... it is always plus tax) we could get three days of gear hire, lift passes and lessons. Yay!

So with that organised we decided to spend our afternoon tubing. What is tubing? WELL... tubing (at the appropriately named Tube Town)involves being towed up a steep snowy hill by mechanical lift, being dumped off at the top, waiting in line for your turn and then racing flat-strap down a steep snowy hill, all while riding inside a large truck innertube. Snow is great. We spent three hours doing this and it didn't even start to get boring. If ever you get the chance... take it!

We decided to splurge a little on dinner that night and and went to a place called 'Clementine's', funnily enough on Main Street. It was a faboulous evening with flaming prawns at the table and the most amazing cheesecake for desert.

Friday morning we rocked up to the rental shop to get our gear organised for our first Skiing lesson!! We arrived a few minutes later than we had hoped and got stuck behind a group of about a million school kids. We got through eventually and were kitted out with the gear we needed. Ski boots are very heavy. Ski poles are quite long. Skis are both long and heavy. It all comes together quite nicely once you have them attached to your feet but trying to navigate through a hoard of excited kids while carrying this gear in your arms can be a trial. We did make it outside for our ten o'clock lesson without too many injuries.

There were only four of us in the group which was great because it meant more of a chance to get assistance from our instructor. We started off scooting up and down main street trying to get our balance on flat ground and then learnt about stopping by creating a wedge shape with our skis in the snow. The both of us were smiling continuously at this point, we kept looking at each other and mouthing 'we're skiing'.

From there we progressed to the 'Magic Carpet' - not as exciting as it sounds. It is essentially a small slope for beginners to try out their new found skills in a safe environment and so that they don't spend all day trying to climb back up the hill (a tricky thing to do when your skis keep wnating to slide backwards) there is a converor belt type thing that runs back up the middle of the slpoe that you literally ski onto at the bottom and off again at the top. Neat.

We spent the remained of the lesson in this little area and by the end we were able to make sloppy turns on our way down the hill and mostly avoid any obsticles. This is quite strange... the beginner's area is not really very beginner friendly. Firtsly, to get to it you have to ski across one of the major tracks leading into town, then it it quite small and is fenced all around with orange 'stay out' fencing. There is very little room to come to a gentle stop at the bottom and if you were to not stop and accidentally slide out eh opening at the bottom of the run you may well find your self shooting off down one of the Green runs on the hill. As a last little excitment-adder there are lots of large trees growing out of the run. Let's just say that you learn how to turn and how to stop fairly quickly!

After a lunch break and a change of boots for Elke (the ones she had originally were a size too small and made all the toes of her right foot go numb and the bottom half of her leg feel like fire - fun!) we headed back to the magic carpet to practise some more. Both of us came a cropper many times but luckily, other than a grazed thumb and a bit of a bump on the head for Chris, we came away unscathed. So our skiing career seemed to be off to a good, if somewhat wobbly, start.

Saturday morning was a beautiful day and,we were told, quite unusual for this time of the year. So we took advantage of the lovely sun to go and climb a mountain. A little mountain, yes, but a mountain none-the-less. Diane assured us that the view from the top of Mount Prevost (pronounced pre-voe) was beautiful and that we would drive up to a little carpark near the summit and then it was only a short climb to the summit and the breathtaking views of the Cowichan Valley. Uhuh.

We set out from home and drove through Duncan, a small town in the Cowichan Valley towards Mount Prevost. After a couple of dead ends we found the right path only to discover a steep looking hill that was covered in ice, snow and some dodgy looking tyre tracks (dodgy looking in the sense that the car that made them was more sliding around than progressing forwards). So we decided to leave the car and set out for the summit on foot.

The climb to the top proved to be a little more difficult than we initally anticipated. There were LOTS of steep climbs, mud, ice, snow and tracks that resembled those of a cougar (we are almost positive it was a largish dog, but it sounds so much better when we say COUGAR)! All in all, it was a pretty tough climb for two very unfit people (Diane did quite well I think), but the view from the top certainly was worth it.

Upon reaching the summit, we found a group of paragliding who were taking off from the top of Mt Prevost and using the thermals and breezes to take them down to a large field at the bottom. It was pretty cool seeing them launch from the top of the mountain and float out over the trees.

The trip back was much more relaxed, but still took us 45 mins to get back to the car. We slept quite well that night :)

The next couple of days we spent relaxing with the family and pretty much just taking it easy. There was a little bit of sleeping-in happening which was very much enjoyed.

However, on Monday we all went to lunch at the Pioneer House (a huge log cabin with several animal heads mounted on the walls and a mexican theme. The menu included buffalo burgers). The reason for the lunch was to celebrate Oma's (Elke's grandmother) 85th birthday.

On Tuesday, we were very brave and borrowed the car (Jochen and Diane were even braver to lend it to us) and took a trip into downtown Victoria. Luckily for us, this didn't entail to much in the way of navigation as the main highway out of Duncan took as straight into Victoria and right to our car park. We wandered through the streets of Victoria, down into Chinatown as well as past the harbour. It is really quite a pretty city and we are hoping to explore it a bit further when we come back after our week skiing. We have about 5 hours to kill there while we wait for our ferry ride down to Seattle.

During the week, we also planned our skiing trip to Silver Star. We were trying to work out how to plan a ferry ride back to mainland BC and time it right so we could then get a bus ticket to take us to Kelowna and then a shuttle ride to the resort. Just out of interest, we checked the cost of flying and found that we could get a one way ticket for just $69! Another big bonus was that our travel time would be seriously cut down.

Elke's Uncle Jochen used to be a rescue helicopter pilot, and likes to keep his skills sharp by flying around the world using MS Flight Simulator 2004. We also had a go at flying and while taking off is not too bad, landing is all together another story. Between us we must have destroyed many thousands of dollars worth of flying machine, Chris even managed to "land" a helicopter completly upside down (the passengers weren't very happy). We decided to fly by Perth to see what had changed since we departed and it now appears that the city has completely disappeared. There are no tall buildings there at all :( That is OK though, cause there are now serveral dozen bridges crossing the Swan. Good ol' Microsoft ;)

All in all, it was a great week and we really enjoyed spending quality time with the Dous Family in Canada. We also really enjoyed eating some home cooked meals for a change. While it was sad to leave, it was also quite exciting to be going to spend some time on a ski resort.

Photos will be added to our photo page in the next couple of days. You are also now able to comment on each post without having to register with the site.

This will be a slightly shorter bit... we were only in Vancouver one night. Actually we should have written this several days ago but we didn't. So you get it now.

We saw Mountains with snow on top!!!! Way cool. The flight between San Francisco was great and took us past several snow capped peaks. Checkout our photos to see!!! Way cool.

Photos

We arrived in Vancouver at about three in the afternoon and, on the advice of Elke's Unkle, we did not head straight for The Island. Had we done this we would have arrived, most likely after dark and would therefore have been unable to see either the city or the lovely little islands from the ferry.

Chris, while spending a few hours in the Vancouver airport some years ago, left a small love note for me tucked into a crack in a desk (in the internet room, of course), so the first half hour in the airport this time was pent trying to locate first the internet room and then 'the' desk. It was not a successful search. 'Why' I hear you asking 'would Chris leave a love note for Elke in a hidden place on the opposite side of the world to where they both live? Didn't he WANT her to find it??' Well, because Elke was travelling at the same time as the note was being written and was infact passing through Vancouver shortly after the the note was left, it wasn't as crazy an idea as it might at first sound.... Crazy Chris.

So back to this trip.

The essential difference between the US and Canada? It can be boiled down to this simple experience. After the failed love-note finding excursion, I was looking at a tourist map of Vancouver wondering about how to get in to the city centre and within a minute of standing and looking (only slightly) perplexed, a friendly man in a neat green jacket appeared at my elbow and asked if there was anything he could help me with. I like Canada. (Of course I don't want to generalise, that isn't fair either).

After deciding to catch the public bus, not the expensive airport shuttle, and trying to catch the said bus from the employees-only stop, and then getting kicked off the bus for not having exact change and minding some other poor sap's bag while he went to get smaller notes for the change machine, and battling our way down the isle with our big packs on our back.... we were on our way into the city. Yay.

We'd learned from our accommodation problem in Hawaii and booked ahead so we knew exactly where we were headed to, sort of. The two maps we had didn't seem to quite match so there was a little confusion but we made it. The vote was unanimous upon arrival - this was the best hostel we had stayed in, and we hadn't even stayed in it yet! We dumped our bags and headed out for a walk in Vancouver.

It is always amazing to me how coincidental life is at times. If we had turned back sooner, or later, or not gone out, or stopped to look in a window, or (well you get the point) we may never have bumped into Dean Commons and his pertner Amanda. Dean is/was a colleage of mine from Leeming Senior High School. As it was I was so excited about seening a familar face I couldn't remember his name until it was almost too late, and then I almost called him Dave. They have been here for the last couple fo months trying to get work, and we agrred that after dinner we would meet up again for a couple of drinks.

Here I need to mention that Chris, for the last half hour or so, had been almost continually discussing the $3.50 pints of beer that we saw advertised on the door of the competing youth hostel across the road from ours. I guess it was a good deal. So we decided that was the place to head with Dean and Amanda when they came to meet us at the hostel at 8.

Dean had a better idea and promtly marched us off to Gastown. It is a really neat area of town which Dean (an extremely well versed tour-guide considering their short residency)told us was the perfect place to open up a little theatre, and infact he had the perfect little place picked out. Backing onto (get this) Blood Ally!! Lots of atmosphere!! We headed to a little brewery for a drink and a chat.

We left Dean and Amanda on a quite road and headed for home. As we approached we became aware of the huge numbers of young party people out on the road. We joined in and Chris got his $3.50 pint of a local brew called Beaver Beer (or somthing equally as Canadian and loopy). Actually we each got several of them and after a plate of nachos and a chat with a Tasmanian girl we were both feeling a little tiddly. Actually, I think I was considerably more tiddly than Chris.

Across the road things had really picked up at the two pubs beside our hostel. The guy on the front desk, when asked, said that it was a fairly standard Friday night and that earplugs were available from him if they were needed. We declined, knowing that our room was at the back of the hostel away from the street and walked off down the wildly vibrating and thumping hallway. After an extended giggling fit brought on by the aforementioned tiddlyness and something funny said by Chris (although I can't now think what it was) we both slept well (despite dreams of being stuck in a techno dance club hell).

The next morning we made it to the ferry and over to Vancouver Island. Now reportedly this trip is very pretty with one leg of the hour and a half long journey being through a fairly narrow channel between some small islands. We didn't think we were going to see any of it. As we got closer to the ferry terminal the fog closed in and by the time we got on the boat we could barely see from one end of it to the other. It must have been our day though because the fog lifted completely just as we were reaching the island channel and the view really was fabulous. Lots of water birds (even seagulls can look romantic when you are in the right mood), wooded hill sides and smoking chimneys. It really was wonderful.

We were met at the terminal on Vancouver Island by Elke's Unkle Jochen and Aunt Diane. See if you can guess which side of the family they are on... Jochen, Jurgen, Elke... It was great to see them after so long and also to see their kids, Helgi and Johannes (more hints as to familial origins) and of course good old Oma.

OK, so it wasn't as short an entry as I had anticipated. Sorry. The next one will be shorter by comparison. Promise. I hope.

I just get so excited telling everyone about what is happening. Plus my journal in the old fashioned book form is not going well so this is to remind us when we get home too.

hugs to all.