Rockies trip and settling in Vancouver

Dale and I have just returned from a 10 day trip up to the Rocky Mountains with two friends Kate and Muir. On our way to the Rockies we stopped in the Okanagan Wine Region to sample some of local wines. We were pleasantly surprised by this region and its wineries. The Mission Hill Winery was the most impressive winery I had ever seen (rumoured to be in the top 5 winery restaurant settings in the world!)




Unfortunately on the day we were there it was too cold to eat at the outdoor restaurant.

After two days drinking wine and eating food we headed to Banff. Banff's beautiful snow-capped mountains, glaciers, aquamarine lakes and abundant wildlife made this an excellent area to see by foot.



We walked the famous Lake Louise, Lake Moraine and straight up Sulphur Mountain 6kms of up (I have only just recovered from that walk - if I don't have buns of steel now I never will!!)






Besides walking, Dale and I spent time driving around at twilight (9-10pm!!) trying to see bears, moose and elk. We saw big-horned sheep, deer, ground squirrels ...




... and a hoary marmot - our favourite animal yet. The hoary marmot is the largest North American ground squirrel.




Our next move was north on the Icefields Highway to Jasper. It was on this breathtakingly beautiful drive that we saw the first bear - a little black bear cub. The only good thing about having so many tourists around is that they all were on the search for wildlife. Cars parked on side of highway = wildlife of some description. Fortunately for us on two occasions these stops yielded black bears. So we did what the books told us not to and went to take photos. Don't worry mum there were "more tasty"' looking people next to us!



We also passed through Japser which was less touristy than Banff but still beautiful and then quickly onto Whistler.



We are now back in Vancouver and have moved into a great apartment in Kitsilano. We are four blocks from the beach, 10 minutes to downtown Vancouver and are surrounded by a huge range of restaurants, shops and outdoor equipment. We are really happy to have found this place and happy that we have finally seen some signs of summer in Vancouver!!

Next steps will be finding employment. I started looking today. Will have to get a wriggle on...

ktdz

The Livingstones, I presume.

Kate and Muir rocked up last night -- 8 hours from London Town. We chowed down at Red Burrito! (always said with a Mexican accent) -- it's our favourite cheap/easy/reasonably healthy food at the moment -- then we all wandered around a bit before dropping them back at their hotel for some jet lag recovery.

Muir took us to see his latest project:



As you can see, he's quite proud. It's quite an achievement. Kudos to the engineers too, of course.

Today we hired bikes and rode the Stanley Park seawall path. Always wear a helmet, kids.



(yes, this is Katie on an actual bicycle, with Muir and Kate in tow.)

We saw some totem poles:



..and some, er, "beach"? Mmm, very tempting.



..then we went to a supermarket and picked up some nibblies for a late lunch.

They sell non-alcoholic Beck's beer here! (Marty take note!)



This is the first time in a week we've had any real sun shine with actual warmth in it. It was quite nice to bludge down by the water and mock the Canada-at-sea-level sun's attempt to burn us. Ha-ha! Do your worst!





Update: You know how sometimes you don't realise you got burnt until later? Uh, yeah, well thanks a lot Canada-at-sea-level sun, you burnt me.

There's a triathlon on here at the moment and it's a qualifying round for the Beijing Olympics, so there are ridiculously fit people everywhere. None are quite as fit and good looking as Muir or myself though.

Stay tunned! (sic)

Tuesdays

PS: this was seen on Wednesday.

Vancouver Rain

So.. here's an update!

Weather-wise, we've had one nice'ish day (Sunday 1st June), but since then it's been pretty miserable. Everyone has been saying how they had a late Spring and that it should fine up soon, but I'm still not expecting to bust out the leopard print Mankini.

The last couple of days has been spent battling the jet lag-induced motivational crises and doing administrative things like opening a bank account, getting Social Insurance Numbers (like TFNs), mobile phone access etc. Canada is behind Australia in both banking and mobile infrastructure by .. I'd say 5+ years.

Food. We're right in the downtown area of the city, so we think we might not be seeing the best Vancouver has to offer, but the food offerings have been disappointing. It's almost certainly a case of not knowing where to go, but not surprisingly there is a strong US influence here and there are heaps of chains/franchises selling gross plastic food.

We did stumble into this one place called Urban Fare, and it was pretty impressive. It was like a bigger, better version of the David Jones food hall in Sydney. Check it:



Katie's been busy on the accommodation-seeking front, contacting a number of different real estate agents. We hope to tee up some inspections this week, before we head up to check out Whistler and a few other places in/around the mountains.

I've sampled a variety of Canadian beers so far and they've all been good, and served icey cold. The wares from Granville Island Brewery have been particularly delicious. I'll probably find out later that real Canadian blokes think it's girly beer.

I've got a meeting tomorrow morning with an IT recruiter guy, so hopefully soon I'll have some idea of what I'll be doing work-wise. Katie's gonna get on to the job seeking in a week or so.

That's all my tired (and admittedly hung over) brain can come up with at the moment.



PEAS!

Katie's new car?

We haven't really decided if we'll need or want a new car, but today we found some options for Katie.

This one:



..and this one:



..and lastly, this one:



What do you think? The original Bronze Beauty (rest in peace) would be proud..

PS: we, and thankfully our luggage, arrived safe and sound in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Saturday 31st of May.