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Sproat Lake
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Whale watching at Telegraph Cove
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Prince Rupert to Port Hardy
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K’san near Hazelton
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Hiking at Ancient Cedars
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Logging trucks
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Mr PG
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At the McLaughlins
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At the Splash Park
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Gale and Ed
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Kael and Devlin
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David and Denise
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Ceinwen and Nova
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Lynn Canyon
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A beach in Kits
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Totem poles
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Biking the seawall
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Stanley Park
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West End Vancouver
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August 31, 2013Went for a 3.5 mile run first thing this morning. Felt pretty good throughout, and was quite surprised that when I saw my final time — it was slower than I expected. A couple of months ago I was doing this run a good three minutes faster. I am carrying a bit of holiday weight, so that might be making a difference… Today marks the first day of a weight loss and fitness project I’m embarking on with my brothers David and Wade. I’ve set up a private blog page where we will post our weight for the next 100 days, to support each other in reaching our personal health and fitness goals. Family outing to Brent Cross to buy school shoes and uniform and do the weekly grocery shop as well. £150 later, and the girls are all ready for the start of school next week. Now to sew labels in everything, not that it prevents them from losing things left, right and centre. Which reminds me, we have to replace nearly all of Nova’s PE equipment, including hockey mouthguard, pads, socks etc as well…:-( Made yogurt-marinated chicken for dinner, with potatoes and green beans from the garden. Delicious! Lyra and I harvested all the potatoes this afternoon. Not as many as I was hoping for (I think they were drastically underwatered in August), but those we got were delicious… Watched the first episode of The X Factor with Nova — round one of the auditions. In Lyra’s view, all the singers are rubbish, and she went off to her bedroom to watch something better. I’m a sucker for that stuff, and was in tears more than once watching the many hopefuls give it their best shot. Some contestants are so amazingly bad that you do wonder if they are doing it as a joke, or have been paid to appear, or are just so deluded they think they have a chance… |
August 30, 2013Last day of Matilda bootcamp for Lyra. I dropped her and Lily off before 10am, then the whole family headed back at 3:30pm for the big performance. There are so many kids in the class that they had to have two performances. In spite of getting there early, we didn’t manage to bag a seat. Not that it mattered much, there were so many kids crammed into the performance area. Lyra was towards the front most of the time, and even had a line or two. From what I could tell, she knew all the words to the songs, but was less confident about the dance moves. It was a lot to learn in four days… We had tickets to see an award-winning production of A Doll’s House in the West End this evening. In spite of the hype, it did not disappoint. The actress playing Nora gave a stunning performance, and the language had been given a modern polish that made the story more compelling than ever. I loved the set – a revolving house without walls, that was used to great effect to portray the claustrophobic limits to Nora’s life… |
August 29, 2013Went for a one hour run first thing this morning. The weather was perfect, still cool but bright. Did my standard Heath loop — which takes just over an hour — and walked the last bit home as a warm down. I’ve had a think about how to best prepare for the half marathon from here, and this is what I’ve come up with. I’m going to stick with running every second day, alternating my 3.5 mile run with a longer run that I increase by 10 minutes each time. I’ll do the longer runs at a slower pace, and intersperse one minute walk breaks if/when necessary. If I stick to this schedule, I’ll manage to do a couple of +2hr runs before October 6. I doubt it will be enough to fully prepare me for that distance, but it’s the best I’ve come up with… Nova cooked dinner today! A beef-bean pie with steamed broccoli and banana “minion” muffins for dessert. I meant to take a photo of her dinner, but we were all so hungry and it looked so tasty that we dove straight in. Did get a shot of the minion muffins though…
Lyra had a triple playdate with her classmates Lily and Beatrix after Matilda bootcamp. As soon as I picked her up and we were away from the house, she burst into tears. “That was the worst playdate ever!” she sobbed. “Beatrix got mad at Lily and me when Lily whispered a secret. And even after I apologized, Beatrix still did so many mean things just to me not Lily, and she was too powerful for me! And now she is my enemy again!!” Yikes, beware the wrath of six-year-old girls… |
August 28, 2013Slept like a log again. If this is still jetlag, I’m liking it! Nova had Shira round for the day — those two always have fun together. This time, they made a rap video that involved getting outlandishly made up. It was pretty cute… Lyra was invited to a sleepover at her friend Alex’s. I zipped her over there after she returned from Matilda bootcamp. Tonight’s dinner was an interesting pasta dish where you combine all the ingredients in one pan — uncooked linguine, water, olive oil, raw onions and tomatoes, chopped garlic — and it cooks itself into a delicious pot of food. Coffee ice cream again for dessert. It was firmer today, but still a bit icy. More like an ice milk than an ice cream. I was in bed before Nova again this evening — shades of the future… Comment by Lyra today: “I wish I hadn’t told dad to get an iPhone 5, because it’s a bit better than his old phone and that makes him spend even more time on it. I should have told him to get an iPhone 3.” |
August 27, 2013Set the alarm for 7am. Yuk! Our holiday is definitely winding down… Made Lyra the first of many packed lunches I’ll be assembling over the coming months, then set off for a run. Did 50 minutes today, which felt alright… Hopped in the shower, snarfed the breakfast that Nova kindly prepared for me — sourdough toast with peanut butter, chunks of apple and a drizzle of honey — then bundled Lyra off to Matilda boot camp in Muswell Hill. Lots of eager, aspiring Matildas everywhere, including her two classmates Lily and Beatrix. Got in touch with my three active clients by email. Nobody seems to be champing at the bit to restart their projects, which is fine by me. It will all be a whole lot easier next week once the kids are back in school. Salad rolls for dinner with homemade coffee ice cream for dessert. Now that Adam is working away from home so much, I’m collecting all this cold coffee and looking for ways to use it up. I substituted some of the cream with milk, which made it lighter and icier, but still pretty delicious. Nova’s anti-bullying film has been edited and we’ve been sent a copy, which we watched this evening. Nova was pretty good, and unlike many of the kids, she seemed to know where to direct her gaze so that she looked natural on camera. She doesn’t mumble either — I couldn’t understand a single word a few of the characters said. Even with all that, I thought the was effective and quite believable. One of the vertebrae at the bottom of my neck seems swollen and feels sore. It’s been nagging at me since the flight home. I’d assumed it was from lugging all that luggage, and thought it was muscular, but seems to be affecting the bone itself. i’ll give it a couple more days and if it doesn’t show definite signs of improvement I’ll get the doctor to check it out… |
August 26, 2013Slept through until 8:30am this morning when Lyra woke me up, and felt pretty good for it. Adam wasn’t so lucky — he did the 3:30am thing and never managed to get back to sleep. Consequently, he was a large, crabby, purple-velour-covered, land slug for much of the day, while I was buzzy as a bee…;-) “You got some freckles in Canada,” I said to Lyra. “I hate freckles!” she said. “Freckles are cute!” I protested. “Why do I have to have curls and freckles?” she said. “Because you are where cute things go to live,” I said. “Nits aren’t cute!” Touché… On that subject, I did a another nit combing session on those family members with hair. I’m pretty much on top of it, but still found a few. Need to do it again in a few days, to get any last stragglers. Especially as I want to get my hair cut soon, and want to avoid potential embarrassment… Dinner was roast chicken with saffron pistachio rice and mange tout. The rice dish was from the Jerusalem cookbook and really tasty. Adam headed off to play football and I did music practice and bedtimes with the girls. It’s already dark by 8:30pm — and I can feel ourselves slipping into the autumn routines. The final episode of Top of the Lake certainly delivered a high-octane dose of creepyiness. In some ways, the programme reminds me of Twin Peaks — without the humour. I was right about the characters I distrusted, but I certainly didn’t see the ending coming… |
August 25, 2013Aside from the fact that our air mattress definitely has a slow leak, I had a great night’s sleep. Didn’t actually emerge from the tent until about 11am, to seek out a restorative bacon sandwich and a cup of coffee. Did some washing up, then headed out to sit in the sun. Perversely, the weather gods bestowed a lovely, sunny day on this corner of Suffolk after totally drenching yesterday’s celebrations. Sat around drinking tea and getting filled in on the local gossip about many of the guests we’d met the day before. Stuck around long enough to watch Jules and Mary open their mountain of gifts (our silver, engraved salad servers were a success), then made tracks for home. Much better drive this time, fortunately… I never feel like eating dinner after a weekend with those guys, but the rest of the family didn’t feel the same way, so I fixed them all eggs and toast. Once the girls were down, we watched another episode of Top of the Lake. That show is so creepy and suspenseful I have to resist the urge to just snap it off. Only one more episode to go… |
August 24, 2013Woke up at 3:45am, and there was no going back to sleep. Eventually we gave up and put the time to good use catching up our budget. Went for another run, managing my usual 3.5 miles this time. I was a little slower than yesterday… It’s hard to see how I’m going to get to half marathon fitness from here, but I’ll worry about that next week, once the jetlag wears off… We’re off to Suffolk this weekend to help Jules and Mary celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. That’s what happens when you marry in your early twenties… Rather than booking a hotel, we opted to camp in their walled garden. I didn’t have the heart to start packing yesterday, but I flew at it after breakfast. We’re not cooking or anything, so it was pretty straightforward, and we were on our way before 1pm. The weather was lousy for travelling — the cars on the motorway throwing up spray like a procession of jetskis. A nasty traffic accident near Stanstead added an hour to our journey, which meant we missed the start of the scavenger hunt. I certainly didn’t feel like hopping straight back into the car… What I did feel like was eating something — lunch had been a shared a bag of Cheezies. Unfortunately, we’d missed the food as well. All the early nibbles had been ravaged, and what was left was pretty damp. They set up tables on the lawn under canopies, but water was managing to seep through the eyelets and joins. Also, there were a crazy number of wasps around, which had driven all the guests inside. A few hardy children were determined to bounce on the bouncy castle or trampoline in spite of the weather, but most were lounging around watching The Simpsons. When the rain finally slowed to a light drizzle, we seized the chance to get the tent up before the scheduled lightning storms. As Adam observed, if he was holding the main pole during an electrical storm in Suffolk, he’d be tallest thing for miles around… After a few glasses of champagne, I prudently switched to water until the food was served. Mary had done all the catering herself, and it was an amazing spread: ham and beef roasts, two poached salmon, numerous salads, terrines, and breads. I filled my boots… and my party dress as well. I had vague thoughts of not bothering with dessert, but dropped that ridiculous idea when I saw the array of deliciousness on offer, though I drew the line at cheese…;-) I’d moved onto the red wine by this point, and in spite of the food, was managing to get a bit sauced. Carved out a corner of sofa where the kids were watching an X Factor preview show and grabbed a quick nap, which gave me the strength to carry on into the wee hours. I was dancing in the kitchen with the rest of the hardcores at 1:30am — hardcores that included both my children… An excellent party, and so British the way that the weather couldn’t make a dent in anyone’s enjoyment! |
August 23, 2013We all slept straight through until 8am. It’s just as well Adam set the alarm. We could have all snoozed on for a few more hours. I woke the kids at 9:30am before going for a run. I was lacking in energy to say the least, and only managed 2.5 miles before heat and tiredness dragged me down. I’ll try again tomorrow… Pleased to see the garden looking okay. Pete watered the greenhouse regularly, but cheerfully admitted he hadn’t eaten anything: “If it’s not in a Tesco packet, I have no idea what to do with it. We just left it well alone…” I certainly know what to do with it, though the kids might wish I didn’t… Lunch was a kale salad. I massaged walnut oil into the leaves to soften them a bit, then tossed them with overripe cherry tomatoes, steamed monster green beans, and chopped hardboiled egg. Nova and I both liked it, but Lyra ate hers pretty slowly… Still tackling the laundry mountain and getting on top of the housework. We have ants coming in from the balcony and traversing the sofa, and an impressive variety of dead moths in the stairwell… Adam made it home in time for dinner. I made a sort of barbeque chicken quinoa paella. It was okay — it’s not going on the family favourites list or anything. Another episode of Top of the Lake. Disturbing, compelling stuff… |
August 22, 2013None of us slept until about 2 hours before the plane landed at Gatwick, and poor Lyra was stupidly tired and cranky when it was time to leave the plane. Jollied her along the endless corridors and through immigration to the baggage hall, where they are still charging travellers a quid to use a luggage trolley. It makes me so bloody mad every time. What with the low ceilings squashing you towards the dirty gum spackled floor, the lack of seating, squalid toilets, and miserable faces everywhere, it’s not much of a welcome to the UK… Lyra’s suitcase handle was broken in transit. No biggie, as we’re planning to chuck it anyway, though it did make it harder to lug the gardening encyclopedia around. The train journey was smooth, and we got a cab straight away. The cat was waiting for us, and seemed pretty happy to see us for once. After a short nap, I got stuck into the unpacking. Adam was working away downstairs, and it took me ages, though Nova did help a bit. Lyra collapsed upstairs, until I woke her for a shower, after which she fell straight back to sleep again, Dinner was simple pasta supper with herbs from the garden. Pesto for the kids, and parsley garlic chilli for us. Played a few rounds of Hungry Hippos afterwards in an effort to raise our energy levels, followed by episodes of Modern Family. Managed to pretty much stay awake until 9pm. Lyra wasn’t particularly sleepy, but the rest of us were out like lights. |
August 21, 2013Pretty early start this morning, but our thinking was that we were facing a travel marathon regardless, and opted to relax yesterday instead of upping sticks for Vancouver. Margo packed us a big lunch, and we were just behind Aaron in heading off… The gas light came on just after Cathedral Grove. Although we knew from the Prince Rupert experience that we could probably make it to the airport, we stopped briefly to put $10 in. (The rental car company policy is for you to return it empty, which allows them to resell whatever gas is still in the tank to the next customer.) Just made the ferry reservation, but it wasn’t an issue as the ferry was only 78% full anyway. It seemed to be a smaller ship than I remembered, but maybe I’m just being influenced by the Northern Expedition. Bought coffees and dived straight into the packed lunch, opting for homemade energy bars and glasses of apple juice. Spent nearly all of the journey out on deck, where the water as calm and glassy as a swimming pool. Stopped off in Richmond, where we got a little disoriented finding the Aberdeen Mall, but made it eventually. Had a happy hour in Daiso, my favourite Japanese dollar store, then grabbed something to eat in the food hall. Lyra’s Hong Kong style bubble waffle was good choice, Adam and I split a bibimbap (not as good as ours), and Nova had wonton soup. When we dropped the car at the airport, the guy was surprised we’d returned it so empty — ha! We tried to sell him the booster seat, but he didn’t go for it. Effortless check-in taking all of two minutes, after which we hung out for a couple of hours by the Bill Reid sculpture reading and polishing off the rest of our lunch, before going through passport control. We got a beautiful new plane this time, with little personal screens and loads of movie options. I watched Argo, and This is Forty over the next nine hours. Adam managed to fit in The Hobbit as well, but he wasn’t sitting with us… The food was fine — nothing to get excited about, but better than last time. All in all, a pretty pleasant experience… |
August 20, 2013Last full day of our holiday…sigh…:-( I’d happily stay another three weeks and do the whole thing over again… Headed into town with Margo for some final shopping and to see ICBC about renewing my BC drivers’ licence. For various reasons, after talking to them I deemed it better to return in two year time with my birth certificate and pretend that I am just relocating to Canada after a spell abroad than try to sort it out now. Looked in a few places for silver wedding gifts as well, and finally had success at the jewellers. Bought Jules and Mary a beautiful set of silver plated, Haida salad servers. One is carved with an eagle motif and the other with a killer whale. Picked up a silver raven ladle for us as well — a lovely memento of our trip.
The sun burst out in the afternoon, and we spent the whole afternoon on the wharf, swimming and jetskiing and drinking cava. Frank and Katie came round with their big motor boat to take the girls tubing. Tubes are certainly more advanced than the big round inner tubes from my childhood. This “tube” was an inflatable, three-seater disc with handles to grip. Adam sat in a middle with a girl on either side, Aaron and I climbed aboard as spotters, and off we went. For the first couple of laps, Frank kept the speed in check, but before long we were blazing along the lake, the tube skimming along behind. It got pretty bumpy at times, and the tubers were occasionally airborne, which resulted in Adam and Lyra knocking heads together, reusulting in a few tears and a nasty lump, but nothing that would stop our Lyra…
Our final evening kicked off with martinis and tour round the garden. I loved the way Margo and Aaron know each of their trees and plants so intimately, speaking about them as if they were old friends. Dinner was a delicious heap of prawns and a big salad. Nothing could have suited me better. Did nearly all the packing before heading to bed at 10:30. Lyra’s little pink suitcase is stuffed with gardening books, and now our heaviest bag… |
August 19, 2013Early start today — though not as early as poor Aaron who was up at 4:30am to go to work. We were breakfasted and in the car by 9am en route to our ziplining adventure. Aaron has some free passes as part payment for the surveying and tree work he’d done when the zipline was being set up. I’d gravolled the kids at breakfast, but Lyra was feeling the curves anyway. It was a relief to pull up at the place 45 minutes later without incident… There were tears when it looked like Lyra wouldn’t be able to zipline. According to the guidelines, you should be “10 years old, 65lb and four feet tall, and not suffer from motion sickness — and Lyra only meets the height criterion. The tears may have helped, because after cinching a harness tight as it could go, and hanging Lyra from a cable to see how she coped, she was pronounced safe to go. The experience started with a short hike through ancient forest — wet and slippery and beautiful — to the first platform. Lyra needed to go last with one of the two guides for extra ballast. She didn’t like that much, though she wouldn’t have had enough weight to travel the distance on her own. There were five more ziplines of varying length strung along the river canyon — short fast ones, and longer, graceful glides, all ending with quite a bump at the end. In fact, the main instruction you’re given is not to have your hands too close to your face, otherwise you might give yourself a mighty punch in the nose at the end of a run. I gained confidence with each run, gradually taking my hands off the rope, and leaning back a bit. I found I had minimal ability to control which direction I faced, and tended to go backwards in spite of leaning, turning my head etc. Some of the more enthusiastic zippers, Lyra included, tried going upside down for part of the run. Definitely not for me… There was another family doing the runs at the same time. They looked like they’d been sent from central casting to make an advert of a perfect family having a great time ziplining. Aside from being incredibly goodlooking, they were also really nice — no whining from their two kids about who went first. The dad was laden with quality photo gear, and kindly offered to send us pictures of our efforts. In the meantime, Margo was waiting on the bridge, and snapped these action shots:
Headed on to Tofino, stopping for lunch at a taco wagon Margo has heard good things about. (Tacos certainly seem to be the happening food on this visit… about time too). I opted for one fish and one tuna, both of which were delicious. Coconut water seems to be the happening drink, so I tried that too. I was tucking into my lunch when I felt a wasp land on my forehead. I reached up with my drink hand to brush it off, displacing my sunglasses. Grabbing for my glasses, I dropped my can of coconut water. It spun in a full circle, landing on the table and dousing Margo. The other diners (Walmartians, according to Margo) at our communal table, didn’t bat an eye, just kept munching steadily… Took a spin round Tofino after lunch, which I was pleased to find changed but not ruined. Parked up at Long Beach for a bit of a walk and a wade in the beautiful afternoon sunshine. All except Nova, who spent her entire time playing with a two-year-old boy she met in the parking lot. I’m not even sure she looked at the ocean the entire time… His parents were certainly appreciative, and rewarded her with a bottle of pineapple-flavoured coconut wate. “I’m not sure about this coconut water,” she said after taking a sip, “I think the lavish thanks and praise was enough for me.” We were home by 4:15, and headed straight down to the wharf with G&Ts. Aaron took us all out on the jetski again, and Adam went for a more daring solo ride. He even produced a little spray this time…;-)
Dinner was chicken kebabs with pitta bread and veggies. “I think we have some of that butterscotch ice cream left,” Nova said, after clearing her plate. I liked her use of “we”, and it shows how at home the girls feel with Margo and Aaron. Had a second search for Sugarman this evening — what an amazing film, and how incredible that this obscure artist was actually bigger than Elvis in South Africa. I guess he had the right message for the time, but still what are the chances of that happening? And the fact he no idea that his music was being played at all, when he was eventually tracked down. A tour was arranged, and when he returned his construction buddies didn’t believe him when they saw the photos. “I thought those pictures must be photoshopped,” one guy said. They never got to the bottom of why he never received any money from the royalty cheques that had been paid for the last three decades, but perhaps he had one of those hugely unfair contracts some artists were bound by. In any event, Rodriguez is back on the map now, touring, selling albums and so on. And still living in the same house, and giving away most of the money he receives… |
August 18, 2013Spent some time this morning helping Lyra type her new story about a girl who moves house. She’d laboriously typed a couple of paragraphs on the iPad and wanted me to move things along a bit. After dictating a few sentences, she grabbed the screen to read what I’d written. “Hey,” she said, “you’re spelling “house” with a “u”.” When I pointed out that was the correct way to spell it, she said, “I like it with a “w”, because o w is a more usual “ow” sound.” She me go back and change all ones I’d done. Adam and I made a run into town pick up some groceries for Margo, and beer for their party — they’ve invited a few couples over for afternoon drinks. “What’s a party like this called anyway?” Margo wondered. A quick Google search reveals that you can call it “an outdoor soirée” — but only if it’s on Sunday, which it happens to be… We’d met some of the folks before, like Sue and Jim (owner of the jetski), Frankie and Katie, and Derek. But others were new to us. Had a great conversation with their neighbours Wendy and Glen, who live a couple of houses down. Glen has spent a fair amount of time in Prince George, so we had that in common, plus I was interested to hear about his work and travels in Central and South America. Margo had made a lovely baba ganoush with eggplants she’d grown on the wharf, and set out platters of veggies and cheese. Many of the guests brought food as well: nachos, that seven-layer Mexican dip that no Canadian soirée is complete without, and delicious upsqui (cold-smoked salmon jerky). Logging has seen right by these guys. Most seem to be at least semi-retired, and wintering in Mexico in $100,000 RVs, not to mention the boats, cars and other toys. Frank gives Aaron a lot of kidding about not retiring. When Aaron brought out a beautiful rock he’d bought that had been sculpted into a vase, Frank said, “Yep, just keep workin’ Aaron, and you’ll be able to buy plenty more rocks like that!” I’d switched to water after three beer, and filled up on party food. Found room for half a hotdog and a martini, and called that dinner… |
August 17, 2013Had a great night’s sleep, straight through to 7:30. After all the talk of how we’re going ziplining while we’re here, I thought I’d better weigh myself. It’s possible I’ll need to know what I weigh when choosing a harness, and I don’t want any nasty surprises. I remember how mom wouldn’t take a helicopter tour in Hawaii because she didn’t want to be weighed. I thought “how silly” at the time, but have more empathy now… This John Saul novel is terrible dreck, but I’m ploughing through it… (Another bed wetting incident…:-( Got the sheets straight in the wash, mopped the mattress with a special absorbent cloth called a Shamwow(?) — I need to get me some of those, and applied a urine neutralising product I’m assuming they use for the cat. How do I not know about these useful products?) Made a foray into town to look at a few Tseshaht gift shops — Adam has an idea for a silver wedding anniversary present for Jules and Mary, but we had no luck finding it. We did find cherryade (cherry soda, actually) at Naesgaard’s fruit stand, which Lyra has been on a mission to taste since the moment we landed.
Bought cherries and cukes and well, and were going to get some peas but Margo didn’t like the way the previous customer had fondled them. “What a peavert!” I said, making Aaron laugh… The weather was looking up by this point, so we headed down to the dock for a swim. Lyra was the most ambitious, making four trips to the rose raft and back as well as leaping in to the water multiple times. Aaron took the girls out on the jetski, and Adam made a stately tour as well, before another turn in the weather drove us back to the house…
Tonight’s cocktail was margaritas, and dinner was a barbequed side of coho salmon, served with risotto cakes, green beans and grilled slices of aubergine from the garden. We’d planned to watch “Looking for the Sugarman” about the musician Rodriguez, but I crashed out after about ten minutes. Will have to look for him another night…;-) |
August 16, 2013Went for a 6:45am wake up this morning Not as brutal as yesterday, but we’re all feeling pretty tired. “Where am I?” Lyra said, when I finally coaxed her into opening her eyes. She had no memory of getting to the hotel. We didn’t bother with showers — just scoffed a quick bowl of cereal and hit the road. At the turn off to Telegraph Cove, I looked around and noticed the camera was missing. “Where’s the camera?” I asked Adam. Turns out he’d put it in the trunk. “I should have it, we’ll probably see a bear on this road,” I said. He offered to stop, but we were running a bit late and I said not to bother. Of course, round the next bend, we saw a good-sized black bear ambling along the side of the road. He didn’t seem bothered by the car, and we watched him for a good minute before carrying on. I took a couple of snaps on my phone, but they weren’t great:
Telegraph Cove has discovered tourism since I last visited twenty years ago. There’s pay parking with room for tour buses, and most of the houses on the boardwalk are freshly painted and sport interpretive signs. I think they may even be renting some out as holiday homes.
Our boat was waiting at the end of the pier. There was a bit of jockeying for position, and some pushy Italian tourists actually shoved us aside to position themselves at the top of the gangway. I was quietly amused when “captain Mike” employed a system that had us boarding in the ordered we’d booked.
We positioned ourselves at the front of boat. The wind was pretty brisk once we got moving — and choppy too. An awful lot of water flows through Johnstone Strait… We motored out to where there were reports of orcas and idled the engine. Didn’t have long to wait before we started spotting orca fins, and the odd humpback blow as well. In fact, we saw so many orca fins in the next half hour that I overheard one little boy complain that he “was bored of looking at orcas.”
We moved again for the humpbacks. They were harder to photograph, especially as they’d stay down for twenty minutes at a time, then pop up pretty much anywhere. One surfaced about ten feet from the boat, but I missed the shot. Even so, it was pretty cool…
After that we headed back towards Telegraph Cove, stopping to look at eagles roosting, harbour seals, and some stellar sea lions. Our earnest little biologist, fresh out of UVIC gave an interpretive talk, which ended with a spiel about dioxins and furans. Took me back to my Greenpeace canvassing days, and how I must have looked trotting out the same stuff on people’s doorsteps. On the last stretch, a school of Dahl’s porpoises raced alongside the boat, weaving around the bow. An amazing finale to a great tour…
Ate lunch in a pub on the boardwalk before setting off for Margo and Aaron’s. Nova was keen to order an adult meal, but settled on something substantial from the kids’ menu. The child’s lasagne she received came in the same size dish I use to make mac and cheese for the whole family… Adam and I both felt pretty dozy after eating, and had to pinch and poke each other to stay awake. Stopped for coffee at Saywards Junction, and felt a bit better after that. Once we hit the Island highway, we made good time — and more importantly didn’t get lost. Pulled up at theirs at 6:15pm… Aaron and Margo look exactly the same as they did two years ago, the beggars! We were welcomed with chilled glasses of prosecco, followed by martinis that were as delicious as I remembered. It feels so good to stop moving! The ferry was relaxing, but it still counts as travelling… Dinner was jerk pork with peaches, mushroom risotto and carrots, followed butterscotch pecan ice cream — all of it delicious. Retired to the livingroom with shots of Grey Goose in the living room. The extra alcohol and comfy chair pretty much finished Adam off, and he retreated to bed. The rest of us weren’t far behind him… |
August 15, 2013Up at 4:45am and into the shower before packing the bags again. Just time for a quick muffin and coffee before we were due at the ferry terminal. Boarded pretty soon after we arrived, then sat in the dock for a long time before departure. Adam and the girls went off to partake of the buffet breakfast,but I didn’t fancy it. Sat reading and waiting to set sail instead. Made the mistake of getting stuck into a John Saul novel I found on the seat next to me — a supernatural thing that reminds me of the kind of books I read as a teenager. When they returned, we relocated to the cabin we’ve booked for the journey. It’s really nice, with two single beds, a little desk and spotless toilet and shower. The whole ship is beautiful actually, and very new. Our sailing is less than half full, which suits me fine…
The ferry takes fifteen hours to travel from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy. For some reason, they normally do it in the winter, aside from July and August when they switch to a daytime schedule. Not sure why, though I’m sure they’re looking for tourist trade in the summer months.
The girls were mainly happy to hang out in the cabin, were they both beavered away on the stories they are writing. Lyra’s is called Emily May and the Witch, while Nova’s is set in First Nations village. I spent lots of time on the various decks, OD’ing on the scenery. The first time I was a salmon leap I rushed to take a picture, but soon realised it was a pretty regular occurrence. Some possible ideas about why they do it include to knock off sea lice, to break up their roe in preparation for spawning, or even as a kind of training for the spawning run. Who knows?
This ferry route travels almost the whole length of British Columbia by the Inside Passage, which weaves its way between the islands that line the coast. Dad worked on ferries that ran from Victoria to Alaska as a young man, mainly as a kitchen hand or porter. He told me once that in those days there were still some passengers who made use of the chamberpots in their berths. When he was doing up the rooms, if he encountered a used chamberpot he’d just toss it out the porthole…
In the afternoon, we were granted a tour of the bridge, which was very interesting. I was surprised at how recognisable the controls were. The forward/reverse was just the same as one a motorboat, and the rudders looked like shower dials. The boat relies on GPS now and spends a lot of time on autopilot. They still need a crew on the bridge though, as it would still hit an iceberg if it was in the way…
I was definitely up for the buffet dinner in the nice dining room. We did the Canadian thing and got there early, securing a lovely window seat before all the Europeans arrived. Buffet dinners encourage my worst eating instincts — curiousity to try everything, determination to get my money’s worth. I was often distracted from my plate by the sight of humpback whales surfacing and blowing outside the window. Sitting there with a glass of chilled white wine and my husband and beautiful girls to share it with added up to one of those perfect moments…
Spent an hour on deck watching the sunset, which was beautiful despite never getting past the golden stage. Got chatting with an English woman who has spent the summer in BC. She had a fabulous Canon camera, which made me realise we are pretty much getting the worst of both worlds with our camera: an unneccessarily clunky body couple with an insufficiently powerful lens. I’ll have to remedy that…
After the cold drove her indoors, I got talking to a Mr Clifford, an engineer from Chilliwack who is realising a lifelong dream to take this ferry ride. His face fell a bit when I mentioned that we’d had a tour of the bridge. I felt bad for tarnishing his dream. We talked for so long his wife had him paged…
Once darkness fell, there was not much point in staying on deck. We all hung out in cabin for an hour, and the girls even had showers. We’ve definitely got our money’s worth out of this cabin. I’d opted to stay in Port McNeill instead of Port Hardy, where the ferry docks. It’s a half hour down the road, and Lyra was asleep by the time we pulled in to the Haidaway Motel. I carried her from the car over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and she didn’t wake up even when I removed her clothes and took her to the toilet. The motel is built entirely of breeze blocks and painted a (now dingy) off-white. There is no foam underlay to the carpet — I’m pretty sure they just unrolled it straight on the concrete. So it’s not a cozy place, but clean enough. In fact, it smelt of some sort of industrial disinfectant. The guy in the room across the hall had a voice like a fog horn — it just cut straight through those brick walls — but we were all too tired to care… |
August 14, 2013
Woke up at 6:45am, showered, and finished the packing. I’ve got an idea for how we can get the gardening encyclopedia set home. I’m going to dedicate Lyra’s little pink suitcase to carrying it, and stuff all her clothing into my duffel bag. Ate some breakfast, then said our goodbyes. It was 8am rather than 7am, but that’s fine. I was sorry to go — it’s been a great visit, and I always feel sad about saying goodbye to dad…
When Adam asked for directions, I said, “Just turn right at Mr PG and keep driving until you hit the Pacific Ocean.” That’s pretty much it… Wade assured us we’d see a bear on the drive, and sure enough, we spotted one just past Vanderhoof. It was standing by the side of the road, minding its own business. It backed up a bit when I rolled the window down and stuck out the camera but obligingly posed for a couple of photos before slipping into the woods. Love the paws!
Stopped at the Burns Lake A&W for an early lunch. The food was pretty good — better than I remembered at any rate. After all that singing of the A&W song, I promised the girls we’d visit next time we were in Canada.
Stopped again in Smithers for a coffee and a doughnut at Tim Hortons. I took over the driving, but my eyes were really bugging me today. Whatever the cause — brightness or air conditioning — it resulted in a lot of eye strain.
Turned into Hazelton and visited the model Gitxsan village at K’san. We’d planned to just go round ourselves in the interest of saving time, but fortunately came to our senses and stayed for the full tour.
The woman who took us round grew up in PG, and provided an interesting counterbalance to the audiovisual stories of the old ways. Nova asked lots of interesting questions (mainly as research to a story she’s planning to write), and at the end the woman said to her, “I like you — you’re cool!”
Still four hours to Rupert…:-( Blew past Terrace without stopping, and we’d been driving about half an hour when the reserve tank light came on. “So where’s the next petrol station?” Adam asked. “I’m pretty certain there’s nothing out here,” I said, though not having a map, we couldn’t actually confirm that, but we knew it was about 90km still to Prince Rupert. It seemed the only course of action was to go on…
The light was starting to fall and the mist was sweeping in. The vast expanse of rushing river and brooding forests that had seemed so atmospheric minutes ago, now assumed a menacing quality. When we saw a cougar stretched along the concrete guardrail with its unmistakable tail sticking in the air, we gave it only a passing glance. I was focussed on the road ahead, scanning every sign. I was eventually rewarded with the sight of a blue “Gas/Food/Lodging” sign on the horizon. Momentary excitement, until we drew closer and realised they’d scrubbed out the “Gas” part…:-(
We stopped to ask a motorhome in a layby if they knew where the closest gas station was. They thought Port Edward, which was only 10km our side of Prince Rupert. We resumed driving as frugally as possible, coasting down the slopes, counting down each painful kilometre and planning strategies for when the car died.
The only option seemed to be for Adam to leave us in the car and hitchhike into Prince Rupert, then hitch back with a jerrycan of fuel. I was wishing we hadn’t seen all those Highway of Tears billboards, showing all the people who’ve gone missing hitching on this particular stretch of highway. As we drew closer to civilization, the plan changed to calling a taxi to drive us to the hotel, before driving Adam back to the car with some gas.
Unbelievably, we somehow made it to the junction for Port Edward. The sign informed us that it was 3km down a side road to Port Edward and 10km to Rupert. “Shall we just push on?” I joked. We sobered up again when we saw how desolate Port Edward was. The store looked abandoned, and when we reached the decrepit pumps, the first one was out of order, the second said “marine” but the last one contained unleaded. Phew…
We’d booked what seemed like the last hotel room in Prince Rupert, which turned out to be a small suite at the Inn on the Harbour. It had a little sitting room, and overlooked the parking lot, which they pitched to us as a “mountain view”.
Dropped our bags and headed straight out for dinner at Dolly’s, which is reputed to have the best seafood in town. It was certainly busy, and the food didn’t disappoint: delicious chowder, beautiful juicy halibut, caesar salad with crab… and chicken strips with chips for Lyra.
Back at the hotel, we were still a bit giddy with post-stress hormones from that fuel-free drive…
August 13, 2013
Our last full day in Prince George…:-( We took everybody out for breakfast at the Hart Wheel Inn. There’s nothing Adam loves more than a diner-style breakfast, and this was a good one. Lovely fluffy pancakes, crispy bacon, eggs sunnyside up, and a bottomless cup of coffee. Good stuff…
Did a bit of shopping around town afterwards with Ed and Nova. First stop, Michaels, to buy dishcloth cotton. After that, we headed into town, hitting a kitchen shop, Northern Hardware and the Third Avenue bookstore for various purchases. In Northern Hardware, I heard this guy’s voice and thought to myself, “Is that Wade?” When a woman answered who sounded just like Gale, I was sure they were in the next aisle. Rounded the corner to see… another couple about their age. Could it be there’s such a thing as a Prince George accent?
I had dad drive us past the McBride house on our way to the swimming pool. It’s looking pretty ramshackle, and there’s a large willow tree leaning heavily on the roof that needs seeing to… Took a spin up the back alley, which is much more overgrown than it used to be. It appears to be lined with lilac bushes — must be beautiful in the spring.
Met up with Adam, Wade, Gale and the girls for an afternoon swim. I love the new aquatic centre. It does make me a bit jealous that the PG Pisces have such a lovely pool to train in now. I wonder how much better I might have been with that pool to train in?
We were all pretty hungry after that, and decided to swing by the Dairy Queen. I showed relative restraint and order a dipped cone while everyone else went for banana splits, peanut buster parfaits and so on.
Ed cooked tonight, something he regularly does on Tuesday nights. Dinner was meatloaf, potatoes, broccoli and carrots, with blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert. Excellent meatloaf — Nova said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you that this meatloaf is better than yours mum.” She really liked the nuttiness that came from the oatmeal with flaxseed dad had added instead of breadcrumbs.
Did a rough packing job, put on laundry, and then watched telly, some Ken Burns thing on national parks. We were all pretty tired, and it wasn’t a late one…
August 12, 2013
Happy birthday, Greg!
Fruit and yogurt again for breakfast with a sprinkling of the hemp hearts we bought at the supermarket yesterday. Tasty little items and apparently very good for you. I’m sure they are totally compensating for my current diet of snack treats, cocktails and beer…;-)
Headed over to visit Carolyn after breakfast. Lyra remained behind — she is not to be separated from her cousin Isobel under any circumstances. I’m kind of dreading the goodbye on Wednesday morning — they’ve had a lovely time together.
Managed to get lost on the way to Charella Heights, which was kind of embarrassing. Had to call Carolyn twice for directions. It was really nice to see her, though she got Nova’s back up right off the bat by saying, “you’re not as tall as I expected.” I imagine she was comparing Nova to her granddaughter who’s exactly the same age, but it’s something Nova feels sensitive about, especially with Lyra growing like a weed…
After a tour of the garden and a long stretch observing her beehives, we sat down to fresh scones and honey –lovely. Left in time to make our lunch date at the McLaughlins. Sat out on their beautiful deck, eating Greek salad, pitta and dips, lamb roast, and french fries. As always, it was great to see them — they’re like family after all these years…
It was our turn to cook this evening. After dropping Nova and Adam home, I zipped over to the grocery store with Wade. Bought supplies for Vietnamese salad rolls and a chicken-mint salad. Back when Wade lived in Vancouver, he worked in a pan-Asian restaurant called Tea and Silk, where he made salad rolls daily. We did all the prep first, then took turns assembling a large platter of prawn and shrimp rolls — good fun. The kids all liked them fine, especially Lyra, who ate more than anyone aside from Wade.
We all clambered into hot tub afterwards for a beer and a soak. There was a lightning storm on the horizon. Nothing like the previous storm, which made national news apparently, unless Wade is winding me up. That would be so out of character…;-)
Stayed up until 1am drinking whisky (rye for me), and listening to classic rock, Canada style — BTO, Dr Hook, Trooper, The Stampeders! I completely forgot about those guys…
August 11, 2013
Apparently there was the most amazing thunderstorm in Prince George last night. Sheets of lightning with bolts dancing in front, deafening claps of thunder, monsoonlike rain, that lasted for over half an hour and had the entire city awake and glued to the window. Not that I’d know, because I slept through it. Even Adam claims it was amazing, though what he could know about it having experienced the whole storm in our basement bedroom under the sundeck I can’t quite see…;-)
Today’s outing was to Ancient Forest just west of McBride. Wade packed a lunch, and we set off about 10:30am. Travelled a good hour east out of town, stopping at Purden Lake Resort to check it out, and buy baked goods. My first — and only! — butter tart of the holiday.
In the dining area there was a large stuffed black bear looming over the tables. “That’s not real,” Lyra said firmly. “It’s real,” I said, “but it’s not alive — it’s a real bear that’s been stuffed.” She thought for a moment and said, “I think maybe it’s better if you see a bear when you are in your car. Even stuffed bears.”
The Ancient Cedar rainforest was recently discovered by a UNBC student, and is apparently the furthest inland of any temperate rainforest. Some of the trees are thought to be 2000 years old. Volunteers have constructed hiking trails and interpretive signs, and even built a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk round part of it. We hiked the whole loop, stopping for a little picnic by the waterfall.
When we got back to Wade’s place, Adam and I headed over to the Hart Mall. We moseyed along the grocery aisles, looking at all products we don’t get in the UK, and buying things to take home.
Speaking of taking stuff home, dad has given me a four-volume encyclopedia set of gardening books. They are beautiful, but fill up an entire suitcase by themselves. “Why you taking that big bag?” Adam asked when I was packing last week. “Because we always end up buying one when we’re out there,” I said. In fact, the one I brought is the very one I had to buy last time…
Made a round of bloody caesars before dinner. They were so delicious, we immediately made another round. It’s a shame you can’t get Clamato juice in the UK — it’s a fine cocktail. Steak night tonight — grilled steaks coated with a delicious rub, caesar salad, and delicious dilled potatoes.
Watched “Django Unchained”, which is a very good film. Everytime I think old Dicaprio has lost it, he nails another great performance…
August 10, 2013
Everyone woke up in time to see David, Denise and family off — aside from Adam, who was completely zonked out. Okanagan peaches for breakfast this morning — I could eat a dish of those every day of my life and never get tired of them.
Took a little shopping trip with Gale to the new Target at the Pine Centre Mall. I read so much about Target on the various blogs and websites I look at, but have never been inside one. It was nothing to get excited about, though of course the Prince George one is hardly likely to be a flagship store.
The old Pine Centre has changed quite a bit over the years, keeping up with the times. Pickle Petes is gone, but fortunately you are still able to get a mall. I don’t know what it is about Prince George and malts — I rarely encounter them anywhere else…
Popped over to Greg and Wendys for a visit. They’re heading off to Kelowna tomorrow to celebrate Greg’s birthday, so it’s our last chance to see them. We brought Isobel as well — separating her and Lyra just wasn’t an option. They’ve been sleeping head to toe in Isobel’s bed at night, sharing a bath in the morning, spending the whole day together, and loving every minute of it…
Sat on the deck drinking prosecco in the Tuscan heat. Prince George, the Tuscany of the north… Hummingbirds darted around the hanging baskets and rested on the clothes line between forays. You don’t get those in Italy — such a beautiful creatures. I wish i’d brought my camera, but at least Adam managed to capture a couple of pics on his phone camera.
The little girls were wreaking a bit of havoc, sloshing coloured bubble liquid on the deck and causing Greg to break out the Swiffer. Five minutes after they headed indoors, there was a loud crash from the basement. A couple of minutes later, the pair of them sloped upstairs to report they’d “knocked the long thing over the pool table down when Lyra did a bad shot.” OK… “AND Lyra spilled her mango juice on the carpet!” “Isobe!!” Lyra protested. “Just kidding! Ha, ha, ha!” Adam went down to check just in case…
Watched the Djokovic-Nadal semi-final with dad in his room when we got back. It was a good match, but Nadal meant business and took it in three sets. Wouldn’t have minded seeing the all-Canadian semi-final as well — quite the unlikely achievement for Canadian tennis.
Dinner was spaghetti made with the leftover cheese smokeys (we are all our mother’s children…). Watched the film “In the Loop”, and then to bed…
August 9, 2013
Wade has bought a a terrific bed for his guest room. I now understand why people choose to spend lots of money on a mattress. It’s impossible to feel uncomfortable on this thing. I can sleep comfortably on pretty much anything, and always think a good mattress is wasted on me, but I could get used to this…
The cousins were up and roaming around pretty early. We encountered Isobel and Lyra first, when they crept in to place fake dog poops on our bedroom floor. Adam was planning to do a Tim Hortons run, but David and Den beat him to it. We came upstairs to discover they’d already been and returned with a ten-cup box of coffee. What a great innovation! Not content to bask in appreciation for doing to coffee run, they then proceeded to cook bacon and eggs for the fourteen of us. They’re going to be hard houseguests to follow…;-)
Greg and Wendy popped round for a visit with everyone — great to see them! Sat in David and Den’s trailer at first (which is quite the thing!), but that got pretty hot so we moved to the aptly named sundeck, until the narrow strip of shade by the house disappeared and we were driven indoors. Not that it was particularly cool there either. Apparently, the weather has been like this for the last month…
Wendy brought a plate of her butterscotch fudge, which Adam and the girls confirmed is in a different league to the stuff I produce each Christmas. Hers has a smooth creaminess I can’t seem to attain. My latest theory is that the Parkay Wendy uses works better than butter. I’ll try that next time…
Took the kids to the splash zone in Fort George Park after lunch (leftover smokey sandwiches) for some exercise and a cool down. We were due at the McLaughlins for dinner at 5pm. Fourteen seems a challenging number of dinner guests, but they were well capable of it, and had even invited a few extra folks. Moira, Brian and Danielle were there too, and a few of their friends dropped by during the evening. It was quite a party.
I can say without any exaggeration that those were the best fish and chips that I have ever eaten. John has a restaurant quality deep fryer in the corner of his deck, and boy, does he know how to use it. Great juicy hunks of halibut with a thin coating of crispy batter, accompanied by delicious salads, cheese and grapes, and a fruit flan. I probably won’t eat for the rest of the holiday…;-)
Moira took the kids under her wing, and they had a great time playing badminton in the garden, blowing bubbles and messing around in the rec room. I barely saw them aside from when I organised their plates of food. They started fading about 10pm, and Gale and I took them home…
August 8, 2013
Had an awful night’s sleep, what with the heat, burning off all that wine, and Adam knocking about overhead finishing his work. I abandoned the idea at 5:30am and started on the packing our bags, tidying the house, and watering the garden. We were actually in the car by 7am.
I drove — straight into the rising sun, which was pretty hard on the eyes. Headed out on Broadway, misremembering that it merged into 12th and became the Grandview Highway. It doesn’t, at least when you are travelling east, but we worked it out in the end.
I drove to Hope with the rest of the family dozing, where we stopped for some breakfast. We couldn’t find a Tim Hortons, and ended up in the Dutchie Bakery. My cinnamon bun was enormous. “That could be for the whole family,” Lyra said hopefully, and I was happy to share.
Adam drove to Cache Creek, with a couple more stops. Lytton for the loo — astonishingly rude graffiti that had Nova mesmerised — and a Thompson Valley fruitstand for peaches, tomatoes and cherries.
i did Cache Creek to Lac la Hache, where we dropped in on Bruce for some lunch. It was baking hot, the kind of heat that makes the air shimmer. After bagel sandwiches and pie, Bruce gave us a tour. He’s got big plans for the place.
From the original log cabin, he has built a sort of Tuscan tower and a covered walkway along to his studio. He has recently planted quite a formal garden in front of this, with fruit trees, vegetables, flower beds and a row of cotoneasters. He plans to enclose the garden on three sides with covered walkways, creating a cloister effect. It’s quite a project…
Adam drove the last leg to Prince George. I was completely whacked out, but didn’t want to fall asleep in case he did. Saw a young moose near Quesnel, which was a bit of excitement, but no bears. I have so many associations with that stretch of road, it’s quite the trip up memory lane…
We’ve seen some pretty ill-advised business ideas and signage on this road trip. A few that stood out:
- Bear Campground, complete with snarling grizzly head painted on their sign just to reinforce the association
- Baits Motel, a decrepit little joint on a desolate stretch of highway (“Why isn’t anyone stopping? There’s nothing else around for miles…”)
- U-Pick Berries in the bush outside Quesnel (“Actually, why don’t you pick and I’ll buy… if you make it back from your ripe berry patch without being mauled.)
Made it to Wade and Gale’s about 6pm. David and his family arrived a few days earlier. It’s a shame we weren’t able to coordinate our days better — we only get to spend a day and a half with them this trip. They were barbequing cheese smokeys and drinking beer when we arrived. Ah, home!
It was great for the cousins to see each other, and for us to see how much the kids have grown in two years. Nova and Ceinwen seemed to pick up right where they left off, and Lyra and Isabel bonded instantly.
Gale made us family teeshirts, with our birthdates on the back — really sweet of her. After dinner, I took a group photo with my camera timer before it got too dark. The red shirts photographed beautifully, and we didn’t look too bad either…;-)
I was pretty exhausted and still feeling the wine from yesterday, and only lasted until 11pm…
August 7, 2013
Another night, another bedwetting incident… There must be something about that room that isn’t agreeing with them. Dragged the mattress out into the sun again, and ran the duvet and sheets through the laundry. Thank god for tumble dryers…
Adam was working from Bruce’s place today, and had set up a little base in the living room. I was sitting on the sofa looking at the trees outside the window when an enormous black squirrel leapt onto a branch, making it shake violently. “Look at the size of that squirrel!” I said. “I know!” Adam agreed, “The first time I saw one I thought it was a monkey. There was a bruiser of a robin in the back garden that could kick some bird ass in the UK as well…;-)
Lyra plans to invent a new metal called “petal”. It will be pink and will rank pretty highly in the metal hierarchy. “It will go gold, petal, silver and bronze,” she informed me, “and platinum will just go away.”
Took Adam down to the beach to give Adam some space to work. He has a couple of writing jobs to finish and one more meeting then he’s officially on holiday.
Bradley picked us up at 1pm and drove us to Cardero’s for lunch. I had fish tacos and caesar salad, both of which were delicious. The caesar salad was sort of deconstructed, with a quartered lettuce, side of very thin toast, and artfully drizzled dressing. I immediately chopped in all up and tossed it together. John says he sometimes soaks romaine quarters and grills them on the barbeque before serving them this way. Sounds intriguing…
Adam headed off to his meeting, and the rest of us returned to the flat, where Bradley and I carried on drinking white wine. At some point I caught a cab up to Seymour Street to pick up the rental car with Adam. I haven’t driven in downtown Vancouver in years, but we made it without incident…
More white wine… John headed out to Theatre Under the Stars with his mother, Adam retreated to the bedroom to work, and Bradley and I carried on drinking. Ordered pizzas for dinner, washed down with more wine. We were into the red by this point, and singing Adele songs at the top of our lungs. Stuck around until John got home, then headed back to Kits. Adam definitely driving this time…
August 6, 2013
Lyra woke us during the night, having had an accident in her bed. Adam shifted upstairs to crash on Bruce’s bed and I brought her in with me. At 7:30am, Adam headed off to do a day’s work in the Vancouver office. I stripped Lyra’s bed, and was just about to run the machine, when Nova informed me that she’d also had an accident…:-( Dragged both mattresses into the garden to air and washed all the bedding, which took most of the morning…
Caught a #7 bus on 4th that took us downtown. I don’t remember the bus routes anymore, and ended up getting off too early on Granville Street. Lots of shops boarded up on the pedestrianised bit (I wonder if a big redevelopment is in the works?), and the Eatons is a building site. I was pleased to see that the Hudson’s Bay is still in business.
There was lots of new development around Beatty Street, and a Skytrain station practically next door to my old office. Abbott Street (where I once found a dead body on my lunch break) was pretty much unchanged. Although some of the addicts seem to be on a different drug — crystal meth maybe — that gives them a distinct appearance. Very gaunt and wired looking, with a sort of scared expression — different than the surly, slurry, swollen state of alcoholics or the glaze of heroin users.
Met Adam outside his building on Victory Square and went for lunch at La Taqueria, an authentic Mexican joint that serves up plates of mini tacos with a range of fillings.
Caught another bus back to the West End afterwards, and took the girls to Second Beach pool. While Lyra is the right height to swim unaccompanied, they consider her two years too young. Spent an hour standing around in waist high water getting chilled in the breeze.
Treated the girls to hot chocolates at Blenz afterwards, a recommendation of Talin’s. I thought it was a strange place — aside a few standard coffees, I didn’t recognise anything on the menu. I ordered a drink called something like a “matchaichilla”, and received a sort of sweet icy tea milkshake.
“Why don’t we give Santa hot chocolate on Christmas Eve?” Lyra asked. “Because we don’t know what time he’s going to get to our house, and it would be cold.” I said. “And anyway, Santa doesn’t even like hot chocolate — he likes whisky. And did you know,” I added, “Santa had a little white beard when he was a baby?” “No, he didn’t, mum! Tell the truth!” she protested. “Everybody knows that,” I said. “What are they teaching you kids in school these days?”
Carol had arranged a triple appointment at a local nail bar for Nova, Lyra and me, which was a lovely idea. We sat in adjacent massage chairs while little Vietnamese women made a fuss over us. The girls were both in heaven. It took about an hour and a half. Carol popped in to settle the bill, then Scott appeared to collect the girls.
I finished off joined them at the Cactus Club on the beach. What a beautiful spot. Drinks, calamari, and dinner while watching the beautiful sunset. Caught a taxi back to Kits afterwards…
August 5, 2013
Another 3:30am start… We’re not gaining much ground here…
Ran the seawall again this morning, in the opposite direction this time. I found it both harder and hotter today, and we seemed to have the sun in our faces much more of the time. Still, very satisfying to have done it.
Had breakfast at the Sylvia with Keith, Talin and their two little boys who happen to be visiting from LA this week. Great to see them and finally meet their children. Though restaurants and one-year-olds definitely don’t mix. I can’t say I miss that stage of my life…
Caught the Seabus to North Van to meet Trevor and Marni, who drove us to Lynn Canyon. What a zoo! If every tourist in Vancouver is in Stanley Park, all the residents seem to have fled to Lynn Canyon. It took ages to park — we were practically at sea level again by the time we found a space. Had a pre-hike back to the entrance where we ate our picnic lunch — sandwiches, chips and salsa, five types of salmon, cherries, kamut bars — before setting off on our actual hike.
There was actually a queue to cross the suspension bridge, and the whole length of it was covered with two lines of people shuffling along in each direction. I found it much scarier to cross with it so heavily laden, but we made it…
Walked down to the riverbank, which was pretty busy as well with people bathing, cliff jumping or just soaking their feet. Carried on in a big loop back to the bridge, which was even busier if anything. Afterwards, they drove us to Park Royal where we caught a bus across the Lions Gate, and made our way back to the flat. John and Bradley were back from the Sunshine Coast, and we had a little visit with them before John ran us over to Kits.
We’re staying at Bruce’s place off 4th and McDonald for a few days. He’s up at his place in Lac La Hache at the moment — we may stop in on the way past. He’s got a neat little place — very much a bachelor pad. Adam and I are sleeping on a sofa bed in the office/den, with Gail’s great library curving round our heads. I remember it from their previous home. I could happily sit in the back garden and read for the rest of our time in Vancouver, but we aim to be more ambitious than that…
We’re just round the corner from the Topanga Cafe, one of my favourite restaurants in Vancouver, and somewhere I’ve been eating for thirty years. “I think I’m going to cry,” Adam said, when he saw the familiar coloured menus on the wall.
Ordered the nachos supreme, which are as good as I remembered. We shouldn’t have bothered ordering main courses — I only managed to eat about half my tostada…
August 4, 2013
Awake at 3:30am this morning… Baby steps… Ate breakfast in the flat before setting out. I’d succumbed to pester power and bought Lyra one of those sample packs of breakfast cereals. In the past, when she’d asked me what Froot Loops were like I told her they tasted of chemicals, sugar and dust. “Mum, you lied!” she said tucking into her first ever bowl, “Froot Loops are DELICIOUS!”
I’d reserved bikes at a rental place on Denman, and we were there to pick them up at 9am sharp. The plan was to beat the hordes to the seawall. The crowds were crazy yesterday afternoon. Vancouver seems to have become even more insanely popular with the tourists. Guess I’m part of the problem now myself…;-)
Nova and I had our own bikes, and Lyra had one that tagged onto Adam’s. Once she got used to it, they ripped along. Nova is a much more confident cyclist this time — I no longer had to worry about her veering off into the sea.
Our first stop was the totem pole park. Having remembered to bring Barnaby Bear (the class teddy), we took a few snaps for the school album. Stopped again to admire the balancing rock sculptures, then at the playground before returning the bikes to the shop.
It was the Pride Parade this afternoon and people were already lining the streets. We were cutting it pretty fine in going back to the flat — there was a real possibility of getting stranded on the wrong side of Denman. Just squeaked through in the end. There was no opportunity to cross the whole length of Denman.
At Davie there was a little gap and I wormed my way through. A pissy little cameraman stationed in the intersection said, “You can’t cross here!” “Oh I think we can,” I replied, and did. There was an absolute sea of people surging down Davie, but we struggled through and made our was up to the calm of Carol and Scott’s apartment.
Ate bagels and coffee and looked down on the spectacle processing below. There were the usual suspects — Trojan condoms, AIDS charities, Little Sisters — but I was surprised at how the banks were really going for it, with major floats, pounding techno music and men in sequinned mankinis bumping and grinding…
When we felt brave enough to venture out again, we caught the hopper bus up Davie to the skytrain, then travelled out to Langara where cousin Brenda now lives. Walked fifteen minutes along the golf course to her condo. Nice place, with a very different feel to her previous house, which was a little heritage home in deepest East Van.
Celia and Tessa were staying with their dad, but Alisa, Tony and David, and Richard, Tanya and Alexis both came by. The little cousins were pretty excited to see each other — Lyra, David and Alexis are within a year of each another in age.
While Brenda took the kids swimming in the condo pool, we sat on the patio drinking Alisa’s homemade ginger beer — pretty potent stuff. There were a crazy amount of wasps around, which Alisa had tried to spray yesterday. They were regularly falling to the ground and dying at our feet, but a fair few were still able to fly woozily around.
Dinner was burgers, salads, and a delicious blueberry pie that Tanya had brought. Alisa ran us back to the West End afterwards, which was much appreciated. Lyra was on the verge of collapse and went straight to bed, the rest of us following soon after…
August 3, 2013
Adam and I were both awake by 3:15am… I attempted to go back to sleep, but it just wasn’t happening. Got up at 6:30 and went for a run around the seawall with Adam.
It was a beautiful morning, and we were early enough that there was more animal life than people. Mainly Canada geese at first, but just past the splash park we encountered a family of frolicking sea otters, which was pretty special.
Took about an hour to make it round to English Bay,which is roughly 5.5 miles according to the GPS. I’ve always thought of it as six miles, and I suppose it would be if we’d closed the circle. In an ideal world, I’d like to run every second day while we’re away. If we could manage to do a couple of longer runs that would be great…
In a weird coincidence, our friends Elizabeth and Don live in the flat directly across the street from John and Brad. They can actually look straight into each other’s windows. We just decided to call them on the off chance they were free for breakfast, when we spotted Don through the window. Adam shouted and waved, and we eventually caught their attention…
Met at Central Bistro an hour later. Elizabeth had managed to organise presents for the girls in that time, which was very thoughtful of her. Don is the current president of the Canadian Culinary Federation, which sounds like a sweet gig. He basically travels the world with teams of Canadian chefs competing and eating great food. Elizabeth used to work with me at Wordsmiths, and is still in that line of work.
Took the girls to the aquarium in the afternoon. They appear to be redeveloping it, and parts looked like a construction site, but it was open for business. Actually, it was crazy busy — you could say that the aquarium was a zoo…;-)
There was a fantastic exhibition on jellyfish that I could have looked at for hours. Also checked out my old friend the octopus, and the Amazon exhibit before heading outside. Caught the beluga show, the penguin walk and the otter feeding before calling it an afternoon. Not cheap, but we got our money’s worth.
Bought a bag of popcorn from what looked like the same machine I bought it from as a little girl. (No polar bears or monkeys to feed it to anymore…) Moseyed up to ride the miniature train, which has been turned into a First Nations exhibit on the spirit bear. Sweet, but kind of hokey. “I don’t get why that man keeps following us and jumping around,” said Lyra.
Returned to the flat for a quick nap, then headed over to Carol and Scott’s to watch the Festival of Light fireworks. It was a beautiful evening for it. They’d ordered in Thai food, as it was Thailand’s presentation tonight, and we brought a case of beer. So nice to be up above the crowds. The girls even stayed awake for some of show. Afterwards, we let the crowds thin before heading home, poor little Lra whimpering from exhaustion…
August 2, 2013
The cab arrived at 6:30am to ferry us to St Pancras. Pat got up to see us off — they’re leaving for Rome a bit later today. Catching the train to Gatwick was smooth, especially as Adam had picked up the tickets on his way home yesterday. We actually caught an earlier one than we were aiming for.
There were crazy long queues at the Air Transat desk. No surprise — they had four flights scheduled to depart in the same hour. Actually, we would have done better to arrive late. Our flight to Vancouver was the last flight of the four, and during the ninety minutes we stood in line, they were constantly pulling people from behind us who were booked on an earlier flight.
It had taken so long to check in that it was pretty much time to go to our gate. When we got there it turned out that all the flights were now delayed due to an electrical storm that had forced planes to hold overhead. Spent most of the delay waiting in the lounge, but sat on the runway for a good stretch as well…:-(
In spite of arriving so early, the airline was unable to seat us together. We had two pairs of seats, fourteen rows apart. Aside than that, the flight itself was okay, I guess. Actually, the food was slow in arriving and definitely not worth the wait. It’s the first time since Nova was born that I haven’t brought provisions — I’m not making that mistake again. The films were dreadful, and the headsets unadjustable and set too loud. I suppose you get what you pay for, but it would be nice to think that £3000 bought you more than this.
The icing on the whole experience was when they made the “is there a doctor on this flight” announcement. Eventually, a guy identified himself. (Is it my imagination, or do doctors always seem reluctant to do this? I was sitting beside a doctor on a plane once, and it took three requests before he finally owned up…) We were far enough away that I couldn’t tell what was going on, but it looked pretty serious and involved defibrillators. There was a good half hour’s delay getting off when we landed while the paramedics dealt with the situation.
Caught a taxi to John and Bradley’s flat in the West End. John was still there, and we had just enough time for a glass of wine and some bread and cheese and before caught his seaplane flight to Sechelt.
We were all pretty woozy with exhaustion by this point, but managed to rouse ourselves for a short visit with Adam’s colleague Hillary, who dropped round for a little visit. Lyra was particularly keen to meet her after several encounters on Skype, but she’d sloped off to bed, and it proved impossible to wake her.
Had a little takeout sushi for dinner. Trying to put an order together in our dozy state was like a bad comedy sketch, but we managed it eventually and Adam staggered off to pick it up. Straight to bed afterwards…
August 1, 2013
Managed to go for a run first thing. Just as well I did… the temperature climbed relentlessly, reaching the low 30s by noon. Also, I had an enormous list of things to do in preparation for our trip tomorrow, and it would have been very easy just to blow the run off…
The girls and I ate random leftovers from the fridge for lunch, but I put a little more effort into dinner. Defrosted and marinated a pork loin, which we barbequed with sausages, strips of zucchini and mushrooms stuffed with goat’s cheese. Bread and salad to round it all out. Pat and Adam ate with us, as well as Adam’s friend Tom who returned with him after they’d met and spent a day together in town.
One thing the heat was good for was getting through the laundry. I was able to wash and dry three loads today, including all the girls’ bed linen. I was in bed at about 12:30am, but poor Adam was still typing away and yet to pack…
