Canada Day 5: Happy St Patrick's Day!! (a day early)

Yay, no rain today :)

We had a nice lazy morning, and a slow stroll down to Granville and Davie for the St Patrick's Day parade which started at a very civilised 11 o clock.



It was cool, but it did go on and on and on and on - in fact we didn't stick it until the very end. But in our hour or so of parade watching we did see a rather random two people and a banner representing our very own Belfast Giants from the UK Elite hockey league, endless police pipe bands, many many troupes of Irish dancers, various members of the armed forces and emergency services,lots of people on stilts, some mounties who had lost their horses, and a frankly rather drunk looking assortment of people with a Chinese dragon, who I think perhaps had come to the wrong parade :D

More piccies:










After the parade, we went back to the Playdome fun fair for a few hours. Connor was suddenly very brave and wanted to go on all the rides he had written off yesterday as being too fast or too scary, I was proud of him.

His favourite being this one, where you lie down on your front and fly like Superman:



And then as evening fell we hopped back on the trolley bus from yesterday, as our ticket was still valid, and went down to Gastown for some shopping and a meal.



Since we arrived I have been looking for a very special ring, one I knew I had to buy here, that means stupid amounts to me. It had to be gold, not a metal I usually wear, and I wanted it to bear the image of the orca whale.

Well, I finally found it in Hill's in Gastown....and isn't it ironic that I fly half way around the world to buy a piece of Haida jewellery only to buy it from a chap from Gloucester :)


(nasty flash makes it look really brassy in the pic, it isn't really, I'll take some better photos later...)

My beautiful ring was handmade by Carmen (Tlaagjang Nung Kingaass) Goertzen:

Carmen was born in 1963 in Vancouver, a member of the Haida nation, and was educated on Massett, Queen Charlotte Islands. Since the age of eleven, carving has been his main interest, after being taught to make tools by Robert Davidson, an internationally acclaimed Northwest Coast Native artist.

By 1987 Carmen had experienced various mediums including silk-screening, wood, stone and argillite, but he would soon focus solely on precious metals. He now creates wearable masterpieces in gold and silver. His ingenuity, craftsmanship and attention to detail have made him one of the most prominent Northwest coast jewellery artists of our time.

In 1991, he was named hereditary chief of Dadens, Queen Charlotte Islands.


We had our dinner in the Old Spaghetti Factory - delicious food, cool surroundings, tremendous value and very friendly staff.

And it is now past midnight, Canadian time, this is definitely the latest I have managed to stay up here. I had better go get my beauty sleep, because tomorrow is GAME DAY, woooooot!!!!!!

Canada Day 4: all the fun of the fair, and the trolley bus

Another grey day in Vancouver, which put paid to our tentative plans of checking out the Capilano suspension bridge.

Instead we went to Rogers Playdome, inside BC Place, home of the BC Lions football team (that's the rugby ball, big shoulder pads, 10-24-37 hut hut hut variety of football). This is a massive indoor fun fair which is here for 5 days for Spring Break.


I only took a couple of pics, so not much to show, but we had a great time (apart from the carnies effortlessly parting me with my money - it's amazing how they do it, you are aware of the whole process, but powerless to stop it, it's a cross between charm and Jedi mind control....)

After the fair we took a tour on one of the hop on hop off bus services with commentary that run around the city. The one we chose was an old San Francisco style trolley. Our driver/tour guide was Terry and he was great fun, very entertaining, friendly and informative.

The bus took us all over Vancouver, past all the main shopping areas downtown, past Gastown, Yaletown and Chinatown (the 2nd largest Chinatown in North America, apparently, beaten only by San Francisco), and all around Stanley Park. Connor got to see his beloved totem poles again, and we also got a 10 minute break at Prospect Point for ice cream.



We stopped off at Granville Island for an hour and went to the kids market - it was fab,and there is loads more to see there, so we will have to try to go back before we leave for Edmonton.

After the tour we came back to the hotel to watch Hockey Night in Canada - the first game was Canucks vs Stars, a close close close one but we won, phew! Then we swam and slept like logs.

Canada Day 3: GM Place tour and Science World

Look! It's a giant Willie!!!

Today started off not so well, it was peeing it down with rain for a start, but Connor and I didn't care cos we were going on a tour of GM Place yeah!!!

Got there early, as is our habit with Canada and the time difference, so we had to wait outside in the downpour for a little while.

Then when the place opened up we were told that the tour today had been cancelled as they were doing a photo shoot of some sort inside.


Nooooooo - today was our only chance as they only run Wednesdays and Fridays and we fly out too early next Wednesday to fit in a tour. :( :( :(:(

So we indulged in a little retail therapy in the stadium shop, to ease our broken hearts - purely medicinal :)


Furry the racoon got a nice new hat, so did Connor. I got 2 sweatshirts and a bag, a t-shirt, a keyring and a pin badge. And Cons got a Fin hand puppet too. I managed to stop myself from getting a black and orange skate-logo Odjick jersey, but it was a close call!

And I am so glad we did faff around shopping for nearly an hour, because just as we got to the till to pay for our spoils, a little man emerged from a little door and quietly announced that the photo shoot was over and they could do the tour after all.

Yay!!!

Almost everyone else had given up so there were 5 people in total on the tour, which made it nice and cosy :)

It was really cool.

First of all we went right up to the 500-level, where the press boxes are, and the big corporate suites. That's me and Connor in one of the suites right there, so you can see the eagle's eye view they get of the action. They would really be able to see all the plays being set up and stuff, but on the other hand you are so far away I wonder if you really get the atmosphere and excitement of the game up there in the gods....

Then we went to see all the posh restaurants and more suites down on 200, and where the TV cameras go.

Out into the stands next - and I tried to get Connor to recreate Lu's famous Frozen Moment shot, but it doesn't really work without the stick :)



Next it was the dressing rooms (visitors not our boys', unfortunately), and then we got to sit on the players' bench! Connor was particularly pleased to learn that his bottom was touching something that Jarome Iginla's bottom had been touching :)



All in all we were in there a good hour and a half. Well worth the $15 it cost for the two of us. I would happily go round again. Oh yes, and we got pressies at the end - team photos and a trading card of our favourite Canuck. Cons chose Nazzy. I had to fight the other little boy on the tour for Kes. Luckily the tour guide had multiple Kesler cards, as I would have hated to have to make the little chap cry :)

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Next stop, Science World.

I could see the fantastic geodesic dome of Science World from GM Place, and it didn't look far, but given the weather, we decided to take the sky train (monorail, monorail, monorail..... as the Simpsons would say)... That was fun in itself.

Once inside, we explored all the interactive exhibits. It's all very worthy and educational in there, but manages to be tremendous fun at the same time.

Connor had a blast and so did I.




We had a scare at one point when Connor lost Furry, but thankfully an honest person handed him into Lost and Found, so we got him back. Connor was visibly delightedly relieved to be reunited with his new best pal.

The highlight of the visit for me was the IMAX presentation about dinosaurs:



Cons was suitably awed by his first IMAX experience :)

Then it was on to Subway for a sarnie,and back to the hotel for a chill and a swim.

Another great day, who needs sunshine to have fun? Not us!

It's like a parallel reality

At home, (ice) hockey just isn't on anybody's radar.

It hardly gets a mention in the papers.

My local team plays in a bijou little rink that holds a crowd numbered in the hundreds not thousands (but we hundreds make plenty of noise!)

It's just not big news.

So if, for example, I am out shopping, and I see someone wearing an NHL-related t-shirt, for example, for any team, it's a huge buzz :) And I'll usually accost them and talk their ears off.

I saw a car the other week with an Oilers sticker in the back window and I was so excited I almost drove into them lol

So being over here, where hockey is EVERYWHERE, is wonderful, but at the same time, pretty freaky.


I walk into the bar in my hotel, and there is a signed Naslund jersey on the wall.

I open the local paper, and there is a huge photo of two hockey players on the front page of the sports section - and not just any two hockey players either (Todd! Leave my Kes alone!)

There are even hockey players on the money for goodness sake!

And at the science museum? An exhibit in the section on "forces" invites kids into a batting cage to test their slapshot against the Team Canada goalie.



Hockey is everywhere - every second man or child (and occasionally woman) walking past me on the street has something hockey related about their person.

Did I die and go to heaven? If so, please don't do to me what Willow did to Buffy, I am happy here :)

Our little home from home

Blogs are funny old things.

I am quite certain that nobody "out there" is in the slightest bit interested in what our hotel suite looks like, but on the other hand I use this thing pretty much as an online diary, and it will be nice for Connor to look back on in time.


And he loooooooves this hotel - in fact he wants to move in.

So I guess I had better record it for prosperity :)


The best thing about the hotel for me is the signed Naslund jersey in the hotel bar :) But that's for the next blog post....



As for the last pic, Connor took that one of me blogging at my little desk here, and I wasn't going to use it, but I quite like it :) Rare I get a pic of me I don't hate, so I'm keeping that one :D

Canada Day 2: Stanley Park

For our first full day in Vancouver, Connor and I were up bright and early - at 4am! I think we are still on UK time pretty much.

Breakfast isn't served until 6:30, but we managed to fill the time having baths and putting clothes away/playing Nintendo.



We had brekkie about 7ish, and killed another hour,and then set off for the Stanley Park aquarium in a yellow cab.

We got there bright and early too, at 9, unfortunately it doesn't open until 10 :)


So we walked round the sea wall some and went to see the totem poles. These were the highlight of Connor's day, he was fascinated by their stories and symbolism. He even spend $12 of his precious holiday money on a little totem pole of his own in the gift shop,who he has named "totey" :)



He also bought himself a new little friend, a Canadian racoon, who he has called "Furry"


After the totem poles we went back to the aquarium, which I thought was excellent but Connor, like his big brothers before him, appears to be entirely disinterested in fish :) He had to be forcibly posed for this photo: :)



The Beluga whales were amazing, as were the tropical exhibits and the gorgeous Bill Reid orca statue outside - called Lord of the Under Sea. The Lord caused us a slight crisis though when Cons decided he wanted to take a photo of me by the statue, and stepped back, and back, and back, and fell straight down 3 stone steps - eek!!! He was absolutely fine though, thankfully, and so largely was my camera, although the lens cap won't stay on any more.








Then it was back out into the park for more walking, saying hello to the very tame (and black!) squirrels - never seen squirrels that colour before, admiring the gorgeous views, and of course, a spot of geocaching :)



We launched Connor's Dora the Explorer travel bug out into the wild, wonder where she will end up?



After all that walking (it's the next morning now and I can barely move :)), it was back to the hotel on the bus (significantly cheaper than the taxi ride we took down to the park this morning, and very clean buses with very friendly drivers), to the restaurant for a well deserved meal (yummy veggie burger and a trough full of fries), and then a swim.

I started trying to blog after that, but fell asleep half way through, so thankfully managed to miss the end of the Nucks Yotes game in which we got shut out by Bryz (who is hard to stay mad at cos he is so darned cute! and very slightly mad-as-a-brush)



We should be nice and hungry for the win on Monday,now, though :) So I am looking forward to that game even more.

I have more yet to blog, but my tour of GM Place is calling me - yippeeee - catch you later....

Greetings from Vancouver :)

Woohoo, we are finally here :)

(if the Canadian immigration man had had his way we would be half way back to London by now, but that's a whole other story - but just a word of caution for anyone reading this who have children with a different surname to yours - don't try to get into Canada!! Unless you have legal documentation to prove that you have full custody of the child. What a total palaver....)

Anyway, we did finally escape the clutches of the Taser carrying immigration officer, and emerged from the airport into glorious sunshine.

We got a (surprisingly cheap) cab to our lovely hotel, bought some (surprisingly expensive) groceries to stock up our little kitchen, took a walk up and down Robson, and have now retired to the hotel to play Nintendo (Connor) and blog (me), before we turn in.

Given that it is now coming up for 2am at home, Cons has lasted amazingly well. He didn't sleep at all on the plane.

The photos are 1) Greenland out of the plane window,
2) the Rockies, ditto
and 3) Connor completely ignoring the stunning scenery outside :)

Not sure yet what we are doing tomorrow, maybe some geocaching....right now all I want to do is sleep....

This time tomorrow, I'll (almost) be here....

give or take a couple of hours :)

Woot - can anyone say kerrrrrrrrrlutch??????

Game tying goal less than 3 minutes from the end of regulation


Game winning goal 46 seconds into overtime



Only beaten to the first star by the lovely Dan Cloutier - Sylvain's bro and beloved ex Canuck - who took a hammering in goal all night

WELL DONE KES!!!



and thank god we managed to avoid a clean sweep against by the Kings, that would have been kind of embarassing....

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Oh, and while I'm catching up with Kespics - nice to see Ryan taking his helmet off when Barret Jackman asked nicely :D





and a gorgeous pic of Kes and Lou from the same game (Nux vs Blues 9:3:08)



Right - now I REALLY need to STOP blogging and START packing!!!!