Traffic jams are not just a London thing

Our Saturday morning started as always. Early start - before hitting the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler.

The Sea to Sky is the main road connecting Vancouver to Whistler. Usually it takes us two hours. This weekend, it took five.

Why? Traffic. 

Yes, it appears that traffic jams don't just affect London. 

And what caused the jam? A typical British reason; the weather.

In fairness, the weather was pretty extreme. The roads were like ice rinks with slushy snow on top. Not the best conditions.

Thankfully Monty, our beautiful van, did a sterling job. We got to and from Whistler without incident.

Once we got to the mountain, we had a great time. I did my first "tree run". This essentially means you go off the side of the piste through trees. Sounds easy enough.

I hadn't told David of my new found confidence, before quietly following him into a "tree run". Interesting experience - I hit almost every tree I saw and ended up upside down in powder. They're a lot harder then they look!

CS

Casper the friendly....

There is one thing that David does pretty regularly - and that is lose his keys. Most days, at least once, they go missing.

Now, we have an answer as to why. Our neighbour has informed us that we share a friendly ghost - Casper!

This particular ghostie apparently like to move things around - and keys are his specialty.

So I've been puzzling as to why Casper hasn't made an appearance since we've been here? Or maybe he has & we didn't notice, because David loses his keys all the time anyway?

Puzzling.

CS

Sailing around English Bay

I received an exciting invite early this morning; to go sailing around English Bay (which is the waterfront our apartment looks out onto).

Obviously there was only one sensible answer - yes!

It was a freezing cold day, despite the sun shining. So I wrapped up warm & headed to the marina to meet Dan, Cathy, Danielle and Corey. Unfortunately Sir Gilmour had to go to work, so he missed out on this adventure - but there will be many, many more.

Check us out on the boat:

We sailed for a good couple of hours before the sun disappeared & the cold made us turn around. We were wrapped up in sleeping bags by the end of the trip.

We saw a tonne of birdies too...check them out:

Nice to spend the day on the water. It has been an adventure packed weekend.

CS

Lighthouse Park & Curry Night!

We had a lovely afternoon exploring Lighthouse Park, which is in West Vancouver - the richest part of Van (where all the celebs choose to live).

It's a beautiful spot and the park is stunning. It's one of the oldest parks in Vancouver and the trees are enormous.

If you're interested here is the park map. It's not massive, but has nice trails:

We walked to the Lighthouse, watched a seal playing with a fish (e.g. eating) in the water & then watched the sun set.

Then...we had date night! Our date night consisted of us going for a drink & curry in Vancouver - our first in fourth months. We went to a local Indian called Jolly's Indian Bistro. Good food, although no Chicken Dhansak on the menu. I may struggle to get one here - will add it to my 'must do' list when we're back in the UK in June....

CS 

The Grouse

Excellent weekend.

I went skiing for the first time at Grouse Mountain - the local resort where David works.

It's a great place, and thankfully, the weather was perfect. Clear sky with a dusting of new snow from the night before.

Grouse is renowned for its cable car, which takes people from the base to the top of the mountain. Check it out:

And the view of Vancouver from the top of the mountain is fantastic! Dee, Bob and Sarah, we'll definitely take you to see this:

We currently both have free season passes to Grouse - so we'll need to go more often!

CS

1,000 piece challenge...

We wanted to take a moment to celebrate our success...in completing our 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. We've been working on it for two weeks now and this is the result:

Thank you Stevo for the gift - it has provided hours of entertainment. And Cathy & Dan, thanks for your contribution on Christmas Day!

CS

Going State Side: Mount Baker

We had an eventful day; rather than going to Whistler, our regular haunt, we changed direction - crossing the US border towards Mount Baker.

You can check out our route by clicking here

Exciting adventure. We crossed the border in less than 15 minutes - which I believe is a rarity. We only got told off for having orange peel in our car. No part of an orange can cross the border apparently. No idea why.

We then arrived here:

Mount Baker is stunning. It's a local resort for local people; very few tourists. This is surprising given its amazing amounts of snow.

The resort worked for both of us. For me, the slopes were groomed, with only a little bit of loose snow to soften falls. For David, there were plenty of tree runs off the pistes, as well as parks, half pipes etc. Happy campers.

My only fall was pretty spectacular. My ski got stuck - I fell - and slide down the slope head first, with my body in a starfish shape, skis in opposite directions. Brilliant. Even this didn't stop me falling in love with Mount Baker.

We've now got visas for the US for three months & I think we'll use them.

CS

New Year's Resolutions

It's that time of year again; New Year's Resolutions.

So what are we committed to doing in 2012?

Given our relocation, I think the following are apt ambitions:
- Explore, explore, explore - we're living in one of the most beautiful/outdoorsy cities in the world and we should take advantage of it as much as possible
- Ski/snowboard - while the weather is good, we want to ski/snowboard as much as possible - and visit as many resorts as we possibly can (especially while we get a discount courtesy of Grouse Mountain)
- Visitors - welcome many of our British friends into our Vancouver home - and treat them to an adventure of a lifetime!
- Bears - we tried & failed to spot bears in 2011. We'll try harder in 2012 - and look for black, grizzlies & spirit bears
- Blog - of course, we commit to keep blogging & keeping you updated on our adventures

Any others we should add?!

CS & DG

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We saw the New Year in with style...with friends up in Whistler.

It was a fabulous day - me skiing, with four boy boarders - who, I'll be honest, were just a little bit speedier than me.

We decided to make our New Year's Eve ski a challenge - by 'forgetting' to pack some essentials. Firstly, David forgot his board pants; secondly, I forgot my ski poles (obviously we didn't intentionally 'forget').

A friend came to David's rescue and provided day trousers. Not quite board pants, but they were good enough to make him respectable.

Unfortunately no spare poles were in sight. I braved the mountain & continuously tried to swipe seemingly 'lost' poles to no avail.

Alas, all the 'pro' skiers were pole-less too...so in effect, I was simply fitting in with my peers...

Post-ski, we were treated to a hot tub (courtesy of  Cathy & Dan, thank you) to relax our tired muscles. This was accompanied by a glass of wine or two & dinner.

Nice way to greet 2012!

CS