Candles

All dressed up for dinner on my birthday after a huge day running around Grouse.
Can you believe Jesse put my age on the cake...

Thanks for the cards and texts and emails - it was really lovely to hear from everyone. I missed you all on the day but Jesse and Hayley made sure I had a great day xx

Birthday Bears

We finally made it to Grouse Mountain on Julie's birthday. We had a fab day but it was freezing up there (about 10 degrees!) and very overcast so the views weren't what we would have liked but none the less we had a great time! Grouse Mountain is primarily a ski field in winter and in summer has all this over cool stuff like the World Famous Lumberjack Show, The Bird Show and most importantly the Grizzly Bears!

This is a couple of the rescued raptor birds. They were huge and really quite spectacular and we don't even like birds!

The impaired view over Vancouver from the top of Grouse Mountain.

The lumberjacks climb these trees like the tree scouts used to do in the old days - all they used was sprig shoes and a rope around the pole and up they went.
Julie in a great tshirt talking to Annemarie in Holland. Note the cloud rolling in...
Not sure what mountain this is but the snow on top is for real... Remember its summer here...
As we were leaving on massive gondola down the mountain the cloud came right in and totally obsured the view on the way down.
Ta da! The grizzly bears! These 2 guys are orphans and have made their home in a 5 acre sanctury at Grouse. Sorry the photos aren't great but its hard to take a pic of a moving bear.

I'm coming to get you...
They are so gracious and smooth in their movement.

Apparently the rescued wolves used to be in with the bears but one of the bears ate one of the wolves... YUM!

Hiding in the trees eating a carrot - yum!
This was about a metre from the bear...
PS - thanks to Hayley for the photos - my memory card has officially cracked the sads and the photos can't be retrieved which sucks cause I had some great photos and video on it that I wanted to share with you all so apologies for this post not being what I hoped for x

Anniversary

We celebrated our first anniversary on Saturday, oh! Jesse put himself in charge of the day and spoiled me rotten!

After lunch we went for a cruise around the bay on this old paddle steamer (unfortunately the romance was a bit spoiled by some rowdy Americans...) It was a lovely way to explore the harbour and the day was beautiful and hot.

This boat is what we would've done the cruise on if we were rich!

The view across downtown Vancouver. The water plane behind us took off about 1 minute after this photo.

The roof top sails of Canada Place. The building on the right is the Province building, home of the Province newspaper. The structure on top of it is the harbour flight control centre and is the tallest is the world. To the left is the Harbour Centre which we haven't been up yet but apparently the views are great.

Canada Place is where the cruise ships dock as you can see.

Looking out across the bay.

We decided this might be a good ship to do our Alaskan cruise on!

Looking over the North Van.

The Iron Workers Bridge, so named for the men who died building it when it collapsed. The train runs underneath the top level and can be raised to allow boats under it.

Looking in on the Lonsdale Quay Markets.

Just after this the camera battries died so sorry no photos of the harbour seals lounging in the sun.

Dressed up for dinner at Bridges, one of the best restaurants in Van. Its at Granville Island and was the perfect place to watch the final night of the Celebration of Light fireworks.

And as if I wasn't spoiled enough I got roses as well which are just gorgeous!

It was a really lovely, happy day which we will both remember for a long time x

Milk anyone?

So from here it looks like any other carton of milk right?
But take a closer look and you have non other than a carton of Homo Milk! Canadians really are a queer bunch...
Jesse has decided that low fat milk is not manly enough for him so his new favorite is non other than Homo Milk.

PS I'm sure you all realised that Homo is just short for homogenised but surely someone at the factory realised the mistake???

Bowen Island

We decided a wee day trip was in order so we decided to go to Bowen Island for the day. After an hour on the bus to get over the Lions Gate Bridge and over to the ferry terminal in West Vancouver we discovered that we had just missed the ferry and the next one wasn't going for 2 hours - bugger! So we settled in for some lunch in Horseshoe Bay while we waited.

Sorry the photos aren't in exact order...

Jules and Hayley having a moment to celebrate the sun.
If you want to take the ferry to Bowen or Vancouver Island this is the traffic you can expect to sit in. There is no booking system and at long weekends people wait up to 12 hours to get the boat - bugger that!

Approaching Snug Cove on the ferry.

How much does this look like Piction?
Not a cold in the sky on a beautiful Vancouver day.
The classy arrival banner.

Heading off on the wander around Lake Killarney.

Looking out over the bay - if it wasn't for all the Fir trees I'd swear we were in Kaiteriteri!
Looking down the Salmon Stream - we didn't see any though.
Looking up the river.
He's huge but even Jesse is dwarfed by the massive Fir trees.

Walking further round towards the Lake.

Jesse and Jules at the river.


The boardwalk which crosses the boggy lagoon at the end of the lake.

Peeking thru the trees towards the water.

Thought this might help remind the Aussies what green plants look like...

Just spectacular!

These trees were everywhere. A new tree is growing on top of a dead tree stump. It's amazing how they take it over and make it their new home.

Not sure what the story is here but it was a really eerie part of the forest.
Looking out from Snug cove back towards West Vancouver.

The moss takes over anything that stands still!
The lake again.

West Vancouver outlook.

This is where Salmon Stream comes out to the bay. We thought one of the houses in the background might make a nice bach (thats a holiday house for you Aussies) one day!

I know theres a lot of photos but its so hard to choose which ones to share with you all xx