Julie and Jesse in Canada

Slacker....

2008-05-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

I know the blog is desparately out of date... And we've done so much since the last update... I had good intentions of doing it on my days off but I'm on the couch with a cold... I promise I'll do it asap xxx

Oh Washington!

2008-03-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

We went to Mt Baker last weekend with Adam and Steff, and Gill and Kristian to celebrate Adams birthday. After a tense few moments in US immigration (!) we were in our way. We stopped at this classy burger restaurant were us girls couldn't resist getting a photo with the stuffed moose! We opted against a photo with the stuffed turkeys... Seriously!

Steff found us a great log cabin with our own hot tub to stay at, nice one.

In true ski bunny holiday style, we decided to let a game of scrabble decide who was going to sleep where (no one evers volunteers for the couch do they?)

Getting serious guys as sleeping on the couch looms closer....

Early on Saturday morning getting ready to head to the mountain.

Finally a Jeep Commander being used for its designed purpose - getting dirty!

Looking glamourous girls...!

Snow, snow everywhere!

Gill looking hot!

Getting excited....

I'm not sure how he did it but Jesse managed to squish himself into the tiny back seat.

Mt Baker in all its glory.

As you can see from the size of the lodge, Baker is much smaller than the bigger resorts but still bloody good fun!

Base of the mountain - bring it on!

Getting all geared up to hit the snow - great socks Steff!

Me covering my helmet hair at
lunch with Gills knobby hat.

Gill doing her inpersonation of a Vancouver beggar - scarily accurate...

Steff and Adam - the newlyweds.

Relaxing on the chairlift between runs.

The best photo of the trip (except that Gill isn't in it cause she was taking it!)

Having a quiet beer at the end of the day at one of the fairly rustic lodges at Mt Baker.

The kitchen crowd all trying to get to the fridge for the all important apres-ski drinks!

Because us girls have all the brains we managed to trick the boys into offering to cook breakfast when us girls said we'd cook dinner! Here's Gill and I looking very domesticated cooking chilli while trying to cover our hat hair with our neck warmers.

The lads observing the great chilli cookup...

Is there anything better than a hot tub after a day in the snow? Especially when its an outdoor one and you're in the wilderness with a drink in hand? I think not!

Thanks to the gang for a great weekend away! We can't wait to do it again soon x

Helmet Hair

2008-02-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Don't we look flash?! These are our new snowboarding helmets! Everyone wears them over here and people think you're queer if you don't - quite the opposite to NZ! Jesse had a really bad headache and sore neck a couple of weeks ago and the doctor thought that he may have had a concussion from skiing at Mt Baker, opps... So we thought we should really put 'safety first' and get helmets... Hot!

Mission Mt Baker!

2008-02-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

The great thing about Van is that there are loads of ski resorts all pretty close. The mottley crew below (I work with Kim) invited us to go to Mt Baker in Washington State with them and of course we said YES!

This is possibly my favorite place is the US... Its a lot like the mountains at home in that its no where near as commercialised as Whistler and its bit more down to earth.
Apparently the weather can be a bit and hit and miss but as you can see we hit the jackpot!

Model at work again.
What a view ah?
We're off to Baker again next week for a friends birthday.

PS did I mention that you get to hit Duty Free in the way across the border? Score!

New Years in Whistler

2008-02-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

We took off to Whistler the day after we got back from Vegas... A mission but SO worth it! We finally got to hit the snow which was a big thing that attracted us here. And what better place to do it than at Whistler.

This is Erin, an Aussie I work with who an awesome example of making the most of her season pass!

Gee my model gets around...
My model in action - that is him to the left.
This is the view from the top of 7th Heaven Chairlift - spectular ah. What a great place to propose!
Me and Jesse - about 2 minutes before he popped the question....

And heres the ring! Beautiful! He did a good job don't ya think :)

Viva Las Vegas!

2008-01-23T17:49:00.000-08:00

We went to Vegas on Boxing Day to celebrate Hayleys birthday. For some reason we thought it was going to be warm there and were a bit gutted to find its as cold as Vancouver in winter, bugger, but the sun shone for 3 days so it wasn't all bad.

Vegas is all about big is better and copying other people ideas. Paris Paris is a fine example of this... Here is the Eiffel Tower...

And here is the inside of one of the restaurants in Paris Paris! Its exactly how you imagine Paris to be - its hilarious! This is where we had a Vegas style buffet - they are massive!
This is one of the Christmas decorations in the Bellagio... It was pretty cool, all covered in tiny mirrors. I took this photo while I was waiting for Jesse to get off the phone - little did I know that he was on the phone to Dad asking his permission to propose!!

One of the many buildings of Caesars Palace
Outside The Mirage
Treasure Island's Pirate Ship
Mirage again

Outside the Forum at Caesars... mmm Chanel, Dior, Versace... one day...
One of the fountains at Caesars.
More Caesars extremes
This is the walkway at The Venetian... Beautiful... Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of it or go for a gondola ride in there (yes seriously!) because we were running late cause of some last minute shopping (little did I know it was cause Jesse was buying diamonds...!)

The Venetian's roof
Over looking the pool onto the Strip
My Model in a window

The craziest thing about Vegas is that you go to some of these hotels and you could actually think you were in the place its named after.... Madness really but soo cool!

Viva Las Vegas by night.

2008-01-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

Vegas by night is quite a different place... It so much more vibrant at night and you could happily just cruise around taking it all it.

This post is a bunch of random night shots.

This is one of the many fountains outside the Wynn which is a 3000 room resort!

Our hotel is home to the 'Crazy Girls' Show - nice. Here is Hayley and Jesse seeing if they have what it takes with the classy statue out the front of the hotel.
New York - Vegas style.
Stratosphere hotel. This one has full on rides at the top of the tower... Scary!
Bunch of tourists!
Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower.
Our classy hotel.
The Strip.
New York again.
Statue of Liberty - Vegas style.

The Canyon is indeed Grand!

2008-01-23T16:10:00.000-08:00

When in Vegas it would be wrong not to go to the Grand Canyon so being the tourists we are we booked a trip...

If we'd known it ws going to be this beautiful we might not have sooked so much about getting up at 5.30am to go on our Grand Canyon helicopter flight!

We thought that if you're going to do the trip you might as well do it in style... Here we are in the limo that picked us up to take us to the airport!

Sonya striking a pose by our chopper.

Classy headphones! We had this funky as music playing for our trip. While we were waiting to go we were listening to the Austin Powers theme (pretty pimp for 6am) followed by the Top Gun theme while we were taking off - hilarious!

The view of Vegas - ya can't miss Trump Towers!

If you haven't been to Vegas and can't believe the stories of how big it all is then check this out - this photo was taken 20mins away from Vegas by chopper! Its just a big blot in a desert...

And here is the Hoover Dam on Lake Mead. This is a man made lake that they then dammed. It might look familiar cause its featured in loads of movies, Fools Rush In is the only one I can think of right now...

The Grand Canyon!

You may or not heard about the controversary surrounding the Skywalk over the Canyon. Well here is what all the fuss is about - that tiny thing in the middle is the Skywalk built by the Native people for tourism purposes. Its a big glass horseshoe shaped thing that hangs over the edge of the Canyon.

Actually standing in the Canyon!

This is where we stopped for a champagne breakfat.

It just keeps on going...

Early morning in the Canyon, god it was cold!

The Crew freezing in the Canyon - taken by a crazy Japanese dude! It was voted best photo of our trip!

O

2008-01-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

We got all frocked up to go see 'O' by Cirque de Soliel at the Bellagio. It was absolutely phenomenal! For anyone who hasnt been to see Cirque you really should - the things they do and the presentation is really quite magical. 'O' is a water based showed that is performed over a 25 foot deep pool which is why we chose to go cause it problem won't travel the world cause of the logisitics of the pool.

Unfortunately no actual show photos but these are some we took on the night.

Sculpture in the foyer of the show.
Penguins from the Christmas Display at the Bellagio.

The Bellagio

Everything is huge in Vegas - this 4x4 was bigger than Jesse!
Now for those of you who have seen Oceans 12 this is the fountain that they stand by at the end of the movie. This fountain is awesome!! It goes every 15 minutes, is different every time and is choreographed to music - I could've watched it all night long! Click play to watch it.

PS - I won $500 on the pokies at the Bellagio - sweet!

White Christmas

2008-01-21T17:36:00.000-08:00

We had an ex-pat christmas at our place with Emma and Gareth, Natalie (kiwi), Kristian and Gill (Pommy) and Erin (Aussie). Had a great day with much excitement when it started to snow! All week at work everyone told me I was dreaming and that Vancouver hadn't had snow on Christmas day for years! But what do you know - it snowed! Not a lot but enough to make our day extra cool.

Heres Natalie giving Kristian some advice on turkey carving.
E and G bought this awesome pavlova - so kiwi and so good!

After many bottles of Oyster Bay we thought it was time to capture the day. Then as people started to fade thanks to all the wine we decided it was time to wake up!

So we did a bare foot run in the snow!! That sure woke us up!

The boys...

One very pissed Mr Burgess holding centre couch at about 2am! God him and Gareth can talk shit for hours!

We had a great day, not the same without family but still a good time enjoying our second Christmas together.

Updates...

2008-01-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

I'm just waiting to get some photos emailed thru to me and then I'll do the blog of Xmas, Vegas, Whistler and of course the enagagement! Hope this finds you all happy and well xx

Dear Santa!

2007-12-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

It had to be done! Merry Christmas everyone! And before you ask, yes I think Santa was Asian... :)

Bright Lights in Stanley Park

2007-12-20T15:05:00.004-08:00

Every year the BC Fire Fighters do a fundraising light display in Stanley Park for Christmas and the miniture train in the park decks out its tracks and you can go for a ride and have a look.

I swear most of the lights were older than me and unfortunately the video I took of the train ride was no good so sorry its photos only.

This was pretty cool :)
The train all decked out. The trip was really pretty cool and nicely done.

This is part of where you walk around.

Gingerbread house, yum!
Big kid with the big blowup snowmen.
It was definately cold enough for penguins!
Santa and Mrs Claus Big kid with the Big Guy.
This was in one of the ponds.
The Disney Gang.

Nothing tooo exciting but it was a nice way to get in the festive spirit plus we got to try roasted chestnuts for the first and last time!

1065 West 12th Ave

2007-12-09T11:35:00.001-08:00

Welcome to our new place! Its pretty big by Vancouver standards, only bugger being that we don't have a laundry in the apartment only downstairs but thats no biggie. Its literally 150metres to work for me and only 2 extra blocks to work for Jesse.

The hallway, obviously...

Our bedroom. Its really big plus we have a massive walk in robe - mint!

Yes mums, we eat at the table :)
Our huge lounge...

And here's the big fella cooking me pancakes for breakfast - YUM!

Its really Christmas now!

2007-12-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

It really feels like Christmas here now that we've put up our tree and downloaded 'Snoopys Christmas'!

You could go nuts here buying stuff cause its all sooo cheap ($5 for 100 lights!). I've managed to control myself but have bought us some special ornaments to remind of our time in Canada when we come home.

This is our welcome in the hallway...

Santa is our angel on top of the tree. I bought him at Granville Island and the lady personalised him for me by painting Vancouver in the star, Canada on his coat and 2007 on the brim of his hat.

Here's our snowy window. This snowflake transfer things are cheap as at the dollar shop and the snow flake lights are just too classy!

A snowflake - they actually look pretty cool at night against the dark.

Thanks Aunty Robyn and Uncle Ian for the nice reminder of home :)

As you can see we got this little dude at the Market in Seattle.
We got this at the Original Christmas Shop in Victoria when we went there in October. The shop is amazing!
Had to get the mini Starbucks snow globe - its just too cool!
And here it is.... Ta da! The tree skirt we bought is awesome, all felty and lovely. Thanks Mums and Dad for all the presents under the tree - they are all still wrapped - promise!

Christmas Elves

2007-12-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

Thanks Megan for this great blog post!

Turn the volume up and click on the link below - enjoy!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1230254409

White Christmas for us?

2007-12-07T14:48:00.001-08:00

I woke up last Saturday to a very excited Jesse trying to wake me up to tell me it was snowing! We got about 3 inches.

This is the tree outside our lounge window all covered in snow. Unfortunately we got no other pics because 80mm of rain came the next day and washed it all away :(

Here's hoping for a White Christmas...

Santa comes to Vancouver

2007-12-07T14:22:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was the Vancouver Santa Claus Parade. Us big kids went along with Emma and Gareth for a gander - they wanted to see if was better than the Invercargill parade... :) As you can see by the winter woolies it was about 3 degrees!

These are a range of pics of the floats. We were really amped that it was gonna be totally awesome but to be honest I've seen better... There must have been about 20 brass bands!

We didn't get much love from Santa...
How cute is this! He is a trained helper dog for disables people.

Yay Pooh!
Rudolph :)
Only the Vancouver Police would have a SmartCar! The Police Motorcycle guys did a pretty impressive display with their bikes - it was just like Eric Estrada on CHIPS in the '80's

The Mounted Police.
Pretty little dancing girls - they must have have been freezing!
A big chocolate Hedgehog - YUM! And yes they were giving free chocolate...

No McDreamy for me...

2007-11-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

We ventured to the home of Greys Anatomy and McDreamy for the long weekend. Seattle is about 3 hours drive on a good day from Vancouver. It took us 5 hours to get there cause of the big delays at the US border... Interestingly Seattle is also the home of Google, Microsoft, Nordstrom, and Amazon.Com.

This is Peace Arch that the border crossing is named after. I think it's some sort of war memorial. This is the official boundary - at one stage Hayley was in Canada in the back seat and we were in the US :)
One huge bonus of visiting Seattle is that my friends Nathan and Therese live there. We had such a great time catching up with them and making lots of nice memories of Seattle with them. This is the view across the city from the roof of their apartment.

Those of you who watch Amazing Race will know that Seattle is the home of the Space Needle. Being the tourists we are (having an accent is sooo handy!) we had to visit it.
It was built to celebrate the World Fair in 1968 (I think).
Me and Miss Therese from Texas at the top.
Tourists!
We picked the best day to go up the Needle - it was nice and clear but freezing!

Looking back over towards the North.

The CBD.
Bloody tourists again.
We timed our trip nicely for the sunset - at 4.30pm!

Mt Rainier - we will visit it on our next trip.

Looking up the Needle at night.

Ew... Boogies!
We went to this fab restaurant called Icon for dinner. We had the most incredible Ultimate Macaroni and Cheese (a US classic) to kick off then I couldn't resist having Southern Fried Chicken - it kicked KFC's ass! The decor and atmosphere was awesome - they had all these chandeliers made from old lamps and stuff with loads of mirrors to reflect it all.
One of the girls at work was trying to remember the name of the place in Seattle that makes this famous 7 layer cake. What do ya know - we found it at Icon and it was insane!

This is the Sundae that Jesse took on - the cone was filled with fudge sauce!
Yum - cake!
Sunday saw us venture to Seattle world famous Pike Place Market.

This is Nathan and Therese is action walking past the Home of Starbucks! Yes indeed Starbucks was born in Seattle so of course we had to get a coffeee from there. This is the original store and in pretty much unchanged from when it was built.

Whats up Piggy Wig?
The famous sign with the tourists in front :)
One of the many fish shops that the Market is famous for (see the post below for more fishy stuff).

Can you believe it?
Sitting on the pig :)
Downstairs there was a musuem thing about the worlds tallest man - Jesse's a midget next to him! You can't really get the perspective but this was the tallest man's shoes!
More tourist shots.
The girls.
The other famous sign.
The market has loads of flower stalls. This one was selling these cool wreaths made of chillis.
After the market we went for a tour of Seattle's underground. Long story short, Seattle was a wet boggy town so they filled in the old town and built a new town on top - the second story of the buildings became the new top story but the old shops kept operating underground.

So you'd be wondering back then with no power how did the get light down there - this is one of the old skylights in the 'new' footpath that they built. Looks pretty scabby hey?

Here's all the light that same scabby looking skylight lets in!
The underground was condemned in the 20's (I think) cause of disease and rats and stuff so in turn became a dumping ground for everyone's stuff and is a bit trashed but some stuff is still well preserved. This shows the old tellers cage.
The original sign for the Pub.
More tourist shots with some dickhead in the background.
The square around where the tour is based - very like Gastown in Vancouver.

This is some old seat from the old pub.
Crapper.
Jesse in the old Salon.
Walking along the street.

Pretty obvious.
Except its wooden... Yuck.
This wall is identical to the one above it really highlighting the fact that this used to be the street. Bath anyone?
This is the original doorway from the law firm that still operates upstairs.
This is the basement level of one of the stores that operates today. The level that we were touring thru is still owned by the shop owners and the tour company rents it off them.
The original wooden footpath.

Another of the shops that still uses its basement.
A photo of one of the shoe stores that used to operate underground.The old printing press from when the newspaper published underground.
An original porcelian Thomas Crapper toilet.
Seattle's icon by night.
One of the main things that bought us to Seattle was going to see an NBA game between the Seattle Supersonics and Dallas Pistons.
The pre-game entertainment was some Christian college singing the national anthem.

They're more patriotic than Canada!
We had great seats in the nosebleed section.
Action shot!

Shooting a penalty.
Not only was there the Dance Squad but they also had their own break dancers to provide time out and half time entertainment.
They also have this crazy mascot that looks like Chewy for StarWars. Couldn't get a shot of him cause he moves too fast but the fact that he has a thing to launch t-shirts into the crowd was pretty cool!
All day Monday was shopping... Makeup and stuff that we think is cheap in Canada is even cheaper in the US so we had a stock up at Macys and Nordstrom before hitting the outlet stores...! There is a $$ limit to how much you can bring back to Canada but luckily we were under. Could spend a ton of $$ though cause the Canadian dollar is awesome at the moment hence everyone is flocking to the States.

This is the Peace Arch at night as we waited to get back across the border - only took an hour and a half...

Had a great weekend and again thanks to Therese and Nathan for showing us around Seattle - we had a really good Rememberance Day weekend.

Flying Fish

2007-11-13T13:37:00.000-08:00

One of the main things we wanted to see in Seattle was the fish throwing at Pike Place Market. The guys there are famous for chucking fish to each other and having a laugh at work - there is even a motivational documentary about them that Hayley and I watched during orientation at work! People stand around and watch them for ages as the throw fish and scare the crowd and stuff.

They call for volunteers to catch a fish and people actually go to the market to give it a go... Here is one ladies attempt :)

Ferrel Lions

2007-11-09T14:55:00.000-08:00

We went to see the BC Lions play last weekend - what a ferrel bunch of rednecks the fans are! No one there was watching the game, they were just there to get pissed - which was amazing considering that beers were CAD$8.50 each! (about $10 Kiwi).

The game was at BC Place, it looks likes a big cloud from the outside. Its generally where the ice hockey is played.

It was quite odd to watch a game of football inside...

The actual game itself sucks! They stop and start, stop and start constantly! They will play 7 seconds of the game then stop for a while then play again - it took 3 1/4 hours to play 4 fifteen minute quarters!
See how the all look like they are just standing around with a finger up their bum? It's cause they are!

At half time they had a huge tribute for Rememberance Day. It went for ages and involved all ages of veterans and brass bands and stuff - they are very patriotic here! Plus they have loads of troops in Iraq/Afghanistan so its still very current for them here.

How big it that flag??

Happy Halloweenie!

2007-11-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

As with all holidays in Canada, Hallmark has made it all about the presents... Here is my cool Halloween cup from Starbucks that Jesse got me- the little spider on the inside is really funny.

This is the card I got Jesse - this message inside is 'Happy Halloweenie'. I got him a who's-ya-daddy serious umbrella cause our little travel ones from Kathmandu are getting a beating in the rain here!

Because we live in a 'condo' (apartment building) the trick-or-treaters can't get in so we decided to go to the trick-or-treaters! Not too many out and about cause we live in downtown but we found a few. The best were these 2 wee kids about a year old, the wee girl dressed up as a cow and the wee boy was dressed as a pumpkin - too freaking cute!

This is one of the decorated doorways we saw - not the best photos cause you feel a bit naughty taking photos of someones house! The 2 glowing things are pumpkin Jack O'Lanterns. You can buy pumpkin carving kits at the junk stores and there are thousands of templates available on the internet.

A door way with bones for a wind chime... Oooo!
Funny looking witch hanging out on a door.
Cool pumpkin! People have their pumpkins out on the porch or stairs of their house. I'm so doing one next year!
Blurry pumpkins.
Pee Wee Pumpkin. They sell ones not much bigger than a baseball so they are little kid sized :)
The view across the city at night from the other side of our house, awesome.
Our lounge with the pumpkin lights at night - you could see them from the side window when we were coming home, they looked really cool.

I hate to tell ya people but I think I will be bringing Halloween home with us - its so much fun!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T16:10:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing my tradition of throwing myself into Canadian holidays so here is my Halloween effort - not bad for $30!

This is our front door - I'm hoping to attract trick-or-treaters cause I have loads of candy for them :) I was going to carve a pumpkin but I like my fingers too much... They grow specific pumpkins here for carving and people make a day of going to pick their pumpkin at the farms.
Scary witch hanging in the window.
My other scary witch is hanging in the hallway by the front door... I'm hoping to scare Jesse when he gets home from work!
There are chains of spiders hanging everywhere...
Another spider - they accordian out like those 80's Xmas decorations - classy!

I could not resist these pumpkin lights!
This was the decoration on our Halloween cake that Emma bought for dessert last night :)
Not the best view cause of the light but here is our decorated lounge :)

Fright Night... SCARY!

2007-10-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

Vancouver has this annual fair called the PNE and most of the year it sits idyll. That is until the deck it out in loads of scary stuff and open it for Fright Nights over Halloween! Thought we'd venture into the unknown and had a great time, even though it was about 5degrees! It was cool cause they had pretty much put all the kids rides on steriods and they were flying around - yuou've never seen a carousal like it!

There were loads of scenes set up like torture chambers and stuff and all these actors walking around scaring the crap out of people as they waited in line and wandered around. There was a dude with a werewolf mask and a chainsaw who was wrecking havoc!

The cemetery...

The nervous smiles before the Haunted House

The Hearse parked into one of the many Haunted Houses

Emma with her crazy cat head band.

The skeleton bonfire! Note the 2 rudey skeletons on the left...

Inside a Funeral Home (bad pic taken thru a window)

Monsters...

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel.

Emma and Gareth - we don't hold it against them that they are from Invercargill!

Nothing like a good Ferris Wheel :)

The rugged up kids by one of the scene things.

Fall in Fairview

2007-10-31T11:02:00.000-07:00

This is tree we look at out our apartment window... The photo really doesn't do it justice, the colour is awesome.

Brace yourselves... Victoria on Vancouver Island

2007-10-15T10:53:00.001-07:00

Brace yourselves for our hugest blog post yet! We took so many great photos in Victoria and I couldn't choose which ones to show you all so you get to see loads, sorry...

Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, sits on the south tip of Vancouver lsland off the west coast of British Columbia. It is a city of 315,000 with a breathtaking inner harbour area. Victoria is well known for its Heritage homes and buildings. Much of Victoria's downtown area has been restored to original facades.

The Royal BC Museum has been home to the Titanic Artifacts Exhibition for the last 6 months so we decided to go. Its a great collection of several thousand artifacts that have been salvaged from the site. It was really incredible to see the things that survived 80 odd years at the bottom of the ocean.

Here is my model outside the museum. Unfortunately due to the fragile nature of the exhibits there was no photos allowed of the Titanic stuff.

Just because I love bears here is the stuffed one in the museum :)

Looking up towards the centre of town with the museum behind us.
The Royal BC Museum.
The view across the harbour.The Fairmont Empress Hotel - where we would have liked to stay! The hotel is 99 years old and boosts a Tiffany Glass dome as well as an amazing list of dignatries and celebs who've stayed there and over looks the harbour.
Parliament by night is beautiful! It's lit with over 3000 lights and transforms from a copper domed 100 year old building by day to a Disney like wonder at night. Its fully restored and it still functional as Parliament today.
The ultimate tourist - he will stop and read everything!

Victoria is full of history and old money which can be seen in the buildings there. It's a beautiful historic Victorian-era mansion, built in the 1890s by wealthy BC coal baron Robert Dunsmuir. It is now owned by the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society. Rising 87 stairs up through the 4 1/2 stories, there are 39 rooms, most of which are furnished lavishly in the 1890s–1900s period. With over 20,000 square feet of space, the house and gardens are being restored exactly as they were originally built. Unfortunately the castle has had loads of rebuilds to make it functional for the various purposes it has served and so is not original but still amazing. All the wood panelling inside cost more than the other 400 houses built in Victoria in 1889!

This is the wood panelled stair well that is central to the mansion.

The organ which sits at the top of one level of stairs so it can be heard through out the house.
This is the original hat, coat and umbrella stand.
The recreated breakfast room.

The gentlemans smoking room.
The mosiac floor in the turretted tower.
The view from the tower.
The drawing room.
The Castle.

The ornate iron work was beautiful.

Wonder if its haunted...
The Tower - no damsel in distress here.

Now to the most gorgeous place in Victoria. I can imagine that the gardens are beautiful all year round but it's 'Fall' here so the changing colours were simply stunning!

My model hard at work again.

A little more old money history.

Looking out over the Sunken Garden.
Changing colours.
One of the many statues that adorn the gardens.
My turn to be the model.

Soo much red.
The contrasting colours were so vibrant.
Model hard at work again.
There are several fountains in the gardens. This one is below the Sunken Garden and changing every few seconds.

Looking back across the Sunken Garden.
Couple of dorks we found in the garden.
More colour everywhere.

The contrast of colour.
Intricate rivers feed the gardens.

Nothing to say really, its just gorgeous - and I'm not really a garden person!

It wouldn't be Canadian without a totem pole!
Looking at the seedling garden and another lake. They do fireworks from here in the summer months.
Funky tree.

How skinny is my model?
The start of the rose garden.

Unhappy model poking out tongue as the rain started...
Walking through the rose garden.

Entering the Japanese Gardens.

The Dolphin Fountain in the Japanese Garden.

The Butcharts were so rich that they had their own pier to greet visiting dignatries.
Funny looking tree.

This is part of a cool star shaped pond.

Looking over the croquet lawn to the restaurant.
The courtyard garden within the walls of the house.
Another of the 100 year old fountains. It amazes me how they could build something like that and make it work...
This old boar statue was a gift from a dignatary. The nose is rubbed gold by all the tourists trying for some good luck!

Thanksgiving

2007-10-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

Sunday was our first Thanksgiving. You all know how I love to cook so I couldn't help but cook us a feast! The smallest turkey I could get was 7.75kg so none of us starved... I also had to make pumpkin pie and I must say I was very proud of it :)

As you can see there was enough food to feed a small army of Cumberpatchs and Burgesses!

Starbucks anyone?

2007-10-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

So it's really pretty tricky to get a visa over here... And as everyone knows, in this era of internet booking and stuff a visa is pretty essential to do stuff and the fees from using my Aussie card to book our trip to Whistler were ridiculous! So after a bit of fiddling we managed to get one! Yay! And just because I can I got one that gives you Starbucks points! Not airmiles, but Starbucks points! And since there is at least one Starbucks on every block it shouldn't be too hard to use the points :)

(A couple of people have expressed very valid safety concerns about me having a photo of the actual card on the blog so I've taken it off)

On top of the world in Whistler

2007-09-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

Whistler! What a place! It's a lot like Queenstown but a whole lot richer and more pretentious - there is a Four Seasons, 2 Hiltons and a Fairmont in town for all the rich buggers! We poor folks stayed at the glamourous Cascade Lodge which was about 3 minutes walk from the action and thankfully quiet at night compared to being right in the heart of it.

Heres the view from our balcony our over the hills. Note the pool... Not really swimming weather but some crazy people were still swimming.

Looking in the other direction at Whistler. The clear lines are the ski runs - awesome!
This is Whistler by night, very pretty but very cold!

Now you'll have to excuse the order of the photos but I'm sure you'll get over it :)

This is the view over one of the ski bowls on Whistler Mountain. Imagine how awesome its going be when its covered in snow...

Looking up at one of the chair lifts from the base. I think there is 16 lifts and over 40 ski runs across the two mountains!!

Alll excited about heading to the top.

The view from the top is just incredible! The day was really pretty crappy in town but once we popped up thru the clouds it was just beautiful.

Looking backwards at the view over Whistler Town.
On the track walking to the tea house at the top of the mountain. Again, imagine this covered in 12 feet of snow in winter...
Soo blue compared to the smog over Vancouver.
How high were we!! And you wonder why we took the chairlift and not the foot option!
Taking it all in.
God he loves having his photo taken!!

Karen Walker being modelled at the top of Whistler - I should be getting paid!
The Harmony Tea Hut - the scones here are not even close to our version of scones... But it was fun watching the very cool and tame chipmunks running around.
This is some of the construction for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which the locals are not at all excited about. In fact most of them are packing up and leaving town while its on!
We had such a great time and can't wait to get up the mountain in the snow - its gonna be great!

Kayaking Adventure

2007-09-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

We decided that we should really be getting some adventure during our time at Whistler and decided to go on a kayak trip. We decided to go on the River of Golden Dreams Ecotour which started off a bit dodgy on the choppy lake but then settled to become heaps of fun in the river. Unfortunately the river was a bit low cause its the end of the season so we had to get a bit wet pushing ourselves thru the river but all in all it was a great time and who says you need to be able to feel your frozen feet! And we saw a beaver - they are huge!

Not too many photos from this trip cause I didn't want to trash the camera but here is Mr Burgess showing how to gracefully exit a kayak.
Us being the naughty kids we are couldn't help but have a water fight at the end. The water in the river is straight from the snow so is bloody freezing but soo much fun to biff at each other. The dodgy little guy was our guide, John (we think he may have taken a shine to Hayley, lucky!)

Freezing cold but still smiling! Thank god for the heater in the van.

Ziptreking our way thru Whistler!

2007-09-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ziptreking! What a blast! and SOOO much better than bloody bungy jumping!

Despite the weather we ventured out ziptreking which is basically a pully along a cable over a river.

Heres me and Hayley looking dead sexy...
Getting rigged up on the practise line. You have a practise go so you don't get up the mountain and freak out!

Hayley on the practise run.

Me in action up the mountain!

The harnesses had a nice wedgie effect as modelled by these two fools!

Most of the time he is really handsome but put a helmet on him and Jesse looks like a right dick!
The view up the river from one of the jump spots. I didn't see a bear no matter how much I looked.

Now heres the real action shots! This is me on the final zipline. (Click on the play buttons to watch the videos and turn your head to the left to watch the first one)

And here's Jesse earlier in the day showing how its done.

Birthday Boy

2007-09-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

So Friday saw Jesse's first birthday in Canada! I did a midnight mission to decorate the house for the big day ...
This is us with Whistler in the background , all dolled up before going out to celebrate with birthday dinner for the old boy!
Sad but this was his birthday cake - it's amazing what you can do with oreos! I had candles in my handbag all ready to put on his dessert at dinner but he wanted to go to the Irish pub and they didn't do dessert :(

Candles

2007-08-17T11:16:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-06T11:22:00.001-07:00

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?

2007-08-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

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

Vancouver Art Gallery

2007-08-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

We ventured to the Art Gallery on Sunday to see the Monet to Dali exhibition. Unfortunantely no awesome photos as no cameras allowed :( (And I'm too thick to figure out how to get pictures of the web on to here). All I have to offer is a pic of the Art Gallery itself which is beautiful in its own right.

Stanley Park - 15 July 2007

2007-07-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Stanley Park is a 1,000 acre park bordering downtown Vancouver. It is the largest city-owned park in Canada and the third largest in North America. The park attracts an estimated eight million visitors every year, including locals and tourists, who come for its recreational facilities and its natural attributes. An 8.8 kilometre (5.5 mile) seawall path circles the park, which is used by 2.5 million pedestrians, cyclists, and inline skaters every year. Much of the park remains forested with an estimated half million trees that can be as tall as 76 metres (250 feet) and hundreds of years old. There are approximately 200 km (125 miles) of trails and roads in the park, which are patrolled by the Vancouver Police Department's mounted squad. The Project for Public Spaces has ranked Stanley Park as the sixteenth best park in the world and sixth best in North America - thanks to Wikipedia for this lovely description :) If you want to see an aerial view of the Park have a look on Wikipedia. The park was hit by a huge storm in 2006 so unfortuantely 5kms of the seawall is closed due to extensive damage.

After battling trying to get the photos all in order I've given up so here they are. We had a great day here and must have walked about 15kms trying to see as much as possible. There is loads to do here and we only saw about half I reckon.

The trees are soo huge and soo old!
A guy builds these sculptures by balancing the stones on top of each other. It's great to watch and takes him ages to get it just right. Then the tide takes it all away and he starts again the next day.
This is Beaver Lake in the middle of the park. It's a beautiful contrast from sea which is only about 800m away.

This is the Hollow Tree - it's freaking huge inside there!
More of the rock sculptures.
This is the Inuit symbol on the beach.
Stanley Park has the most totem poles of anywhere in BC. They have a great history and tell some old stories of the First People.

Jesse at the lighthouse. You can just make out West Vancouver in the background.
The Girl in the Wetsuit.
You can see North Vancouver across the river behind The Girl in the Wetsuit.

Sam Kee Building in Chinatown

2007-07-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

This is the narrowest office building in the world and is listed in Ripleys Believe it or Not and the book of Guiness World Records. It was a normal building till 1926 when the city reclaimed most of it and left it only 1.8metres wide! The owner thumbed the city and continued to operate his business out of it.

Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden

2007-07-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

We're really trying to make the most of the sunny days here so today we went to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. It was named in honour of Dr Sun Yat-sen who was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader often referred to as the "father of modern China." He played an instrumental role in the eventual overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and was the first provisional president when the Republic of China was founded in 1912.

The garden was built in 1986 and was built with the traditional methods and is all about ying and yang. Sorry for all the photos but it was beautiful in there.

The lake is naturally murky with algae so that the reflections are better and clearer.

This is Jesse posing like all the Asian teenagers do - what is it with them and the peace sign?

There was lotus flowers all thru the lily pond.

The path was really gorgeous and must have taken a lot of patience to construct.

It was so peaceful and quiet within the walls considering the garden is in the heart of the city.

The turtles were loving the sun too.

The clash of the city and garden.
These 'rock sculpture's' are made naturally by putting boulders in a lake and letting the natural process break down the calcium and this is the result.

The big and the small of it.
Another of the many 100 year old bonsai that are around the garden.

A lamp post thru the window.

Celebration of Light

2007-07-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first night of the Celebration of Light. It involves Spain, Canada, Mexico and China and they go to each others countries and blow stuff up! Its a big thing with 250,000 people going out to watch it here! Heres some photos we took from our balcony - we lazily decided we couldn't face the crowd! ITs on for the next 3 nights so we're looking forward to watching from home.

Slackness

2007-07-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being slack! Took tons of photos at Stanley Park last weekend but its taking forever to sort them out so as to show you lovely folks the best ones. Will be done soon, promise!

Our House

2007-07-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our home! We are loving life here in Fairview Slopes (classy name!) and are really pleased with our place.

This is our kitchen looking in over the breakfast bar thingy...

This is our bathroom...

This is the lounge with the couch being modelled by Jesse! The fire is gas and paid for by the landlord so we should be able to keep the lounge warm for free in winter, yay!

Another view to show you the lay out of the dining/living room.

The view from the lounge. Thanks to the models for their time :)

The view from our balcony - this photo does not do it justice at all. We can see right over the bridges and over to the mountains on a clear day.

Our bedroom... The wee squares on the wall are pictures from NZ to remind us of home. Our room gets all the morning sun which makes it really stuffy in summer but I'm sure we'll be grateful for the warmth in winter!

The rest of our room, washing line included! Our building strata code bans us from putting washing on the balcony! How rude!

With Hayleys room and ensuite as well the apartment is actually really spacious for Van. The fact that we are 9 minutes walk to work is an added bonus! With our Starbucks on the corner and our favourite shop, London Drugs (Julie and Hayley love a bargain!) we are all set!

Finding Nemo at the Vancouver Aquarium

2007-07-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

To make the most of our Julie and Hayleys last day off before work (yuck!) we went on an excursion to Vancouver Aquarium. Its in Stanley Park which is this fabulous big botanical garden type park. It has horse rides around it, swimming pools, minature railways and loads and loads of beautiful parklands. We only explored the aquarium today but many more visits to the park are planned to see and experience it all. The aquarium is nothing at all like the big sea parks but was fun none the less.

These are the 2 white striped dolphins the park has - Laverne and Spinnaker. They put on a pretty good show but as always its virtually impossible to take photos of them doing cool stuff :) There was also a beluga whale show but cause of the sea water we had to put our cameras away :(

The wee dolphins - they aren't much bigger than Hectors Dolphins (the Kiwis will know what I mean)

The massive sea lion! He weighs 800kgs!

One of the dolphins showing off to the crowd.

Jesse and Jules enjoying the sun in front of the aquarium.

Not quite up to Australia Zoos size but CRIKEY! The gift shop was even selling Steve Irwin dolls and stuff which cracked us up.

The sea turtle that lives in same tank as the sharks... Wouldn't be my choice of flatmate!

One of the huge and amazing tropical fish aquariums. There were heaps of them and all were different but equally awesome to watch.

There was a great big jellyfish display with these big fellas in there. Its fascinating to watch how they move. Bet ya didn't know that jelly fish don't have brains or hearts!

I finally found Nemo! He was hiding in the little kids play section - they get to have all the fun!

Enjoying the sunshine

2007-07-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

The sun hasn't stopped shining since Hayley arrived - she must have packed some Aussie sun in her bags I think! We've been making the most of it and been wandering around the city taking in the sights and rays.

This is Jules and Hayley down on False Creek. The park you can see over the river is where we had our picnic last week. Our apartment is just below where the crane is and the pile of buildings on the right is Vancouver General Hospital. A bit further round from this spot is some restaurant and beautiful apartments in Yaletown- its a bit like Southbank in Melbourne only more affluent!

This is the monument to Capt James Vancouver who discovered Van in the 1790's.

Jules and Jesse with a huge totem pole by Granville Islands Market.

The view walking along the seawall towards Granville Island Market. If you keep walking down here you'll get to the 'picnic park'.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

2007-07-01T10:51:00.001-07:00

It is our first Canada Day! Hayley arrives today so we'll be off to pick her up soon, bring her home (hope she likes the place...!) and then we'll be off to watch the fireworks tonight. Its the first time they've had fireworks for a few years cause someone got stabbed at the last one... Nice!

This honking great flag is on the side of a building in the city, thought is was pretty cool :) Apparently only 1/3 of Canadians actually celebrate Canada Day - sounds a bit like Waitangi Day in NZ!

Science World

2007-07-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

We thought it's be fun to walk down to Science World and play like the big kids that we are yesterday :) They have all this great stuff including a machine that shows you how you'll look when you're old... This is Jesse at age 70! Scary stuff!! :)

This is Mr Maturity himself playing with the fart machine... No, he didn't kick the wee girl out of the way :)
Science World is at the old Expo sight. The big dome is at the end of the river and has great views down the river and across town. Unfortunately there is alot of construction going on with apartment buildings going up everywhere but it should be nice when its done, bit like Docklands in Melbourne I suppose. The big white thing in the background is the ice hockey stadium where we will definately be going to watch a game or two - can't come to Canada and not go to the ice hockey!

Vancouver Police Dept Museum

2007-07-01T10:36:00.001-07:00

Because we both have a bit of a warped like for weird stuff we went to the Van PD Museum. Its actually got the old morgue as part of it with the tables and fridges and specimans and stuff.... Cool if ya like things a bit freaky... I didn't take any photos of the grossness though - it seemed a bit disrespectful.

So instead here is Jesse the would-be policeman driving the police car and Jesse the would-be crim locked up!

Picnic in the Park

2007-06-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

The sun was shining and we had no other plans so we decided to go exploring our new neighbourhood. We found this fabulous park down on the river about 5 minutes walk from our place. It's got a lovely big pond and loads of green expanse. It also has a track to walk to the Granville Island Market (about 2 kms from our place) so we can keep well stocked up on fresh produce and things.

We had our picnic lunch and then in true Van style the rain came so we had to abort the mission but it was nice while it lasted. I think we'll being spending many a lazy afternoon down there in summer, just relaxing and taking in the world.

Totem poles

2007-06-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Thought we should share some culture with you :) These are some totem poles that we saw at Capilano. Each pole tells a story of the tribe and some of their history.

Gastown

2007-06-27T21:43:00.001-07:00

Gastown is a historic part of town which has this cool steam clock (top picture). Its a real tourist drawer as every 15 minutes the clock goes off and plays this kind of tooting song. Gastown has all old cobbled stoned streets and loads of beautiful old buildings. The statue is of some guy called Gassy Jack who founded Gastown. It really is a nice piece of history except that is a prime tourist joint with loads of crap with the Canadian flag on it (some extremely tacky!) so unfortunanately there are homeless people everywhere. They are very forward and I had one guy come up to me in an internet cafe and ask for money. The major downside of Van is the homelessness - there are people asleep in doorways everywhere and people begging outside all the shops. Its hard to say no but what can you do? I did give one dude money the other day cause it was hot and he asked for money to buy a beer on a hot day - his honesty earned it I reckon!

A few of the sights of Van

2007-06-27T21:20:00.001-07:00

This photo perfectly shows the weather in Van. It is overcast and stormy looking most of the time. You have to take an umbrella everywhere cause the sun will be shining and next thing its raining! Oh well...

This is the Vancouver Art Gallery. We've yet to go there but the building is amazing.

Not sure what this building is but it to is beautiful. There are loads of old buildings in Van considering how young the city is (1870).

This is the Burrard Street Bridge - one of 3 main bridges to get ot Downtown. The river is a bit like the Yarra - you really don't want to fall in!

Playing tourists

2007-06-27T20:44:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday the sun finally came out and the rain clouds that are here all the time went away so we decided to venture over to North Van. This is the view of Vancouver from the Seabus which is the ferry to North Van. Its mad that we're cruising across the harbour in a boat and there is seaplanes landing and taking off all around us.

Jesse enjoying the view.

North Van is the leaving point for the ski fields. Is it wrong that it's summer and there is still snow on the mountains??

We found that there isn't much to do in North Van so we ended up going to the Capilano Suspension Bridge which is Vancouver's first ever tourist attraction. It's been open forever and in the old days people used to make a day trip of visiting it. Some of the original 120 year old buildings are still there and the bridge itself is made from Fir trees from the forest.

As this shows its a place made for tourists ( a Japanese tourist took this for us!) but its a lovely place to spend the day and see some of the different bush and plants that they have over here. Apparently there are bears in the forest but we didn't see any - yet!

The river itself is beautiful and loads of salmon run in it after they release them from the Capilano Hatchery. They get a massive amount of rain in the park and it shows in the massive trees in the rainforest. Some of them are hundreds of years old and taller than you can even imagine.

We finally got a photo together :)

Away at last!

2007-06-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

So when it finally came time to leave we were both fairly nervous but full of excitement and trepidation as we waited to board. We were at the airport super early to get exit seats and being first in line at check in paid off even if it meant a well early morning!

Its only too fair to say that we flew on possibly the ugliest plane in the Qantas fleet....

We made nice with a hostess on the plane and got served champagne as we were taking off which was a great start to our big adventure and life in Canada.

Jules managed to sleep a bit on the plane but Jesse had too much fun watching movies on the Melbourne - LA leg of our trip. After 5 very painful hours at LAX (that place sucks big time!) Jesse finally fell asleep on the flight to Vancouver - ps Air Alaska is as bad as it sounds!

Leaving drinks...

2007-06-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hope fun was had by all at our leaving drinks. It was a good nite but weird to think that we may not see everyone for so long... Hope everyones heads were okay the next day. Thanks to people who made a special effort to be there on the nite :)

3 weeks to go...

2007-05-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

So this time in 3 weeks we'll be about to touch down in Vancouver....! We're both getting well excited especially since Julie's visa finally came thru last Monday. We're both really looking forward to having a few days off when we get there and spending some time together - working 7 days a week each is making us virtual ships in the nite! Jules just got back from a week in NZ saying bye to everyone. It was great to have a few days with the gang but as always was sad to leave especially this time. Jesse's mum is down in a couple of weeks and it'll be nice to see her before we go.

We've had a great response from everyone about the blog and the comments and emails of good wishes have been awesome - thanks so much:)

It just occured to me that some of you have only met one of us and not the other half so i thought i'd better show you some photos...

This is us after one too many on the way back from Matt and Sam's wedding in Dec 2006.

This was taken not long after we met when Jesse snuck down to Hobart to see me when I was away at a conference. We had a great weekend with some of my work mates and it was probably the weekend that really got us hooked on each other (and bratwurst from the Salamanca Markets) :)

Getting Started....

2007-05-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

So I'm making the most of a nice quiet night at work to get our blog up and going. Five weeks to go till were off on our adventure!

We're both working like crazy at the moment to boost our funds so we can have SOO much fun in Vancouver.

We went to Brisbane last week so I could see Jesse's home town and meet his mates and stuff which was cool - it was nice to have 5 days off together, a rarity at the moment. I'm off to NZ this week to see everyone before we go which will be great to catch up but hard to leave as always.

So we've set up the blog to keep you all updated on what we're up to once we hit Vancouver and beyond. We would love to hear from you all and you'll be able to leave us messages on the blog as well. We are both a bit too slack with email so we thought this might be a fun way to keep you all up to date instead :)