Deep Cove Kayak

Last weekend, Mike and I were looking for something to do, so we decided to go sea kayaking in Deep Cove.

I've never done it before and it was a pretty nice day, so we rented kayaks for a couple of hours.

This little town sort of reminds me of PEI. There is a little downtown strip with touristy shops and places to eat. We each got a small crappy piece of pizza for $3.00 each to keep up our energy for kayaking.


Then we headed to the kayak rental.
We didn't really have any goal, or destination. We just wanted to paddle around, enjoy the scenery, sip some merlot and avoid flipping our kayaks.

Kayaking is really easy. You just press these pedals in your boat to make the rudder go left and right and you paddle.

I did however see one idiot fall out of his boat, but I think he was showing off. It was funny watching him try to get back in though.



There are some really nice "cottages" built into the shore.

With some really nice boats out front. One guy even had his own gas pump built into his dock.

We saw some cranes on the docks. They are very large birds. There were also some fake cranes, which I think are there to scare off other birds. My guess is the birds poop all over the docks, if they aren't kept away some how.



We got the impression that some people like to keep their really nice stuff and their privacy to themselves.

There were a couple of islands that were covered with big keep out signs like this one.

I didn't see a dog though. ;)

Mike was getting a bit antsy to get back and was pretty far ahead of me. I was taking my time and getting a few more pictures when I saw what looked like a boey in front of me. Then it disappeared and I realized that it was some kind of animal. From my whale watching experience, I new that what goes down must come up and waited for it to surface again.

This seal came up right behind my kayak and I got some nice close shots of him.

He looks sort of like a dog, but with a skeleton nose. He was breathing really heavily and it was kind of creepy, because I was by myself. I was trying to remember if seals bite, or attack. He dove again and I held my paddle tightly for a while, but I didn't see him again.
When we got home, I took a little nap and we had some dinner and then Chris came over and we played pool and had some drinks.

Then we played video games for a bit. I was so pooped that I fell asleep on the little couch and slept there all night.

Mike's Family Visit Van City

For about a week, Mike's parents (Barb and Raymond) have been visiting us in Vancouver.

Their first night here, we had eat-in from Kam's Place (Singaporean Cuisine) with us and Chris and watched the last Canuck's playoff game. The Canucks are out of the playoffs now and my prior opinion that they suck holds true.

Raymond had a conference here for work, so they decided to make a vacation out of it and visit us and Mike's sisters in Alberta as well.

While Raymond was at his conference, Barb took a tour of the tourist hot spots in a double decker bus.

Mike took some time off to be with his parents and I hung out with them all after work and on the weekends. Here they are on the ferry to Granville Island. We went to the Sandbar one of the first nights they were here. They really enjoyed the fresh fish.
Here is Mike and his dad at Prospect Point in Stanley Park.

We hadn't been to this area of the park since we visited in 2003.

In the background you can see a mound of bright yellow Sulfur across the water.
We went for a little walk and saw the totem poles and some other sights and stopped at the cantine for a snack.

Later in the week, Mike returned to the park with both his parents. They rented bikes and coasted around the sea wall.

We were very lucky with the weather that we had the whole time they were here. We must thank the sun Gods for their generosity!
That evening, we walked over to their hotel and then walked to an Italian restaurant in Yaletown called the Armacord from there.

Here is Mike and his Dad enjoying the bird's-eye view from many stories up.

One thing Barb really enjoyed was the limitless opportunity to watch all the action going on in the city from her hotel room and from our condo.

Later in the week, Tina arrived for a surprise visit from Calgary. Happy Mother's Day Barb!

One day, they all went to Jerico Beach in Point Grey, and another day, they took the ferry to Victoria.

The main attraction there was Tea at "The Empress Hotel". They had a great time together and I will have to try this another time myself.

Here, Mike and his sister are playing video games in our living room. It is actually a boxing game which I enjoy quite a bit.

In case you anyone doesn't know this family that well, they all have an intense competitive streak. Michael angrily had his rear handed to him by his little sister and Tina received a nasty thumb blister for her efforts.

The next day I hijacked Tina for some marathon shopping. We hit Starbucks and then headed for the Pacific Center Mall (a massive 3 story underground mall which I have just discovered) and Robson street.

I got a good supply of summer clothes. That mall has every store you can think of and then Robson has pretty much every one of those and then some. After our long day of shopping, I scheduled a manicure for us, but our feet were so sore that we decided to spring for the Pedicure as well.
After my last experience, I knew to bring a bottle of white wine. We had a great time chatting, watching Sex & the City and enjoying supreme relaxation. I absolutely love my French manicure. Good call Tina!
That evening we, got dressed up and headed for "Kettle of Fish" for a late dinner.

Their trip allowed us to eat out quite a bit. We brought them to our favorites and went to some new places that we had been meaning to try out.

The next day was Mother's Day and Tina had to catch her flight. Mike drove her to the airport at 6:30 and I went to the grocery store to get some supplies for a Mother's Day breakfast. I called Mom back in NB, but her and Dad had gone out for breakfast.

Then we both went back to bed. At around 11:00, I got up to try and call Mom again and see if she got the flowers I had sent. I had a nice chat with her and then Mike's parents came by and I cooked Mother's Day breakfast. Yum! At 4:00, Mike drove them to the train station to catch the train to Alberta where they will visit with Tina and Kim some more before finally heading home to NB.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Chris's Birthday in Tofino

On the weekend of the 29th, Mike and I went to Tofino with Chris and Rain to celebrate Chris's birthday. Thanks for the invite guys! We had an awesome time.

We left early Friday morning and took the ferry .
The dogs stayed down below in the car, while we enjoyed breakfast upstairs.


Once off the ferry, we drove a ways before getting to Tofino. We came to a place which had some very old growth and a rest stop and Chris and Rain got out with Unos to explore.

Mike and I stayed in the car with Tala because it was raining pretty hard and we are pansies ;)

Here is Chris in front of a massive cedar tree.

We also saw quite a few bear on the way. Here is a black bear grazing. I think this is the closest I've ever been to an uncaged bear.

The dogs did not like the bear one little bit, they were barking and wanted to get out of the car.

That would have been one way to solve my doggy resource consumption problem ;)





I was quite impressed with the house that Rain had rented. It was only a year old and was gorgeous inside.

The front door which had a digital combination lock, opened onto the living room complete with cable tv, dvd player and surround sound.

There was also a washroom off the living room.




There were 3 levels with 2 bedrooms and a full bath with jacuzzi tub on the second level. Both rooms on this level had a balcony that looked onto the back yard and the hot tub.

On the third level there was the 3rd room which was in the loft.

Here is a shot of Mike in the loft from below.

The home was only a year old with winding staircases, etched glass railings and skylights.



Here is the full-kitchen, with the laundry room to the side.

It had every appliance you could think of and was fully furnished. There was even coffee beans, a grinder and sugar.


Here, Rain, myself and the puppies are relaxing on the couch and the dining room and the exit to the deck and hot tub are in the background.

The dogs really enjoyed this cabin which was basically in the woods and they loved running around in the back yard.

Here are Mike, Chris and Rain in the hot tub. We had a lot of fun in the hot tub that first night.

I think we were in there for almost 4 hours. It was very relaxing.

Some of us had a little too much champagne, but I'm not going to name any names ;)





The next day we embarked on the main attraction, Whale Watching. First we started off with a hearty breakfast.

I was a little worse for wear and the others were not convinced that I should go bouncing around on an open Zodiac for 2 hours.

However, one of the main reasons I came was for the whale watching and I decided to suck it up and go no matter what.

Here are Mike and I in the gear.

They provided these water-proof, warm suits, toques and gloves and I'm glad that they did because I would have been a Popsicle if they didn't.

We were clowning around in our suits. We thought we looked like astronauts.


Here are Chris and Rain, gingerly stepping into the Zodiac.

As you can see it is an open boat surrounded with air-filled tubing.

We were about to get a very fast and very bumpy experience.






Here is the closest we got to the hump backed whales that we were following.

In this case, the whale came to us which is okay, but the boats have follow the whales at a distance of 100m (I think) and keep away from other boats at a distance of 100m (I think) as well.

We did not see any orchas (black and white killer whales), but we did see many humpbacks.




It turned out that it wasn't me who would get seasick.

Here is poor Mike hanging off the side of the boat.

He was fine on the roller coaster ride out to the viewing area, but the rolling of the monstrous Pacific waves got the better of him during the ride. Mike claims that such an experience would be a very effective form of torture :(



This island has a large fishing industry. One of the main exports is fresh crab.

Here is Rain enjoying a whole crab that evening at a nice restaurant we went to to celebrate Chris's birthday.

The other nice restaurant in town (lol) was being renovated, so our choices were limited, but it was excellent food.

I was reminded of why I love living in the city. The lack of competition seems to slow down the process of feeding customers considerably. I would say the best comparison of this city for you Maritimers would be St. Andrews.
The next morning we had breakfast and headed off for the fairy. We made sure we had enough time to stop at long beach before leaving.

Surfing is the other main attraction in Tofino and there were many surfers taking advantage of the beautiful day to ride the waves.

Here are Tala and Unos bringing in a stick that Chris was throwing for them. These two would have ran into the waves until they collapsed if we let them. They had a blast.


Well we had an awesome time and Tofino, you have been done!