Cirque du Soleil

Heather was here a couple of weekends ago and one of things we did was go to the Cirque du Soleil show that is in town.

They are here for about a month and the tent is fairly close to our place.

Just a walk down the seawall.

So we got some dinner and walked down.

Besides entertainment they had all the regular circus fair.

Popcorn, candy and drinks. The also had a lot of Cirque merchandise, but man that must be where they make their money.

We goofed around a bit and bought some not so cheap refreshments.
It was a great act. There were massive trampolines, trapeze artists, tight rope walkers, strong men, gymnasts, flying angels, you name it.
It was really amazing. I don't have any good pictures though because photography was not allowed. I took a few without my flash that didn't really turn out and even then an usher threatened to take my camera away, so I gave up. Apparently there is the danger that the performers might become distracted and fall and break their necks, bah humbug.
The next day we got up early and drove across the border to do some shopping in the outlet malls.

There were lots of great deals at nice brand name stores. Where the dollar is and given the slowdown in the US, the sales were terrific.

We got home fairly late, but some friends of ours were doing a little concert at a little pub that has a free lance night.

They did a great job and it was a really fun night.

Here we are dancing and singing along.

Believe it or not this is the best picture I have of either one of us for the whole weekend.

My camera seems to have had some ridiculous redeye issues that night.

Eventful Day

A couple of weekends ago, Mike and I went to check out the new area on the seawall that is near the Olympic village site.

It has been newly opened.

There are all kinds of cool things on the walk.

Here I am spinning in one of the chairs that dot the board walk.
Here is a dragon boat race that was going on while we were messing around.

Dragon boating is very popular here. You can see them practicing and racing quite often. I might try myself at some point. Good exercise and nice way to meet new people.
These giant deck chairs are also new.

This would be a beautiful place to bring a book and a coffee and read in the sun.
Here is Mike on one of the new walking bridges.

It reminds me of a whale's backbone for some reason.

We were on our bikes. I had just got a new seat on mine at a nearby bike shop and it is so comfortable now. Much more fun to bike around the city.
Here is a shot of one of the new deck areas.

New benches and lots of decorative stone and plants along the way.

There are also these stone anchors that can be seats.
So we were biking around and came across this park we'd never been to so we followed the path around it and came across this.

This path is actually a walking/biking bridge that spans over a piece of highway!

Can you believe it? Look at it it looks like a park.

I had to actually clime over some shrubbery and get a look at the cars going by underneath before I would believe it.
The flowers are out in full force now and there are some pretty amazing colors.

These ones were the exact same color as my bright pink shirt.
Yep, they are!
We were at Granville Market and there was this big commotion with bikes and a police escort and Mike and I realized that there was a huge group of naked bicyclers parading around the market. There were some pretty amazing getups. Lots of "glider bikes", some two-seater bicycles, unicycles, low rider motorcycles bikes you name it and their operators dressed in not much except colorful stockings, hats and body paint. The one guy to the left has his dog in the wagon. The poor thing must be so embarrassed ;) This group of bikers often do events like this. They have different themes, but I believe they do it to raise money for a cause and to promote bicycling for health and the environment.
Here is Mike at the top of this little hill on the Island.

You can see everything that is going on from up here and it is a nice quite, sunny little place.

From our side of the water we can see these little houses that are actually on the water. They are basically on docks and float. I'd always wanted to get a closer look at them. Isn't that cool?



Finally we were eating lunch in the market and noticed a big crowd gathered on the the dock outside.

We wandered outside and saw this race going on.

The paddlers seemed to be having a lot of trouble and I found out that their paddles and boats were crudely made of cardboard and plywood.

It is another event for charity called the plywood cup where the competitors create their boats and then have to race in them.

So that was a few hours that we spent biking around. Soon I'll blog about Heather's trip here. I just like to get these in chronological order.

Cheers,

A

Mike Goes Go Carting

Mike started a new job recently at a software company and they decided to organize a team-building activity to have some fun.

They threw some ideas around and decided on go carting. It's a small software company who's staff is made up of 30ish men, so you do the math ;)

So Mike brought his own helmet and offered to drive some people over. It's nice when the Matrix sees the light of day every once in the while.



Here they all are at the track ready to go. He said he had a great time and the cars are really fast.

The reason why he is the only one with his helmet off is because the others are wearing hairnets in their rented helmets so once they were on, the weren't coming of until they were done. I just mentioned that because I asked him myself when I saw this.

They look like some b-list power rangers if you ask me ;). There weren't any pictures of the cars on the camera, Mike maybe if you come across one from the guys at work you should put it up.
It would be something I'd like to try and he managed to win a couple of times and of course had great fun bumping everyone around.

Mike recently go his motorcycle on the road the other day and we went for a ride and it was quite fun. There are a few places around here that are quite nice to bike to, I've heard and I'd like to try a couple of trips. Horseshoe Bay is supposed to be nice and has a great fish and chips place a the end of the journey. Mike has matured a lot since he first bought the bike so it can be a nice experience for me too and he is very careful.

Heather is coming to visit next weekend and I am going to take her to the big outlet mall in Washington a couple of hours from here. Mike and I desperately need some new summer clothes and apparently there are great deals to be had there. Also, Cirque du Soleil are in town and Mike and I are going to take her to that. We wanted to go to one of their shows for a while and since we didn't end up fitting one in when we went to Vegas this seems like a good time.

This is a photo of Science World and to the left of it you can see the orange and blue Cirque de Soleil tent. I believe they are here for almost a month.

I can see Science World and the tent from my office building.

Bye for now,

Andrea