Saturday, August 23, 2008

Horseshoe Bay

A couple of weekends ago Mike and I took the bike down to Horseshoe Bay.

It is a little town towards Squamish and Whistler.
It has a large ferry terminal to get to the islands that are near BC.

It was a beautiful day and a drive to Horseshoe Bay was on our list of great summer outings around Vancouver that we hadn't yet tried.




One of the main reasons to go to the Bay is Trolls.

Trolls is a family restaurant made famous for their fish and chips.

So we had our fish and chips on the patio and watched tourists stroll back and forth in the park and on the little board walk.














I don't think I'd ever seen a picture of Mike with his bike, so I took a few.














Here is me on it too. I used this as my messenger picture for a while at work as a joke and the guys thought it was pretty funny. I feel like a power ranger in that helmet.

Anyway we had a nice little outing, and we still haven't managed to run out of new adventures here in Vancouver. I am always hearing of new things to try from the locals who have done it all.

Cheers,

A

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Mom and Dad's 2008 Visit

(Note any pictures in my blog can be clicked on to view a larger picture)

A couple of weeks ago Mom and Dad came to visit us.

On they Thursday night that they were here I took them to see Bard on the Beach which is a set of Shakespeare plays that are done under these big white tents across the water from me.

We had dinner on the seawall and then Mike drove us over.

The play we saw was King Lear. Mom really enjoyed it, I think Dad and I are a little more right-brained though and just don't appreciate the finer things, but it was something I had wanted to do overall as I hadn't been yet.
The next day I had taken the Friday off so we did some walking around. I showed them the Art Gallery on Robson and the Olympic clock that is stationed behind it.

The digital clock is basically an art sculpture that counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the winter Olympics for 2010 have officially started in Vancouver.

The clock has been a subject of controversy and vandalism by special interest groups such as affordable living.

Also on Robson, I took them to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory.

I love this place, when you are walking towards it you can smell the sweet chocolate smell and on your way in it just hits you, you may as well be eating it.

Aren't these candy apples the cutest thing? What a mouthful, but apparently you can have them expertly sliced up and boxed to share.



Mom and Dad picked out some chocolates and then we went on our way.

One of my favorite stores on Robson was having a 50% off sale that I couldn't miss so they went with me there while I ransacked the place and came away with some treats of my own.

Thank YOU!










We then got cleaned up and went over on the ferry to Granville Island.

It started to turn into a nice day so we sat outside on the patio and shared a pizza and some drinks.














Also on Granville Island is the Granville Island Brewing Company of course, so we went in and did a beer tasting. Dad picked up a variety pack and then we went into the market and got some dessert.
The next day, I took them to a Farmer's Market.

It is called the trout lake Farmer's Market and they had everything from organic cheese to fresh produce and hand made chocolate.

There were kids getting their faces painted and musicians playing.

We got fresh berry smoothies and browsed around. We took the sky train to get there which was the first time I had done that.


This is trout lake that the market is named after.
It is a little lake in the middle of the city that I wasn't even aware of until recently.

There were people exercising their dogs and there was a little beach where kids were cooling off.

We walked around the little lake and then got back on the sky train and headed for Gas Town




So we went to the Chill Winston which is one of my favorite restaurants in Gas Town.

It has a great patio.

We chose to sit inside near the big open windows overlooking the patio to stay out of the sun.

We had a couple of drinks and then walked home which really isn't that far.

Mom and Dad are pretty good walkers, I was surprised.

The next day Mom and Dad sort of left us to our own devices and they puttered around in their rental car.

I think they visited the UBC campus to take a look at it.

Later in the evening we went into Yaletown to Milestones and had dinner.






Mike came with us too and we had a great time.

I am wearing a very nice necklace that Mom and Dad brought with them from home.

It contains a stone called labradorite that is supposed to be found around the region of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I really like it's design and have received a lot of compliments on it for it's uniqueness.

Thanks! I hope you had a nice stay with us.
Love,

Andrea