04/07/07 - 06/07/07 Vancouver

04/10/07 - Well today we woke up to another cold and wet day and the forecast for tomorrow is cold, very cold and wet with a cold front coming in the next few days - we are really starting to wonder if we have enough clothes to keep us both warm. We set off this morning to purchase a vehicle and that is exactly what we did - we purchased a 2005 Montana Pontiac, the prices of all cars over here is so much cheaper than back home - but they don't miss you with insurance for 6 months the basic insurance is $875.00 and that's even using our existing Rating 1 insurance from AAMI, thankfully though the rego is only $25.00. The car we bought has been knocked around a bit however it should do the job for the next 6 months.

After the car, we went for a drive (we are definitely improving today we only ended up on the wrong side of the road 4 times). We visited Stanley Park just outside of Vancouver City - it was absolutely beautiful and we got to see our 1st squirrel (yes I was excited), the park itself is over 1000 acres. In the park is the Vancouver Aquarium, which Dave had already promised to take me to - I just had to see the Beluga Whales (and yes once again I was excited) they really are an absolutely beautiful animal (I especially loved them when I heard they are 40% fat).

We then ventured up to Mount Seymour (one of the local ski areas). On our way up we encountered our first viewing of snow and discovered just how beautiful the scenery in Canada really is. We didn't venture too far as the weather beacon up there was letting us know that it was around 4 degrees (that's without the windchill factor).

On our way down from the Mountain we stopped to have a look at the Northlands golf course. Well the fairways looked better than our greens, the grass was so lush and green. The fairways were lined with tall and beautiful pine trees, I'm sure if I was to play golf at there I would really get to see the trees up close.

05/07/07 - Today we woke up to a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the temperature got to a nice warm 14 degrees. We headed up to Grouse Mountain (about 10 minutes from Vancouver City) via sky rail. Were we saw a couple of Grizzlies - wow what a magnificent animal - we could of stayed there for many hours unfortunately we had to head on back down to pick up our car. Whilst up at Grouse Mountain though we did see a wild black bear and a few deer meandering around, we weren't too keen to get close to the black bear no matter what the locals said. This truly is a magnificent mountain and one we will get back to - we are planning to walk up it known as the Grouse Grind - apparently it takes about 1 1/2 hours to walk up, so weather permitting the Big Fella and I will venture up tomorrow morning. This picture is of a baby Grizzly (weighing in at 400kgs). Dave was about 3 meters away from the bear.

We then went and picked up our vehicle and returned our hire car - well that was eventful - Dave took the navigation system with him and I said I would follow - well after a couple of U Turns we finally got there. Dave was a bit stressed out by the time we got there. I must admit I felt a lot better just knowing that Dave doesn't take directions from the woman on the navigation system either.

Some of their systems over here are just fantastic - Peter Gwynne would be interested in this. We needed to get an oil change on the car so we drove into Mr Lube - its a drive in service. You drive the car over the pit, the 'greeter' comes out and offers you the paper and a cup of tea or coffee (whilst you're sitting in the car) and they do a few checks, tyres brakes etc and complete the oil change. It all takes about 10 minutes in total and you don't even have to get out of the car. This is my type of service.

06/10/2007 - Yep today back to the usual cold, cold, wet and wet. We woke up this morning and decided that it was just to wet and cold to do the trek up Grouse Mountain, so we decided to go and have a look at Vancouver Dam. This dam supplies about 80% of Vancouver with their water (it's only about 10 minutes from the city centre) We then went for our exercise and trekked about 1 hour down to the Capilano River - their rain forests are absolutely beautiful. However we did get a little wet and decided that would probably do us for being outside in the elements for the day, so we decided to go for a drive to West Vancouver and coastline for a couple of hours - so much warmer and drier than being outside.