Winter is Coming...

G'day All,

We're back!  Sorry for the delay in blog updates.  We've been a bit sloppy in getting this done.  Also its starting to get cold here so our number of activities has slightly diminished.  Since our last post Marty has been promoted to a manager at the Bike Store and even has his own business cards (I've made it now!) and Erin keeps on keeping on at the Lab, with the possibility of travelling for work soon.  We have enjoyed some of the local arts, Major League baseball, Canadian Football and National Soccer.  We enjoyed our first Halloween festivel and spent our wedding Anniversary in Whistler.  Also Marty has competed in a triathlon and marathon, we have tried our hands at one of the most difficult hikes in North Vancouver, disc golf, Ice Skating and Erin enjoyed herself immensely at Oktoberfest in the Bavarian village of Leavenworth, WA.

On the 3rd of September Marty competed in the Vancouver Triathlon, an Olympic Distance event consisting of a 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run.  My training leading up to the event hadn't been spectactular with only a handful of swim sessions and sporadic cycling training at best.  However my running is probably the best its ever been so I went into the race knowing that I could go hard on the swim and the bike and the run would take care of itself.
I had decided not to hire a westsuit for the event and this proved to be a mistake as air temperature was only around 8deg in the morning and the water temperature only around 15deg.  However I got through the swim in a good time (for me) albeit with most of my digits numb.  The bike leg was four laps of Stanley Park which suited me perfectly with a steep climb to Prospect Point each leg.  My run leg was strong and I finished in a PB time of 2:28 and in the top 40 overall.

Marty pre-race at the Vancouver Triathlon

One of the toughest hikes in North Vancouver is the Hanes Valley route.  It is only open in August and September due to snow cover and impassable creek crossings.  It begins in Lynn Valley and finishes on Grouse Mountain.  The climb up Grouse Mountain is from the backside of the mountain and part of it is a 1km climb of around 400m elevation on scree rock and boulders.  In september Erin and I thought we'd give this a crack and 5.5hrs later we pulled into the Grouse Mountain lodge exhausted and in need of a beer!  A few weeks later on Thanksgiving Day Marty did the same route as a trail run and did so in about 3hrs.  The BBQ they were having on the mountain was a welcome and well earned surpise!

Erin slowly scrambling up the scree slope in Hanes Valley

Mid September found us sampling some of the local arts.  We went to a couple of shows at the Vancouver fringe festival.  The first show 'Tales told by Idiots', was a tour of Granville Island by a couple of guys who have a run with a local security guard.  Hilarity ensued.  The second was an enjoyable set of stories and songs by a deaf Californian man about himself, his girlfriend and his imaginary friend. 
Each summer at Kitsilano beach a local players company does 'Bard on the Beach'.  Temporary stages are set up off the beach and each night a couple of Shakespeare plays are performed.  We treated ourselves to 'MacBeth' and were pleasantly surprised at the high production quality.  It was an enjoyable evening especially when MacBeth provides the viewer with so much blood, violence and gore!

Vancouver is home to the Major League Soccer team the Whitecaps.  Alas we missed the game against LA Galaxy and thus, of course, missed the chance to see 'Becks' in the flesh.  The game we actually saw was against Colorado Rapids.  With more pre-game entertainment than the AFL Grand Final we thought it must be a game of significance, but no, just a standard home and away game.  The Whitecaps were up at the half, but the Rapids leveled just after play resumed.  Vancouver scored again midway through the second half only to have Colorado level it again with only minutes remaining.  Unfortunately only a draw, but otherwise an enjoyable time was had by all. 

The following the weekend saw us heading south of the border for the first time for the Bellingham Bay Marathon and a sidetrip to Seattle afterwards.  Although Bellingham is only 150km south of Vancouver in Washington catching a bus across the border proved to be more time consuming than hoped and 4hrs later we arrived at our Motel.
Race morning arrived with cool air, but no wind and perfect day looked promising.  The race started well for me and after about 10km I was feeling pretty good.  I found myself in a group of six other people and I ran with them for about 20mins.  After that I dropped out of the group after their pace started to lift and I felt I couldn't keep that pace up for another 25km.  At the 32km pace I was still on a 3hr 10min pace and was feeling confident I could keep that up until the end.  However at the 34km mark when I passed the finish line for the first time everything fell in a heap and I walked/hobbled/jogged the remaining 8km, losing around 15minutes in that time.  In the end I finished with a respectable 3:26 and 4th in my age category.  I don't think I would change anything on race day but I didn't do enough long runs in training and I paid for it on the day. Erin was going to do the half-marathon but pulled up injured in the week leading upto it and had to pull out, once again her feet failed her.

Marty after finishing his first Marathon

The following day we went down to Seattle and had a wander around downtown in the afternoon including a tour of the underground (Seattle is a city on a city) before gearing up for our first Major League Baseball game in the afternoon, Seattle Mariners vs. LA Angels.  $7 for a beer and $6 for a hotdog made the MCG look like spare change prices but it was funny watching the hotdog guys hurling hotdogs to customers over five rows of seats.
With the Mariners scoring a home run in the first inning we thought were in for a high scoring exciting event.  However, Seattle didn't score again until the 7th and went down 7-4. 

Safeco field lit up for Mariners vs Angels

The following day we went to the Rock 'n' Roll museum which had Rolling Stones, Nirvana and Hendrix exhibits.  It was incredibly interesting with original letters, recordings and instruments from both Cobain and Hendrix.  We ended up spending over 3.5hrs there.  Next was a quick trip up the famous space needle for some spectactular views of the city and the bay before catching our bus back to Canada.

View of Downtown Seatlle from Space Needle

BC Lions play in the Canadian Football League and a saturday night in October saw us at BC Place to watch them play against Calgary Stampeders. Since our outing there for the Soccer they had changed all of the seats to match the colours of the home team, so the ground was fit out in orange and black. Another game with impressive pre-game entertainment was the most tension filled for the whole evening, with the game being very stilted with stops in the game every minute or so. We had alot of fun though trying to figure out all the rules and BC Lions got up which marks the first game we have been to where the team we are barricking for has won.

BC Lions vs Calgary Stampeders in the CFL

With the weather starting to get worse we started to get a bit stuck for ideas of things to do in Vancouver. However on a Monday that wasn't that bad we headed to MEC to buy some frisbee's and then went out to play disc golf. We visited the disc golf course at Queen Elizabeth Park and then attempted to figure out what we needed to do. With the help of some locals we figured out that we needed to get the frisbee's into the cages on each hole. Erin wasn't particulary good at this (although I did blame it mostly on the inadequate discs we had bought) but it was alot of fun anyway.

The following monday's activity was for a favourite Canadian pastime, Ice Skating. This was a first for Marty and by the end he was able to do a few laps of the rink. Erin had done this before but had to re-teach herself as it had been a while. It was also a lot of fun, even if we had kids zipping by us, and are keen to go back again.

Ice Skating

The third weekend in October saw Erin saying goodbye to Marty and heading to Leavenworth in Washington, USA for Oktoberfest. Leavenworth is a Bavarian themed town that runs Oktoberfest for three weekends in October and it is a 4 year tradition among a few of the ALS crew to visit during this time. So tagging along with this I enjoyed much Beer, German food and German music (including apparently, Sweet Caroline and the Chicken Dance). It was a great weekend and I will miss not being able to go next year, I will have to find somewhere in Aus for Oktoberfest.

Erin at Oktoberfest in Leavenworth

The end of October brought the North American tradition of Halloween.  A few days before Halloween Martyand Erin went to "Fright Nights" at PNE which is a fair for Halloween, where there were haunted houses, rides and shows with fire-throwing. There was some really freaky stuff in the haunted houses but all in all it was alot of fun. The actual day of Halloween happened to fall on a Wednesday so Marty and Erin decided to dress up as Zombies (zombie bride in Erin's case) and head out to a local games bar called The Storm Crow. They were doing some Halloween themed activties, with Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Shining on TV, people getting "murdered" every half an hour and dry ice in the drinks so they go all smoky. It was a good night although do to work the next day earlier than we would have liked.

Zombie Erin

Zombie Marty

Our Pumkpin attempt

The first weekend in November marked Marty and Erin's 2nd Wedding Anniversary so we headed to Whistler for the weekend for some quiet time. It was very quiet in Whistler as it is the shoulder season where the gondola up the mountain is closed and it is very wet. We had a wander around the village on the Sunday and then went out for a nice dinner on the Sunday night. On the Monday we went for a 14km hike around the Lost Lake trails near Whistler Village and got some good views from Green Lake Lookout. Marty is keen to get back to run and Mountain bike the trails we walked around. The monday in Whistler was when alot of seasonal workers were starting and, from what we heard, we decided that about 50% would have been Australian, 25% british and the last 25% the rest of the world. On our actual wedding anniversary, 6th Nov, we just stayed at home and Erin cooked a semi-fancy dinner.

Green Lake near Whistler Village

Well that was a super long blog but we have been a bit lazy.
We hope everyone is well back at home and we hope to hear from some of you soon.

Cheers, Erin and Marty



Just for Laughs and Whistler

G'day all,

It's been a big few weeks for us with a couple of trips away and working alot. In the last four weeks we have visited Montreal for the Montreal Comedy Festival, Just for Laughs and Zoofest, rode to White Rock on the border of USA and Canada, went to Whistler Mountain and went over to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

Erin would not be living in Canada without a visit to the Montreal Comedy Festival so we took a few days off work and made the trek over to Montreal for 4 days. Most of the first day (Sunday) was spent flying as the flight was 5 hours and then losing 3 hours to the time zone, but the night well and truly made up for it. On the first night we went and saw Dave Gorman (UK Comedian), who was brilliant, and then went and explored Place des Arts and Place des Festivals where they had closed many of the streets and had erected stages for more comedic acts and bands. The only downside to these stages was that they were most often in French, although it was cool to watch a magic act in another language.

Victor, the Just For Laughs Mascot

On the Monday we did a walking tour of Old Montreal, including seeing the Basilique Notre-Dame, and it was amazing how different the culture was between Vancouver and Montreal, in the same country but completly different in culture, architecture and language. Monday night, after being caught in a thunderstorm, took us to see a Scottish youngster by the name of Daniel Sloss. Due to the thunderstorm all of the outside stages were shut so it turned into an early night for us.

Streets of Old Montreal

Tuesday saw us climbing Mont Royal (Montreal's Mountain, although it is nothing compared to Vancouver's North Shore.) Once we got to the top we had awesome views of Montreal and went to see a giant cross that is a monument to the founder of Montreal that he carried to the top as a offering to God. In the afternoon we caught the Metro train out to Biodome (Pauly Shore reference anyone), which had four different eco-systems complete with wildlife, including large March Penguins. That night we went to a show called Big Top Comedy, which had multiple comedians from different countries that all had 15 minute spots. Following this we went and saw Paul Foot (another British comedian) who became very friendly with Marty (He jumped all over me and carried on for ages - twice!). After this we hung out at the stages again for a while and went and got lost in a maze that they had created with weird characters wandering around, guarding the way etc.

Top of Mont Royal, Montreal is in the background

 

Alien Pop Show in Montreal

Wednesday saw us flying home in time for Marty to go to work. Because we went at the start of the last week we missed most of the bigger events (which are at the end of the last week) but we saw some good comedians and enjoyed our Just for Laugh's experience. Now we just need to get to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

The following Monday we forsake our normal hike to go on another bike ride. This time we rode to White Rock which is on the border of USA and Canada. This was a very long ride (for Erin at least). It was 50km on the way there, and because we stopped a bit early and got the train the rest of the way it was 35km back again, so overall an 85km ride. White Rock is a beach town and it was very beautiful as we had chosen a nice day to go (it reminded me a bit of Rosebud). Although being a beach town and the fact that we had to ride back again we only stayed for a couple of hours, having a look around the pier and having fish and chips at a pub on the beach.

Our transport to White Rock

On the long weekend in August, due to a statutary holiday for BC Day (Erin had the tuesday off), we decided to finally make our way to Whistler to check out what the fuss was about. It was amazing! You can tell it is a ski village but in the summer it looks incredible. It has alot of lodge style accomdation and resturant after resturant along the main part of the village. Then everywhere you look is snow capped mountains. While we were looking around the village we watched the downhill mountain bikers in the bike park (they go up in a chair lift or gondola and then ride down, it was insane) as well as watching the olympics on the big screens from the olympic square set up for the 2010 winter games.

Whistler Village

On monday afternoon we decided to go for a trail run to Lost Lake, which has many single and double track trails surrounding it, but as we got out there we got caught in a thunderstorm and had to go back, so now we are keen to go back to go running again. Tuesday saw us going up Whistler and Blackcomb mountains for hiking. We got the Gondola up Whistler mountain and then a chair lift up to the summit (scariest moment of Erin's life). From the summit, after soaking up the awesome views, we made our way on the Half Note trail which took us down and around the side of the moutain and back to the Gondola station. There was still alot of snow around on that trail and at one point we had to slide down a incline on the snow. After we arrived back to the Gondola station we took the Peak 2 Peak Gondola across to Blackcomb mountain (another scary moment for Erin) which was 4.4km long and was 450ft from the valley floor. Over on Blackcomb we were running out of time so we couldn't do the hike we wanted to do so we went to a lookout for a few more photos and made our way back to the village by going back across the Peak to Peak Gondola and then down the Whistler Gondola.

View from Whistler Moutain Summit (2200m)

Peak to Peak Gondola

After some problems with getting our license's we had to cancel our planned trip to Kelowna so instead we both took a day off work and headed to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Nanimo is a very quiet seaside town (there was barely anyone around) but we did some good hiking and kayaking while we were there. Monday we decided to hike up Mount Bensen which was 1000m high and the overall hike was 17km long finishing with a swim in a lake at the bottom. On tuesday we went and hired some kayaks and went around Newcastle island which is just off Nanaimo, stopping at a pub called the Dinghy Dock Pub that is on a pontoon and you have to have a boat to get to.

The view from Mt Benson

Kayaking

Everything else is going really well, both of us are going well at work, Marty is going to be made permanent which means he has a job through the winter and Erin is going along as normal. Sport wise, Erin is has finished the Softball season with a tournament day yesterday, which was alot of fun, and Marty is running alot, he was in a team for a 50mile trail run in Squamish where his team came fourth, and he has signed up for a solo 50km trail race in San Francisco in December and is competing in the Vancouver triathlon next weekend. He has also just purchased a Mountain bike intended for cross-country mountain biking so he is planning on heading back up to Whistler soon to test it out properly.

We hope all is well back home,
Erin and Marty

Time Flies When Your Having Fun.

G'day all,

So we have now been in Vancouver for 3 months and we are still loving it as much now as when we arrived. We have gotten into a good routine between work, sport and social activities and the time has gone by very quickly.

We have just had the pleaure of Marty's parents, Tony and Jenny, coming to visit for two weeks so we got to play tourist again for a while and take them places that we had already visited. We did a 12km hike from Lynn Canyon to Deep Cove, visited Granville Island, did Grouse Grind, went to the Summer Night Market and went to Vancouver Island for two days. While Marty and Erin were working Tony and Jenny went to Banff and Kamloops for a few days and otherwise explored Vancouver.

Erin, Marty, Jenny and Tony at Quarry Rock overlooking Deep Cove

Grizzlies playing on Grouse Mountain

Our two days on Vancouver Island took us to Victoria where we spent the first day looking around the wharf, at the Parliament building and The Empress Hotel and visiting Craigdarroch Castle, an old castle (being restored) that displayed the family life of coal magnate Robert Dunsmuir. The second day on Vancouver Island we hired a car and drove from Victoria west along the coast to Port Renfrew. We stopped at Port Renfrew and walked out to Botanical Beach to have a look around. After this we drove north to Lake Cowichan where we stopped for lunch. We then continued east back to Victoria and dropped off the car.

The Empress Hotel, Victoria

Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria

In the weeks before Tony and Jenny's arrival we have done a few hikes, a bike ride, trail runs and fun runs. The first hike we did was to Norvan Falls which ended up being a 21km round trip from Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. It was not much in the way of elevation but it was long, although the waterfalls were a nice place to sit and have lunch. The other hike we did was the Brothers Creek Loop in West Vancouver, on the side of Cypress Mountain. It was a 10km hike but about 5km in we came across some snow and had to try and walk through it, it was very difficult and the trail was very muddy at most areas. There are some amazing views (and houses) at British Properties which were near the start of our hike.

Norvan Falls

Erin walking on Snow on the Brothers Creek Loop

We decided to mix up our monday hike up a bit one monday and go for a bike ride instead. We rode from home to Marty's work, to pick up a bike map, and then headed on the seawall around to UBC (University of British Columbia, an entire suberb on it's own). We stopped and had lunch on campus at UBC and then rode onto Queen Elizabeth Park which is the highest point in Vancouver (not greater Vancouver) where there were some good views. From Queen Elizabeth Park we came home to give an overall distance of 43km, an easy days ride for Marty but the longest Erin has ridden in one go.

Our bikes having a break at Queen Elizabeth Park

In the running department, Marty ran in a fun run at UBC called the longest day run, which was 10km and Marty finished it in 38:38, a personal best, finishing 16th overall. Erin also did a fun run a couple of days later on Father's Day (17th June) at Burnaby Lake which was 10.8km. Other trail runs we have done have been around Jericho Pacific Park near UBC and on the North Shore. Marty is still part of his running group and Erin is still enjoying Softball (now that I'm actually hitting the ball).

Pool in Lynn River where we stopped after a trail run.

On the more social/touristy aspects of the last 6 weeks we have gone to street parties, celebrated Canada Day, went to the Baseball and Erin went to a Beer Festival. Two weeks in a row Commercial Drive was completely shut to traffic and a street party was held which we wandered through. The first week was for Italian Day (they call the area Little Italy) and they had stages set-up along Commercial with acts and there were food vendors, activities and market stalls all up and down Commerical Drive. The next week they did this all over again for Vancouver Car Free Day and this time Main St in Vancouver also closed for the day and did the same.

Canada Day was July 1st, so Jenny, Tony and Erin (Marty had to work) headed to Granville Island for more activities with buskers and magic acts playing all around the island as well as market stalls and a sea of Red and White. Marty met up with us on Granville Island after he finished work.

Last monday we went to see the Baseball game Vancouver Canadians versus Everett Aquasox at Nat Bailey Stadium.  Vancouver lost but it was a good game and Erin was teaching Marty all the rules as we were watching. Saturday saw Erin heading to Canada Cup of Beer, Beer Festival at Swangard Stadium in Vancouver with friends from work. It was a beer tasting day with about 25-30 Craft Brewers who all had a couple of their wares available for tasting.

Vancouver Canadians vs Everett Aquasox

I think that is all for now, although next sunday we are heading to Montreal for the Montreal Comedy Festival which Erin is very excited about.

We hope all is well back home,
Keep in touch,

Erin and Marty

Settling In

G'day all,

After the intial excitment of being in a new city with exciting new prospects we finally have started to get into a routine of work, tourist activities and outdoor activities.

Marty finally got a job after much searching and he is working in a Bike store which has locations on both sides of the False Creek Seawall doing rentals to tourists as well as some sales. He was very excited the other day when he received his first tip (although bike store attendents don't normally get tipped). Erin's work is going well, there was a staff appreciation day the other week where they supplied lunch, cake and had a draw for several prizes throughout the day, including ipad's and e-readers.

In regards to tourist activities in the past four weeks we have done rollerblading around the Seawall in Stanley Park (Marty was not a big fan of this), playing Pitch and Putt, visiting the Fisherman's village in Steveston and also going to the Richmond Night Market.

Pitch and Putt Pro

Sport and outdoor activities have been plentiful with Marty (being unemployed at the time) doing many trail runs around the north shore as well as many bike rides around vancouver and through Stanley Park. Erin has done a lot of walking when she can fit it in and ism starting to get on the bike, getting used to the road rules.  We've have also signed up to do a Marathon and Half-Marathon respectively at Bellingham Bay, Washington in late September, so we will have to get into the training for that. Erin has also joined a basketball team and a softball team, with two catches in her first game.

Hike wise we have done a 13km hike from Lynn Canyon to Deep Cove, which had incredible views from a rock above Deep Cove and included another very high Suspension Bridge (luckily for Erin, we only went over this bridge once).

Lynn Canyon from the Suspension Bridge

The next week we did a 16km hike up Mount Gardner which is on Bowen Island (a 20 minute ferry ride just off west vancouver). It provided spectacular views of vancouver and you could see all the way to Mount Baker in Washington State, 140km away. This has been Erin's favourite hike so far, the only downside being that she twisted her ankle on the way down and struggled for the next week or so.

View from Mount Gardner on Bowen Island, with the snow capped Mount Baker in the background

On a very wet and cold day we decided to hike around Buntzen Lake in Port Moody and we did a trail called Diez Vista (18km long) which had 10 view points, but as it was such a rainy day we could not see very far and this is on the list to do again for another (sunnier) day.

From the misty mountians of Port Moody

Last of all, on another rainy day we decided to do the Grouse Grind, which is a tough 3km hike that is basically a set of stairs to (almost) the top of Grouse Mountain and covers 900m in elevation. Alot of people try to run it and try and beat their time, this is Marty's goal (and to a lesser extent, Erin's) over time. When we got to the top Erin had her first glimpse of snow since arriving in Vancouver and we got to see some Grizzly Bears at a refuge that is set up on Grouse Mountain.

After conquering the Grouse Grind

Vancouver Grizzlies!

So that's about it for now.  We thought the weather was beginning to turn for the best, but it has gone back to been wet and cold for the time being.  We are hoping for a nice long summer.

Best wishes to you all.

Erin and Marty

In the beginning ...

G'day all,

So after the first week of having a look around, getting to know the area and the obligatory shopping trip we started our serious search for an apartment and a job for Marty (with some more sightseeing inbetween).  Luckily, the apartment search didn't take too long with us finding a nice place just off Commercial Drive, East Vancouver (or East Van to us locals).  It has a very similar vibe to the Brunswick/Fitzroy area of Melbourne and is only a 5min train ride to downtown Vancouver.

East Vancouver

Erin has started work without any major hiccups and is all ready to run the place in less than a week.  Marty, on the other hand, is yet to find work but has had a couple of interviews, so hopefully something is not too far around the corner.  However, his cooking and cleaning skills have risen remarkably in a week and the apartment has never looked better.

While all this house hunting, furniture shopping and job hunting has been a blast, we have been able to fit in some sights as well.  We have visited the Capilano Suspension bridge in North Vancouver, Stanley Park, West End, Kitsilano and Squamish.

The Capilano Suspension bridge has a 150 year history and yes, Erin did actually walk over it (twice in fact).  It spans 450ft and is 350ft above the Canyon floor.  Marty was having some serious Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom moments.  We also trekked the Cliff Walk which was a see-through platform 300ft above the Canyon floor.

Erin on the Capilano Suspension Bridge. 

Indiana Jones moment.

Stanley Park is the oldest and largest Urban Park in North America.  It has a paved path all the way around the perimeter which forms a 9km loop.  But also there are a number of trails and lagoons within the park itself.  From the seawall you can see across to North Shore mountains and the Park contains the entrance to the Lions Gate Bridge which connects Downtown to the North Shore.

Entrance to Lions Gate Bridge

Lions Gate Bridge over the Burrard Inlet

On the weekend we went and stayed in Squamish, a small town about 80km North of Vancouver on the way to Whistler mountain.  It is known as the "Outdoor Capital of Canada" with hundreds of kilometers of mountain biking and hiking trails.  We spent the Saturday climbing the peaks of the Chief Stawmus mountain which are at 610m and 655m respectively.  The climbs were a rather steep 25% gradient, at times having to use chains and ladders to pull ourselves up the rock faces, but it was worth it just to have a chipmunk eat a peanut out of our hands (Oh and the view was ok too).  The evening was spent sampling the local brews at Howe Sound BrewPub.

Climbing the mountain

On Chief Peak 1

Feeding a chipmunk

On the Sunday we both got our first experience of mountain biking on some single track trails of Squamish.  It turned out to be much more difficult than we orginally thought with us only covering around 25km in 5hrs of riding.  And that was on the so-called "easy" trails.  But it was a good experience and we got some good views of the lakes and mountains in the area.

Mountain Biking

We have also been able to get our footy fix with the local Aussie bar "Moose's Down Under" showing a game a night on the weekend's.  The ANZAC day game was shown live with the local footy clubs running some competitions and trying to recruit members.  The president of one of the clubs has attempted to recruit Marty, but he is just assessing his options at the moment.  We don't like to use the word mercenary, but hey, we've got bills to pay!

There was also an ANZAC day service in one of the parks organised by the local government with contributions from the Australian and New Zealand consulates that went really well and we were glad we attended.

Wreaths at ANZAC Day service

Marty has joined a local running club for an hour of pain every Tuesday and Thursday evening's.  There are people in this group who can run sub 2:45 marathons and others who do 50mile trail runs as a "training run".  Erin has joined a fitness group that covers bootcamp and running clinics a few times a week.

So thats about it.  Leave a message if you like, we hope all is well with you and your families.

Marty and Erin

First Impressions

G'day all,

So we arrived in Vancouver last wednesday night after the longest day of our  lives and we were happy to be on solid ground again. After getting to the hotel we went for a walk and found Granville street (about 2 blocks from where we are staying) to be where all the pubs and shops were. We stopped at a pub for a drink and watched a bit of the first game of the playoffs for the Vancouver Canucks in Ice Hockey. The Canucks are everywhere, the people here are absolutely fanatic. It doesn't look good so far though because they are 0-3 down against the LA Kings for a best of 7 games, so it may not last much longer. Marty is attributing their losing to our arrival as they finished top of the ladder in their conference and the LA Kings were 8th. 

A shot from Game 3 of the Stanley Cup quarter final playoffs between Vancouver and LA Kings

A Canucks Donut

We have discovered very early on that it is still quite cold here, but it did give us an excuse to jump on the Canucks bandwagon and buy a scarf each. When the sun comes out it can get warm (although that has only happened twice so far) and it is very warm anywhere you go inside.

Off to watch the Canucks

We have been getting a bit confused with everything being on the other side, drive on the right side of the road, keep right when walking on footpaths, getting into the car on the other side, even keeping right when going down stairs and escalators.

Besides from watching the three hockey games (they play every second night) we have been walking around downtown alot, I've done a bit of shopping (I may of gotten excited about some of the cheaper clothes), and we have been trying to sort out an apartment, bank accounts, phones and jobs. We have been looking at a couple of apartments and are putting in applications today but that is as far as we have gotten, hopefully the applications go well and we will be into a place shortly. We have extended our stay at St Clair Hotel until Sat 21st but I'm not sure what we will do after that.

In relation to jobs, Marty has applied for some and is hoping to hear back and is looking through more, covering sports sales, engineering and landscaping jobs. ALS contacted me last wednesday and I am going out there to meet everyone and have a look around on tuesday. I start next Monday 23rd April but after training will be working tuesday to saturday.

Marty and I both completed the Vancouver Sun Run on Sunday and we went well. Marty finished in 43.11 and I did 1.08.25 and we were both happy with that, Marty off not much training and recovering from the Ironman and me coming off my knee injury.  There were 49,000 people registered for the run which makes it twice the size of Run4theKids but not as big as City2Surf.

The start of the Sun Run

Before the Run

 

Tourist wise we have not done that much, we went for a wander around Gastown (part of downtown Vancouver) which is a older area with cobbled streets, and we spent sunday afternoon on Granville Island visiting the public market and the Granville island Brewery. 

The entrance to Granville Island

There is still much for us to do but luckily we have a while to cover it all.

 

The views around Vancouver are absolutely amazing. Its almost impossible to go anywhere without seeing snow-capped mountains in the background.  Below is a photo Marty took while going for a run on Friday afternoon.

Pic From Stanley Park

Well that's about it for now.

Ez and Marty