Merry Christmas, Eh!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

We hope this blog finds everyone well and enjoying the holidays.

The last month and half have been eventful for us as we attempt to get used to the cold weather here in Beautiful Bristish Columbia.
Marty (attempted) to grow a moustache for Movember and ran his first ultra marathon, we made a trip south to sunny California, had our first experience of snow play, enjoyed some live hockey and NBA and partook in the usual festive Christmas parties.

In November, Marty decided to have a go at growing a Mo and see if he could raise a bit of money for charity.  In the end we raised a couple of a hundred and the finished product turned out ok, not great, but ok!

The final day of the Mo

On a sunny day in November we went snowshoeing for the first time on Grouse Mountain.  It took a bit of time to get used to having the shoes on our feet, but once we got used to it we had alot of fun looking around the Grouse Mountain basic snowshoe trials and playing in the snow. As it was the start of the season not all of the snowshoes trails were open yet but we got to play in amongst the trees and then had some fantastic views of Vancouver. Also as it was the lead up to Christmas there was Reindeer on the top of Grouse, they had set up Santa's workshop and had made a ice-skating pond near the Chalet.

As the NHL have deprived us of seeing the Vancouver Canucks play some pro hockey (i.e the Lockout), on Marty's birthday at the end of November, we went to see Vancouver Giants play Moose Jaw Warriors in the Western Hockey League. This was one of the things we were really looking forward to before coming to Canada and it was really exciting even though the Giants lost.


Hockey!  Giants are in the red

A couple of days later we headed to the airport to make the trip to San Francisco. Marty had decided to do a 50km trail race there and so we were making a holiday of it, leaving on the Friday morning and returning on the Monday night. When we arrived in San Francisco, after a 2 and 1/2 hour delay, we picked up the rental car and Marty had to remember how to drive. It was the first time either of us had driven since arriving in April.  In order to get to where we were staying in Mill Valley, we had to drive across the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge with it's "International Orange" colour. That night we just had a quiet meal and ended back at the hotel early so Marty could get his rest before the race.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Saturday morning saw us getting up at 4.30am, getting a bus to the start line and then sitting in another "Warming Bus" until the start, all of this through a heavy downpour in San Fran. If there was one word to sum up the race it would be: Mud!  And lots of it.  When we arrived at the start line at 5:00am, it had been raining heavily all night and there was already tons of mud.  This was just a precursor to what I was to experience out on the trails.  There were some sections of the course that were ankle deep in mud and to add to the fun some of the trails were at 10-15% gradient.  Making it virtually impossible to run down or up.  I had one wipe-out during the race and it happened at about the half way mark coming down a gravelly, muddy hill when I lost traction and slid a couple of metres on my left side. I scraped up most of left forearm, side and knee, but did no major damage.  After a couple moments I got myself up and running again and had no major incidents for the rest of the race.  While Marty was off running, Erin decided it was a better idea to go back to the hotel, get out of the soaked clothing and watch a movie to return later with the car to pick Marty up. Best plan of the day.

Mud

5hrs and 16mins later

Battle scars

That capped a fairly successful year of endurance events for me, completing an Ironman, Marathon and 50km Trail Race in 2012.  Bring on 2013!

That night, after Marty had cleaned all of the mud out of his battle wounds, we headed to see an NBA game, Golden State Warriors vs Indiana Pacers. After a ridiculously overpriced meal and deciding not to have any $10 beers we settled in to watch the game. Although Andrew Bogut was not playing for Golden State due to being out injured, they still managed to win. The highlight being a Warriors player going for a 3 pointer from over the half court line on the half-time buzzer and getting it in. The crowd went wild.

Golden State Warriors vs Inidiana Pacers

Sunday's activities included heading out to the notorious prison, Alcatraz, looking around the pier's, particulary pier 39, and looking around Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. After the trains wouldn't work because of the heavy rain, we were forced to drive into downtown in order to get the boat heading out to Alactraz. Alcatraz is the famous prison where the worst of the worst prisoners went, including Al Capone, and we did a tour and heard about the living conditions, the rules and the many escape attempts. Also from Alcaraz were some fantastic views of San Francisco city and bay. Later that day we had a look around the tourist shops at Pier 39, went to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory and stocked up, and checked out Lombard St, the crookedest street in the world.   The incline is so steep that they had to make the street a zigzag so cars could travel down it.  We finished the evening at The Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.


Alcatraz Prison

Erin and Marty on Alcatraz

After exploring the city on the Sunday we took advantage of having a car and headed out to the Sonoma wine region in the surrounds of San Francisco on the Monday. Sonoma is about 1 hour drive from San Fran, and after a breif stop in Sonoma town to grab a few maps from the visitors centre, we headed to the Benzinger Winery in Glen Ellen where we went on a tour of the winery and learnt about the process of making the wine as well as their organic farming techniques. At the end of this we had some tastings and they told us about their sister winery, Imagery Estate Winery, which was 5 minutes away. After having lunch at a nice pub we headed around to their sister winery for a few more tastings before heading back to San Fran in order to catch our flight back to Vancouver.

Benzinger Winery, Sonoma Valley, CA

The following Monday, early December, we decided to hike up BCMC to the top of Grouse Mountain. BCMC is a trail that parallels the Grouse Grind but as the Grouse Grind is closed in the winter months due to the snow, BCMC is a slightly safer option. It was amazing as we climbed seeing the snow depth get greater as we got higher. It reminded Erin of when you see people in the movies wandering through the snowy woods.

Snowy trees on the BCMC trail

During the lead up to Christmas we of course had the obligatory Christmas parties to attend. The first was the Pacific Road Runners (PRR; Marty's run club) Christmas party which was at a local Irish Bar in Vancouver. It was a good night with everyone talking about their next exciting (from Erin's point of view insane) ventures for running. The following weekend we had a double bill with the ALS Christmas Party on the saturday night and the Reckless Bike Store party on the Sunday night. The ALS party was a big affair at The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver with about 150 people and it was a good night with prizes given out (not that we won anything) and trivia questions. The Reckless party was a bit smaller, with about 15 employees and their partners, and was at a local Oyster Bar in Yaletown.

Every December in Vancouver a German Christmas market springs up in downtown offering German fare. On a monday evening we headed to the Christmas market to check it out. There were many stalls selling Christmas trinkets, decorations, toys, German products (i.e Steins), German food, beer and mulled spiced wine. We partook in some of these later products and enjoyed looking around at the stalls.



Mountain Highway, North Vancouver

Then on a Tuesday morning in late December (week before Christmas) Erin was getting ready for work when she looked out the window to see if it was raining. It wasn't raining, it was snowing and she got a bit excited and woke Marty to tell him the good news. Getting to work that day was fun, although a bit longer than usual as Erin kept taking photos and playing in the snow. I did however take alot shorter time than most people at my work who took 3 to 4 hours to do a normal 30 min trip. On this day Marty decided to go hiking and did so on some of the trails that normally accomodate mountain bikers and runners.  On this particular day they were knee deep in snow!







 

Our back patio during the snow

The Mt Froome forest

Our Christmas Day entailed us rugging up and heading for the snow. As the snow did not want to come to Vancouver in order to give us a white Christmas we decided to chase it instead. We therefore headed up Grouse Mountain for a morning of snowshoeing followed by a Christmas lunch at Altitudes Bistro at the Chalet. Because there were more Snowshoeing trails open on Grouse we decided to do a trail called the Snowshoe Grind which is about a 5km round trip but it is very steep in sections. It is so steep that the easiest way to come back down is to slide down, which was so much fun. After this we had a go at skating on the outdoor skating pond which was covered in snow. We then headed inside to warm up and ran into some of Marty's friends from PRR who joined us for our Christmas Lunch. This years Christmas lunch was a bit different to normal including a huge plate of Nachos, followed by Beef sliders and Creme Caramel and Brownies for Dessert all washed down with some beverages. We finished off our Christmas day by coming home, putting the cricket on and enjoying some Whiskey and Eggnog.

Top of the Snowshoe Grind

Sliding down the Snowshoe Trails

Merry Christmas

Boxing Day saw us once again rugging up to go to the snow. Together with some friends of Marty's we went to explore the snowshoeing trails of Mount Seymour. Walking around the snowshoeing trails of Mount Seymour was like walking through pure white surroundings. There is about 5km of trails in their snowshoe park and we walked around this through the trees, feeding the birds and throwing snowballs at each other. It was snowing the entire time we were walking around and it created a really mystical feel to it. We finished off our trip to Mount Seymour by going and having lunch at the Seymour Pub.

Erin in white surroundings of Mt Seymour

Our next big adventures are a 1 week ski/snowboard holiday to Banff in 2 weeks and Erin is going to Ontario for work for 2 weeks at the end of Jan/early Feb.

Well that's about it for now, we hope to hear from some of you soon.

Cheers, Erin and Marty

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