Spring has sprung

G'day all,

In the last 2 months we have been to see the Canucks in the hockey, played in the snow a lot, had Erin's birthday which included a weekend trip to Whistler, been able to get back into hiking and Marty had a run in Birch Bay. Also the 11th April marked 1 year since coming to Canada, how time flies.

On a Tuesday evening early March we headed to Rogers Arena in Vancouver to watch Vancouver Canucks play San Jose Sharks in the hockey. It was very exciting for us and although Vancouver lost it went to overtime and then onto a shootout.



San Jose Sharks vs Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena

That weekend, on a nice sunny day, we headed to Mount Seymour to do some snowshoeing again. This time, instead of doing the snowshoe park, we headed to Dog Mountain and Brockton Point. This was a bit more strenuous but gave us some great views of Vancouver and the surrounding mountains.

Erin snowshoeing up to Brockton Point at Mount Seymour

Marty and the view from Brockton Point

Being March it was obviously Erin's birthday. In order to celebrate a party had to be had, so all my Canadian friends came over on the Saturday night to our place for Pizza and drinks. Two of my immensely talented friends even made me Cookie Monster Cupcakes for my birthday cake. A good night was had by all.

Cookie Monster Birthday Cake

Sunday morning saw Marty (snowboard in hand) and Erin heading to the bus station to head to Whistler. After checking in at the hotel we had a look around whistler village with the snow around (as this was the first time we had been in Whistler in winter) and got our lift passes and ski rentals sorted out for the next day. As the weather had started to warm up a bit before this, there was not that much snow around the village and everything was very slushy from melting snow. After this was organised we headed to the pub to watch the Canucks in the hockey.

Blackcomb Mountain behind Whistler Village

Monday morning was a sunny day and after picking up Erin's ski rentals (thanks to a birthday present from Jenny and Tony Phillips) we headed up the gondola to hit the slopes. Erin spent most of the day on the learning area but still had a lot of fun and also had a break by going over the peak to peak gondola for some scenic winter shots of the area. Marty had fun trying out all the slopes higher up with his snowboard.



Erin on Whistler Mountain

View of the Valley from the Peak 2 Peak Gondola

When we woke up Tuesday morning we were pleasantly surprised to see it had snowed all night in the village and there was a foot of snow everywhere you looked. This was what we had hoped Whistler during winter would be like. After checking out we headed out to the Lost Lake Trails just outside of Whistler village in order to give Cross Country Skiing (Nordic) a go. Erin enjoyed this a bit more than Marty but we still had fun trying to figure out how to do it, Erin having a bit more experience because of the 3 times I had been skiing before then. Tuesday afternoon we headed back to Vancouver saying goodbye to Whistler most likely for the last time, for now anyway.

Whistler Village with Fresh Snow

Marty Nordic Skiing

In order to get as much snowboarding/skiing in as possible the next Monday saw us getting a bus to Cypress Mountain this time. After getting there and Erin picking up ski rentals we both hit the slopes again. This turned out to be Erin's last time on the slopes and although I can ski okay, I still have a long way to go to be any good. It has been immensely fun learning though. Marty went a couple more times after this on his days off but he has recently also accepted that the winter is over (mainly because all the ski resorts are closed).

With the weather getting better coming into spring we have been able to get out and do some more serious hikes again. So the following weekend we hiked from the bottom of Grouse Mountain to Lynn Valley which was about 13km. A smallish hike to get back into it. Also the weekend just gone we did a hike around Buntzen lake in Port Moody called Diez Vistas. This was a 18km loop that we did last year but as it was raining very heavily last time we decided to do it again in order to actually see the views. It was an exhausting hike but gave some really good views of Vancouver and the surrounding mountains.

View from Diez Vistas over North Vancouver

Easter ended up being fairly uneventful with Marty working all weekend and Erin working on the Saturday and Monday. Erin still kept up the family tradition of roast chicken for dinner and apple pie with ice-cream for dessert.

The first weekend in April, Marty took the Saturday off work and headed down to Birch Bay in Washington to do a 15km running race with many other members of his running club. Marty finished with a time of  59min 38sec which was 4th overall and 2nd in his age group. He even got a red ribbon for coming second, like the ones you used to get in school. Other people from his running club also finished in the top three for the races or in their age groups (the other races being a 5km and 30km) and the running club won the club award for the race.

Pacific Road Runners at the Birch Bay race

With only 5 more weeks in Vancouver until we head on our Alaskan cruise we are getting excited for our trip but sad to be leaving Vancouver. Also we are busy trying to plan everything as well as fit as much more in as we can before we leave.

We hope everyone is well back home.
Cheers, Erin and Marty

Lots of Snow!!

G'day all,

Well we have had a fun filled 7 weeks since our last blog. This has included a amazing week long snowboarding trip to the Canadian Rockies, an Australia Day party for our Canadian friends, a work trip to Ontario for Erin, a new job for Marty, Skiing lesson for Erin and watching a lot of Hockey.

First time experiencing -10deg

In the first few weeks of January we laid low after the excitement of Christmas and the New Year. On Monday 14th Jan we headed to Banff, Alberta for our first taste of the Canadian Rockies, lots of snow and snowboarding. We arrived in Banff on the Monday afternoon and after a tour of downtown Banff went back to the hotel for a early night.


Downtown Banff

Tuesday morning dawned with a sunny day in Banff and we headed to Sunshine Village ski area for our full day Snowboarding lesson with our instructor, Ryan. We had an immense amount of fun in our lesson, although Erin tired a lot quicker than Marty, and we came out of it feeling like although we didn't know everything at least we had gotten the basics and could work from there. We were extremely lucky, because even though we had signed up for a group lesson we were the only people that day so essentially got a private lesson. After this day on the slopes we headed back to Banff town and after a visit to the hot tub went out to the pub for dinner and drinks.

Sunshine Village

Erin with Snowboard

Marty with Snowboard

Marty with our instructor Ryan

After this first lesson we had bought a 4 out of 5 day tri-ski area pass which meant we could go to any of the three ski areas, Sunshine, Mt Norquay or Lake Louise, for 4 of the next 5 days. On the Wednesday we woke up very stiff and sore (at least Erin did) but, after picking up our snowboard rental, we headed back out to Sunshine to practice what we had learnt the day before. Erin only managed a half day because she couldn't move, but Marty spent the full day on the slopes practicing turns and zigzag moves. Wednesday ended with another visit to the hot tub and then to a different pub in town.

On Thursday we decided we were too stiff and sore to go the slopes again, so we took our day off from the slopes and instead went to climb Tunnel Mountain. In order to do this we rented some crampons (metal studs to attach to the shoes) and headed off. Tunnel Mountain is very close to downtown Banff and it took us about 2 hours return and we got some amazing views of the snowy valley behind Banff. In the afternoon we headed to Banff Hot Springs, a naturally occurring spring, to soak the muscles and relax.

On Tunnel Mountain with Banff in the background

On Friday we were back to the slopes and decided to hit Mt Norquay.  Mt Norquay has night skiing on Friday evenings, so we took a break in the afternoon and hit the tube park.  Tubing essentially entails the user sitting in a inflated tractor tire tube while they get pushed down an icy chute, picking up speed to about 40-50km/h until the chute slopes upwards at the other end. Fun! After they groomed the runs Marty went back out for some night snowboarding. Erin was too tired and sore after the day snowboarding so went to the pub to wait.

Slopes of Mt Norquay

Mt Norquay Lodge

Mt Norquay Tube Park

Saturday we decided to head to the third ski area, Lake Louise. Which was the most enjoyable for Erin, as it had a gondola to the top of a really long green run (easiest run), which cut out the chairlifts altogether, which she was struggling with. Marty also really enjoyed Lake Louise as there were many different styles of green runs on which he could practice different things. Unfortunately late in the day Erin had a fall which jarred her hand and wrist and meant that she could not get up in order to snowboard. Saturday night was the first game of the hockey season (after the lockout ended) and we went to a pub in town to watch the Canucks. Unfortunately they lost (badly) but it was good to finally see some hockey.

Lake Louise Ski Area

View of Lake Louise

Lake Louise Ski Lodge

Sunday took Marty back out to Lake Louise, but due to Erin's hand/wrist injury, she joined later and did not snowboard that day. Marty again had a lot of fun trying out more runs and trying to get all the turns to flow properly. Sunday night again saw us at a pub to watch the hockey, the obsession had begun. Monday morning we headed to the Sulphur Mountain gondola and went up to see some fantastic views of the Rockies. It was immensely cold but we got some really good photos. After this we got the bus back to Calgary and then the flight to Vancouver.


View of Banff and the Rockies from Sulphur Mountain

The week after we returned from Banff was Australia Day, 26th January. We decided that because we couldn't be in Australia we would bring Australia Day to our friends in Canada and we had a party at our apartment. Complete with Mini Kangaroo Burgers, Lamingtons, ANZAC biscuits, Shrimp on the Barbie, Coopers beer, Australian wine, Australian music and a Didgeridoo, we informed our friends about Australian culture and history. A good night was had by all.

Getting our Aussie on

The next day Erin headed off for a two week work trip to Ontario, specifically Thunder Bay and Waterloo with a weekend in Toronto. The trip to Thunder Bay was fairly uneventful but I had a Cool Runnings moment when I arrived as it was so cold. Thunder Bay is in Northern Ontario, on Lake Superior, and it gets very cold with a lot of snow. My week in Thunder Bay was good, when I wasn't at the lab, the person I was working with took me for a driving tour of the area and then out for dinner, as well as a few other dinners with other people from the lab throughout the week. Getting from Thunder Bay was a little more eventful, with a 5 hour delay at Thunder Bay airport, before finally getting a flight at 12.45am to Toronto.

Sleeping Giant from across a frozen Lake Superior in Thunder Bay

My weekend in Toronto involved many touristy things, with a walk through downtown and then around the older district, involving a visit to St. Laurence Market. After this I headed towards the CN tower which is the main tourist attraction of Toronto, to get good views of the city and surrounding areas. I then headed to the Steam Whistle Brewery across the road to do a brewery tour, which was very good and in the process of the tour I ate dry hops, which is super bitter. After this tour I headed back towards the hotel to find a pub where I could watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play in the hockey. The next day I decided to grab the ferry and head over to Toronto Islands. The Toronto Islands is a collection of lots of islands that is a 15 minutes ferry ride from the city and is basically a nature reserved/theme park. In the winter there is not much going on but in the summer there is beaches and rides. On the winter day I went I had a look around and watched the ice break around the Island. I also watched some locals (there is some people who live on the islands) play hockey on a frozen over inlet. Later on the Sunday I got the bus to Waterloo in preparation for my second week of work.

Downtown Toronto from Toronto Islands

Steam Whistle Brewery

Waterloo was also very cold and again there was a lot of snow, but it was a different sort of climate to Thunder Bay. It was not as dry as Thunder Bay and the snow seemed to be lighter and a lot more of it somehow. The hotel I was in at Waterloo was very fancy, with a hot tub in the room as well as a fire place. My week in Waterloo was fairly uneventful, working during the days and just relaxing at the hotel of a night. On Friday, however, when I was meant to get a flight back to Vancouver, a snow storm hit the east coast of Canada and USA and all flights were cancelled. After some quick rearranging by work, I was on flight leaving from Toronto on the Saturday, so after an extra night stay in Waterloo I headed to Toronto to get my flight. This flight was then delayed as well, although not due to the weather this time, but the plane had broken down. I finally arrived back to Vancouver late on the Saturday night exhausted but having had a really good time and experience through my work trip.

Snowstorm in Waterloo, ON

While Erin was away Marty started a new job at Salomon in West Vancouver, part time while also still at the bike store. Salomon sell mountain gear, clothes and equipment for trail running and snow sports, right up Marty's alley.  He has also been snowboarding once a week on the local mountains.

After the Hockey lockout finally finished we have been watching a lot of hockey as it is on every couple of days.

On Monday just gone we decided to hit the slopes again on Grouse Mountain in order for Erin to try out skiing. I had a lot of fun skiing and it was heaps easier for me than snowboarding, also I didn't spend as much time falling the snow. Marty spent the time snowboarding.

We hope all is well back home,

Cheers, Erin and Marty

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