Bears, Beautiful, BC

Meeting new people is one of my favourite things about travel. And when I get to meet up with those people again, even better! A couple weeks ago, the cruise ship I had been on, the MS Volendam, docked in Vancouver after making the trip all the way from Japan. I knew quite a few people that were still on the ship, so it was fun to see some of them! The first day, I picked up one couple and drove them to the ferry terminal, and then the next day, I met up with my friends, Paul and Vicki and was lucky to be able to show them a bit of my beloved BC...


I have lived in BC all my life, but still am in awe every time I look at the stunning, majestic mountains with their snow-capped peaks. Every time I glance at the ocean and the greenery. I loved that Paul and Vicki had never been here, so it was fun to see it through their fresh eyes anew. We did the drive up to Whistler, with a stop at Shannon Falls along the way.


It was an absolutely fantastic day! Perfectly blue skies and nice warm sun. The people watching in Whistler was quite fun as you had everything from guys with no shirts on to people in their full winter gear carrying around snowboards.


At the beginning of the day, Vicki had said "I'd love to see a bear today". And bears we saw indeed. I think in the end, Vicki spotted three different bears and we decided she was the pro bear spotter. One was even on the edge of a side road, so we got to stop right next to it and snap some shots.

All in all, a delightful day! So great to reconnect with friends I have met along the way. And hopefully I will see them in Quebec whenever they pass through there!

As I drove home from Whistler, I took in all the incredibly beautiful sites and was a bit sad that I would be leaving them. But, I was reminded to soak it in and enjoy it for the moment. So enjoy it and soak it in I did. Looking forward to more exploring of BC in the next month and a half!

Fish, Food, Flowers

It is interesting to see all the massive cities that seem to have sprung up overnight in all these places. As you drive through, you are told that 20 years ago, all this area was farmland, and now it's a field of high rises and sky scrapers.


Bangkok was where I got the first sense of that, but at the same time was able to see the more "rural" side of things.


We went on a boat ride through all the canals/channels bordering off the main Bangkok river and it was fascinating to see people's homes and get a quick glimpse into their lives.


The Thai people are so warm and friendly. All of them were overjoyed to see us and would all wave as we passed by.


A common site to see was different people cooking meals aboard their little boats.


And fish. Boy were there fish. You aren't allowed fishing directly in the river by the temples, so obviously, that's where all the smart fish congregate. I have never seen so many fish in one place in my entire life. The water was swarming with them. It reminded me of what it must have been like when Jesus told his disciples to lower their nets in the water and they were FULL of fish.




There was a food market and all the different "restaurants" had their kitchens out back, in the boats. So the servers would lean over the railing to put in the orders, and the women would assemble it. I can't imagine cooking that many meals in such a small place. And on a rocky boat no less.


Went to a local flower market and the amounts of flowers everywhere was crazy! Dozen roses for a dollar anyone? And the turkeys/ducks (I really don't know for sure what they are) in the bucket kind of didn't appeal much to me.


Love all the textures of the different fruits, plants and flowers. So diverse and colorful!


It was fun seeing some of the fruits that I have been trying out from my local produce market here at home.




This temple was interesting because they were celebrating some festival and so there were people and monks everywhere. And let me tell you, it takes a long time to make sure there's no one else in your photo when you're taking pictures of things. :)






I love that these pictures make this look like a lovely sunny day. When in reality it was 40 degrees with 95 percent humidity. Lovely indeed. You just have to embrace the sweat dripping down every part of your body.




And thus concludes a bit of a tour of Bangkok. It was about a 2 hour drive from the port (Laem Chebang) to Bangkok but I loved seeing the countryside and lots of different things as we drove!

Next stop: Laem Chebang to meet my wild side...

Disneyland, Disneyworld, days

While on my cross Canada trip, I received a text from my brother asking if I wanted to join him and his girlfriend in Florida at Disneyworld for a few days at the end of their holidays.

Random and last minute, but I figured, why not?

So off I went to Florida.

I realized that although my brother and I see each other frequently, we've never actually done anything together. So it was super fun to actually just enjoy exploring the four Disney theme parks and to just hang out and laugh and have a good time together.

It was a fantastic four days! I am truly blessed with a wonderful family!

And now I have no idea where my camera cord is, so photos will have to wait.

Today I am off to Disneyland. Okay, some may think I'm crazy (which I quite possibly am...) but two of my dearest girlfriends and I are headed down for three days together! I can't wait! One of them has never been to Disneyland, so it will be fun to see it for the "first time" through her experience! I enjoyed my four days at home, but am excited to be off again!

I feel like right about now I could write about 100 posts with everything that has been going on lately. But that will have to wait until I'm home again and until I find my camera cord so my posts can be a little more exciting. :)

Anne, Andrea, Adventures

I like random. And I like people who are likewise random.

Anne is my random friend. We met when she stayed at my house with a friend of mine. Then I slept on her couch when I was driving through Edmonton. Then we roadtripped to the East Coast. Then we had coffee in BC on Thanksgiving weekend. And last week, her and her friend Andrea came to stay for some fun, random and crazy adventures. I feel like we've been friends for years and always enjoy our time together.


Christmas came early!! I love gift giving. And sometimes I have such a hard time waiting until Christmas or birthdays to give people their gifts, because I get so excited about how much they will love it (hopefully). Anyway, I was glad to be able to legitimately give a gift early. :)


On one of our trips to the grocery store, we talked about how we were sad that the icing with rainbow bits wasn't sold anymore. So we had a moment of silence. And then we figured we should take a sad picture with the icing. So we did. Random. Love it.


Sushi! With perhaps the worst service ever and the most unwelcoming atmosphere ever. I love their sushi, but I think that was my last visit!


At least we still had fun!


And it looked pretty.


And tasted good.


And at Strabucks we discovered some really nice signs to take pictures with!


Lovely.




One day we headed to Granville Island for some more random fun.


And lovely hats.


I love monkeys.


Beautiful herd.


And then we found some nice hammocks to lie in.




And I found a door made just for me!


And a mirror that does wonders for the image. :)


And we went for the best sushi in Vancouver.


And the best gelato too. 218 flavours.. like garlic, curry, balsamic vinegar.. mmmm


This lady was having a bad day. So we listened while she kept giving us different samples.

Then we came home and had a highschool musical marathon. I had a great photo but just pushed the backspace by accident and deleted it. So you can picture us holding all the dvd's with excited looks on our faces. Because we're cool like that.

And so concludes crazy adventures with Alberta, Ontario and BC all mixed together!

I'm already excited for the next visit!

Tides, Trees, Trails

When people ask me how long I'm home for between travels, I say 3 and a half weeks but with all I have been blessed to be able to do and all the people I have been able to connect with, I honestly feel like I have been home for a few months! It has been a sheer delight and blessing!

This week I went to Vancouver Island with my friend Brooke. There is something recharging and renewing to the soul to sit by the beach and watch it for hours, while reading. To watch the sunrise from bed over the ocean. To walk barefoot on the sand despite the freezing cold water. The trip was wonderful and I came back incredibly refreshed!




Sometimes I find it funny to see what people have on the back windowsill of their cars. In this case it was matching dolls.. which I have to admit was a bit strange, so the moment definitely merited a picture. hope they didn't notice us following them in order to photograph their dolls.


I have decided that if I get any more dogs, they should be this kind... they're cute enough.










I stood almost knee deep in the water which was freezing... but so refreshing and wonderful at the same time! Especially since the sun was setting right then too...



Brooke and I stopped at random farms, including a pie place! Funny though because they only had frozen pies...


And we were lucky enough to pass by a GIANT hockey stick. And well, my newest life ambition is to find millions of oversized random things and take pictures of them.



And now my pictures randomly take a break from the island... Thanksgiving weekend, my lovely friend Anne was out and so we got to meet for coffee and go to church together and it was wonderful to see her again! I look forward to the next visit already!

Anne's Cedric had a nice tea with my Cedric...

And two days before that, Megan and I went to Seattle where we saw two musicals and just had a wonderful time catching up and hanging out! How wonderful. There's more pictures to come that are on Megan's camera.. actually quite a funny one that demonstrates how American portion sizes seem to be much larger than here in Canada...




Back to the island... we saw a GIANT GNOME!!! Amazing. I was in awe actually. And a little sad I had left Cedric at home.



The forests on the island are absolutely wonderful. We went for a lot of walks in the woods and it was delightful (except in those moments that we remembered the last time we were in the woods alone we ran into a bear...)


I like this picture because it looks like an abstract painting.. while it's just an out of focus picture of trees. :)

Oh how I love the colours of fall!

Can anyone find Brooke in this photo?

I discovered the joy of spinning forest photos...

Along with the joy of monstrous trees... makes you feel pretty insignificant.

And I end my post with a photo of a celebrity I recently met. Chrystal and I were unassumingly enjoying dinner at Red Robin's.. when suddenly Red came up to our table.. Wow. I was star struck. How many times have I been to Red Robin's and never met Red himself? I felt honoured and priveleged.


Enjoy your Monday!