The Parents Visit!

My parents came out to visit me for ten whole days! (Which is why there hasn't been much action on here in a while.) I was a very happy girl to see them! I also ended up with tons of leftover butter chicken, homemade spaghetti sauce and M&M's food, since I was the one that had to work and they got all day off.

If I was to actually do a blog post about their visit, it would probably be the length of a small novel. Remember the Calgary one? That was only two days worth of blogging. Instead, I thought I would just do a photo blog of all the things we did and places we went. You will see a lot of "rainy Vancouver" because it rained probably 80% of the time they were here. Then, as soon as they left, it got super nice again and hasn't rained at all. Whoops.

Around Town

Whistler

Canada Place

Stanley Park

UBC

The Sunshine Coast (Langdale, Gibsons, Gibsons Landing, Camp Byng, Camp Olave and Sechelt)

Lynn Canyon

Steveston Fisherman's Wharf

Flight Path Park

Thanks for visiting! Love you guys!

The Weather

So, it's starting to become Fall, I guess, and that is a very difficult season in Vancouver! Everyday when I leave for work, I usually have my running shoes (steep), a sweatshirt (cold), my shell coat (wet), a scarf (cold), my sunglasses (bright) AND my umbrella (wet). (I know that steep doesn't exactly describe the weather, but you try walking up that hill in other shoes . . . unpleasant.) Anyways, the point is, that is just ridiculous. The best part is, by the end of the day, I maybe need the sunglasses and the shell coat because the rained has ceased, the cold is gone and it's now blinding out . . . and maybe a bit windy. What?!

One of my colleagues sent me this video about becoming a Vancouverite and the weather is absolutely a topic in it!

In other weather news, I made a rainbow for Sparks! After unsucessfully going to two major hardware stores at my train station after work, I took the bus down to the small hardware store near my place. They had EXACTLY three pool noodles. I bought them and waltzed down the hill . . . and everyone probably thought I was a crazy lady carrying around my pool noodles in September.

What Happened?

So, yeah, I haven't really posted in a while. I blame the strike! Here's what's been going on . . .

The Strike

About three weeks ago, the union at the airport announced that they were planning a labour disruption for Labour Day weekend. As of Thursday night before the long weekend, I was going to be spending 36 hours at work in 12-hour shifts for the long weekend. Yikes! Luckily, they settled and I spent the weekend being as lazy as possible to make up for the fact I ALMOST had to work so much. I was a bit disappointed because I would have had a pretty cool job in operations (temporarily anyway).

Aritzia Warehouse Sale

Instead of making money that weekend, I went and spent some at the Aritzia Warehouse Sale. Aritzia was started in Vancouver, so I felt it was appropriate. Totally worth it too, $50.00 is not an acceptable price for a scarf. $14.99 is (especially when it was originally $50.00).

Boat Cruise

Although it might look like all of the boats were in that last picture, they aren't! Two weeks ago we had a "partnering session" with one of our contractors. When I first received the invitation, I thought I was being invited to a work meeting for four hours on a Thursday night. I was definitely not excited. Then, I learned out what a "partnering session" was. Luckily, I had also just received by brand-spanking-new British Columbia's driver's license. We started out at the River Rock Casino (where I needed my ID), then took a paddlewheeler down the Fraser River (where I also needed my ID).

School

I also started taking a Distance Education course. Yay for Introductory Marketing. I also have a very enthusiastic professor. He responded to one of my emails and every sentence ended in an exclamation mark. He's even more bubbly than me.

Tragically Hip

The boyfriend ended up getting some free tickets from work last Tuesday at the Orpheum Theatre. We went with a few other lucky free ticket receivers from UBC. I didn't really know the Tragically Hip that well, but the lead singer gets a A+ for enthusiasm. He was very entertaining to watch! I also recognized a few songs, so I wasn't totally lost. We were right behind one gentleman that obviously loved them. He was SO EXCITED the entire concert. It was a great time (although Wednesday was a little tough to make it through)!

Lillooet

This past weekend, we went on another "partnering session" with my team from the airport. Seven of us headed up to Lillooet. It was a beautiful drive up and we drove through Hope, Hell's Gate and Jackass Mountain. The roads got a bit sketchy as we got close to Lillooet. In one section, they just keep cutting the mountain back because the road is literally falling off the edge of the cliff. Lillooet also has the Mile 0 marker of British Columbia, everything used to be measured from there! The house we stayed at reminded me of Girl Guide camp because it was a huge empty building (normally there are renters living in it, but they had recently moved out) and we just put our mattresses and sleeping bags down all over the place. We also made a giant screen out of paper and a projector. I spent the weekend watching kung fu movies and I finally stayed awake for Star Trek.

We went exploring the next day by the river that runs through town. It is like the desert out in Lillooet. There was no shade and just this stagnant heat. We skipped rocks, built rock towers and tested out the water temperature.

We also went and saw the "hanging tree" (which was used to hang people until the late 1800s) and the Chinese rock pilings (they were searching for gold). It was so desert-y that there were even tiny cacti growing!

Then, we headed down to the salmon spawning channels. There were fish jumping everywhere! There was also a floatplane docked and a small train going by (I love trains). The colour of the water was incredible!

Our last stop on the nature excursion was Marble Canyon. We met a duck!

By then we'd had enough nature and stopped by the local beer and wine festival. I had an "Old Jalopy" pale ale. It was actually so good! It was some sort of award-winner. I also got to use that ID again! After sweating way too much, we headed back into town for dinner at Dina's Greek restaurant. Yum!

On Sunday, there were some things to do around the house. On the way home, we stopped at Duffy Lake. There was a really cool log jam and more beautiful water. You could also see glaciers.

We also stopped at a few creeks on the way home (and there was more beautiful water).

We also came home though Whistler and Squamish, which I had never seem before. I'll be doing more exploring up that way when my parents are here!

Arts and Crafts

I had some pretty good pictures taken today, so I thought I would quickly share. I was making some full-scale, cardboard mock-ups of equipment for a project I'm working on, so we could pretty much "place the furniture". I also thought my parents would be proud of my engineering degree being put to good use for arts and crafts. I probably could have done this based solely on my Girl Guide experience. Good news though, the props worked SUPER effectively and everyone thought it was a wicked meeting. Yay!

I happened to get a photo of myself in the infamous high-visibility vest that I talk about, as well. Somehow our meeting turned into a photo shoot.

Volunteering and Planespotting

Just like at my last co-op job, the engineers here are also involved in helping the community. My first Friday working at the airport, I was at there bright and early to participate in the "FOD Walk" (FOD = foreign object debris), where we picked up FOD around the airport. Then, we had our own "TOD Walk" (TOD = trailer object debris). Yeah, the acronym doesn't work out quite as well, but I'm over it. Tomorrow morning, a bunch of us are heading out to Burnaby for the morning to help with the set-up of a new food bank. The cool part about this food bank is that the people who coordinate it are trying to make it more dignified for the people who use it. So, really, we're setting up a "grocery store" of sorts. That'll be new for me, since I've never worked in retail! People will be able to come in and pick up what they need from the shelves, just like grocery shopping! I'll get back to you on how it goes!

In other volunteering news, I have a Sparks unit!! I will get to be a Sparks leader for the four months of the Sparks "season" that I'm out here! It turns out that I'll also be the most experienced of the bunch, as they have just had a big turnover in the leaders for the unit. My four years of experience gives me the most seniority (although, my seventeen years also does too, likely). I'm excited to meet the leaders and the girls and have the opportunity to share ideas all the way from Ontario! Now all I need to do is pick up my Guiding shirt and camp hat when I'm home in a few weeks. The only downside to the situation is that the yoga class I have been trying is on the same night. So, I'll be finding a new to go to, if I still like it by then.

On that note, I can walk this week after yoga! My hamstrings seem to have figured themselves out and this week I came out of the class feeling like I had a great workout, instead of a painful stretching session. Although, I have been feeling the burn in my shoulder, arm, leg and hip muscles for these two days. I also love that I can walk to and from the class! (And there's a market that's still open after the class on the walk to I can refuel with a chocolate milk!)

I'm going to finish off this post by saying again how nice my commute is! I've been able to sit at the windows of the SkyTrain a few times this week and I'm pretty sure I looked like a little kid when the planes went over. They're so close!! These pictures don't even do any justice. You can practically see the people in the plane. It's the coolest thing!

Deep Cove

I never really thought I would literally climb a mountain, but that's exactly what I did yesterday! Although I do enjoy spending time outside, hiking up a mountain was never really on my list of outdoor activities. Now, this might be due to the lack of mountains back at home, but it also might be because I typically stick to swimming and beaching, with the odd attempt at a run.

I went with a few friends from school that are also working out here and we took the Baden Powell trail in Deep Cove, which was exciting for the 17 years of Girl Guide in me! After wandering around the nearby park for a few minutes, the climb started off going straight up. Not even joking, so many stairs and then no stairs, just walking up . . . a mountain . . . I was definitely the straggler of the group. Luckily, the others were quite considerate of my lack of leg strength and made sure I didn't get too far behind. We passed lots of little waterfalls along the way and what we thought was a waterfall, until we saw the sign that said it was actually treated sewage outflow.

 We also saw some really gross-looking, giant slugs on the way. There might have also been some screaming (not from me!) when someone almost stepped on one. Ew. Our first goal was to find the look-out point. It turned out that it was about 2.5k along the trail. Of course, I wanted a sporty-looking shot, along the lines of, "Bam! I tackled you mountain!" I think it worked out quite well! We could also see all of the little kayaks floating around the bay down below and even all the way to downtown Vancouver!

We hiked a bit further up until we decided that we might as well turn around because this trail was NOT looping back around any time soon and headed to the park once we got down for some snacks. From the park, you could see the look-out that we climbed up to and all of the little people up on it. We also wandered around the "downtown" and into a cool, little craft and gift shop. Before we headed back to the car, we came across some funny signs that the parks department had put up near the park.

This was quite the adventurous day for me and I think I am going to not enjoy moving for the rest of today . . . maybe the beach is in order?!