A Halloween Weekend

Since Halloween is on a Thursday this year, there was plenty of Halloween fun to be had this weekend, the last one before November! On Friday night, the boyfriend and I went out to a party. It was a good thing our costumes were a hit because we were both pretty exhausted from the work week and probably not that exciting to be around! Can you guess what we were?

A co-worker had told me about the Ghost Train in Stanley Park that runs every year around Halloween. Since I love trains (and hadn't ridden this one yet), it seemed like a good idea to check it out. We thought we would go for the afternoon ride (mostly because I'm a chicken), but when we got there, we decided to go for the full experience and do the ride in the dark. Since we had some time to kill, we started the walk around the Stanley Park seawall. We made it all the way out to Siwash Rock before turning around. I was super worried about missing our train!

I have to say, the people of Vancouver can be kind if gory. There was a memorial plaque at Siwash Rock that gave a fairly detailed account of how a young man died diving off of it a number of years ago. This isn't the first time I've seen something like that either. When I was out in Lynn Canyon with my parents,  there were multiple memorials for people who had drowned, dove into rocks, fallen of waterfalls and been crushed by falling boulders . . . all in fairly descriptive detail. That's one way to remember someone.

Walking around the park was a lot like being home too. The trees were all changing colour (unlike the evergreens that are very common around here . . . they really are always green) and some of the leaves were bigger than my head! We also saw ducks that would dive and swim underwater (faster than I can!) and some sort of bird that I dubbed the "penguin bird" because of their black and white colour. They would all dive underwater together and then pop back up (mostly in the same place because they were obviously not as hydrodynamic as the ducks).

Finally, it was time to head for the train. Although I'm sure I was way more scared than I needed to be, it didn't help that the boyfriend kept grabbing me and making noises to try and freak me out. It was super dark and creepy being in the woods on a train! My favourite part was definitely the little boarded up house with little skeletons having a party/barbecue/picnic/something outside. They even had little bony sandwiches! I'm pretty sure the boyfriend was way less scared, but I think he did enjoy some of the clever references.

It was a pretty fun and active weekend! I'm excited that I get to wear my costume a few more times too, once for our Sparks Halloween party on Wednesday and once to (hopefully) hand out candy to some trick-or-treaters on Thursday!

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!