The 4400

....it is not a sci-fi TV show, but the alleged number of Australians working at Whistler.

We took a drive up to the host villiage of the 2010 Winter Olympics yesterday and had great fun. I even threw a snowball, and had a few thrown at me.

It was a gorgeous 15 degree day in the villiage, the sun shining and glorious. Up the mountain it was about -2 degrees, and very chilly in the wind on the chairlift. The bottom section of the mountain had pretty much no snow on it and the locals have pretty much swapped to mountain biking - they hurtle down the mountain in helmets and crash gear flicking up lots of mud, and seemingly having a great time - they certainly pay for the privelege!

BabyCakes even managed to zero in on Ray Warren's voice to find a bar screening the state of origin... luckily NSW were 10-0 over QLD so we were allowed to leave.

We had a quiet day today doing laundry and such, and tomorrow we have another day scheduled with my Wifey! We don't have any plans beyond that, but it should be fun!

It's starting to feel like the end of the trip now, but it's a nice feeling. We've still got stuff to do, but equally going home doesn't panic us. We're certainly looking forward to petting the dog and cat.

Seattle = Sunburn - Who Would Have Thunk?

BabyCakes and I are now back in Vancouver at our trusty net café. We had a fantastic cruise, which was just long enough. We met some fantastic people and saw some amazing sights.

Yesterday we elected for early debarkation and managed to pick up our rental car before 8am. The rental agency upgraded us to a Camry hybrid car which has been pretty cool. We drove to Seattle with plenty of time to spare to catch our Seattle Mariners Vs San Diego Padres baseball game (having stopped by the space needle on the way).

We had hotdogs and beer and got sunburned. It was 21 degrees (celcius) and a gorgeous day - apparently there is about 10 months of rain in Seattle, so we got lucky! The Mariners even won the game, which made the local fans very happy.


Afterwards we took the Fiend's advice and went on the Seattle Underground Tour which was a very informative and interesting tour and a great way to learn about the early years of Seattle. I was a bit "tour group"-ed out by the end of it, and was glad to be left up to our own devices after that.

This morning we swung by the Pike place Markets and saw some fish being thrown about, saw the first ever Starbucks store, and bought some mugs, and on the way out of town we stopped at a Wal Mart - and bought nothing. We did look at the guns for sale - turn left at the tennis racquets, and the electronics and music/DVDs. We were surpised to see that on the whole there wasn't any real difference in price from those we get at home - sure there were a few things cheaper, but not a lot.

We then headed over the Canadian border and got settled at our new hotel. So far the car has just about used half a tank of fuel!

We're off to see if we can get tickets for a Missy Higgins concert tonight - the phone infoline was a bit ambiguous so we don't know if we can get tickets at the door... if we can, we figure the $22.50 price makes up for the whole "not seeing the local acts" guilt complex...

Hope you're all well and having fun - we haven't had any emails or phone messages so we assume that that is the case!

Cruising is Cruisy!

We're on shore at beautiful Ketchikan, Alaska and it is breathtaking - hopefully the pictures will do it justice.

The internet costs a bomb on ship so we have declined to blog from there!

We are having a blast, we've met some lovely people and got dressed up each evening for fun.

This is a cute coin operated internet cafe - but the coins are running out so this will be just a short post to let you know we're still happy and well and having fun.

BabyCakes and CrazyCatLady went to White Rock...

Yesterday we finally got me meet up with my wifey! this is a fun shot of me with my husband and my wife! BabyCakes did very well to cope with our silliness and excitement, but he even seemed to enjoy the day too. My wifey took us to a place called White Rock which is on the south side of Vancouver and is very pretty. It is a seaside town, which has a white rock in the middle of their beach which has been there forever. We had a lot of space to explore given the cold and damp weather which kept the locals away. We chatted for a long time over lunch at MobyDick's before walking up and down the waterfront.

We then went for a car tour around Vancouver, with Wifey showing us where she worked, different places in Stanley Park and the view from the Lion's Gate Bridge. We headed back to the hotel for a drink and stuff, before quickly deciding to stay in and chat over pizza rather than having to share our time together with anyone else. We discussed life the universe and everything, and Wifey even shared a few things BabyCakes didn't know abotu (and probably didn't need to know about me)... it was great fun, and it was suddenly 11pm and Wifey had to head home especially seeing as though she has to work she has to work today!

Today we head off on our cruise which is very exciting! We have a few things to do before we head down to board the ship and before they are ready to accept us! Hopefully the internet access is reasonably priced on ship and I can update the blog, otherwise you'll have to wait a week or so!

Hope everyone is well!

Bikes and Breweries... a Surprising Match...

On our gift registry list we put the day trips that looked interesting while we were on the cruise. Some friends gave us a gift of money to make sure that we could go on a Bike & Brewery tour in Alaska. Today we decided to get some practice in (for the bike riding especially) and hire some bikes to ride around Stanley Park (which was beautiful) and afterwards we went to the Steamworks Micro-brewery and bar.

Babycakes preferred their Oatmeal stout and I liked their Double Double (double alcohol beer) - I think it was the tastiest - but it certainly has gone to my head! Their chicken tenderloins were yummy too!

Maybe the Jetlag was Jetlagged....

Yesterday we had a fun day walking around Granville island, which is not actually an island anymore.

Lonely Planet served us well again, in advising us to check out "Go fish" which is a small trailer-esque shop that sells very very tasty fish and chips. Lunch was followed by a tour of Granville island Micro-brewery BC's first micro-brewery. The tour was about $10.50 each which turned into great value when there were only 5 in our group and Kim, our guide filled up a jug to fill our small tasting glasses. One can't put the beer back in the tap, so we got to share it out between us. We got along well with the other 3 (older) poms that shared the tour. The lager and pale ale were the favourites of the group, but I did "taste" a fair bit of their limited edition small batch stout. We walked around and around the island stopping to look at the public markets and many of the art and craft galleries - all the walking made us feel better about the drinking!

The afternoon saw us very tired and we fell asleep in front of the TV in the hotel room. We thought it was a nap, untill I realised it was 9pm (daylight savings means it was still light). For the second night in a row we ate dinner at about 9:30/10 o'clockish, this time at a groovy little shop called nu-bar which was cheap and tasty (thanks again LP!).

We went back to the hotel room and had a few drinks while we watched "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" before bed.

This morning saw a sleep in (and a missed phone call from my wife - eeek!) before we started our day....

Let the Honeymoon Begin!

Hello world!

We have arrived safely in Vancouver, and are even reasonably refreshed! The flight was very long, but with the excitement of knowing where we were going and why, was managable. We dicovered this morning that standard business hours here are from 10am, so spent the early part of the moning walking around looking at things that either opened early or don't need to be open to enjoy.

We've done the obligatory visit to the steam clock which is not as old as it looks, or even powered by steam these days (so Lonely Planet tells us), but hey, what is a good tourist spot without a few tall stories?

Last night we ate at a Japanese restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, which really hit the spot.

I can't get over the amazing displays of tulips all over the city, but I guess that is what a brisk climate will get you! The city is peppered with an ecclectic mix of old and new buildings and the trees are just gorgeous.

We will try to remember to bring a download cable next time we come out to blog to try and include some pictures.

Net time is almost at an end, so we'll write again soon.

Well, I'm a Married Woman Now...

...and so far, married life is great!

BabyCakes and myself are really really really looking forward to our honeymoon. We fly out today!

We had a lovely wedding and lots of fun since. We've had so much family around us we sometimes feel like we have somewhat neglected them, but I guess we're allowed to as newlyweds. Thank you to all our family and friends who shared our day and made it the joy that it was. (Official pictures won't be back till towards the end of June)

I will try to find internet and time to blog, and download pictures as we can, but otherwise, we'll see you when we get back in a few weeks!

P.S. We have a house sitter to look after the animals and he has emergency contact numbers for us... we won't be taking mobiles with us - it is our honeymoon after all!