Expedition Canada

A Vancouver Visit Dad in contemplative mood Fri April 29th WARNING There are going to be quite a few baby pictures in forthcoming blogs. We had been holding off coming over to Vancouver to clear our shipping container contents though Customs, until the wee bairn had arrived.  With Sebastian (Seb/Sebi) now home we caught a Thursday afternoon ferry and headed over to Granville Island and our favourite Vancouver hotel.   The plan was to go over to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) office closest to Granville Island first thing Friday. A local dog sitter, a lovely lady called Karla, was going to look after Jack for the day until Duty duties and baby visits were complete. 'Oh', she said 'have you seen the news reports about the queues at that office, people have been arriving the night before to queue for passports'.   Noooooo.  "We're not queuing" I helpfully offered on the drive over to the CBSA.  "We'll come over another day on the early fe...

Fred Takes City Tour Not a cloud in the sky - Vancouver on Thursday Sat  Dec 4th The 'atmospheric river' ran out of rain on Wednesday and the weather has started to get colder ahead of snow arriving over the weekend, through to the early part of next week. It will make a pleasant change, the gin clear sky on the right was a welcome sight. Flood waters in Abbotsford are almost gone and the evacuation orders rescinded.  Home owners are heading back to their properties to start the drying out.  Farmers have been badly affected but the impact on the usually fertile soils of the Fraser valley will not be known until next spring.  Livestock farmers have been particularly badly hit.  Some 628,000 poultry are reported to have been lost, plus about 12,000 cattle, pigs and other animals.  Whilst it is a relatively small percentage of BC's food production, and supplies are not expected to be materially affected, there will be many devastated farmers and loca...

Summer Over? Wed Aug 18th Dark O' Clock Start for Vancouver Thu Aug 19th To suggest life has settled in to a routine might imply the sense of adventure is waining, which is not the case. We do feel settled in Gibsons.  It has a strong sense of community and a good base for exploring the Coast as well as 'mainland' BC.  I say mainland, but the Coast is actually part of mainland BC, but you can only get to it by boat, or plane.  Too many mountains in between. The search has started for a second car as Fred is out playing tennis 3-4 times a week, usually in Sechelt, it means I'm half a day without transport each time.  Last patch of snow I predicted a few weeks ago that the last patches of snow on the distant mountains would be gone in a few days.  I was wrong.  As the peaks emerged from the cloak of cloud that followed rain at the beginning of the week, a small patch still exists.  For how much longer remains to be seen. Wednesday was a local day, apart ...

Three weeks already New From Old Friday April 23rd  It's hard to believe how quickly time has flown by.  Tomorrow will be three weeks since we arrived in Canada.  It feels very normal.  We're not getting used to north American TV and are rather glad we brought our Apple TV box.  The BBC's Sounds app works well; so we go to bed with the Today programme and wake to the World at One.  The Covid Pandemic continues to have a constraining effect on Canadian life. The vaccination programme is well behind that of the UK and USA and cases have started to rise again.  Travel restrictions have been put in place across Canada; no direct flights from S Asia, only essential  inter-state travel.  In BC  all but essential travel limited to your current health region.  Fortunately our next rental on The Sunshine Coast is the same as our current health region and Nick and Lizzie's. The weather since we have been in Vancouver quarantine and over the l...

Cars and More Cars Thu 22 April Today was about cars, all day.  After coffee in Kitsilano, it was off to Richmond, out near the Airport, to another car retail park.  A few more test drives and the list narrows.  Toyota Highlander, Ford Explorer, Discovery Sport and Jeep Grand Cherokee.  We don't anticipate doing a lot of town driving and want something that will tow and be safe on the trails.  The last two made the final shortlist and the evening was spent reviewing specs for a decision Friday morning. Lunch back in Kits was followed by a quick trip to the bank to see if we could open a joint  account with Nick.  Not possible until we have something other than visitor status.  So getting local debit cards and cash management is at least five months away.   Back to North Van via the Lion's Gate Bridge.  Whether viewed from Stanley Park below where it's possible to admire the bridge structure and architecture, or from the bridge ...

Freedom Sunday 18th April Busy day today after a late evening when Nick and Lizzie joined us for supper outside. Great to see them properly now that we were out of quarantine and have a decent catch up.  Jack was chasing a ball until about 9.00pm and slept until I got up this morning - and that was late! The day started with a walk up in to the Hyannis Trail with Jack to get my bearings.  Just 10 mins from the house.  The bikers and hikers were just getting started as I returned. It was then out and about.  The weather meant everybody in Vancouver was also out and about!   After a quick trip to MEC (originally the Mountain Equipment Centre I think - a mecca for those into outdoor pursuits), and some maps and backpack we set off to meet Nick for lunch at Lighthouse Park.   Too many people and queues for the car park so we abandoned that plan and headed over to Kitsilano, where Nick and Lizzie are based via Marine Drive.  This runs al...

Escape from Alcatraz Baden Powell Trail Saturday 17th April It makes a catchy title, but it's not true; though we are out!   We have been very fortunate to be staying in a delightful gardened lower floor suite in North Vancouver, with some incredibly welcoming hosts.  But it's still great to be able to get out and about. Late Saturday morning and no covid test results had arrived; we feared the worse.  Just as we wound up lunch the email that we had been waiting for arrived.  Negative tests results! Actually we discovered, that our day of arrival was day one, so we could have done our ten day test a day earlier and been allowed out  at midnight last night if clear test results had arrived yesterday.  So we lost a few hours.   Today was sorting out car hire, shopping and going for a walk with Jack on the Baden Powell trail, which is a ten minute walk from where we are staying.   Only we took a wrong turn and it took us 20 m...