Week Four at Hells Gate

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Hello again

I'm working five days a week, so my blogs probably won't be all that interesting for things I do during the day, so sorry bout that lol.

I made baked dinner for everyone on Friday night, two legs of pork and shit load of veges. For my first effort for cooking for about eight people, I think I did ok. I knew I was gonna go either not enough of way too much lol. It turned out that I did too much, so looks like we'll be havin pork sandwiches for the next week. I also made dessert, caramel self saucing puddings and ice cream, was really good. Everyone went back for seconds, thirds and forths and then everyone was talking about it the next day which was pretty cool. Ben said that the only person who'll beable to top my baked dinner will be Chris who is a chef by trade lol. I must've done something right, probably watching Mum cook for so many years, thanks Mum.

So Saturday night, I started feeling like crap, sore throat, blocked nose, headache etc. I decided to stay indoors and watchd a movie, Rocky was on cable, so at least something good was on. I woke up early on Sunday morning and realised everytime I rolled over, I was getting dizzy, great vertigo comin back. When I finally got up, I was still dizzy and contemplated even calling in sick. I always feel bad and guilty calling in sick though, so I hardened up and went to work, it's so hard to be happy when you're sick though, but I think I pulled through ok.

I was still feeling a little heady on Sunday night, but thankfully, I was feeling not too bad. I had my first trip into Boston Bar with Chris, Ben and Rach, Chris is so excited as he has now bought himself a car, would be awesome if we had the same day off lol.

Monday was the first nice warm sunny day that I've experienced here in Canada, I think it only reached about 18 or 19 degrees, but it was so much warmer then the days we've had, I'm slowly getting to peel off the layers, yay!!! Ben offered to cook me dinner tonight, BBQ chicken, potato and salad, wasn't too bad, I must say.

I was so excited all day Tuesday as I knew I was heading into Vancouver again. There are some tourism companies here in BC that are involved with a program called the tourism challange. When I started working at Hells Gate, I was giving a little passport book with a list of attractions and hotels I could go to and get stamps. If we get 15 stamps, we're able to get into different attractions for free and discounts off. If we get about 25 stamps we get entered into a draw for different prizes and if we get 35 stamps, we get enetered into the major draw which isa 2 day Rocky Mountaineer trip from Vancouver to Banff.

So after work, Kathy and Ken took me into Hope and I caught the greyhound into Vancouver for my two days off. After a nice how bath, I headed to bed ready for my big day of walking around the city.

By 10am I had left my hotel, I decided to head to North Vancouver first and go up Grouse Mountain again and to Capilano Suspension bridge. So to get my stamp I had to go to the top of Grouse mountain to the lodge. So I decided to go to the Bear exhibit. After a 5 to 10 minute walk, I saw two bear playing around and took so many photo's, they're so cute. I know, they could rip me apart and kill me, but they're still cute. On the way back down to the ground, I realised that the tram operators there are different to Hells Gate. I found I was the one making conversation, asking where peope were from and stuff, where as the tram operator basically stood there biting his nails, you probably could've heard a pin drop if I hadn't of started talking lol.

After that, I headed to Capilano Suspension Bridge, I hadn't been there yet, so it was good that I could get in for free. They gave me a question that I had to answer, then I could get my stamp. Walking over the bridge was amazing, it was so high up but really cool. I went for a bit of a jungle walk for about half an hour before heading to the souviner shop where I bought a few things. I had some lunch then headed back to Downtown Vancouver.

I really regreted wearing the shoes that I wore on Wednesday, slip on sandles that are normally really comfortable for everyday things sometimes aren't the most comfy thing to wear when you're walking around a city all day. By the time I got back to the city, I was gonna head back to the hotel and change shoes, but then I realised there were a fair few places I could get stamps in one little area, so I went to the lookout where again, I had to answer three questions, then to a hotel just down the road where I met Jessica and Lynn, two other girls that were collecting stamps, so then I joined them walking around, meanwhile, my feet were getting worse and worse. I ended up collecting 14 stamps on Wednesday and still managed to do a little bit of shopping in the night time, before meeting up with Jaime and Jody for dinner.

Having a shower that night before dinner really stung my feet, I realised I had a blisted on the bottom of my right foot and one on the top of my left foot. When I was ready, I headed downstairs to the Moxie Restaurant and Bar. I decided to sit at the bar while I waited for Jaime and Jody and ordered myself my first Margarita, yum. Jaime turned up as I took my first sip, I got a shock to see that she had chopped all her hair off. She sat down and ordered a pot of tea as she wasn't feeling the best. We talked for a bit before Jody turned up, we moved to a table and ordered our meals. Again, the food and drinks were really nice, but this time the service was shit. The waitress paid hardly any attention to us, Jody was ready to smack her, she was so rude. We stayed they for a couple of hours and chatted, they wanted to know how my job was going and living out here, and hopefully they'll be heading out this way one day soon to have look. I recieved a call and three messages fom Ben that night at the restaurant, then when I got back to my room, he called again, and everyone got on the phone telling me that they hope I'm having a good time and they miss me at the fire but to have fun and they love me, it was so funny listening to them all lol.

On Thursday, I very wisely put my joggers on to walk around today, I had a bit of a sleep in and headed out about 11am. I headed in the direction of the hop on hop off bus stop as I could get a stamp on it, although I when I got there, there was a trolley coming, and I could get a stamp on that too, so I jumped on, was told that I had to do at least three stops to get the stamp. By the time I got to Canada Place, I think I had gone four or five stops, got off and joined the hop on hop off bus, and travelled down to Stanley Park and the Aquarium and got my two stamps there, then walked from Stanely Park back to Downtown, which was about a half hour walk, I realised I was passing some of the hotels in my passport, so I ran in to get them, I ended up with another six stamps by the end of the day.

I had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown, food really nice, service really slow. I had to eat really fast as I had to be at the bus station no later then 1715, and I got there at around 1730, so I was little late, but I was still able to get on the bus, they're not as stricked on check in times as airlines are. When I got back to Hope, I checked into a Motel and had early night as Brian told me he was picking me up at 0630 the next morning.

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Photos

Grouse Mountain
Four weeks after my first visit. Slightly different.

Treetop Adventure
The suspension bridge goes from tree to tree above the forest floor

Me, Lynn & Jessica
Girls I met during the Tourism Challenge