December Travels

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Well to start off with we forgot to mention last time our amazing experience of the final of the Canadian Football league- the Grey Cup. We went into town to see the game which was being played at the nearby Vancouver stadium and it was the Vancouver Lions vs the Winnipeg Bombers. It was a big match for Vancouver because they hadnt won the cup at their home field in 20 years! The whole city went nuts for their team after the Lions won and it was really fun to be apart of the crowd.

A few days later we went on an epic walk with Derek through the mountain bike tracks on the North Shore of Vancouver - they are the pictures you see of the wooden features which are ramps & jumps and more crazy features. They are on all the bike tracks and have been primarily built by the one guy who has been working on them for over 20 years. The runs are graded like snow runs and soon Derek is going to take Chris on one of the runs. If you are Derek's friend on facebook you can view some head cam footage of him going through one of the harder runs. That same day Derek took us to a suspended bridge in Lynn Canyon which overlooked beautiful green clear water straight from the snowy mountains! Hope you don't mind heights!!

We finished up our work after doing some 14 hour work days (which translated to 15.5 hour days including travel time) and had really been enjoying the company of our collegues who were all amazing people and a pleasure to get to know.

On Friday night the 9th of December, courtesy of Derek, we headed over by Ferry to Vancouver Island and the men went out and had Beer & Wings at a hicksville pub. The next day we hit the slopes at Mt Washington!!!!!! Kari had a 2 hour ski lesson and Chris, Derek & Johnny went snowboarding and did some blue and black runs that shot down the side of the mountain and had some fun jumps. They also hit the terrain park and we were later joined by Derek's sister and her partner-Christina and Larry. Kari did some blue runs because her legs got too tired so she didnt push them any harder (having not skiied for a very long time). The next day thanks to Christina & Larry we hit the slopes again. We really need to acknowledge their kindness as they drove back to Ucluelet and then back to Mt Washington two days in a row with us in tow (6 hour return trip)! On the second day Chris did his first couple of grinds in the terrain park and landed them!

On the Monday Chris, Christina and Larry all went surfing at 2-3ft Wickaninnish Beach whilst Kari took photo's and debated how much she wanted to surf compared to how cold the water was. In the end the surf won and the next day Kari also went surfing and this time we went to Long Beach. The surf was magic and despite wearing a super thick wetsuit, hood, gloves and booties it was cold, especially when you duck dived. Every time your face got wet it was a crazy brain freeze.

We also went for a sunset walk around the coastline of Ucluelet and enjoyed the contrast of the black Basalt rocks against the ocean.

The next day we explored Tofino and went to some Native art galleries including this one http://www.royhenryvickers.com/ We spent alot of time there and even went back a second time because we thought his artwork was so spectacular..

And that is it for now, as you can see we have been rather busy and have not had much time to write so sorry to our families for the lack of contact- we are alive & have been working our buts off aso we can live it up. Thanks for all your comments on our posts - it makes us feel connected to back home, also a shout out to Kari's collegues - she says she is thinking of you all :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Lots of love,

Chris and Kari

xx

Ps. Theres heaps of photos for you to see so just have a look below.

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