vancouver and seattle

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today is the coldest day we´ve had in vancouver so far, with a high of -6 and a low of -16! i had to invest in some thermal socks cos my toes have been going numb when we go outside. it hasn´t snowed since wednesday but there is still snow on the ground because it´s been too cold to melt. the other night we went to the shops to try to find makeshift toboggans - we bought a christmas tray and a windscreen reflector, then walked to the park where we found a hill to slide down. unfortunately the tray snapped in half after one slide and the reflector lasted just as long! but we´ve had fun making snow angels, snowmen and having snowball fights.

last weekend we hired a car with plans to go to on a day trip to seattle on the sunday, then saturday night it started snowing and we weren´t sure if we´d be able to go because of road conditions. luckily by morning the snow had stopped and the road was fairly clear, so we had a really beautiful drive across to the states. there weren´t many cars on the road so we didn´t have to wait long at the border crossing. lynne and i had to get fingerprinted to get our visas for the states and then we were on our way. lauren and lynne did a great job of driving on the wrong side of the road in icy conditions and we made it to seattle by lunchtime.

it was a really nice city that had a great vibe. we had a really fleeting visit, as we had to leave by 4pm to get a bit of daylight. we went up the space needle which is the tall tower in seattle that you see on tv, apparently for 520 degree views of the city. i´m still not sure how we had a 520 degree view...but it was pretty all the same! then we went to the public market, where i tried chocolate pasta, a mix of two of my favourite things! it was yum! we had lunch there, i had a slice of pizza that was about 4 times the size of a normal slice at home, gotta love the usa for that! from there we went to find the original starbucks shop, which was extremely crowded, and waited ages for coffees that probably tasted the same as any other starbucks! (i don´t drink coffee so don´t know). the drive home was heaps quicker cos the ice had melted off the roads so we didn´t have to go as slowly and carefully as before.

erin and stevie arrived monday night and we went out with them for sushi (i had pizza and greg had maccas) and 2 movies for $5 at a theatre in the city. bargain! we´ve also been to science world where i saw what i might look like when i´m 70 (that was scary!) and the aquarium where we got to see beluga whales. on tuesday night we went to see joy (a relative of the crofts) singing with her choir in the van duesen gardens. they had a christmas light show with 1.4 million lights there, which was amazing! wednesday night we decorated the christmas tree with non-tacky decorations all approved by lauren, baked gingerbread cookies and roasted chestnuts in the oven. they tasted weird, almost like meat. i´ll stick to gingerbread. last night we had dinner at ihop (international house of pancakes - no mum i´m not eating healthily!) and then went to the movies while lauren and croft were at a work christmas dinner.

our plans for the weekend are to go up to whistler on saturday and grouse mountain sunday to snowboard. i´ve never snowboarded before so it should be fun! bye for now and happy christmas!!

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Comments

[anonymous]

Wow, sounds so awesome tam!! you'll have to post about your snowboarding experience fo shiz!! Have the best christmas xo

[jo]

that last comment was from me! haha.