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Published: August 5th 2006
Wow! We have just checked into the most amazing hotel - the Adara in Whistler, all very hip and designer! We have a faux mink throw on the bed, a rainshower head in the bathroom, wallmounted fireplace and a funky red chaise longue thingy! (“Louisa would definitely approve of this place!” - Al). Only problem is I want to listen to the soothing sounds dream machine (hmm… ‘ebb tide’ or ‘rainforest’?) while Al wants to plug his iPod into the Bose sound system. And if he didn’t have an iPod he could just go get a complimentary one from reception and use that!! In fact, we might just do that for the hell of it!
Sorry, I’m rushing ahead…
In summary, we’re on day 3 of our four week weddingmoon. The trip breaks down roughly as:
- Week 1 - Vancouver and surrounding area.
- Week 2 - Juneau, South-East Alaska, which is where we’re getting married (on August 12th, weather permitting).
- Week 3 & 4 - Anchorage, Alaska, staying at Fife’s place, while he’s away (cheers, mate!)
After that we go back to Goldsboro for two nights, then up to Washington for one night before
flying back ‘home’, finally getting to Lossiemouth on Sunday 3rd September. That’s a total of twelve flights!
Canada’s great, we like it a lot. It feels somehow familiar, but then we are based in British Columbia and there’s a lot of Britishness about, like tea (real hot tea, not iced), pubs, and fish and chips (which we’ve had twice in two days). The weather’s been a perfect 22degC (75F), with light breezes, blue skies and bluer seas, which unfortunately is a lot better than the forecast we have for Juneau next week!
We both got very excited as we flew into Vancouver to see the Frazer River was jampacked with big floating logs - timberrr!! We really are in Canada! More of that tomorrow, at the annual world loggers (aka lumberjacks) competition, watch this space.
Vancouver looks a great place to live, ringed by mountains, crystal clear Pacific ocean lapping at the shores and the air has that clear, clean feel to it, Al said it reminded him of New Zealand. I said it reminded me of Plymouth…
We spent the morning at Stanley Park, a beautiful green space on the coast, right in the heart
of Vancouver, with lots of athletic locals rollerblading and jogging around the 10km perimeter. We admired their efforts from the car then drove to the pub for lunch!
Thursday afternoon we caught the ferry over to Vancouver Island, where we headed to Victoria, a city described as being for ‘newly-weds, nearly-deads and overfeds’. Since we almost qualify for the first category, and are rapidly heading towards the third we fitted in perfectly! It was actually much nicer than such a reputation suggests, with lots of history and a lively waterfront (Al tried to convince one guy that in Scotland it's open season for shooting mime artists, which is why they come to Canada for the summer). We took a tour of some of the older neighbourhoods, really old houses with pretty cottage gardens full of flowers, some places were nearly 150 years old - just imagine!! ;-)
Coincidentally, one of Al’s mates from Scotland (Smithy), now an exchange officer in Seattle, happened to have booked into the exact same hotel on the same night with his wife Karen and her family, so we had a few wee drams with them (that’s what Al told me to write, but
it was actually poncey cocktails we were drinking!)
Yesterday (Friday) we travelled further up Vancouver Island to Nanaimo, another pretty little coastal town (honestly, this whole area is just stunning, totally recommend it for a holiday) for more fish and chips, made from fresh fish straight off the back of Margaret from Staffordshire's trawler, before catching the ferry back to Vancouver for a very scenic drive North to Whistler, which is where we checked into this fab hotel! And that brings us up to date.
Wildlife spotted so far: one bald eagle, one seal, a couple of herons, some Canada geese and a jellyfish. No bears, wolves or moose. Yet!
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Ailsa
non-member comment
Looks great! You're obviously having a fantastic time out there - enjoy the 'wedding' - only a few more days to go. can't wait to catch up with you when you're both back in Scotland and Snakey is looking forward to his comrade joining him!