Catching up a bit

It’s been so great seeing Megan again but we’ve been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to blog, so sorry aboot (Canadian pronunciation) that. I’m typing this on word as I’m on the train between Vancouver & Edmonton and shall upload it as soon I get near an internet connection. I’ll give you a brief rundown of the past few days:

On 11th Sept, Megan & I checked into the HI hostel in Jericho Beach, where we had a private room, and went for dinner at the Galley Patio Bar which was cheap and cheerful but with a stunning view of the sun going down over the beach, mountains and cityscape (and yes, we did raise a toast to what would have been my 8th wedding anniversary). The following day we went on a couple of recommendations to Lynn Canyon, where we had a great mini-hike in the forest, sat for ages looking at the glacial water running through the valley and had a picnic (but not in the forest – here you gotta be BEAR AWARE!). We had dinner at a 24hr vegetarian fusion restaurant called Naam. We’re sooooo Vancouver. Next day we
drove up Highway 99 to Whistler, where the 2010 Winter Olympics is being held. As you can see, in the race to the shopping I won gold, but to be fair, Megan was a worthy runner up. The weather, it has to be said, has been stunning and we were sweltering, which was not what I expected the first time I visited a ski resort but there you go. Life’s like that, as some wise Canadian woman once said. I think it was Avril Lavigne. Later that evening we headed down to W4th (I speaka da lingo) to find some dinner and discovered our new favourite restaurant in the whole world, Fish, where we had food so good we couldn’t speak. We did make a lot of mmmmm noises though and nodded a lot too. I had the blackened trout with lemon butter and fries. Then a hop over to Capers for a lemon tart, pecan pie and coffee for dessert, next to a couple of anorexic girls talking about their treatment programme, which made us appreciate our puddings even more.

Breakfast on 14th Sept was taken at Sophie’s Cosmic Café where we enjoyed the crazy crap on the walls muchly. We did a spot of shopping, returned our rental car and headed over to the train station to pick up the VIA rail train through the Rockies to Megan’s hometown of Edmonton. As I write, we’re a few short hours away from our destination (the journey is 23 hours in total). A few observations from our journey so far are as follows:

The Rockies, as the name might suggest, rock
Mountain sheep can proffer the most disdainful expression.
Bears can be hard to spot, even when someone tries to point them out to you.
I don’t think moose actually exist. A clever marketing ploy on the part of the Canadians, I’m guessing. At least, I’ve not seen any, which is almost conclusive.
Buffalo, however, do exist and are big.
Bright sunshine without a cloud in the sky is definitely the best way to see this all.
Bring snacks when you're going on a 23 hr train journey.
Glacial water is very blue and, allegedly, very cold.
Washing and dressing in a tiny bathroom is easier than I might previously have thought.
Sleeping across two reclining seats is not.
Canada is very big and very beautiful indeed.

When we arrive in Edmonton, we will have two lovely boys waiting for us. Craig, Megan’s fiancé, and Darrell, who flew in from London yesterday for a month long visit and whom I cannot wait to see. They met up this morning and have been out buying ‘essentials’ (i.e. beer), and will be taking us out for dinner on our arrival. Life is good.