I just got back from a 4 day trip to my hometown, Sarnia. I was only planning on being there for three days, however the weather was just too nice yesterday, and I had to stay an extra day. I’m so glad I did! We had great weather both Thursday and Friday, so I spent the afternoon with Chet & Vera beside their pool; well, Chet was outside with us in the fabulous Tiki Hut while Vera & I baked ourselves pool-side. It’s too bad the weather didn’t cooperate on Wednesday, as that’s Vera’s “Wednesday afternoon pool day” with her friends, so only Denise showed up (it was cloudy & it actually rained for about 30 minutes.)

It was very nice to relax and recharge before starting the new job on Monday. Although I thought it was funny that I had to email my new boss to ask him what time I should show up on Monday.

And now I’m back home, just got back from running a couple of errands, and I’m all set to watch some more Olympics tonight!

I arrived in Vancouver at noon on a Saturday, which meant we had plenty of time to hang out and do some fun stuff. The weather was even cooperating, so we had sun, blue skies, and 27 degrees! Just fabulous.

White Rock

We first drove to White Rock, which Patrick tells me is the furthest south you can drive on the mainland and still be in Canada. Here’s the map:

View Larger Map

It’s a really cute little vacation-type town. And the weather meant everybody and their dog was out, which was nice to see. Patrick & Adrienne told me that it was the first truly nice weekend, so everybody was out enjoying it. We went for a walk along the peer, along the water, and along Marine Dr.

Concert #1

Whenever I go Vancouver, I’m always wondering what live music shows Patrick’s going to “drag” me to. I’m kidding. He doesn’t need to drag me to see live music, I’m always up for it. First up was a Mel C concert (yes, that Mel C). Adrienne was going with a friend to see the show, and we thought we’d pop in as well. So we snagged some cheap scalped tickets and off we went! It wasn’t a bad show, Mel definitely has fun, and has the pipes to do a full show. The crowd was crazy though, with a throng of die hards right up front. I was getting annoyed with all the signs they held up and photos they were taking throughout the whole show. Apparently so was Mel, as at one point she asked everybody to put them all away, and I must say, I was impressed at the difference it made! I was really surprised at how ubiquitous all those digital things have become, that I’d forgotten what it was like to see a concert without them all.

This was a supremely short show, ending at about 9:45-ish, so we headed on over to the Media Club to check out a local band that Patrick used to play drums for, Featherz Edge. By this point I had been up for almost 18 hours, although I must say that I wasn’t all that tired. The show was pretty good too. The band’s music is a little more hard core than I would normally listen to, but they give a great show. I made a joke about how the guitarist, Mike, looked like he was about 12, and Patrick said he had just turned 19 a few months ago! Too funny. I was hoping Incura would have been playing, however I actually just missed them by one night; they played on Friday! But to my surprise, Kyle, Incura’s singer, was in attendance and hopped up on stage to perform a song with FE, so I got a bit of an Incura fix anyways.

Next stop for the night, and no, I’m not kidding, was Fritz, for some tasty poutine. By this point it was about 12:30am, and I had been up for almost 20 hours. I was surprisingly awake and spry for being up that long, but was at the point that if I sat for more than 30 minutes, I was going to be asleep in 1 minute. We got home by 1:30am, and it was lights out for my first day in BC.

Cultus Lake

Sunday we went off to Cultus Lake, which is a little resort area south of Chilliwack. It’s about an hour drive from Vancouver, through some really nice farm land. We were going to this really good putting green mini-putt place out there. We had an absolute blast!

Adrienne led for most of the 18 holes, but as per Patrick’s “prediction”, she lost it on the 15th hole, a par 4 I believe. I may have come in third, but I had THE two shots of the day: a medium-long put on the 5th hole (I nearly pulled a George Costanza and left on that high note, but figured since we’d only been on the course for 20 minutes, that I might want to stick around); and then another long put on 15. Just tremendous puts that saved par for me….on those holes, that is. I had a 6 and even a 7 on one, which is about par for the course for me (*rim shot*)

From there we went on to:

Concert #2

We had headed over to Patrick’s parents’ place for a BBQ dinner in Port Moody, and Patrick told me on the way there that we were going to go see Wide Mouth Mason afterwards. Now, I will say that I wished he had told me before we left the house that morning, since I was still wearing my golfing outfit! I didn’t need to get all glammed up or anything, but just a quick change into a new shirt would have been nice. Patrick’s such a guy and didn’t think of it; Adrienne knows her husband quite well and brought one along already.

I was actually a tad peeved because the tickets said “Doors at 8″, and the band didn’t come on till 10:30! Patrick was excited because Pat Steward, who is a very well-known drummer, and has worked with Bryan Adams for many years, was sitting in for their regular drummer. Here’s a photo of him in action:

And some more photos of the show:

Oh wait! And the funniest part of the whole evening was this: Patrick’s mom Lucie is a big Bo Bice fan (yes, that dude from American Idol), and apparently she always compares every singer she knows to him. It’s become a bit of a joke around Patrick & Adrienne’s house, so we were going to try and get her to say it at some point in the evening….when she did it all by herself! It was so hilarious because it was so spontaneous, but as soon as I hear the “well, you know Patrick he’s no Bo Bice.” the three of us fell silent for a moment, and then burst out laughing! We laughed for the rest of the trip in fact, it was that funny. Here’s a pic of mom & son:

And this faithful readers is the end of Day 2 of my trip. Stay tuned for more posts and photos!

Yes, you heard right! I just spent the last hour going through all my photos from my trip to Vancouver, and sorted and labelled them all. Now it’s a matter of posting them up on the blog here. I’ll start that tomorrow as all this sorting and labelling has got me tired. (It’s either that or all the Nintendo Wii Melanie and I played tonight! I definitely have to get me one of those! You shoulda seen her kicking butt in the boxing match! She looked like she was “kungfu fighting”, complete with the cheesy music from that song!)

Yes everyone, I’ve returned from my trip to Vancouver. I had a wonderful time, and had so much fun hanging out with Patrick & Adrienne on their home turf. Unfortunately I brought back a nice sinus cold with me that has had me coughing for many days now, but thankfully it didn’t impact my trip too much.

Now it’s back to the grind, although I’m home sick today. I’ve gone through a lot of herbal tea and tissues already today. But at least it’s sunny outside, so the view from the couch is a nice one. Not as nice as it was from Patrick & Adrienne’s couch though! Their living room faces north, and so I had a view of the mountains for the last week. But it’s nice to be back home too. I’ve still got more pictures to show you, so keep reading to see them in the next few days.

Yesterday Adrienne and I went up to Whistler to check things out. Patrick had to work (haha), and since he’s in Squamish for the month, we thought we’d steal the car and go up to Whistler. The last time any of us had been up there was the last time Carmina & I had been to Vancouver in 1998! So it was time to go.

The Sea-to-Sky Highway is undergoing a lot of work right now in preparation for the Olympics in 2010, as the government wanted to widen it to four lanes. Lots of construction workers and pilons everywhere. Patrick says his drive up to Squamish (that’s about half way to Whistler) changes every morning, so he’s got to stay on his toes when he goes up there. Whistler’s about a 90 minute drive from Vancouver, which is amazing if you’re in to skiing or snowboarding.

Adrienne & I decided to take the ski lift up as high as we could go, to check out the view….

 Here’s Adrienne on the way up in the gondola. Now that’s the way to ride.

Holy cow though, after that we got on a traditional ski lift, and froze our patooties off on the way up! The wind was pretty wild, and of course we weren’t really dressed for it, but it was fun anyways. Here’s the view from the chair:

 You had to go pretty high up to find any more snow, considering we’re almost in June now. But there were some hard core people up there taking advantage of the late ski season.

On the way back the wind was just ferocious though, coming right up the mountain. Adrienne & I almost didn’t want to take any photos though, as our fingers were getting really cold.

 Here I am trying to keep warm on the ride back down.

Back in the gondola we thawed ourselves out, and of course we knew that once we got back down to the Village, it would feel like summertime.

No pictures of the Village itself though, as it was pretty boring. In honour of the alpine Olympic events being held in Whistler, I hopped in the bobsleigh and am now giving serious thought to trying to qualify.

 I think I could do it, don’t you? I’m a fast runner.