Greetings Everyone,
I hope everyone has had a good time while I’ve been away on vacation in Alaska and Vancouver B.C. it was an interesting time away. One that to a degree I’d do again (the Alaska cruse part at least).
I have must to post about, so I think I’ll post in reverse, instead of starting in the past to much (as in I’ll start from when I got home and work backwards to various degrees). So here goes…
Continuing To Unpack
September 24. 2005 – Saturday
Have spent most of the day helping my folks unpack the suit cases that were taken with us on our trip.
Found a good portion of the items that we bought while away, and of course for me that meant a good portion of husky/wolf toys and other items (plushies, t-shirts, figurines, etc).
I’m also very pleased to be back home, though I have been home for over 24 hours now, It still feels like I just got in, as in I feel I need a vacation from my vacation (long story there, and I’ll post of it, in the pages to come).
I’m also tired of being sick, yes after almost 2 years I’ve finally got a cold, one that I could well do without, as its making me feel as weak as a kitten which means I don’t like being away from my bed for long, since my body wishes to do nothing but sleep, and sleep and sleep.
Which well is normal, when one is not well, but I’m not use to it any more since well its been a good while since I was I’ll, on well had to happen sooner or later, guess it best that it happened while I’m off work, no good getting sick when you have work to go to, take taking off work, means no pay/income.
helped unpack some stuff
September 23, 2005 – Friday
Well didn’t do much today, save for help my folks un pack the carrie-ons which meant I found some of the jewelry that I got on the cruse – which is great since I really liked the pieces I picked out for myself), sides from helping my folks, I sleeped a hell of a lot and watched TV.
I also went to see the Chiropractor, who helped me get my body back into proper alinement, which means I still need to have more treatments since my bodies been placed way out of alignment, thanks to my stay in Vancouver (more on that as this entry continues).
But all in all, it was a good day today, and I did manage to get some things dun, though not as much as I would have liked to have gotten dun (such as working on my comp).
Heading Back To Toronto
September 22, 2005 – Thursday
Well today was busy, had to get up at 630am, to get ready to get to the airport to return to Toronto. I didn’t sleep well to say the least, in part because I’ve caught a cold, likely from my short stay at the ER (which sucks).
So sleeping wasn’t easy with all the coughing, hacking, and what not I might have gotten about 3 hours sleep in all, but at least I did get some sleep unlike my mom who apparently didn’t get any (don’t know why she didn’t explain why she didn’t get any, just that she didn’t get any).
When we got to the airport, we had about an hour to spar (since they wish you to be there 1.5 hours before the flight leaves), it meant we actually had time to get breakfast. Unfortunately I wasn’t really interested in much food, though I did manage to get down a Sausage thing from A&W without the egg or cheese on it – and managed to find a shop that sold ginger ail (ya pop in the morning not a good thing, but milk gets really stuck in my throat when I’m ill so I avoid it till I’m felling better – and I don’t drink coffee or tea in the morning to start with either).
After breakfast, we went to the departure lounge to wait for our flight to be called, which wasn’t very long since mom had her cane, which mean we got onboard before most other people did, save others who where disabled or with young children.
The flight back to Toronto, was alright, though I really disliked the person infront of me who had his chair so far back that I wasn’t able to watch the in-flight movie very well and that my legs got so freaking cramped from lack of space that it took a while for me to get them working again when we landed (wasn’t able to stretch them much, since the safey-bealt light was on over half the time while in flight).
Feeling ill and flying do not mix that well even if it was only a 4 hour flight, by time the flight had landed I was feeling really dreadful, and we still had to collect our luggage and wait for my uncle to pick us up from the air port, not to mention the long time back into Toronto (on a road system, which wasn’t never designed to handle that many cars at once).
The drive back home I don’t remember much of, since I was really out of it. But I do remember getting online the moment I got in the door (after helping my folks unload the van of our luggage), and posting a few replies before I just couldn’t take looking at the screen any longer, and had to get some sleep. Which I did, and that lasted till almost 1 in the morning (we’d gotten home about 8 in the evening).
So at any rate, long day, take care everyone.
Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain
September 21, 2005 – Wednesday
Well today I woke feeling freaking sore, but that is normal at the moment, today where are going to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain, which should prove to be most interesting (its a 5.5 hour day tour bus trip).
Well we started off the trip by going to a Salmon hatchery, which was next door to the Capilano Suspension Bridge , it was alright to see the hatchery, but it wasn’t that interesting for me, since well I don’t like salmon to start with (though dad does).
The Capilano Suspension Bridge was an interesting sight, though I was slightly disappointed that it wasn’t higher up, then it is. I kind of imagined it being higher up, and less stable (though with the amount of people going over it, you can see why its so stable, and doesn’t move that much, even with people trying to make it move).
Mom and her helper did alright going across the bridge, though her helper shouldn’t have event tried it, since she complained to no end about the experience, and how bad it was, etc (a big time complainer, one that I was really getting tired of by then – actually I was fed up with her by that point in time).
Dad liked the bridge I think, he got it all on tape, which will be interesting to watch when he hooks it up the the VCR (if i can i’ll be getting it dubbed to my comp, and put some online, if possible – have to get the equipment first). I also got some of the sights from the bridge on film (digital film that is – so i’ll be posting some of it online, when I get access to the files from dad’s camera).
We didn’t spend that long at the bridge only about and hour and a half, since we where to spend just over three hours at Grouse Mountain, which was alright, since one you crossed the bridge did the tree top adventure there wasn’t much more to do there, but move on to the next tour (to a degree, I could have gone across the bridge a couple of time, but by ankles where getting sore, and I was starting to really feel unwell by time we got close to leaving that place).
Our tour driver, then took us to the drop off point for the Grouse Mountain gondola, which was to take us up to the top of Grouse Mountain, which has an interesting history, or at least a history which is different from other ski places that I know of (if you wish to know more about it, look at the site, there is pretty good info there about the place).
The first thing we did, when we got to the top of Grouse Mountain, was to head for the “Theater in the Sky” which was to play an over view of the place, which would have been interesting to watch, but I spent the time, worry about mom, who feel sleep against me, because of lack of sleep the night before, and a long day the day before – longer then she could really handle.
After the presentation, we went to have lunch. Which was alright, but by the end of lunch I was really not feeling well and all I really wished to to was get back to the hotel and sleep. I had for lunch a veggie burger with a side of fries, but it wasn’t that great tasting (it was way over dun), and the fries tasted like they’d been under the hot light far to long (which they likely had been).
After lunch, there wasn’t much time to go exploring (at least not if I went with mom and her helper), but I did manage to do some – but I didn’t get to see the wolves as I had hoped to be able to do, but hay that means I have to go back to do that in the future. It was really disappointing not to have more time up on the mountain, but hay as I said it means one has to go back to see more.
I did get some images from up there, some of the carvings that they had all over the place, especially the carvings of the wolves, which well to me was the best part (then again what can I say, I’m a wolf at heart). I also got some images going up in the gondola, which I think look alright (though I’ve not seen them on screen as yet.
When we got back to the hotel, we all went to our rooms, and crashed for a little while (I did manage to catch a few Z’s before mom came over to the room, to say she and her helper where going to the lounge for their supper – dad and I joined them in the lounge once I was awake enough to get one foot infront of the other). When I woke before supper it was to the TV being on CNN, and an air craft landing with it landing gear out of place. Which delayed our going to dinner, since dad and I were more interested in seeing it the plan made it alright – which it apparently did.
Supper wasn’t what I was really hopping for to a degree (not that I know what I was hoping for, since I wasn’t feeling that well to start with), but it was good. I ended up ordering the daily special soup (which was Scottish Broth), and I also had an 1/2 pound order of wings (which I wished I’d had a full pound of, but didn’t trust my stumic to keep it all down at that point in time unfortunately).
After supper, I returned the the room and feel sleep again until mom arrived to help pack up the suitcases with the stuff we’d collected in our travels for the past 2 weeks away. It didn’t take mom as long as she thought it would to pack things up, she didn’t need to get an extra bag as she feared she would have to do so, which was a good thing, since we where already maxed at how many bags we could take on the plane to start with.
After packing everything up, dad called the porter to pick up our bags and take them to lock up for the night, so we didn’t have to get them lugged in the morning. From there I don’t remember much, I know I watched TV for a while (mostly what ever caught my fancy – I think I saw a new pilot show, but I’m not sure since i really wasn’t paying attention to much by then with how I was feeling – so so out of it. I know I feel sleep with the TV still on, cause I ended up turning it off about 2 in the morning when I woke up hacking.
UBC and the Steam Clock
September 20, 2005 – Tuesday
Didn’t do much today, K dad and I did but it was at a slower pace then I’d have liked to have dun things, but since I was still sore from Sundays misadventures i wasn’t taking any chances with what i was going to be doing.
We started the day out by going to breakfast and having a good breakfast (i had my normal – beggle and cream cheese with a muffin and glass of milk), after breakfast we got ready for the days events. Dad got directions on how to get to the UBC Museum of Anthropology, which was a good place to go. I had wanted to go there since I learned we where going to Vancouver, since I’d heard so much about it when I was in University, taking Native Studies (you see many images in my text books came from UBS so the chance to see the actually objects in person I didn’t wish to miss if I could well help it).
We arrived at the Museum, just as it was opening, though making our way to the Museum, was interesting, since its on the other end of UBC from where the busses had left everyone off, it was about 900m from the bus stop, give or take a few meters. It was interesting trying to follow the signs to get to the museum, but we did find it eventually (which is why we managed to get there just as it was opening – it opens at 11 in the morning – dad was glade we didn’t choose to go there on Monday, since we learned when we arrived that its closed on mondays.).
We ended up going on a museum tour, which was informative though I didn’t think much of the person giving the tour since most of the info he was giving I’d learned from school, and it was almost a total repeats of the books I’d read over the years at university. But it was still great to see some of the items I’d only seen in my books in person, and I even managed to get pics of the Raven Creation story, which I was really pleased to be able to get.
I’ll post a few of them, once I get them printed and scanned (they where taken with my dad’s manual camera, since mom had the digital camera – she and her helper where taking in the sights of Victoria, which was great, but bad since it meant it was like a 14 hour day for her, which was to much for her in most regards but her helper wouldn’t go less mom went, and long story short mom couldn’t tell her no since she never really gave mom a chance to do so with all her complaining about having to see the place, and do what ever it was she absolutely had to do while over there), which should be some time next month knowing dad and his time line for getting the prints printed .. lol, but at least I was able to get them, so in that regards I’m happy.
We didn’t spend long at the Museum, only a little over 2 hours, but it was enough since I was starting to get tired, and feel the pain in my neck and back (and the advil wasn’t working to keep the pain in check unfortunately), we still had to walk another 900m back to the bus stop (which turned out to be more then that cause we kind of did cooks tour about the campus looking it over – going to the book shop and getting a hat for myself with UBC on it.
When we got back to the hotel, we went down to the Seven Eleven which was just down the street (about 3 blocks down – and boy where there a lot of them in the area I found, far more then I know of in Toronto). There we got subs, and a drink, then headed back the to hotel, cause I needed to rest, which means I caught a few Z’s, woke about 6 in the evening, and told dad we could go search out the Steam Clock which he was hoping to see and photograph.
I told dad that we could get food in Gastown, that there was bound to be some place down there to find food (when we’d gotten off the cruse ship the taxi had gone though Gastown and I remembered seeing different eateries – so it seamed like a good way of getting two things dun that needed doing). So off we went to find the Steam Clock, and find it we did. It took us about 30 minutes to walk from where we where staying to where the clock is located (which is like in the heart of Gastown).
Dad shot his tape of the Steam Clock, and got several photos of it as well. He managed to get the entire production of the hour that it does, which is interesting to watch and hear. If I can I’ll post it online. Though you can get a listen to the clock if you click here, its not much but it gives you an idea of what it sounds like.
After we spend almost an hour at the clock we went in search of dinner, and we found the first original Old Spaghetti Factory, I didn’t realize that “In March of 1970, the first Old Spaghetti Factory Restaurant in Canada was opened in the Gastown district of Vancouver, British Columbia. The concept was a very simple one; take an old warehouse in a historic part of town and fill it with antiques and artifacts, provide the finest pasta and superb service, to make an extremely unique dining experience.”
Dad and I shared our meal since neither of us had a large appetite so we shared a platter of Spaghetti and meat balls (dad had all the meat balls), with that was a salad and galetto ice cream – I also had a side order of 6 wings and a Kookie Monster drink – which is a children’s version of an drink which apparently has rum in it.
So supper was good, after it we walked back through Gastown towards Canada Place, where dad took more photos, by then it was almost 930, and I was getting tired, so we headed back to the hotel.
When we got back, dad went to see if Mom and her helper where back, but they weren’t and it was a little past 10 in the evening, they didn’t get back to the hotel till almost 1030, which miffed dad, cause he new that the next day would be a long day for mom, and that she’d need her rest to get though it.
Grandville Island and More
September 19, 2005 – Monday
Didn’t do much today, at least not for the morning save sleep and rest, while dad did a hell of a lot of calling around to the bus company insurance company and what not in regards to the bus accident that we were in yesterday which ended me in hospital for several hours.
Around noon, we ventured out for a walk. Mostly cause I was getting a Varian of cabin fever, and needed to get out of the hotel for a while regardless of how I was feeling. We walked down to the water front of Yaletown, and found these little mini ferries – we ended up taking what is known as the False Creek Ferries, which travel around the water ways, and got a day pass.
We went to the Market over on Granville Island, which was an interesting experience. That is where we also ended up having lunch, which was interesting since we got to have what we wished, dad ended up having a Salmon Burger with fries, and I had Chicken Don, which was alright, but not what I’ve had in the past at other Sushi based places.
We spent a fair amount of time just walking around looking at things, and in general taking in the sites. After that we got back on the ferry, and took it to another location that dad wanted to check out (the Maritime Museum – though it wasn’t open when we went, not sure why but it wasn’t open that day). After that we headed back to Yaletown, where we first found the ferries, and got off, and headed back to the hotel (cause again I was starting to feel tired and the pain meds had long ago warn off so I was in some major back and neck pain by then).
Later that day, when mom and her helper got back from their trip we went to supper at a local All you can eat Chinese Buffet, which was alright, though thanks to lunch dad’s tummy wasn’t up to having supper that night. The food offered was pretty good, though not that much in way of selection that I would have liked to have had (the price wasn’t that high, but high enough at 15.95), but what was offered was alright. I guess it was more traditional asian then I am use to have access to since it does appear that Toronto’s Asian restaurants are westernized a hell of a lot more then some of those in Vancouver apparently are.
After supper we all head back to the hotel, to watch CSI Miami season 3 premier, which was good. I enjoyed watching it, I don’t know about mom or her helper, but I liked watching it, though I’m not sure if the direction of season three will be that good, cause as much as I like watching the season opener, it wasn’t what I was hoping to see for the season, but time will tell how the third season goes.
Well that’s it for this entry, as its almost 10 pages in length (k mor like 8, but still it could have been longer) .. I’ll be posting more of my time away in the coming week (as time allows), till then take care everyone.