Vancouver Playtime and Whistler Trains

After a fairly uneventful ferry ride back to Vancouver, we navigated to one of Barlows friends houses to crash for the night. A case of beer and three Irishman provided great entertainment, and I only had to ask them to repeat what they said a handful of times in the hour…..We ended up having pizza from an Indian restaurant that tickled the taste buds and passed out on three respective couches to get some zzzzzz.

The 9th of August turned out to be one of my favourite days of my Canadian adventure. Vancouver really showed me a good time this trip.
We started the day heading into Granville Island Markets. The tiny island offers everything you could imagine, for every age. First we made a quick stop at my favourite brewery Granville Island Brewery to fill our growlers and then off I to the food hall for lunch. So much fresh produce and the variety of food stalls make the very indecisiveness in me struggle to pick one thing. So I decided on three stalls, walking away with fresh ciabatta, hummus and a fresh pesto pasta.

We needed to leave the Island and make our way to Stanley Park for our next activity. We were unsure what level of entertainment this activity would bring, so we set our standards low. Vancouvers Annual Water Fight. We rocked up with water bombs and high spirits. Hundreds of other people arrived with super soakers with back up tanks strapped to their backs, giant buckets and any other water fight instrument you could imagine. When I say hundreds…..I mean more people than we could possible have imagine….young and old, dressed up and bypasses that joined in. It didn’t matter who you wet, everyone was in the spirit and before we could throw our first water bombs we were soaked through. As you could imagine our little rubber balloons didn’t last long. Us thinking it would be over as soon as everyone ran out of water… Not realizing it was in a water park where the water freely flowed! We were given a large ziplock bag out of pity and took it in turns hunting down new people to add water too. A truly unforgettable experience that everyone should try!! Giant water fight….who can say NO?!?!

After over an hour of constant water being thrown and splashed, the party was showing no sign of calming down and was only growing in participants. But sadly we had to make like the departed for our next highlight. Back on Vancouver Island we were decked out in vests, sashes, and face paint to make us feel like real pirates! Vancouver Pirate Adventure is an interactive pirate ship adventure for any person with an imagination. So Vancouver pirate ship had now recruited Captain Wat of your Kins (Miss Watkins), Captain BarBeard (Mr Barlow) and Captain Bow Down (Miss Bowden). We caused mayhem on Vancouver harbour, harassing other vessels, disrupted a wedding with water cannons, danced up a storm, played limbo on deck, tried to mutineer against our captain, watched sword fights, solved clues to find a missing treasure, and drank “rum” to celebrate our victories. Pretty much all my pirate dreams coming true in a two hour pirate ship adventure!

On a massive high and energy levels seriously depleted, we started the drive that evening out to Whistler, BC to take Barlow home.

The next day in Whistler, Imi and I went exploring in the woods in search of the infamous Whistler Train Wreck. A 6km round trip leading to 7 carriages scattered through the forest next to the train tracks leading down to the river below. To get there, you can walk in part along the train tracks (though this is strongly advised against), along mountain bike tracks, and along rocks skirting a roaring river. The metal carriages have been used as canvas for artists to come and spray-paint to their hearts content. There are so many cool pieces inside and outside the carriages to explore. We ended up venturing on to the top of one carriage to chill out from the heat and take in our surroundings for a while before making our way back.

Back in the Village we spent the rest of our time gorging on food and shopping. Pasta Lupino provided us with the biggest bread basket with oil and balsamic, and we met Barlow for early dinner at Merlin’s in Blackcomb for my traditional pulled pork and chorizo nachos the size of a house!

Once again Whistler turned it on for us. Thanks again for the couches Barlow!

Whistler Wonderland and Reunions

I spent a total of 10 days between Whistler, BC and Vancouver, BC on this trip. Having the wedding based out of Vancouver it was a centre point of the trip to collect people and meet up, gather for celebrations and experience a wide range of ‘firsts’.

After the bachelorette party I decided to stay in Whistler for an extra 2 days with a friend rather than head back to Vancouver. During these two days I took the down time and spent majority of it sitting by and swimming in Alta Lake. The weather was some if the best summer weather I had all trip…enough to work on my tan in time for the wedding! I read, took naps, dived off the jetty and floated in the icy cold waters thinking life wasn’t going to get better than those moments. Little did I realize that this was just the start of an incredible month. I caught up with friends I was living with last year in Whistler, ate some grub in the cheapest establishment in town; El furniture warehouse (el ferni), toured the old stomping grounds of the village and drank chai with the yoga ladies and gents in town for Wanderlust. I had never been to Whistler during Summer. I quickly fell in love the bike culture and healthier side of the town compared to the party, party lifestyle of Winter that I have experienced for so many years. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very much there…people just live to ride in the town. If I come back to Canada after my European adventure I would absolutely get into downhill.

The 1st, I took an early bus out to Vancouver to meet my travel buddy for the next 3 and a half weeks….Miss Imi. The girl who would make me cry and almost wet my pants with laughter, my adventure and adrenalin partner, my partner in crime and organizer, and the girl who would introduce me to some luck of the Irish.

We met at our hotel, The Kingston, centre of Downtown and perfectly situated next to a local sports bar. It had everything we needed in our tiny double bed room…a sink, large mirror (for wedding prep), a fan which was only off when we were out, communal bathrooms, free bagels and coffee for breakfast, AND it didn’t cost us an arm!

That night we had dinner and drinks with Alice and Sam at the conveniently situated sports bar downstairs. Imi, myself and another friend, Barlow, would be joining these two crazy kids in Tofino, Vancouver Island, for 4 days after the wedding. A great night to ease the gang into festivities and warm up our kidneys for the coming week (at least)!

Imi and I will be back in Vancouver for another day later on, stay tuned for what was probably one of the best days of the trip!

The start of Canadian adventures: Vancouver – The Bachelorette

26th July 2014 was the start of one of the most whirlwind, magical, adventure packed months of my life. A flyby drop off thanks to Imis mum at Gatwick airport, then an 8 out of 9 hour plane nap, a hounding from Canadian Customs, and I was picking up my bag and looking for a lift to Vancouver. Luckily Mr. Philip Collins was waiting in the airport for me, to take me to see the soon to be Mrs. Collins.
We used Gills Stevenson childhood family home as our base before the Bachelorette party….the epicentre if you will; that would draw people from around the world to celebrate the wedding of the century. For the girls that had already arrived, we were treated to fresh local salmon for dinner. Stevenson is a quiet waterside town 20 minutes out of central Vancouver. Historically known for its fishing port and cannery industry, today you can find camera crews and Hollywoostar spotters in the filming of TV show Once Upon A Time.

27th if July = Vancouver day with the wedding girls – activities included lunch at the Craft Beer Market, touring the water banks, food vans festivals, Granville Island, boat rides, and many interactions with strangers.
If you were lucky enough to witness some 15x mid twenty year old girls making their way on foot throughout Vancouver today you were in for a treat!
Gills challenge for the day: Get rid of all wooden hearts from one large mason jar. With almost 150 hearts she could palm them off the following ways. 1 heart: Tell a stranger you are getting married, 2 hearts: Tell a stranger you are getting married to the one and only Phil Collins, 3 hearts: Get a stranger to sing a Phil Collins song with you, and 4 hearts was at the bridesmaids discretion. She got right into the spirit of things and before we all knew it they were almost all gone, strangers can be very open to playing along with a group of girls. We even had a Phil Collins song played over the Food Van festival Sound system, people were dancing and singing along with us…it was a sight.
Vancouver is a city I’ve always used as a stopover point. I had been to Granville Island a few times, only because they brew my favourite beer ‘Winter Ale’. But otherwise I never really saw much to the city. After this trip I found what all the hype is about. Downtown is easy enough to walk around, everything you need or want to see is accessible via foot or a short boat ride. There is an endless amount of activities, events and places to go out; to keep even me entertained…not to forget the view of the mountains all around you, views of the ocean…all from a major city centre!
One of those activities was a food van festival, over 20 different food vans from around the city came together to dish out their delicacies from curry to Mac and cheese, home made Popsicles and lemonade….I went for a scrumptious Aussie pie. Last thing I’ll touch on for this day was the Craft Beer Market. Hundreds of beers straight from the keg from all over BC, Canada, and the rest of the world. We went for some samplers that only reiterated how much I love an amber and darker ale….and hate wheat beer!

28th/29th – Vancouver to Whistler: we made a mass exit from the Stevenson property after breakfast. I had the pleasure of being in a car with Jamie (gills sister), Rachel (Gills cousin), and Jen (Gills soon to be cousin in law). The drive made for the funniest of mini road trips. We made the discovery of the song by Meghan Trainor – All about that Bass….this song very quickly became the theme song for all the girls of the bachelorette and wedding.
For our daytime activities we went back to the scene of the proposal; a Gondola and chairlift ride took us to the peak of Whistler, BC. A fully loaded picnic lunch with a view and we were tromping our way back down the mountain on foot and chairlift rides.
As for our afternoon and evening activities, sorry to say that the actual events that ensued will never reach the public light. But I will state that I made the Fernie girls proud as their representative, making it to the final girls out and about (including upside down selfies), and helping to keeping the bride to be suitably festive.