Fun Times in Canada!

Last Saturday Scott and I headed north to Vancouver to have a little mini vacation. It started off a little slow since we had to spend over an hour at the border. It wouldn't have been a super big deal but there were only about 9 cars ahead of us. The long wait wasn't even for anything cool, like a search and seizure...just an overly chatty border guard. He did tell us about a cool fireworks show that would be going on while we were going to be there so that was nice of him. We took advantage of the beautiful weather by heading straight to Stanley Park, where we saw a Quidditch match!! Haha ok it's really cricket, but it was pretty entertaining to watch. I still don't know any of the rules, but this is what I gathered from our time watching. There are two beaters...haha i mean batters and the guy does the crazy pitch and the batter hits the croquet-like ball. The batters are in the middle of the circle shaped field and the fielders stand kinda where ever. I'm sure that is the technical sports term for it. when the batter hits the ball he does a funny half run half walk to the other side of the batting area while the other batter switches with him. No one catches the ball that's hit, they just pretend like they are going to and then duck out of the way. It's a hard ball...i would probably do the same thing too!! And there is a referee but he stands way out in the outfield and doesn't do much. That is cricket. don't bother verifying any facts as I'm sure I have it all here.

We spent lots of time enjoyiong the sun and pretty park. The park was so beautiful, but so crowded cause that's where the fireworks show was going to be that night. Here are some pictures from the park.

I'm not sure what this guy was trying to pull...but it seems like an odd combo...are you from Hawaii? Or Montana? Let's get this straight, buddy.

So after Quidditch, we went into the city to go to all the fun gadgety places that Scott loves. We went to a huge movie/video game/music store and bought Wayne's World AND Wayne's World 2 on the same disk!!! Odd decision, you say?? Not at all!!! Party Time! Excellent! We spend the rest of the trip wishing we had a licorice dispenser in the roof of the car. haha

We took a few pictures of things in the city...I think Scott's favorite part was seeing this...

I love this beautifiul little church. Its right in the middle of Downtown Vancouver surrounded by dozens of huge skyscrapers. The contrast of the church vs the other buildings is really neat. We had a few minutes so I got to take some pictures of it.

After dinner at Shabusen...so yummy (all you can eat Sushi and probably one of Scott's favorite places in all the world), we headed back into the city to find a primo location for this fireworks show we had been anticipating all day. We found a really cute neighborhood on the top of a hill overlooking the bay where the fireworks would go off. The houses were so beautiful and charming...all with different personalities that just made the neighborhood look incredible. They had little storybook type cottages next to Meditteranean Style houses, but it blended together so well. Here are some pictures from the neighborhood....

This house was so charming...and the roof is incredible...so whimsical and so much work!! It is still in the process of being renovated, but I'm sure it will look spectacular when it's done.

beautiful red brick school house.

This was my favorite house. I probably took about 20 pictures of it trying to get everything. I just loved the little window at the top with the Juliet balcony.

Just after the sunset, the fireworks show started. This show was the grand finale of a week long fireworks competition between about a dozen different countries. The country doing the grand finale was China, and I wondered...China makes most of the fireworks, don't they automatically win anyway?? I mean just for showing up....Hey, we're here...I see you already have the fireworks we made for you...why don't we just head on home with the trophy now, and save you all a lot of embarressment. Just something to think about...

The fireworks show ended about 10:30 or so, and we knew every hotel room in the area was booked...we had already tried, so we headed back to the border. Just out of Vancouver we decided to get off the freeway and try a few hotels so we were not getting home at 4am. To our amazement, the lady at the second hotel we stopped at told us she just had a cancellation. About 2 seconds after the lady swiped my card, another traveller came into the lobby checking for any rooms. The girl behind the desk told her I had gotten the last one and it took all my strength not to use my best Stewie voice and shout, "Victory is mine!!" But, I knew just how that lady felt so I didn't.

After a good night's rest, a little more shopping and sightseeing, we headed home. The End.