Florida wedding

We got back from our Florida holiday on Wednesday. Vancouver greeted us with grey skies and rain - so good to be back :) Still, I mustn't grumble, as this weekend has been lovely and sunny!

We left last Wednesday after work. We caught the 6pm Amtrak train from just outside our office which took us to Seattle in four and a half hours. It was a very pleasant journey; the train is really comfortable and the scenery is interesting, especially when the train travels right along the edge of the coast. Even the customs formalities were a breeze - you can stay on the train while the immigration officers get on - awesome. We got to Seattle about 10pm and took a taxi straight to our little hotel on the airport, and promptly went to sleep - we had to get up early to fly at 8am the next morning.

Apart from a small hiccup (the airport shuttle left without us and had to come back), catching the flight went super-smooth. We stopped in Atlanta after about four and a half hours flying, and then had another two hours flight to Fort Myers in Florida. We arrived at our hotel (Casa Playa) around 9pm. It was more a block of apartments than a hotel - there were no real hotel services and no bar / restaurant etc. but the rooms were lovely and we were very happy. We popped out for food before sleep, and stumbled on a very rowdy bar full of arguing people. Quite a shock from the quiet reservation of Vancouverites!

Friday we woke to find we had an amazing view from our balcony which was pretty sweet. It was hot and sunny so we hit the beach in the morning for a while, and then went to a pre-wedding BBQ. Our Florida trip was mainly because Steph's friend Holly was getting married to a nice fellow called Pat and we'd been invited (and in fact Steph was a bridesmaid). We got to meet some of their friends and family, and there were lots of burgers and hot dogs so I was happy :)

In the afternoon, there was a rehearsal dinner for the wedding. Steph was involved but I had nothing specific to do so I propped up the hotel bar with some new friends I had made from the wedding party - Steve and Vic (you'll spot them in the photos). Later Steph and I went out for dinner to finish off the day.

On the Saturday, some cloud moved in. We spent a little while on the beach in the morning and both had a swim in the sea which was cool but pleasant (yes, I am swimming a little now - trying to improve my confidence). The wedding didn't start until 5.30pm, and by that time it was distinctly overcast and somewhat windy, and there had even been brief showers earlier. Luckily though the rain held off until after the ceremony, and everything went very smoothly. The wedding was really lovely actually - congratulations to Holly and Pat again! You can see our photos from the wedding here.

On Sunday we said our goodbyes and left Fort Myers. We had to get to the airport to pick up a hire car, but public transport isn't so great in the US and after an hour or so of getting largely nowhere we had to give up and pay for a taxi. The drive to Miami took around 3 hours, and was pleasant although not too exciting, at least until we reached Miami Beach where the traffic got really crazy. Stressful to say the least! Our hotel wasn't quite what we had hoped - it was a little bit faded in its grandeur and our "jacuzzi" turned out to be a jetted bath - we'd hoped for something more :) But it was perfectly good enough. Our favourite was "Grumpy Hour" between 7 and 8pm where a surly waitress served free drinks in the lobby, and yet expected huge tips :) We generally found that service in Florida was not as good as Vancouver - people just weren't as friendly. We'll try to appreciate service here a little more from now on!

On Monday we still had the car so we took a drive down to the Florida Keys. The Keys run for a round 120 miles and the road is not too fast, so we didn't make it all the way to Key West at the very end - we turned around at a place called Marathon. It was a great drive though, and we saw some cool places on our stops. Sadly it was on this trip that I lost my new sunglasses in a petrol station toilet :)

Tuesday was our last day in Miami. We did some walking around the beach, the art deco district and Ocean Drive in the morning and the weather was scorching. There are lots of cool looking hotels. After lunch we went on a combined city tour and boat tour to see some more of Miami. We had a completely mental coach driver who called himself "Manny Miami" and talked like a boxing announcer. He was truly a bizarre guy. The tour was good though, as otherwise we would have seen very little of the area in our short stay. We particularly enjoyed the boat ride as we got lots of fresh air. That night we had the best food of the holiday too (at least eating out) - some really simple cuban food that tasted wholesome and really good. A nice way to end!

The journey back on Wednesday was uneventful, and surprisingly long. We got up at 5am ET, and got home about 6pm PT, so that was 16 hours in total - eek. The bus trip back from Seattle wasn't so much fun as the train down either - not too comfortable and lots of waiting at the border. Train good, bus bad :/

In summary, we enjoyed the holiday for sure - especially Fort Myers and the wedding which was great. Miami was nice to visit but a bit too crazy for us. I think we'd go back to Florida because the weather is so nice, but maybe to somewhere a little more relaxing than Miami.

Our photos (not including the wedding - see link above) can be found here.

The state of Stanley Park (and other things)

Spring is here. The cherry blossom has already been and gone, and the weather has been much drier the last couple of weeks, which is great news as the end of the Winter was very wet indeed.

Last weekend (the Easter weekend) we mostly took it easy. We got our bikes out for the first time since last October. They hadn't been stolen (yay), although my helmet had disappeared (boo). They didn't take Steph's though, even though it is better than mine. Perhaps it didn't fit their big head. Anyway, after a quick wash and some tire inflation we had a quick ride in Stanley Park. We tried to follow the seawall route, but it is blocked off before you reach Prospect Point because of winter storm damage, so we had to detour through the park and out the other side at Third Beach. The whole route took about an hour but it was enough for our first cycle of the season I think.

Even on our quick ride, we saw a surprising amount of damage to the park from the winter storms. We took a few photos which I've uploaded here. This afternoon I've been for a walk through the park while Steph met up with our friend Jo. I walked up to Prospect Point and then West around the park until I could get down onto the seawall. I was quite shocked at the amount of storm damage I saw up there - it is much more extensive than I'd imagined. Along some parts of the road down from the point, there aren't many trees standing on either side. I expect it will be a long time before the park starts to look normal again.

This next week will be a short one at work for us, as on Thursday we fly to Fort Myers in Florida for Steph's friend Holly's wedding. We stay there until Sunday, and then drive to Miami before returning home on Wednesday. It's quite a lot of travelling but it should be worth it - we are both looking forward to the trip (though I'm not so looking forward to driving in Miami - yikes). We might drive down to the Florida Keys too if time permits.

So right now I have my feet up, but when Steph gets back we are going down to the basement pool as I am trying to learn to swim (or at least tolerate water) so that maybe I can do some kayaking this year. After that, it really will be feet up for the rest of the evening with home-made turkey stew and a rented movie to look forward to. Nice.

Whistler weekend

This was actually two weekends ago now (March 30th - April 1st), but I've been very slow in blogging it.

We booked a room for two nights in Whistler that slept 5 people. Accommodation prices are steep at Whistler that time of year, but I managed to find a pretty good deal. Me and Steph caught the bus there on the Friday evening with our friend Jon, whereas our other friends Lauren and Woody drove down in their car (because they were only staying one day). The room itself was surprisingly nice, and had a lovely (fake) log fire for the evenings.

We really lucked out with the weather on Saturday. The sun shone bright and it felt like summer. The other guys went off skiing and boarding, and I decided to do some snowshoeing so I walked to the nearby Lost Lake Park. The snowshoeing trails were melting fast, so the rental guy suggested I use the cross-country ski trails. After 5 minutes walking though, I realized it was going to be very dull so I went back and swapped my snowshoes for ski poles and decided to hike the snowshoe trails instead. That was a much better idea. The trails were varied and challenging, and there were lots of great views on the way. I really, really enjoyed the day. The other guys were having a lot of fun too, with excellent snow conditions. We all met up at the end of the day for food and then Lauren and Woody left.

On the Sunday, it greyed over and started snowing. Apparently the snow conditions were still good, perhaps even better thanks to the fresh snow. I did a guided snowshoe tour that day. I deliberately went with a different company to Cougar Mountain tours which I walked with last year, but as luck would have it Outdoor Adventures just merged with Cougar Mountain, and I ended up walking largely the same area as before! It was still good fun though, and the area is pretty beautiful so I wasn't too disappointed.

We met up at about 4pm that day and caught the bus back to Vancouver. It was our last ski trip for this season, and it certainly was a great way to end. I took some photos (mostly of my hike on Saturday) which you can find on our Flickr site here.

Mini Film Review: Sharkwater

At first, I thought this film was another "Jaws" clone, and I wasn't interested. Then I saw the trailer, and the film looked more like a nature documentary combined with a bit of an adventure tale which appealed to me so I went to see it with Steph and some of our friends.

About 40% of the film was nature documentary, and there was a lot of gorgeous film. The guy who made the film is an underwater cameraman and he has shot lots of footage of sharks in the wild, including schooling of hammerhead sharks which has rarely been seen before. It was stunning. The guy obviously loved sharks and tried his best to persuade the audience to like them too. One of the most interesting things I learned was that sharks can sense electromagnetic fields (which I knew) but to such an extent that they can sense whether a person is excited or anxious. Apparently, most of the sharks he filmed were so shy that they wouldn't come near him unless he kept super-calm and lowered his heart rate to 30 or 40 beats per minute. That's pretty cool.

The other 60% of the film was a documentary explaining about how we humans are rapidly wiping sharks of the face of the Earth :( We have reduced global shark populations to 10% of what they were 30 or 40 years ago, and will probably drive them to extinction in the near future. And we are doing all this for the stupidest of reasons - for their fins. Shark fins are eaten in a soup and are considered a fine delicacy, even though they are tasteless and only add texture. They are also made into medicines because people think that sharks never get sick and in particular don't get cancer. There is no medical evidence to support any benefits to consuming shark fins, and in actual fact they do get cancer and the numbers are on the rise thanks to pollution of the oceans. The sharks are caught on long lines (which also catch and kill lots of other animals such as endangered species of turtle), have their fins hacked off whilst they are still alive, and then they are thrown back into the sea to bleed to death and drown. Sickening.

Anyway this is supposed to be a mini review. Overall this film was great but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it because frankly it was pretty harrowing in places. I strongly urge you to go see it though - maybe thanks to this film and the people who made it, sharks might still have a chance.