Susannah and I have just returned from our Big Canadian Adventureâ„¢, and while it was a great trip we are very happy to be back. The time spent in the frozen tundra to the north was nice, but we missed our little man here.
We flew up to Vancouver last week, where we were greeted with temperatures in the mid 20′s. (“Mid-20′s” is a Canadian term meaning “Mid-70′s”.) We checked into our midtown hotel and walked around to find a place for dinner. We were surpirsed at how hungry we were, given that it was only sundown. What we failed to realize is that “Sundown” is a Canadian term meaning “10:30 pm”. Summer days are long in the vast frozen wasteland.
One night we had dinner with Nuno and his wife Kori, some iStock friends of mine. These are folks I met last January when we had the iStock get together in Vancouver. As Nuno and I shared photography and iStockery stories, Kori and Susannah commiserated about being “iStock widows”. A good time was had by all.
We museumed, hiked and geocahced for a few days in Vancouver (check out the photos from the Granville Island Model and Toy Train Museum!) and surrounding areas, then headed out to Whistler (Canadian for “Vail”). Along the 100km (856 mile) drive, we stopped for pictures a number of times. One place we passed, Shannon Falls, was absolutely breathtaking. Photos available in the “Miscellaneous” folder on the Photo Site (Canadian for “The folders you never look in because they don’t have pictures of Jonah”).
Speaking of Jonah, we were pathetic. Seriously, at first we missed him and just imitated him all the time. We’d point to a ball and say “Baaa!”, or point to a truck and say “Tuh!”, or point to a poster of Superman and say “Dada!”. By the end of the trip, though, we were speaking in sentences composed solely of Jonah-speak, and pooping our diapers. We called Jim and Jean to ask about the baby-monster, and they let us know he was fine, so we were relieved.
In Whistler we hiked some more, found some more geocaches, and canoed down the 5 km (.028 yds) River of Golden Dreams. That last bit was a lot of fun. As it turns out, there are some very interesting and pointy trees on both banks of the River of Golden Dreams. By the end of the river, we were actually pretty good at steering. In the beginning, not so much.
It was in Whistler that we also learned that Jonah had a little sinus infection. That made us miss him even more. Jim and Jean did a great job caring for the little guy, but we were getting really pathetic. We’d turn to each other and say “mama”, the way Jonah does. Really kinda sickening, looking back.
Back in Vancouver on Friday, we hiked the 2.9 km (3.8 hogshead/litre) Grouse Mountain. They call it the “Grouse Grind“. It’s pretty ridiculous: It’s basically 1.8 miles of stairmaster. It’s not for the “faint of heart” (Canadian: “Sane”). I probably should have taken some pictures at the top, but I couldn’t focus, see straight, or even accurately point my camera toward Vancouver.
All in all, it was a great time, but we missed Jonah a whole lot. We’ve decided that he’ll join us on our next big vacation, whenever that might be.