Dos Harbores

TOP: Radiance of the Seas dockside

2nd: Dumb and Dumber after their 2 mile run to make the ship

BOTTOM: Ok, so maybe am SUV would have been a good idea.

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Big day today; we board the ship and set sail for Alaska..YEAH!!!!!!!!!

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We started the day with a quick bfast, and then figured we'd get in about a half day of touristing before heading out. We drove around Vancouver proper for a while, through Stanley Park, the eclectic villages, and such, and bid to say goodbye. It's been a very nice trip, and I will undoubtably go back to vancouver again for something...likely a kayak or bike trip.

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We loaded up the car to head to the harbor, and realized just how much LUGGAGE laraine brought. Fortunately, she folds up small in the back seat, as evidenced above. The hotel people were in tears watching us load everything up into the compact car.

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Now the real story begins....we drove down to the harbor, and dropped the girls and all the luggage off at the dock, adjacent to the ship. Then, tom and I drove over to the car rental return, dropped the car, and started our mile or so trek back to the harbor. When we got there, the ship was not boarding yet, so we just hung out. At one point, I noticed that it was a holland ship, and I asked kathy "hey, I thought you said we were on royal carribbean". Wow boy, that set a bunch of things in motion....we were at THE WRONG DOCK!!!! Seems that although this was the main cruise ship terminal, our ship was too big to fit there, so they docked it at the freight terminal miles away. Holy Harborfreight Batman!!! We commandered the only cab nearby, stuffed the girls and the luggage into it, and sent them on their way, while Tom and I started the "arthritic old men" jog to the terminal. Since the cabbie told us it was not even a mile, we figured we'd make it with plenty of time to spare...that is until we finally got there an hour later, drenched and tired, as the harboer was over 3 MILES AWAY.

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We got on the ship, tracked down the kozlowski's and the heidick's, and immediately headed towards the bar. We order up a round of drinks, bring them back to the table, where koz asks "which one is the blue hawaian?"....an interesting question, given that there was 4 beers, 2 scotch, 3 wines, and one cocktail...which was, surprisingly enough, blue.

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But hey, we're on the ship, we have booze, and we're off to Alaska!

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"Bon Voyage" Lumpy out

Richmond, China

TOP: Laraine in high-speed pose

2nd: A beginner skater. Luckily for him, Laraine was able to get out there and correct his form before the Olympic Trials began

BOTTOM: Laraine and Kathy relaxing after a hard day on the ice.

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We returned from Whistler last night, got a good night's sleep, and went for a long walkabout in Richmond today, a suburb of Vancouver. Richmond is famous for its ChinaTown, and they didn't underestimate it. Very densely packed, there were a ton of shops. One of our favorites only had dress for a size 0 AND UNDER!!! Of course, Tom was the only one that fit into those, wimpy little person that he is.

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We went over to the Olympic Oval, where speed skating will be contested in January, and it was a very cool place. Literally. They had a bunch of Olympic contenders training there, and it was incredible to see just how fast they were able to go...I'd estimate at least 30-40mph. The building had been designed to become a community resource after the games, with babysitting services, weight rooms, etc. Very, very nicely done.

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We tooled around the area for most of the day, went down to one of the little seaport villages for dinner, and called it a night. Tomorrow, we set sail (well, motor anyways) for Alaska!

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"General Tsang" Lumpy out

Whistleri (ing a Tune)

TOP: Finishing curve on the bobsled/luge/skeleton run. Riders will be going around 90mph at this point, and totally horizontal

2nd: Laraine, always the watersports person, getting into the Pacific Ocean...well, OK, it WAS a major tributary to the Ocean

3rd: "Tyra" modeling at the finish line

BOTTOM: Zipline rider (find the horizontal cable, look to the left to find the actual rider) traversing a canyon

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We were pretty puckered out after the day in victoria, the gardens, and the ferry rides, so decided to make it a lazier day today by driving up to Whistler, the home of the 2010 winter olympics. Laraine is an olympic junkie, taping something like 200 hours last summer, and she was really psyched to try out some of the venues. Luge is her forte actually, what she competed in back in college...you know, in those rare days when she wasn't driniking.

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Along the way we stopped at Squamish, where the last vestiges of the Pacific Ocean reach far, far inland through an incredibly deep fjord. It was all we could do to stop laraine from diving into the ocean. We had to practically tie her to the car. She was screaming "let me be free"! We finally settled her down with some sushi and a cafe'and moved on "up the hill" to Whistler.

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Whistlers was also quite beautiful, nestled in the mountains. There was a mountain biking race on the calendar the day we visited, so we watched a bit of that (the hill climbs were incredible, they biked up hills that I don't think I could walk up!), and walked around the various ski towns for a while. We came upon the sliding centre, where they host the luge, skeleton, and bobsled, and a bunch of workers were busy trying to wrap up the wiring, lighting, and TV so that they could freeze it up and start testing the track under race conditions. One of the workers kindly gave us a guided tour, and told us how they put the workers on roller-sleds to test out the track after it was first constructed. Oh, yeah, that's what I want to do...be first down an untested track on a bobsled at 90mph.

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Fortunately, the town had lots of coffee for me, tom, and kathy, and a nearly endless supply of vodka for laraine. We'll be waiting with baited breath to see the Winter Olympics in January, so we can yell out "We were there!".

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"Can you ride skeleton if you're Lumpy?" Lumpy out

Gardens addendum

TOP: Something fishy going on there...

2nd: Hanging baskets the size of small countries

3rd: The continuously morphing fountain

BOTTOM: In a site that brought back memories of home, statue of mercury alongside a massive hedgerow

Laraine Drinking again...

Man, what a lush...Unfortunately, the ferry had a bar...

Butchart Gardens

In the afternoon we went over to Butchart Gardens, just expecting some nice shrubbery. Well, were we ever surprised! The gardens were incredible, they had stage show scattered about, waterfalls and fountains, trellis and arbors, it was quite the site. The pics just don't do it justice.

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"Flower Power" Lumpy out

Victoria addendum

TOP: The Swan hotel, home of the best breakfast in Victoria

2nd: If you see this man...

3rd: Crew studying the tourguide on the ferry over

Bottom: Kathy getting "Mount-eed"