Because Eventually I Have To Die, Maybe
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Sea Plane Adventures
Jul 2nd
The entire trip to Vancouver and Victoria was just an elaborate birthday present from my dear Adam, but he really outdid himself when he told me that he had booked us a sea plane back to Vancouver. All based on the simple child like comment I made while pointing at the sky: “I wanna fly in one of those”. I doubt that if we hadn’t gotten into a big fight I would have ended up in one, so sometimes anger and storming 45 minutes back to the hotel has positive points. In all, it was a perfect I’m sorry present from a man incapable of apologizing for anything. A thirty minute scenic flight taking off from the water and landing right back in it, excellent!
We had spent the day in Victoria, and had been somewhat anxious all along. Spending the day within viewing distance of the harbour where the crafts were landing and taking off on about one minute intervals did nothing to ease any nerves about the procedure. We were excited though, incredibly excited. Adam had booked the ride with Harbour Air, which is one of a few companies providing air tours in the area. We chose the Victoria- Vancouver leg, but they have a variety of short trips and scenic tours available.
After we had finished sight seeing, we wandered over to their easy-to-find location next to the water on Wharf Street. We had been there already that day seeing if we could drop off our bags. Points to them for being so nice as to ship our bags ahead of us so we wouldn’t have to lug them around all day with us. I was quite nervous as we headed there, as I am not too keen on flying, but I was mostly excited. How could I not be! It’s a water plane (though I think sea plane is the proper term). We did have a bit of a wait, and the process was a bit confusing to me as a newbie to the procedures (keep in mind most things confuse me). After a bit of a wait, we were boarded onto our tiny plane. It is truly cramped in there, but our plane wasn’t even half full so we had a little breathing room. Our pilot (I believe Chris was his name) was very nice and friendly, giving us information about the trip and related matters. We sat in the water, taxi-ing for quite a bit, waiting for other planes to take off and land, but we eventually were kicked into high gear and were soon gliding in the air instead of the water. Just a tad freaky! The views were amazing from the get go, and we were provided of a gorgeous glimpse of the entire city as we circled around. The ride itself was a bit turbulent but not as scary as I imagined. Though I believe that this particular route is mainly for commuters, it provided a very tourist-friendly trip with sights you couldn’t get from a commercial airline.
Landing was smooth, but disappointing to say the least, as I could have spent several hours up in the skies watching families of otters fishing and making myself jealous over the houses spotting the numerous islands. Realizing they cater to people using the Vancouver airport, Harbour air provides a shuttle to the main airport from their location, which is incredibly convenient.
Though it may be a tad expensive (we paid about $80CAN per person) it was well worth the price. I would recommend this company for tours, commutes, and anyone wanting a bird’s eye glimpse of the Vancouver Island area.
Trip Part Deux – Victoria in One Day
Jun 28th
So this is the second part of my little series on my quick trip to the West Coast, carried over from my previous post about the Vancouver leg.
We had an incredibly early wake up call (for me) at 5:30 am in order to make the first ferry out at 7:00 am. It involved a pricey and somewhat scary cab ride, but we did end up making it with a little bit of time to spare. I was very excited to take the ferry, as I enjoy boats and water very much. It’s an hour and a half to get across to Victoria, so I had plenty of time to enjoy the experience. The car portion of the ferry was packed, seeing as how the next ferry that departed at 9:00am was alright 80% full. Walk on traffic was not that bad, though the waiting area was a bit crowded prior to boarding. The ferry is completely done up, with restaurants and internet connections and games rooms. I spent most of the time outside taking pictures though, seeing as how the line for breakfast was incredibly long and neither of us had cash. Luckily we’d brought power bars and water, and I do suggest bringing some food with you when you take the ferry in the morning.
The view from the ferry is just breath-taking and envy inspiring, as you drift by all the houses sitting on the edge of tiny remote islands. I would adore to have a house in the middle of the ocean waters, with only a few select neighbours. Gorgeous and something I hope I have the ability to do in the future. It takes about an hour and a half to get across the channel Victoria, so we were there by about 8:30. The ferry terminals are quite out of the way, but Victoria (unlike Vancouver) provides wonderful city transit service that is direct to the downtown core. It must have been my lucky day because sitting in the bus terminal waiting to take us to Victoria was a double decker bus, which just happens to be on my life list. The fare was only $2.25 too, so it turned out to be an excessively cheap double decker ride. We of course sat on the top level.
It took about an hour to get into the main city of Victoria from the ferry terminal, but we were provided with a fairly scenic tour. We were dropped off about two blocks away from the main harbour or Wharf Street. I have to say this before I go any further: I LOVE VICTORIA. I was blown away by the atmosphere, the water, the buildings. Astounded! There was just so much to do, and we did make a full attempt to as much as we could. I think we did more in Victoria in less than a day than we did in a full three days in Vancouver.
We started the day off by visiting the Parliament Buildings, which is too touristy for words, but how can you resist when it’s one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, rivaled only by the Empress Hotel, really. You can also have a self guided tour or a full tour complete with stylish tour guide and characters along the way for free, and I’m not sure what I enjoy more than free things. I love free things when traveling, and I typically find them a lot more worthwhile than shelling out big bucks for tourist traps that don’t reflect any semblance of genuine culture or atmosphere. We spent about 30 minutes in the Parliament Buildings, mostly waiting for groups of small children on field trips to get out of the way. This did provide us with something of a tour guide without having to wait around for one at all times. The building is beautiful and full of history, and given that it is free and a fairly quick stop, it’s a must on any trip to Victoria. 
After a quick pit stop for lunch and liquids, we headed over the the Royal BC Museum. I don’t normally vote for museums while traveling unless their a niche museum, but this one was huge and looked like it would be worth the money and hour or so. I did feel bad we didn’t have more time to invest into the museum, as Adam 
truly enjoys reading every single sign and type plate in museums (making him a grossly unsuitable museum partner for me, unlike my mom who can do a museum in 14 minutes and then proceed to fucking around with me [evidence here.]) The museum wasn’t very pricey either, at 14 dollars for an adult (given that you could spend four hours in there easily, I figure this is fair if you compare it to an average movie ticket price). Adam and I also have the ability to use student ID cards, though to be honest hardly anywhere actually checks them so I might reccomend just claiming student status and seeing if you can get discounts anyways. During the summer of 2008 it has a wonderful display focusing on the Free Spirit of BC, which I reccomend highly. Though it will cost you some money, I don’t think any trip to Victoria can bypass the Museum!
Since we’d already gotten our tourist feet incredibly wet, we figured we’d give in and shell out some bigger bills for a boat tour of the harbour. While it wasn’t cheap by any means, it was fun and gave us a nice perspective on the city from the point of the harbour. It was given in a little tug boat that could hold probably 10 people at the very most, making it adorable to boot.
The last thing we did on our trip to Victoria was just so full out tourist it kind of hurt a little, but since it was on my list, I couldn’t quite resist the temptation. The Royal London Wax Museum is right along side the harbour (like everything else we did that day) 
and is actually very big and well done. Not cheap, but worth the money, especially when you factor in the “Chamber of Horrors” in the basement of the place that is gory and disgusting. Also, they have a full wax set up of the last supper, which (ignore if you’re really religious) gave me and Adam amusement and then some. Is it worth going to? Well, to be honest probably not, even if you are dying to go to a wax museum. Unlike houses of wax in Europe and some North American cities, all the wax figures in the Royal London are glassed in. This means that you can’t get “Look I met Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp!” pictures, and any pictures you take of the installations feature a nice glare of light off of the glass. Though it was fun and gave us a few giggles and “wow” moments, you may want to go to one that provides more interaction and gives better photo ops.
There was so much more to do in Victoria that we just couldn’t fit into our 7 hours on the island. They have an Undersea Garden which I hear good things about (though it’s expensive and you may just want to go to the Aquarium in Stanely Park, Vancouver). The culture there is also incredibly, just walking around the main harbour and up and down Wharf Street will provide sights and sounds to entertain you for hours (and for free in most cases).
So far on this portion of the trip I crossed off
#221. Ride on a double decker bus
#445. Go to a wax museum
Here are some random pictures!
In the BC Royal Museum, he was just too happy to ignore.
Not sure how this picture came to be, but here it is
This above photo was Adam’s favourite and I found it quite amusing too.
Adam on the Harbour boat
Statue outside of the (useless) tourist information centre.
More Excitement Coming Out of the East
Jun 15th
Well, it seems I have to book my third flight of the year out East. Crazy! Adam and I are going out to Toronto to see Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick! I love Journey, as can be seen here. I also really like Heart and Cheap Trick. I’m SO excited for this concert, and it means another trip out East this year, in September this time. I don’t mind, I love the East, as it has this wonderful thing called water. I’m also happy that Adam will be accompanying me
on this trip, I get to show him that the GTA doesn’t suck like he seems to think, and I can take him to Niagara Falls!!
I’m enjoying my trip to Vancouver so far. Tomorrow we’re taking the ferry over to Victoria and spending the day there. The best part is that we’re taking a water plane back to Vancouver to catch our flight back to Calgary! I just added this to my list, I know, but Adam booked the water plane as a surprise based on me saying “Oh! I’ve always wanted to fly in one of those!!” when I saw one flying over. So that’s one more thing off my list, two total for this four day trip. Very exciting!
It’s also my birthday tomorrow! 22 years old.
Crossed Off – #518
Jun 13th
Yesterday I ate a cheeseburger. It tasted seww good.
That’s what Adam told me to write, so I did. That actually has nothing to do with anything and is neither here nor there. What this post is actually concerning is that I have accomplished one more thing on my ever growing list. Yesterday en route to Vancouver I sat in a window seat while we passed over the Rocky Mountains.
#518 Fly over the Rocky Mountains sitting in the window seat
Here’s a random picture from my flight over the mountains.
I’m Here To Help
Jun 7th
I’m always encouraging people to create life lists and accomplish whatever goals they have in life, since I don’t think your life is something to waste.
As it turns out, I helped my mom accomplish what she *says* is her entire life list, which was to be on my other, smaller blog Things We Said. While I don’t necessarily believe that was her only goal in life (thought it actually wouldn’t be *that* hard to believe, if you’ve met my mother), I was happy to help regardless.
Check out the post!
I’m pretty sure “take a kick ass myspace picture” was also on my mom’s list
Bike and Buttons – #256 Crossed off!
Jun 4th
So I crossed another thing off of my list, without even thinking about it! Yay for unintentional list accomplishments!
For my 22nd birthday present my mom (parents, I guess if you want to be literal), bought me a brand new spankin’ bicycle. I’ve been wanting a bike since last summer but circumstances did not allow for such extravagances! Ah well, I got one now. It was a bit of a hassle, the one I got yesterday turned out to be a piece of poo and I had to go and exchange it today. My 18 gear bike only had 2 functioning gears. The exchange was easy enough though and I have managed to cross my 16th thing off of my list! Kick ass!
#256 Buy a bicycle
I’m not very good at riding bicycles anymore, it seems, I’m a bit wobbly. I’ll get better I am sure, as I get back into biking mode. Nice thing is I should be able to bike to work if I ever switch jobs to the mall I am supposed to be at.
In other news, Adam’s super secret present finally came! I bought these about two weeks ago and have been dying to give them to him ever since. It’s fairly random, but it fits well with our sense of humour. He seemed to enjoy them.
A Much Belated Homage to Banff
Jun 2nd
Alright, this is just ridiculously overdue. Two weeks and then some! My own laziness is what is to blame! I should have blogged about this so long ago, I’m just sad that it took me so long. There’s really no excuse, I haven’t been up to much lately, just sitting around not doing much of anything. Reading a lot to make up for the sad lack of reading that took place in April.
Anyways. The trip was excellent. I went with J, my friend who lives in Guelph whom I visited not too long ago. He was supposed to be coming in for work, but his work moved his schedule around a little, but he decided to come out anyways, and since he missed the mountains invited me to tag along. He was lucky enough to score a hotel in Banff (on a long weekend no less), so our trip to Banff (only a few hours outside of Calgary) wouldn’t have to be excessively short.
The drive still took a while and there was a considerable lineup to get into the National Park (plus a hefty fee, of course). But we were full of Annie’s breakfast and had some snacks we picked up from Superstore (a plug just for you J!). Our first stop along the way was some dinky lake just outside of the Park gates. I’m not sure what it is called, put there’s always lots of cars there, we we decided to pull over as well and take a gander. I love how it’s this gorgeous lake against the mountains, and that’s where they decided to stick a huge ugly factory. Wonderful! We took some pictures, realized the lake was fairly lame and it was all foreigners there who had no idea that the lake certainly was not representative of the actual splendor of the Rocky Mountains! 
After the dinky lake, we decided we’d haul ass up to Lake Louise. I truly, honestly, and
fully did not expect the lake to still be frozen. That was stupid, because why wouldn’t a mountain lake still be frozen in early May? It was sort of disappointing, really, it lacked all of it’s character colour and was just a cold white icy blob up against some mountains. We only were there for a bit, which was sad because of the amount of time it took to drive there and back, but the glare from all of the white iciness and all of the tourists were just a bit much to handle. Plus, all there is to do there is look at the lake and walk around, but you can’t do either of those when everything is still under snow and ice. Ah well.
We eventually made it back to Banff, where our hotel was. Though J had given me an ominous warning that we were to be staying at the Banff Voyager Inn that put me off a bit, I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel. It was basic, but it had something I have never experienced before: a balcony! Not only did it provide a nice cool place to sit (and drink hehe), it also allowed for some nice mountain views in the evening and the morning. There was lots of traffic going into the hotels around us, lots of tour groups unloaded and reloading at almost all hours of the day and night. Luckily I brought my ear plugs with me to drown out the noise of the tour groups and drunks during the night! That evening we had some dinner at Earl’s and did a bit of shopping in the downtown strip, but decided to retire to the room for a few drinks and 80s tunes.
The next morning we got up fairly late and checked out of the room with only a few minutes to spare. We stopped by some restaurant J wanted for breakfast, but the line was ridiculous and I wasn’t feeling up to eating much anyways. We ended up back in the downtown area at Tony Roma’s, where I had never been before. I only had the potato skins, but they were damn good! I was feeling a bit off that morning, but things started to look up when we saw a horse drawn carriage “for hire”. We went for it, how could we not? It was a slow tour of Banff, the downtown area, along the river, and back through some houses. Over all it was so amazing, I’ve never traveled that way before, even for a short stint. It was so much fun!
We did a bit more shopping and touring, of course getting some fudge, which is something you must do while you are in Banff.
We left Banff and the National Park soon after, taking a quick detour to Bragg Creek, which like everything else was full of tourists and sort of boring. We headed back to Calgary, finishing our trip with some dinner. Overall it was a blast and I have to thank the J and Cal team for another awesome time! I crossed a few things off of my summer mini-list, too. As always, check out my photobucket account for all my pictures from the trip.