AC/BC Blog

Sophie and I decided that friends awaiting us in BC was good enough reason to forego the extended Waikiki stopover this time. Truth is, after seeing Waikiki 5 times in the last 9 months, the novelty has worn off and the place ends up feeling more like a Disney theme park than a place to relax. In the future we've vowed to get off of Oahu, or at least away from Waikiki and the fat American tourists yapping on their cell phones.

We were anxious to crash out at the hotel following the marathon Sydney flight into Honolulu. Our cabbie must have sensed this, and subsequently got nailed by the state police as he sped us along the highway into Waikiki. Interestingly, his near fluent English suddenly dissapeared as the officer asked him for his license and registration. He continued to play dumb for most of the next 5 minutes, until the officer finally asked us how we were doing. "Ahhh..alright, I guess. Been a long day." The officer looks back at the cab driver and tears up the ticket, saying "I'm going to let you off with a warning...but only because you stopped your meter for your customers while I had you pulled over." Sounds good to me.

There was some added excitement upon leaving the island. Oahu had been experiencing very heavy rains for the 4 weeks prior to our visit ( 3 people died during a flash flood caused by a dam break on Kauai two days earlier). While we waited for our cab to the airport, a major lightning storm encroached in on the beach. Minutes later the skies opened up and must have dropped inches of rain within minutes. The overwhelmed sewer system started choking water high up onto the street, and parked cars became flooded up against the curbs. We were feeling lucky to hail a cab, and to make our escape onto the freeway back to the airport. Moments later, a huge bolt of lightning took out a power grid, leaving our freeway and half a mountain suburb in complete darkness.

Arrived in Vancouver early am, with no sleep and feeling seriously jet lagged. After what felt like hours waiting for the shuttle to the off-site car rental, we finally picked up our car, I learned to drive on the right side again, and we hauled off to Crescent Beach. Sophie's good friend Meghan put us up for 3 nights in her ultra cool detached apartment (used to be a garage). The quiet little beach side community allowed us to easily catch up on some much needed sleep.

In the evening we checked out Marine drive in White Rock, going for supper at a hip seafood restaurant called the Boathouse. Afterwards, we just had to stroll up Elm street to see if Sophie could find the old house she used to live in back in the late 70's.

The photo above is shortly after Sophie saved a crab from a rather futile situation. We saw this poor thing on it's back, trying to fight off a seagull with it's claws, meanwhile getting fully snacked on. The gull backed off as we approached, letting us flip the damaged crab onto his front and watching it hobble back to the ocean. Soph figures the legs will grow back.

Saturday morning we gave Meghan a lift to her job downtown, and then drove over to Main Street to hook up with Heather. Had some fantastic bagels and beet borscht at a trendy little Jewish bakery up the street. It felt so good to have the sun out as we ate at a table in front of the bakery, that we decided we couldn't forfeit the afternoon by being indoors. Headed over to Kitsilano beach for a long walk along the shoreline towards Spanish point. Kits beach provides a good vantage point of North Vancouver, and you can also get a good feel for just how rampant the condo construction has become on the downtown island.

When in Vancouver, you've got to take advantage of the cheap sushi, so we made our way up to Robson Street and had Meghan meet us after work. Downtown can be an excellent experience if you can ditch the car without too much hassle. I'm still used to the Winnipeg mentality, where you can drive around and eventually find a meter to park at. Not here...the best bet is to simply accept the cost of parking at the parkade into any venture downtown, and don't even bother navigating the one-ways.

Sunday had us exploring downtown again, although on a very wet day. We stayed mostly dry though by checking out the shops of Yaletown, and slowly making our way up Davie street, and into English bay. It was only a matter of time before soaked socks won over, and we found ourselves escaping the rain by checking out "V for Vendetta" at the megaplex.

The sun made it's way out again for Monday morning as we said goodbye to Meghan on Granville Island, and headed over to Joe and Esther's place on East 1st. Meghan's forgotten cell phone in the car gave us an excuse to head back over to Granville island and actually check the place out in the afternoon. Unique little urban community underneath the bridge, with a bustling market, a full-on micro brewery, the Emily Carr Institute, and some out-of-place industrial shop. Excluding the service vehicles, I could see Granville island going car-less in the near future and not missing a beat.

In the evening, Joe and Esther took us over to bustling Commercial drive, and we found ourselves in Yogi's Vegetarian Indian cuisine. The food had a flavor that told you it was super fresh, and that alot of work was put into the preparation. We full-on gourged ourselves, and ended up needing at least an hour of strolling the neighbourhood streets to kick start digestion. The problem with Indian food is that it's often based on a rice dish, which makes it deceiving for how ridiculously full you can get. This is because you can wolf it down so fast, that you almost forget to breathe. The photo above is taken up the street from Commercial drive, looking down at the downtown core. I like the depth that the cars on the sloping street give against the distant city lights. We broke into the 12 pack "Mingler" that I picked up from the Granville brewery that afternoon, which likely didn't help my explanation to Esther of why I do exactly what I do in my job.

Monster Post

Some highlights from the last month or so. It's been forever since I sat down to post anything, and according to the blog, we haven't left Perth yet, nevermind the big stopover in BC.

Photo on the left is taken at Point Walter park along the Swan River. This sand bar extends for almost a km into a wide bend in the river, where the surrounding water averages only around 4 metres in depth. The luke warm water fosters rich marine life, with dolphins and jellyfish frequenting the area. I must have been in a very peaceful state when we visited this place, cause I seem to remember this day the most out of our 5 weeks in Perth. It was bloody hot that day, but walking through the shallow water cooled us off, and as you neared the limit of the white sand, the sounds of the city drifted away.

I took Sophie up to the John Forrest National Park in the Perth hills to show her a hike I did when I was here in November. The trail follows a red sand path which is basically an old ripped up rail bed, and climbs well above a canyon filled with Eucalyptus and grass trees. In the photo you can see two big schteeve's growing out of some grass trees on the left. The hot breeze coming through the trees gave the area an intriguing exotic plant smell I only seem to notice in Canada after a huge midsummer deluge.

The long dry summer in Perth allows for a whole bunch of outdoor cinema's to open up in the parks. We checked out a film festival that was playing on the lush grounds of the University of Western Australia. Prior to the show, the public is invited to pack a picnic, and sip wine beneath the towering pines. The setting is rather surreal, and I was telling Sophie it reminded me of that village that the Ewoks hang out in. Maybe it was the fresh air, but I found the movie far more enjoyable than most of the experiences I've had in those big-box megaplex's. The film kicked ass too though - "Shadows of Time", an Indian film by writer/director Florian Gallenberger.












Some students from the U of WA Fine Arts program were having an exhibit down on Cottlesloe Beach one weekend. Many of the displays involved complicated metalwork on a grand scale.

This is the view of Cottlesloe beach from the pier at sunset. We never actually got a chance to visit the Indiana Tea House in the background of this photo, but it's highly recommended by the locals. The pier provides a much needed breakwater for the kids so that the dumping surf doesn't wail on them.

I heard a story in January from a fellow Canadian who had last been in Perth/Fremantle at least 40 years ago. He described how Fremantle was solely a port city in those days, and how stepping off the ship and onto the main drag felt like you had entered the set of an old western movie. The streets were gravel, the heat was ever-present, and the pubs had those old style swing doors on the front. You had to hop on an open air tram to connect to Perth through desolate bushland. Fortunately, when the America's cup came to Fremantle in the 90's, the influx of new money saved many of the character buildings.

Good times at the local micro brewery called "Little Creatures". This building looked like an open style barn from the outside, with massive gates at the entrance, and vaulted ceilings inside. The fully operational brewery ran along the booths of the restaurant, so you could watch the masters at work. Pipes carried the final product overhead, and directly down into the bar draft spouts. The kitchen was an open concept as well, making the place feel more like a bustling market.

About an hour north of the city is Yanchep National Park. I was on call-out at this time, and the park was just within cell phone limits, so it seemed like a good place to explore. First thing you notice when you arrive, is the chaotic greeting the Carnaby's black cockatoo's give. They are an endagered species, and are rarely seen in the city. At one point in the afternoon, there must have been at least a thousand of these highly social animals screaming from the tree tops above us. Eventually we saw that way up in the sky, almost invisible to us, was a large bird of prey (osprey, hawk?) that the cockies weren't to keen on. Picture on the right is of us on a walking trail surrounding a small lake in the park.

The park has a number of limestone caves that are open to the public for guided exploration. We ventured down into "Crystal" Cave and immediately felt the temperature drop at least 25 degrees. Although interesting, the cave is actually a sad representation of what it was, with most of the natural water being lost to the demand of the Perth aquifer. Early explorers also saw the cave as something to conquer, putting in foot paths, having wide-scale tourism, and basically disrupting all parts of the natural ecosystem. The park staff have done a good job to minimize the human impact, but hands have stained much of the rock, and just a week prior to our visit, some drunken fool broke into the cave and went on a rampage by breaking million year old stalactites. Park staff have actually resorted to calling one cave "Cabaret cave", where you can have a wedding reception with up to 200 guests in the main chamber.

Getting in some mini-golf action at the Wanneroo Botanical Gardens. This is the first place I've ever seen billiard golf. An awkward adaption of mini-golf where you have to always bank the ball off the rail before it can go in. Imagine 18 holes of people clanking balls off the metal rails, especially little kids who hit the ball again before it stops rolling....yeah, not good. The other course was definitely legit though, and Soph and I had a good head to head game. (She fell apart though on the one where you have to loop it through an old tire)



Absolute bliss - sitting down to some olives, sundried tomatoes, blue and brie cheese's, and pita's with hummus. King's park is hard to beat at sunset. One of our resolutions from this last trip was to spend more time eating meals in the park with friends. It seems that most North American's have forgotten this old weekend activity.

View of Scarborough beach early in the morning as I left for work.

On the right is a large gum tree in the town of Guildford. When Perth was originally founded, it was comprised of 3 main towns. Fremantle was the port where all ships and new entrants would arrive, Perth was just up the Swan River and was to be the main city, whereas Guildford was about 15 km's further east in the fertile Swan Valley and was to be the agricultural base for Perth. Guildford is now just a sleepy suburb, and acts as the main hub for any adventure into the local surrounding wineries.

The Rose and Crown in Guildford is as good a place as any to while away the lazy afternoon with a pint of Victoria Bitter.



I was the skipper for our wine-tasting down at Lancaster wines, and left Sophie to sample the full stock. Regardless, I did my best with the whole swirling the glass, and then stuffing my nose in a glass of Verdelho ( a local grape). What I couldn't believe though, was the entire tourbus of 20-35 year old women, who guzzeled wine the entire time we were there, were waited on hand and foot, and then left without purchasing a single bottle.
Not much to say here. Life was definitely surreal when my schedule got back to normal. Due to the jet lag, I was usually starting my day at 5:30 am, which allowed me to catch the beach by 3:00 in the afternoon on most days.


Hopped on the red-eye flight to Sydney so that we could spend a full day there. We got off the subway at the central station and headed over to the main alley in Hyde Park. The huge fig tree's arch over the pedestrain path and your eye's are drawn to the massive Archibald memorial fountain. and then made our way to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

we went to the garden. it was neat. there were creatures there. we did stuff. then we walked some more. we saw things. there was some stuff by the thing. - sophie

This lizard and his two smaller buddies surprised us when we were looking at one of the lily ponds. Deeper into the park, we were fortunate enough to find some sulphur-crested cockatoo's in the Oriental garden - they've eluded us on the west coast the whole time. Sophie came across some bats in a nearby tree letting out the most awful screeching sound. Another section of the park reproduced a Northern tropical rainforest, filled with some mammoth spiders and webs. This park is a true gem, full of an amazing diversity of plants and animals, and all within a block or two of downtown. What a place to chill out on your lunch break - and it's free.

Sophie taking a break on the steps to the Sydney Opera House. Photo on the right is the view from the Opera house steps looking back towards Sydney Cove and the Circular Quay.



Whenever we hit Sydney, it's always a long day on the feet and we generally end up putting on at least 10 kms just walking the downtown core. For a late supper, we found some good outdoor patios in Cockle Bay and Darling Harbour. It's a little more relaxed than the more well-known Sydney Harbour, but has a skyline that is second to none.