AUSTRALIA BOUND

After a lot of anticipation, waiting and mucking around the day finally arrived when we were to leave for Australia.


A problem that confronted us was how to get to Vancouver airport. The car was too small to fit us all in, to catch a flight to Vancouver we would have to travel to Kelowna which is 100k’s away and the car issue would present itself again. We tried to hire a car but all the local car companies wouldn’t do one-way hires. We looked at the Greyhound bus and that was somewhat viable, though the usual 4 hour plus trip would turn into 7 plus hours and a lot of bus changing.
A conundrum indeed!

In the end a friend of ours Ramona came through and offered to drive us to the airport.
It was a flurry of activity in the last hours as we did the final packing and made sure that the house was in order. So at around midday we all piled into Ramona’s van and headed off to Vancouver airport.

Now one thing we hadn’t added to our calculations was that Monday, 02 August was the British Columbia Day public holiday. The traffic to the town of Merritt was heavier than usual and we pulled off there to get gas. Big mistake! The town was gridlocked with vehicles; the lineup to get gas was 10 or more cars long in every station. The fast food joints were packed. So a stop that should have been a short one quickly turned into a long one.
Once on the road again we noticed more and more traffic and we halted to a crawl when we were more than 150k’s from Vancouver alarm bells started to toll. That first bumper to bumper stall was the result of an accident but the closer we got the more frequent the stops began. Mild panic started to set in.
Tammie started to work the phone to find a solution and she did. She arranged for a local cab company to meet us at a designated point just off the highway. The cab had the local knowledge to get us all to the airport much quicker than Ramona could use what little local knowledge we all had.
The cab was waiting as we pulled up and we quickly transferred all of our bags and set off. True to the cabbies word he had us at the airport in 40 minutes which was 70 minutes before our flight. We all piled out of the cab and made our way to check-in. It was there that Cameo realized that she had left her laptop in the cab. Damn!!
Tammie made a flurry of phone calls to try and track the cabbie down. Initially she had no luck.


Check-in went smoothly enough but security was a nightmare, it was the most stringent security check I have ever gone through anywhere in the world and it included a full body scan with one of the newly introduced body-scanning machines.

Finally we were all done and made our way through US Immigration, which I always find strange that you pass through US Immigration on Canadian soil and once through you are in the USA even though you are still in Vancouver Airport.
Whilst waiting to board our United flight to San Francisco Tammie received the news that the laptop had been located and would be held at the taxi company office. It was nice to receive some positive news for a change.
The flight to San Francisco was full and none of us sat together. We had a very short layover in San Francisco before boarding our 747 flight to Sydney at 2310. This flight was fully booked and we were lucky to get a row of four seats together. The first shock was that there were no individual entertainment systems in the seats, something that I haven’t experienced in any international airline for the past four years. Oh well we would have to put up with long-range viewing of whatever they served up.


The flight was okay and we were in darkness for the entire 14 hour duration We slept fitfully through the flight and arrived at Sydney blurry eyed at just after 6 am in the morning.


The adventure had begun!

LONG TRIPS

It is 4:45 on a Friday morning and I am sitting here questioning why I get up at 2:30 in the morning to watch a football game from the other side of the world. It appears to be an easy thing to do when your side wins, but when they lose you question your sanity.


Still, I had to be up early this morning to take my two sons to the airport for them to start their long journey back to Australia.


Their first leg will be a 75 minute drive to the regional airport at Kelowna for a 50 minute flight to Vancouver. They will have a four hour wait there until they catch a V Australia flight to Los Angles. There they have a seven hour layover and I suggested to them that they catch a cab to Venice Beach which is only seven miles from LAX.


Of course that is the easy part of the trip as they then face a 14 hour flight back to Brisbane, Australia. They leave just before midnight on Friday and don’t land in Brisbane until 7am on the Sunday morning. A long, long trip from Okanagan Falls!


It has been great having them both here in Canada with us and I hope that they have enjoyed their time here and that the visit has broadened their horizons and given them both the desire to travel more in the future.


We will soon be travelling in their footsteps as we take off for Australia this coming Monday. Our route will be a little different as we will get a ride to Vancouver airport and then take an early evening United Airlines flight to San Francisco. We will then have a short stopover there before boarding a United Airlines flight for Sydney.

We then have four days in Sydney and Melbourne followed by eight days in Brisbane. We then fly to Darwin for five days before we split. I will stay in Darwin whilst Tammie and the girls fly back to Brisbane before departing for Canada.


Exciting times ahead!

GABRIOLA ISLAND

The aim of our visit to Gabriola Island was to swim, go clam hunting and kayaking in the hope of seeing a killer whale or two, unfortunately plans don’t always work out the way they are supposed to.


The advertisement for the beach cabin we booked stated that the cabin was located on the beach. Well that wasn’t quite correct as we had a road separating us from the beach which was rocky rather than sandy.


Never mind, Tammie and I went for a swim in the late afternoon. The water was refreshingly cool. The cabin was basic but had all we needed to enjoy our stay. We had a quiet night at the cabin and made our plans for the next day.

During the night Mother Nature decided to intervene by sending a might north-westerly wind to whip up the waves and blow the tops off the trees. The sound of the wind awoke me at dawn and I walked or should I say was blown down to the beach to see long lines of whitecaps and waves pounding the shore. I knew that there would be no water activities that day.


So kayaking and the beach was out, perhaps we could still go clam hunting. No that was quickly ruled out when the landlord informed us that you needed a permit to hunt clams. Damn!


All that was left was to explore the island by Jeep. The drive around the island took around half an hour. There was minimal traffic on the road so it was a leisurely drive. We decided to check out the petroglyphs that Gabriola is famous for.


Petroglyphs are basically carvings that are carved into rock. It is believed that the petroglyphs on Gabriola were carved around the 15th century or earlier but this is open to conjecture.

Most of the petroglyphs were discovered in the 1970’s. Casts were taken of the originals and those casts are now displayed at the Gabriola Museum. The originals are kept hidden away for safe keeping. There are some originals that are available for viewing and they are located in a bushy area behind a church on the island. We were lucky enough to see both sets.

The images appear to be both mythical and factual. Whales, birds, people and fish share space with winged creatures and serpents. Experts believe that some of the petroglyphs were used in ceremonies whilst others were used to record day to day events.

We had an early start the next day to catch the early ferry back to Vancouver Island. As it usually turns out the wind had stopped blowing and the ocean was calm. We thought that we had left early enough to get a good place in the ferry line up and we were dismayed when we turned up to find a long line of cars already waiting.

We were more forlorn as the line started to move and we spied a sign posted to a pole stating that this point marked the last car to board the ferry. But the line kept moving and soon only a few cars from boarding the ferry. Surely we wouldn’t be the last car to be stopped. Our luck held and we made it aboard with two cars to spare. We were on our way back to Okanagan Falls, via Harrison Hot Springs.
We needed fuel when we landed in Vancouver Island so I pulled into a gas station. Whilst there two young girls approached the car and asked if we had a doobie to sell. Now I must admit to my ignorance and having no idea of what a doobie was but from the guffaws of my son’s in the back of the Jeep I quickly gathered that it was drug-related.

I said to the girls, somewhat harshly do I look like someone who would be selling a doobie? They just smiled at me sweetly, thanked me and walked away.
I wasn’t sure if I should have been angry or happy at their request. I chose to be perplexed.

 
 
 

FERRIES

Instead of driving all the way back to Tsawwassen which is just over the border in Canada we decided to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island from Anacortes which is halfway between Seattle and Vancouver.

The ferry left at 8:15am so we had to leave Seattle before six in the morning to ensure we were there in time to catch the ferry. Unfortunately for us it was a chilly foggy morning which wasn’t really conducive to travelling in an open top Jeep. We all froze on the trip especially the boys who were in the back and had little protection. The sun only poked its head through the fog as we reached the ferry terminal.

It was only a short line up and we didn’t have to wait long to board. The strange thing was that we boarded the ferry without clearing US Immigration and Customs. So they had a record of us entering the country but none of us leaving. I just hoped that this wouldn’t pose a problem the next time I entered the States.

The ferry was comfortable and sold a mean clam chowder which helped to warm us all up. The view was fabulous as the sun was now out in full force and the sea sparkled and the numerous islands that we passed shone.

The two hour trip to Sidney on Vancouver Island passed quickly and we were soon on our way off the ferry. We did pass through Canadian Immigration but it was just a cursory look at passports.

Our next goal was to find the ferry that would take us to Gabriola Island, our destination. Our GPS led us astray as we selected the quickest route which according to the GPS included another ferry crossing. It was a great idea in practice but not if the ferry isn’t due for another 45 minutes when you arrive. All we could do was back-track and rush for the terminal.

We just missed the ferry so we headed across the road from the ferry terminal to a small mall where we were able to watch the last 25 minutes of the world cup final. As we headed back to the Jeep I patted my pockets to find my wallet and soon came to the realization that I didn’t have it with me. I must have lost it when I made a purchase in a department store.

I rushed back to the store to find the cashier who served me missing. Then I spied her at the end of the store, hunched over writing. As I got closer I saw my wallet on the counter beside her. Relief! The cashier said that I must have dropped my wallet and a woman picked it up and handed it in. What a lucky fellow I am as the money was stuffed with not only Canadian dollars but Australian currency and Euro’s.

After a scolding from Tammie we boarded the ferry for the 20 minute trip to Gabriola Island. The island has a permanent population of 5,000, but this swells to 10,000 in the summer. We had book a cottage by the beach and were looking forward to a couple of days of exploration, swimming and kayaking.

KOOZA - CIRQUE du SOLEIL

Tammie had a birthday whilst we were in Seattle and to celebrate the event I took Tammie, Greg and Sean to see the Cirque du Soleil presentation of their latest event, Kooza.


I have heard about Cirque du Soleil for years but admit that I really know very little about it. I looked on the internet but that really didn’t give me much of an insight into what goes on. I suppose I really expected some sort of high-brow, arty-farty event with performers in silly costumes leaping around the stage doing silly things.


I was wrong!


We decided to take a cab to the event as it was on the other side of Seattle to where we were staying. The Circus was held in a huge park to the east of Seattle. As the cab pulled into the park we spied the blue and yellow, conical shape big top. A stream of people headed for the entrance.


There was an air of excitement as people thronged the outer extremities of the big top waiting to take their seats. A buzzer rang and a rush of people headed deeper into the huge tent to find and take their seats.

Though the area was compact it was amazing how much room there was inside. We had great seats near to the stage with an unimpeded view. Whilst waiting for the show to begin the audience was entertained by a variety of acts that took place in and around the audience. Everyone who sat there was on notice that they could be used as a prop for entertainment and derision. Most people shrunk back into their seats hoping to become unnoticeable to the wandering performers.


The thought struck me that perhaps this wasn’t going to be the performance I expected.


Basically Kooza is some sort of androgynous character who is given a special baton. Actually let’s not concentrate on Kooza as he/she is really only a backdrop to the show that links the acts. The star of Cirque du Soleil is the performing acrobats, daredevils and comedians who keep the audience both entertained and gasping in amazement.


Cirque du Soleil presents two beautiful girls who twist themselves into amazing body-bending shapes, trapeze artists, acrobats, high-wire acts. Well the list goes on and on. All of this is accompanied by a core group of comedians, clowns if you will who keep the audience in stitches of laughter with their antics. This crew also loves to involve the audience and many of those sitting in the audience were left red faced and slightly embarrassed, but none the less laughing.

The costumes were amazing and the set decoration was fantastic. The music was live and the two singers who accompanied the acts were superb.


I often looked across at Gregory and Sean to see if they were enjoying the show and every time I did they had huge grins on their faces. When asked what has been their favourite moment of their two week trip to Canada and the USA they answer without hesitation, Cirque du Soleil. Enough said!

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/kooza/default.aspx

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME

As my two sons’ who are visiting from Australia are avid sport fans I decided to take them to an American League Baseball (MLB) game. The closest MLB game to their arrival point in Vancouver was Seattle so a few days after arriving we took the 300 odd kilometer trip down to Seattle.

The major embuggerance on the trip down was the hold-up at the Peace Arch border crossing. There was a long, long line of cars waiting to cross the border and it took over an hour to get to the checkpoint. Not an easy task when you are sitting in an open-topped Jeep on a hot day.

Further complications arose at the checkpoint as I had to get my visa validated which meant parking the car and entering the border protection building. The line was well out the door and you could feel the agitation in the air as just two officers served customers. This was bought about as there was some major incident at our time of crossing as a whole posse of police and Homeland Security guys bundled a fellow in handcuffs into the building.

The lineup was a real united nations of people all trying to get into the USA and by the look and angst on some faces a few didn’t make it. Finally our time came at the front of the line and I dutifully handed over my passport. The guy behind the counter asked where I was going and I told him a MLB game in Seattle. He asked what team would I be supporting. A no-brainer that one. Seattle Mariners I said. Good answer he replied and I was in. Simple as that the gateway to the USA is supporting the correct sports team!


The rest of the trip was easy except for the traffic in downtown Seattle. We found our bed and breakfast which was located in the old and exclusive part of town called Capitol Hill. It was a lovely old house with a view to Mt Rainier, but no air conditioning and a shared bathroom.

The game started at 7pm so we caught a cab. It was just a short trip to Safeco Field which cost $10. It was by far the smartest way to get to the game as we were dropped out the front and we avoided the parking fee of $25.


It is not a cheap experience going to a MLB game. We had second tier seats which cost $55. Then they plied on a number of add on costs such as ground improvement and a few others that I had no idea what they were so the final cost with tax came out at over $70.
The field was huge with a retractable roof. When we entered there were throngs of people everywhere and the multitude of concession stands were doing a roaring trade. Whereas in Australia the food-fare at sports events is reasonably basic, here at Safeco it was a smorgasbord of many food types and variety. Alcohol stands were everywhere as was stands selling all types of souvenirs and game paraphernalia. Several universities had even set up information stands inside the stadium. Just what a person needs go to a ball game to sign up for university.

We found our seats okay and sat there for a while dumbstruck at the size of the stadium and all that was going on, both on the field and off. I don’t think any of us quite knew where to look and what to take in.


The Seattle Mariners were playing the iconic New York Yankees who are only behind Manchester United in sporting recognition around the world. They exuded confidence and arrogance as they practiced on the field.
A large proportion of fans had on their team colours and it was amazing to see almost as many NY Yankee fans as Mariner fans. They were vocal especially a group of young girls who sat behind us yelling out a Yankee’s chant that ended with a high pitched Gooooooo Yankeeeeeee’s! It was cute the first three or four times but by the third innings you wanted to strangle them especially if you were a Mariners supporter.

 I must admit the game itself didn’t hold a lot of interest. There was just one home run and the rest was fairly predicable. Compared too many sports there doesn’t appear to be a lot of physicality in the game as the basemen and outfielders just stand around, waiting a lot of the time the only exercise some of them get is chewing their wads of chewing tobacco.

The attraction though was the occasion of a major American sporting event. There was just so much to take in to see and to hear. The biggest cheers and interest at times appeared to be the speedboat races and games that appeared on the big screen. It was just like a huge Playsation game and everyone appeared to get involved in the race or game and hooted and hollered for their choice. Weird!
Satisfied we left the game before the end to miss the mad-leaving rush. The Mariners were done easily beaten by the Yankees. On the way out we visited the Mariner’s store which is contained within the stadium. There is just one word for it….huge! The store was like a mini department store with every conceivable type of team merchandise. Amazing!

We did beat the rush and picked up a cab without any problems at all. The sun had just set and it was a warm, balmy evening, perfect for watching baseball.


Was it worth it? Damn right it was!

GRANVILLE STREET - VANCOUVER

Granville Street, Vancouver……..every city has one. You know that street in the part of town you don’t tell your mother you’re going to. A place that is full of vice and promise and a place where in no time at all you can find all the trouble you desire.


The somewhat strange aspect of Granville Street is that it is slap-bang in the centre of downtown Vancouver. Granville actually leads onto the main shopping street in Vancouver, Robson Street.

Granville Street is home to many of the lower priced, central city hotels, so a host of wide-eyed tourists traipse up and down Granville in wide-eyed wonder. Many in wide-eyed horror. I have stayed in such a low-priced hotel on Granville Street a couple of times now and wandered the street on many occasions. Although no expert on this city-centre part of Granville I am a keen observer of what goes on there.


If you were to walk down Granville around breakfast time you could probably get away with firing a shot down the middle of the road and not hit anyone as most of the denizen’s of Granville are late afternoon and night creatures. At this time of day the clean up from the night before goes on. A few drunken, hardy souls weave their unsteady way down the street searching for home or a darkened doorway to lie in.

There is a smattering of businesses along this part of Granville, fast-food outlets, sports stores and clothing shops but the most numerous tenants of the street are clubs and pubs, tattoo parlours and sex shops. Most lie dormant during the day and only spring into life in the hours of darkness as that is when Granville Street really comes to life.

As you walk along Granville at night your senses are pervaded by all manner of sight, sound and smells. There appears to be a beggar in every doorway, most with a chunk of cardboard with a message on it, my favourite being; “Homeless, Hungry and HIV positive.” A real winner that one it just makes me want to give.


Others are a little more industrious and they play a musical instrument, sing, well sort of, tell jokes or my favourite, play the spoons. The spoon man has a gammy leg, few teeth and wanders up and down Granville offering to play tunes with his spoons. He appears to pop up everywhere. One moment you see him outside your hotel and a few moments later he is on the other side of the road on the corner of Robson. How does he get there so quick? As he walks along he clicks the spoons on his leg in cadence with his limp. There is nothing much to it but it does have a certain mesmerizing tone to it. Spoon man is a hard worker as well, we saw him late one afternoon plying his clinking trade and from my hotel balcony 10 hours later I heard the spoons and then saw him accosting late night drunks as they left the clubs. No standard work day for spoon man it appears.


Fighting for doorway space with the beggars is a generally motley crew who appear to have no income or future. They are young people who are dressed in all manner of weird, colourful, torn and disheveled clothing. Tattoos are there badges of honour and tell their life story. Hair is optional or at the very least colourful. They often have a dog or two and sit in the doorway, chatting or trying to play and sing a musical instrument. They appear oblivious to the tourists who give them a wide berth and a distasteful look as they pass.

 The sex shops that advertise peep shows for 25 cents do a roaring trade with constant traffic in and out of their doors. Many tourists appear to shield their eyes and fumble in their clothing for a crucifix as they scurry past.


Night also brings out all the beautiful young things to Granville. The night clubs throb to the beat of music; long lines appear at the doorway where up to 10 burly bouncers, usually heavily tattooed stand arms folded in their apparent superiority. By their demeanor you would think these goons are the masters of the universe instead of plain dumb, intimidating muscle.


Granville around midnight is a people watchers paradise your eyes dart this way and that as there is always something going on. Girls parade past is the shortest of skirts, usually in a pack and a closely followed by drunken groups of young men doing stupid things to impress said girls. Sometimes they are impressed but more usually they are not.


The smell of marijuana fills the air; people appear to smoke the weed without fear of arrest. Young people stagger down the street looking for somewhere to be sick or hoping to find an easy way back home.


The throb from the nightclubs goes on and on. Granville Street has a life of its own.


Not once on these nightly wanders have I seen a police officer, not a one. Does that mean that there is no crime on Granville or is the crime self-regulated?


What I do know is that I find Granville Street an interesting amalgam of all levels of society, I am never bored walking the street just glad I don’t have to live the life and that I am beyond the days of nightclubbing and spoon-playing.