Vancouver 2013 - A home away from home

Continuing on in my update from the summer, we arrive next in Vancouver. This is a city I have dreamed of visiting, and is on my list of, "Places I Might Want to Live Someday" (despite never having seen it). So we arrived on our direct flight from London (I got kicked the whole flight from an annoying kid behind me!), and we weren't particularly rested, but we were excited. Unfortunately, their passport control looked very understaffed and had a disneyland line winding all over a huge hall. We took bets on how long it would take to get through the line (I won!). Finally we got through and were greeted by a man whose friendliness is rivaled only by that found in Ireland.  We picked up our bags, exited, and found Paul's friend Alex waiting with his adorable daughter Madi on his shoulders. Her bright eyes and big smile made me instantly fall back in love with her. This is the little baby I snuggled with at my wedding, and now she's a big girl, full of personality. But more on that later....

"Hello!" Madi says, smiling down at us. "I'm looking for my friends, Paul and Liz." I smiled back up at her. I mean, look at that face!

"Hello," I replied. "Well this is Paul and I'm Liz, so you don't have to look anymore."

"Oh! I found my friends!" she squealed. I knew this was going to be the beginning of a great trip.

We got back to Alex's house to find Heather waiting for us. They knew we were a bit jet-lagged and helped us get settled in our rooms and I had some tea to keep awake. Their home is so lovely and it just makes me feel as if I am home too (instead of traveling). It felt like a much needed break after our nearly 10 days on the road.

That evening we had planned a little BBQ with one of Paul's old university friends. They brought their baby over, and the two little munchkins kept us occupied while the men cooked on the balcony. I felt like I had slid right into a perfect little life.

Paul, a natural daddy

I won't bore you with every little detail on our trip, but I will give some highlights. Our gracious hosts drove us up a Grouse Mountain for the Monday bank holiday. There were beautiful views, a nice lunch, and bears (which we never saw!). All the excitement tired Madi out and she was asleep in seconds once we were back in the car. Let's be honest, I napped a bit too. Vancouver is so exciting!

I was so afraid she'd fall off!

On the gondola up

Madi's first time rolling down the hill!

A view of the restaurant from the top

So that evening we were dropped in Olympic Park to eat dinner with Paul's friend, Neil. There were beautiful views and beer tasting and public pianos and lots of singing and good chatting. THIS is what enjoying your life is supposed to feel like, right?

Mmmm, my favorite beverage

Pianos everywhere that anyone can use! Neil REALLY can play!

Our last day with them before the cruise we got to babysit Madi for the day. It was such a pleasant time, walking through the woods, seeing the ducks, eating sushi together, getting my hair cut, and buying stickers. All very normal things, but with a cleaver, observant, vibrant, chatty 2.5 year old, all the more fun. The next day when we left Madi to be dropped off at the cruise ship she started sobbing. I couldn't blame her, I was on the brink of tears too! The only thing that made it better was that I would see her again in a week. 

Giving the ducks a big surprise! (It's a leaf... they weren't too pleased)

A big dog was coming and Paul saved Madi!

Fast-forward a week...

We returned from the cruise tired, full, but happy. We had a full day ahead of us in Vancouver just to see a bit of the city. We dropped our bags in a luggage hold area and headed out. After stopping by the tourist information, we decided to rent bikes and ride around Vancouver. We walked to the rental place along the waterfront, about 20 minutes from the docks. There were several interesting informational plaques that we stopped to read, and we enjoyed our time looking at the view. Finally, we ambled up to a rental shop, grabbed our bikes and we were off!

The ride around Stanley park is one-way (or so the signs say). There were occasional crazy people going the wrong way (and they got yelled out by me... Switzerland makes me such a rule-abiding citizen) but mostly it was quite pleasant. We stopped first to see some totem poles, and then again at a bridge. The view was nice, and for the most part, the weather held out. We stopped for a cold drink, coughbeercough, and it started to rain! We decided that was our cue to head back. We returned the bikes, walked through downtown in search of our bags, and then met Alex to take the Skyrail and bus home.

We had dinner with Alex and Heather's friends that night, so Madi was staying with her grandma. After a week stuffing ourselves silly, I was impressed by how much steak and crab I managed to eat. The friends were lovely and easy to talk to. We all went home full and happy.

Our last day in Vancouver we got another fun day with Madi! Can you tell this girl is just such a super star? We had planned to go walking in the park again, but it was raining on and off so heavily we thought it would be a bad idea. Instead we drew a pond on their patio (with ducks!), blew bubbles, played hide and seek, all the usual fun things. I knew it wasn't going to be easy to say goodbye again. I've got some videos that aren't great, but they really make me smile.

Heather kindly dropped us at the airport the next day, and as we got out of the car, Madi finally realized she wasn't coming with us. The tears started for her, and then for me. How can you possibly get attached to someone so quickly? I hugged her a few more times then waved goodbye. It was time to fly on... to Edmonton.