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Week 4 was very very fun. We crammed in as many BC experiences that we possibly could. This is gonna be a massive, non-chronological, post!

We went to Vancouver one day for a massive day of seeing people and eating things. Let’s see if I can even remember everything…

  • started by going to Bulk Barn to buy more zingy zaps
  • met up with Kevin at Meat & Bread for porchetta sandwiches
  • bought a few treats from Purebread for later
  • met up with Phil for ice cream at Earnest Ice Cream
  • stopped at a random sushi restaurant for one yam roll
  • went to Terminal City Training while Rosemarie and Scott went to Parallel 49
  • met up with Liz, Tom and Kevin for Japanese BBQ
  • followed it up with some late night bingsu

A big thank you to Rosemarie for facilitating this ridiculous day.

We had a bit of time to kill in between eating things so Rosemarie suggested we check out the Bloedel Conservatory. It was neat! There were a lot of random types of cool birds in there. The highlights were:

  • Kramer, an insane parrot that danced and screamed
  • the four suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper high boys that were fascinated by everything in there including leaves

OK back to Squamish. AKA where Rosemarie and Lauren live now.

Probably taking a panorama.
Rosemarie’s favourite forest.

Squamish is scenic AF.

We put together the Hogwarts model that dad gave to us. And by “we” I mean 95% me. :D I enjoyed it.

Trivia night. Lauren was probably trying to cheer me up because I had THE WORST MARGARITA OF MY LIFE.

Calculating how many lactaids we need to take.
Lunch with Lauren at an amazing Japanese place near his work. SOO YUM!!
Lauren made us epic okonomiyaki. So many shrimp. I was in heaven.
Even just regular neighbourhood walking in Squamish is scenic AF.

Of course we played more Pickleball. The Squamish courts were luxury, with those fences to divide the courts up so our rogue balls don’t go rolling into other people’s games.

No one wants to see a pickleballer from above!
Not the best pic but I had Nadal shoulder from falling off my bike the day before. I looked jacked… on one side.
Wingspan!
I was trying out Leslie’s weighted blanket.

Leslie and Kyla came up to stay with us for the whole last weekend and it was awesome. We had so much fun.

Rosemarie’s friend Kevin is da best.

We are so spoiled. It was the very beginning of spot prawn season so Kevin brought up fresh prawns from Vancouver. They were still squirming in the sink. He poached them, made a delicious sauce, and taught us all how to shell them. They were so sweet and delicious. I had about 12. :D

Getting the fire going.

Liz and Tom came up and we had a backyard sausage sizzle with everyone. The weather behaved for us. Kevin ate 9 sausages.

Divvying up cake.
Have you ever had an Oreo race?
At the Squamish Farmers Market.
One last meal together before Leslie and Kyla had to leave.
Scott pushing my bike up the hill for me because I am a whiny baby. <3

We went mountain biking twice. The first time we borrowed a bike from Rosemarie’s friend. Despite Rosemarie picking a route that involved the absolute least uphill biking, we still had to bike uphill for 90 minutes for 5 minutes of downhill riding. I complained the whole time. I hate uphill anything. I was unconvinced that this is a fun sport.

So the second time all four of us rented e-bikes. Now that helped! We were flying up the hill compared to everyone else, and it really didn’t require much effort. We did three big laps in our half day rental. However, it was terrifying!!! Lauren is a good teacher but I found it really really scary and hard. Yes I know I used to do skeleton racing, but skeleton doesn’t have sticks and rocks and pointy things all around you! Scott was much less scared and did much better than me, he was pretty fast.

My main problem was being a big chicken and not keeping enough speed to get over the bumps. I’d slow down too much and then have to pedal and then the bike would shoot me off too fast I felt like I was not under control. Also I really did not like the bridges. Lauren kept telling me to look more ahead and not down at the ground in front of me, and to relax more, but I probably did the exact opposite.

I fell off my bike twice. The first time I kinda just fell over, that wasn’t so bad, but the second time I had a bit of speed and it actually hurt a lot. Rosemarie was supposed to be helping me but she was long gone!!

Also Scott didn’t fall off his bike but managed to do a mini-crash where the spikes on the pedal tore the shit out of his shin.

I am still unconvinced that it is a fun sport.

Our final BC activity was doing a yam roll crawl in Vancouver on the way to the airport. I found an area that had 4 different sushi restaurants within about 10 streets (near Commercial Station). We parked in the middle and then split up and hit each place for a yam roll, and then met back up in a park to eat.

I think the cheapest one ended up being the crowd favourite? It actually was probably one of my favourite things we’ve ever done.

And the final few pics you already saw on Facebook:

Pickleball is life.
Right behind Rosemarie’s house.
Heron.
Pretty much the best drawing I’ve ever done.
Building Hogwarts.
Post ice cream with Phil.
Rocks.
Sink full of spot prawns.
Mesmerizing campfire.
E-mtn bike gang.

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The third week involved a bit of traveling.

We somehow crammed 5 adults and luggage into a rental sedan. Poor Diane had to reduce her bag down to like 20% of what she started with. It was TIGHT. Dad couldn’t even fit his box of Shreddies.

It felt like it took 90 hours to get to Listowel. This pic was from one of our bathroom stops. Rosemarie was so desperate to make the time pass quickly in the car that she even agreed to play Agricola on the ipad.

Anyway we made it. This time we all stayed at my aunt and uncles new house which was a lot of fun. Terry is always on top of constant beverages. One night we had dinner at my grandparents house (first time them having guests inside in two years!), and the other night Terry, Rosemarie and I destroyed Joanne’s kitchen making pizzas for everyone including our cousin and their kids. The kids loved it when they arrived and the smoke alarm was going off.

Dad, Scott and I played Wide World with Violet, which she won, and proclaimed “I CAN’T BELIEVE I WON AGAINST TWO OLD PEOPLE AND ONE TEENAGER!”. Hehehe.

Many robins around trying to tell us it was spring, but the temperatures said otherwise.
The biggest ball of yarn I’ve ever seen.

Of course they played some Pickleball in Listowel too. Also Listowel had probably the second best gym of the entire trip? It was huge! The owner was super nice and even let me train the second day (for free!) even though the gym reception wasn’t going to be open.

I told you the car was full.

We left early on the last day because we were planning a special detour to surprise Scott. We only told him that dad wanted to go somewhere specific for lunch.

I thought dad blew the surprise when he pointed out that we could see Toronto on the other side of the lake but actually we got nearly all the way there before Scott was like “Wait… are we going to Niagara Falls?”. He has been wanting to go there the entire time we lived in Canada but we never managed it.

I also hadn’t been there since 1999! PS did you know that the falls recede by a METER every year?!

It was a nice day! We parked way down by the casino and walked all the way up along the falls to the crazy tourist area. We had lunch at Wendy’s and looked around at all the attractions while dad walked back to pick up the car. We were going to ride the rollercoaster but it was too expensive and also possibly broken. There was a 6D cinema?! I don’t even know what that means.

Thankfully our journey back to BC was much less exciting than the one to get to Ontario. We got treated to a beautiful mountain sunset and clear skies into Vancouver where Rosemarie reminded me what everything was as we flew over.

Lauren (remember him?) picked us up from the airport and we made a quick late night yam roll stop before spending one night at their house in Squamish. The next day Scott and I borrowed their car and headed to the Sunshine Coast to visit Lesley.

In typical us fashion, we had some ferry related stress. We got to Horseshoe Bay plenty early planning to park the van and walk on to the ferry, but the parking was completely full. We drove around and around trying to find a space. I was totally stumped what to do, tbh. I called Lesley and she suggested just paying a little bit more and taking the car on the ferry, which thankfully still had space. But to get on the ferry you have to drive way up the highway to turn around and join the ferry line. We got to the ticket booth with about 15 seconds to spare and were one of the very last cars to board. It was hectic.

Everybody likes Scott.

We had a fun chill afternoon/evening with Lesley and fam, playing games and eating snacks and hanging out. It actually ended up being pretty convenient to have the van with us because we were able to explore a bit the next morning after Lesley had to go to work. We went out for breakfast and looked at the water and checked out a cidery before heading back to the ferry. It was a short, but nice visit.

Smiling because it was still the beginning of the road trip.
Hotel Chambers.
Divvying up fry pies.
Glad we got to see our grandparents.
Niagara Falls.
Scott taking in the sights.
Diane did not forget about her massage offer!
Upside down house, Niagara.
Can’t believe we managed to play a whole game of 7 Wonders with a child afoot.
The Canadian Sunshine Coast is very different to the Australian version.

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We spent most of the second week doing chores at the house during the day, and then fun stuff with friends in the evening.

I spent two days scanning old photos so that we can throw out the mouldy albums. That was kind of fun. I found all sorts of funny stuff. Then I varnished a table. Scott did lots of pressure washing, which wasn’t very fun because he got wet and it was freezing out. And he helped dad carry lots of stuff. Rosemarie did a lot of kitchen stuff sorting. We took apart some cabinets and cleaned them so they can be re-used.

Writing that out it doesn’t sound like that much stuff but we filled up all the areas where we could store stuff and dad seemed pleased with his checklist, so I guess that’s good.

Unpictured:

  • Scott did get a day off one day when he went to Montreal to go to a metal concert (Mastodon) (by himself, because none of us wanted to go with him). He took a bus and stayed in an Airbnb and had a great time! And he came back with kouign amann and bagels!
  • That evening Rosemarie and I met up with Sarah and Lauren (different Lauren) for dinner and ice cream. This is the one time I forgot to take a group picture. :(

I swear the whole trip we never had more than two hours of free time, but that is partly our fault because any time we did have free time we were like “LET’S PLAY A GAME!!!”.

Bill and Suzanne invited us all over for dinner at their house and pickleball. We had tacos and then drove to the court and they taught us how to play. We were hooked! Especially Rosemarie. We played until it was too dark to see anything. Rosemarie asked when they were going to play again and they said “Tomorrow!”.

So we drove all the way back to Constance Bay and played again the next day. :D

We went to the Nordik Spa at night with Jackie which felt fantastic after all the work at the house and pickleball. It was awesome going with Jackie because 1. she’s like a spa expert and 2. we hadn’t hung out with her in ages!! The spa was great. I was surprised that there was an area that you could bring your drink right into the water. Crazy. We stayed at the spa for a loooong time, soaking and plunging, exfoliating with salt, broiling ourselves etc. (sounds like cooking a turkey, doesn’t it). We had a nice spa dinner too. The only thing we didn’t do was try the heated hammocks!

The next day I went to the gym and Rosemarie and Scott tried indoor pickleball. (I tell you, Rosemarie was obsessed.)

The next day was crazy busy. We went and saw Helenka again (post-babbies, although sans-babbies because they were in the NICU), ate another shawarma and poutine, and then drove back out to Constance Bay again to… you guessed it…. play some more pickleball. :D Then we came home, cooked hot pot for a quick family dinner, and then went bouldering with Sarah, and then met up with Sara for a drink. Whew.

PS that poutine, with the exorbitant amount of gravy and cheese curds, made me feel sooo sick, despite Lactaid. :( I feel un-Canadian.

Our final night in Ottawa we went to a Sens game with Stephko. It was one of the last games of the season and had no consequences in regards to the play-offs, but was still exciting because there were a lot of goals and even went into overtime for maximum drama.

Again, more pictures that you probably already saw on Facebook:

Bouldering with Sarah.
Spa time with our cousin Jackie.
Drinks with Sara and Sarah.
Sens game with Stephko.
Pickleball is life.
Pickleball with the Monnon’s.
Shawarma lunch with Rosemarie.
Do you like my plaids.
Inside.
Lunch outside.

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Kind of old news at this point but for posterity…

Hoofing it to the train station.
Full flight but thumbs up we’re on our way.

I think I was still a bit dopey from the flight…

Had to wake up though because Rosemarie and Lauren picked us up from the airport in Vancouver and we went directly to Liz’s house in North Van to host a party. Rosemarie prepared lots of Canadian treats for us like perogies, Smartfood popcorn, Canada Dry, party mix and lots of our Vancouver friends showed up! Thanks Liz for letting us stay there!

The next morning we headed back to the airport (via Duffins Donuts ofc) to fly to Ottawa. This is the last picture with Lauren for a while because we had all sorts of problems.

First our flight out of Vancouver was delayed. The lovely Westjet agent tried to help fix up our flights for us but since we had booked on three different tickets he was only able to get Scott on I on a new route via Calgary before that flight filled up, and had to keep Rosemarie and Lauren on the original flight to Toronto that might not make the connection to Ottawa. He offered to switch us back so that we could at least stay together but Rosemarie told us to go ahead and we’d just cross our fingers. Amazing Race style.

The way the flights were staggered we wouldn’t find out if they made it until much later. Poor MEP and Paul had to stay up all night waiting for us and didn’t even know how many of us they would be picking up from the airport.

Scott and I got to Calgary no problemo. But then we saw messages from Rosemarie saying that they didn’t let Lauren on the plane in Vancouver because his ID was expired and that he had to go home. Team member down! And that her connection in Toronto was looking TIGHT.

Scott and I got to Ottawa late but relatively successfully. But then we found out that Rosemarie didn’t make her connection, had to stand in line for hours to get her free hotel, and had to wake up very early to get her new flight the next morning. Which also ended up being delayed because they couldn’t close the luggage compartment door. Poor Rosemarie. Her team definitely lost Amazing Race.

Anyway eventually we all (well… three of us) made it to Mary Ellen’s and dad came over and of course we played some games. Yay.

That night we went to the Haberl’s for a good old fashioned sleepover. It was great. We played lots of games and ate lots of food and laughed a lot. A very lovely time.

3/4 Ace Gang Reunion. Unfortunately Cassia didn’t make it because of Spanish bureaucracy. We got lucky even seeing Helenka… she ended up having her twins very early, a few days after this brunch!!

Scott trying to catch some maple sap to see if it tasted like maple syrup (it does!).

Things relaxed (a bit) after the first few days of the trip. We spent some time hanging out at MEP and Paul’s.

Sweaty after doing a HIIT class.

I managed to keep up my training while away. My coach made me a commercial gym friendly leg strength program that was basically max squats all the time. Sometimes Rosemarie and Scott came with me, and sometimes they did other random classes or played pickleball. I am glad they get along so well.

Jill had another memorial party for Joe that just happened to fall when we were in Ottawa. It was nice to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen in ages. And the canapes and cookie favours were delicious!

We started to go through some of the stuff at the house. I think Cassia made me that poster when I was about to leave for university. D’awww.

Same pictures that I already posted on Facebook/Instagram:

Party at Liz’s.
Brunch at the Haberl’s.
Diane’s big chair.
Death by squats.
Camel Up was a hit, as usual.
Canada Geese.
So flattering.
Fam,
Joe’s memorial party at the Nature Museum.
House tour.

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We are lucky here in Australia. We got to have a pretty normal Christmas. We were allowed 30 people and didn’t have to worry about masks or anything.

Scott only got one combined birthday and Christmas present from me this year because it was a pretty big one. I had to get it delivered to my coworkers house to keep it a surprise since at that point Scott was working from home every day. I think he liked it!

We had Christmas lunch at Scott’s parents house like usual. Jess and Ava had to drive non-stop from Sydney to make it to Victoria before we closed the border from NSW but they made it. (Michael had to stay in NSW.) We spent the afternoon playing with nieces, nephews and cousins, playing battle blocks, and eating and drinking. It was a nice day.

Rosemarie managed to coordinate nearly the whole Perkin side of the family onto a group video chat on their Christmas. Even grandma and grandpa popped in right on schedule! Normally a lot of them would have spent Christmas together in real life, but because of Canadian covid restrictions they had to stay in their own homes. :( I’m glad we got to get together virtually at least.

We had Ava over for one last visit before they headed back to Sydney. We played with her reusable sticker book thingy. She sure is chatty. :D