Tag: Beach

United Kingdom

Place 92 – May 10 2022 to May 13 2022: United Kingdom – A Visit Home (Part 2)

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 8 – Wales & Plymouth, UK

We started day 8 with going to get a car rental! We picked up a small Toyota Aygo and set off for breakfast at the McDonald’s that Curtis used to work at when he was younger.

After breakfast, we set off on a drive to Wales! We aren’t sure where in Wales it was, but we were visiting a friend there!

We got to her house after a few hours of driving and we sat and chatted for a while before we went out for lunch at a nice local cafe.

Post lunch, we jumped back in the car and drove off to Plymouth! We have a few friends that live there, so we drove down to see them, have some dinner and drinks and just chat a bit.

When we arrived, though, we had to drive around Plymouth which is just hills! A bit crazy and not super fun to drive or park on. We got parked up and luckily we had a friend that was letting us stay with them overnight, which was nice.

We had a curry for dinner at an Indian restaurant with a bunch of people and by the time we ate and left it was already bed time! We headed back to the apartment and went to sleep. We had another drive the day after so a good sleep was required.

Day 9 – Bournemouth, UK

We were up early and we drove out to Bournemouth!

We had a concert to see so we thought it made sense to keep the car for the extra day and drive to Bournemouth from Plymouth.

We were staying at a Premier Inn again because it’s practical and we know it’s nice!

We got ourselves settled and then we went out to a Sigrid concert. This concert was a small intimate concert and was very short but was amazing!

We left the concert and had a bit of a walk around Bournemouth and then grabbed some KFC for dinner.

Day 10 – Andover & Basingstoke, UK

Once we headed to a nice cafe for breakfast, we had a bit of a walk at the beach in Bournemouth, which we both used to go to with our families when we were younger.

We drove back to Andover and then off to Basingstoke for a bit of shopping with Kim’s family.

We took the car back after we were done in Basingstoke and then we had to pack to go to Norway!

We went to have pizza with Curtis’ dad and it was really nice to see him, too.

We stayed overnight at Curtis’ family’s house and then off to Norway we go!

The next blog will be about some time in Norway, which was an awesome time with celebrations and lots of hanging out with friends.

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Tofino, BC

Place 88 – Day 1: Tofino, BC🇨🇦 – Exploring, Beer & A Lighthouse

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up pretty early and got ourselves ready to head out to Tofino!

Tofino is a very popular destination for tourists, so we were glad to finally be able to go.

We drove out there, on an estimated 2.5 hour drive. There were some road works and construction happening on the route, so we had to stop a few times, one of which was for 30 minutes, but we eventually made it to Tofino in around 3 hours.

We parked up and went right on the hunt for coffee. We found a place and walked there and had some pretty good coffee from Tofino Coffee Roasting Co.

We had the coffee and then walked around Tofino, just to see what it’s all about.

The actual town wasn’t all that interesting, but there was a little boat dock area which had some really fresh air and some really cool looking buildings.

After we went here, we actually ended up bumping into people that Kim knew from work and they gave a couple of really great suggestions!

The first suggestion was to go to chesterman beach which was a slightly less populated beach but really, really nice.

We stopped at the Tofino brewing company on the way and got there right as they opened! We had a beer and just relaxed outside for a bit which was really nice and the beer was good too! It was then time to get going again.

We drove down to the beach and got parked up and then had a nice, long, walk along the beach. There weren’t many people there and the sand was SO SOFT!

We decided to see how cold the water was, which was VERY COLD though kinda nice on our heavily trodden feet.

We left this beach and drove back up to Tofino and parked back up, being smart and using our ticket we still had time on!

The second thing that Kim’s friend suggested was to get a key lime pie slice from a restaurant nearby, so we got that and it was very, very delicious!

We left here after walking to a hotel that Kim remembered staying at as a child and then we drove out to Ucluelet. This super small town doesn’t have much, but it did have a lighthouse!

The lighthouse had a very large whistle buoy near it which warns boats where to go, so that was VERY loud.

We then decided that it was home time! We were pretty tired but had an incredible day and such a nice break!

We didn’t have too much trouble driving back to the hotel, which by the way, is basically a pub with rooms on, which isn’t as bad as it seemed.

We got back to the hotel and Kim ready that it was possible to see bears nearby, so we went to look for them but saw none, so headed to the local brewery!

Curtis got a beer and Kim got a cider and then we realised we were hungry and no other food place was open, so we had some pizza and a pretzel from the brewery.

We got a half and half pizza. One side was a veggie pizza and the other was lemon and herb chicken with tomatoes and tatziki.

We ate our food and had another drink and then eventually headed back to the hotel, which was just across the road.

We got back around 22:00 and chilled out until sleeping, which we are excited to do!

Likely another early morning tomorrow, and a long day, but it should be a fun one!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 991: Vancouver, BC – Beach, Drinks & Snacks!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a company wide meeting at 09:00 which unveiled some very interesting news!

After that, Curtis had a team meeting and then he talked a colleague through how to do something.

Curtis then had some tickets to do, followed by a meeting to help someone with something. The afternoon was mostly tickets and then he also did a bit of security work.

Curtis got some of his Norwegian homework done in the early evening, until Kim got home.

Kim’s Day

Kim had another busy and productive day! She woke up and got ready. Then she had breakfast and started whiteboarding with her managers. They managed to get into some really great topics and iron so much out.

In the early afternoon they left the hotel, popped things in the car and headed over to a nearby cafe to finish the day. Kim was able to get a few things done while everyone else was on a call and then they continued the discussions. Later on Kim did a mini presentation and tour of some research she had been doing and was really happy to know she was on the right track and getting stuff done!

Evening

We walked down to the beach and met a couple of Kim’s colleagues who were down there. We sat and chatted for a little bit but then needed to head to the hotel Kim was at last night to meet another colleague and friend of Kim’s there as they had some drink tokens for the bar! Curtis finally got to meet her after speaking with her a few times on Zoom but never in person.

We had a drink and a snack and had some really good chats. Overall, a pretty fun evening!

We stopped at our favourite Vietnamese place to get a banh mi for dinner.

We got home and watched a bit of TV together and headed to be fairly early, for us.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 988: Vancouver, BC – New Friends?

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up far too late, but tlwe slept great, which was good!

We had some breakfast and watched a bit of TV and then slowly got ourselves ready to go out.

The weather was better today, so we wanted to walk down to the beach. We got ourselves a coffee and walked down! The weather was actually perfect for a walk.

We saw a person in a replica batman suit, which was random but pretty cool looking!

We walked around for a bit and then started to head back home when we saw a big beautiful dog! We stopped to say hi and the owner was actually English, too!

We ended up having a very long chat with them and took their number. They’re a lovely couple and we’d probably like to meet with them again.

Once we got back home we decided what we were going have for dinners and then drove out to the supermarket to buy our weekly food.

After arriving back home, we made a homemade chicken tikka masala and Kim made homemade naan!

That took a while to make but it was certainly worth it. Delicious!

We watched a film whilst we ate and then it was basically bed time.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 982: Vancouver, BC – full Clean & A Beach Swim!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up at a pretty good time and had croissants for breakfast again.

Once we ate breakfast and got ready, we did a full clean of the apartment, which felt great to get done, but it was a little warm out to do that!

We had to have another shower after that and then we went out for a walk to the beach. We stopped off for coffee and at Subway to get a snack and then we walked to the beach.

We sat in the shade on the grass and ate our snacks and just relaxed for a bit, cooling down.

We walked on for a bit and then stopped at the beach. Kim went for a little swim/soak which she was really looking forward to! It was pretty cold, but nice compared to the outside heat.

Once we were done there, we walked back home and then went out to do the weekly shop.

Curtis is back to eating solid food now, so we could buy actual food!

We got back home and Kim made Chinese style chicken with rice and we relaxed for the evening, getting ready to work again tomorrow after a really great long weekend.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 980: Vancouver, BC – A New Barber

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up around 11:00 and Kim went to get us some croissants and coffee for breakfast.

We ate that and got ready slowly and then Curtis went out to the barber. His usual barber has moved back to Australia so Curtis had to use another barber from the same shop.

The barber seemed to do a good job, so he was happy with that. He walked back home after getting that done and then we went out for a walk to the beach.

We walked down to the beach, coffee in hand, and once we got to the beach, we got ourselves some ice cream! Curtis had mint chocolate chip ice cream and Kim had honeycomb ice cream. We sat on a bench and ate that, just watching the world play out.

Once we walked back home, we both had cold showers and then accidentally had a nap! After our nap, we had leftovers and a few things from the freezer for dinner.

We watched TV for the evening. There’s a heat warning this weekend and although it’s not as hot as last time, it is muggy.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 958: Vancouver, BC – Work Beach ‘Party’!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis continued doing project work for most of today again, around tickets and one meeting with his team.

A pretty productive day really, which he finished off by doing some Norwegian homework.

Curtis just played games whilst Kim was out in the evening.

Kim’s Day

Today Kim had a beach day at work! To get started for the day Kim did a coffee run and went to her colleagues home to her picked up by their teammate. They all then drove over to the beach and stopped by a shop to pick up some ice.

Once the three of them arrived at the beach they picked a great spot just behind a washed up log to set up the tent and be ready for people to arrive. They had a little while before people arrived and just hung out in the sun and enjoyed doing nothing.

Throughout the day various people came and went, bringing games, families and dogs. It was so wonderful to meet so many people in person for the first time. It was an effortlessly fun day with lots of laughing and fun!

Evening

Once Kim got home, we ordered some southern BBQ food and had a relaxing evening, which was needed after the amount of food we ate!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 953: Vancouver, BC – Fish & Chips (Minus the Fish)

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up a little late today but we needed the sleep!

We had some breakfast and got ourselves ready.

We went out to drop off a package for Kim’s colleague and whilst we were in the area, we thought we might as well head to Steveston, which is a place we have been a few times but it’s a nice little town!

We got a coffee when we got there, which wasn’t actually that nice, and then we fancied some English style chips from the fish and chip shop.

We waited for those and once we got them, we had a little walk and stopped at a park to sit and eat our chips.

Once we ate them, we had some more of a walk and then headed back to the car to drive home.

We stopped off at Bed, Bath & Beyond to get a thing or two and then we went back on the road to go home.

After we got back, we walked down to a supermarket to get some cheese for dinner and then Curtis went home and played games whilst Kim met a friend down at the beach to relax there, similar to how she did last night.

Once Kim got home, we had cheese and wine for dinner and relaxed, watching some TV.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 952: Vancouver, BC – Beautiful Drive & Rocky Point Park

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up and planned to head out to a place about an hour away, called Jug Island.

We left and drove all the way there and the drive was beautiful! Lots of winding roads, mountains and lakes to look at. Unfortunately, we got there and every last bit of parking was taken, which makes sense as we got there a little late in the day.

We decided to abandon that plan and headed into Port Moody and got a coffee and a snack!

After the coffee and snack, we went to Rock Point Park and walked along the peer and just hand a nice walk, though it was a little warm.

We left here and drove back home and had some leftovers for dinner, as well as getting some rice paper rolls from a Vietnamese place down the road to go with it.

Once we finished dinner, we got the shop done at the supermarket.

We got back home and Kim went down to the beach to relax and read her book with a beautiful sunset.

Kim got back from the beach and we watched a bit of TV together and relaxed.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 951: Vancouver, BC – A ‘Kinda-Work’ Day!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up around 09:45 and Kim did a bit of work whilst Curtis had some breakfast and got showered.

Curtis was off work today and Kim had a ‘kinda work’ day.

Curtis played some games whilst Kim worked and then Kim showered and we went for a short walk and got coffee.

Kim went out in the afternoon to run a few errands for work. He had done a decent amount of work at home and then went out to do these few things.

The errands took a couple of hours and when she got home, she was hungry and so was Curtis, so we ordered some dinner.

We got Thai food as it looked really nice and once we saw it we knew we wanted that!

We ate our dinner and then headed out for an evening walk to the beach!

We got back home and watched some TV and relaxed. We’re still very confused as it feels like it should be Sunday, but it’s only Friday!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale