Tag: hotel

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

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Victoria,BC

Place 70 – Day 30: Victoria, BC – Dinner at The Empress

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast

We went for breakfast at Vista 18, which we went to the previous time we were here with Linda.

The food was great as it was before. Curtis had a standard breakfast with ham, eggs and home fries, as well as some cranberry sourdough which was the best part of the breakfast!

Linda had an omelette and Kim had a waffle with chocolate and banana.

Jumanji

We finished up with breakfast and then walked down to the cinema to watch Jumanji! We wanted a simple, easy to watch film, so that was what we chose.

We had a lot of space each, too, with recliner seating.Overall, the film was funny, but not as good as the first one.

Jumanji: The Next Level

Our Rating:- 7/10

Flowers

We went to Winners for a bit for Kim to get some tops and then we went back home.

Kim went to get ‘something’ and when she came back, it was the flowers we had bought for Linda from her favourite florist!

Linda really likes these, which we are glad about.

Curtis watched hockey for a bit before we left to go to dinner.

Dinner at The Empress

We went for dinner at The Q at The Empress. The Empress is an old beautiful (expensive!) hotel here in Victoria and we had always said we should go for food sometime.

Linda had been here for food recently and said it was very good, so we absolutely agreed when she mentioned going there!

The staff were incredibly kind and hospitable, which is the first thing we noticed.We got a drink each and then perused the menu.

Kim decided on a rack of lamb whilst Curtis went for white wine braised rabbit. Linda chose the beef tenderloin.

The rabbit (above)

Kim’s rack of lamb

Our meals were all terrific. Huge flavour, richness but perfectly balanced.We had dessert, too!

Curtis and Linda had the hazelnut and chocolate tart whilst Kim had a vanilla mille-feuille.

The meal overall was a 10/10, service included!

We had another terrific day, and we ended it with some more baileys…because it Christmas!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 201: Vancouver, BC – Christmas Market ðŸŽ„

Kim & Curtis Hale

Shopping

Kim was up at a good time to head down and meet Linda so they could do some shopping!

Curtis stayed home and caught up with some sleep after his early start yesterday.

49th Parallel Coffee

Curtis walked down to meet Kim and Linda for a coffee!

We went to 49th Parallel because their coffee is just fantastic!

Christmas Market

We walked down to the Christmas market after a little bit more looking around shops.

The Christmas market looked small, but we went in anyway.

It turns out, it was quite big, with over 50 little huts!

This Christmas market was ‘German’ so a lot of them items and even staff were German!

We walked around for a couple of hours checking out all of the different stalls as well as purchasing a few things. We had some tasters too, of course.

It got colder and colder whilst we were out, so we got a pretzel to keep us warm!

Whilst we ate our pretzels, we queued up for the German handcrafted gifts tent, which was a big German company that makes intricate small wooden Christmas decorations. These were very expensive but they did look cool!

We were also very glad to be inside and warm.

We left here and went to get some food. We all had a goulash in a bread roll bowl…it was very delicious, very winter-y and exactly what we wanted.

We sat in a big tent and ate this and then just relaxed in there for a while.

After that was done, we were all funned out and so we headed out.

We went back to Kim’s work as we left some bags there, so we had to get them.

We walked Linda back to her hotel and we parted ways, but we’re seeing each other tomorrow!

More Shopping

Curtis watched hockey once we got home and Kim went out to burnaby for a bit more shopping for herself as there was something out there she was looking for.

Once she got home, we sat and watched some TV together and basically just did nothing with our Saturday night.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 200: Vancouver, BC – Linda’s Back!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was awake at 05:00 and out the door by 05:15 to head to work! As it is Black Friday, he was required to be available to support the teams in his company, should they need it.

Curtis got to work at 05:45 with all the lights off (they are on a timer for 06:00) and noone else in the office.

Curtis left the office at 06:00 and went to McDonald’s to get a big coffee and some breakfast.

Noone was in the office until 07:30 and most people didn’t arrive until 08:30, so Curtis didn’t have much to do.

He showed a colleague something they wanted to learn about and he also read some more of his book. This was everything, along with Admin, until some tickets came in at 08:30.

Curtis’ day was still fairly quiet, but he did some tickets and then had some testing to do to help some colleagues out. He had a free lunch at 12:00 provided by the company which was nice! All of a sudden, it was 13:30 and home time.

Curtis went home and watched the leafs game which took him perfectly to needing to leave the house around 17:00 to meet Kim.

Kim’s Day

One of the first things Kim had to do today was send out a memo to everyone in her office to see if they had lost their bike. The building have had a bike for over a year and wanted to see if anyone could claim it.

Kim had a delivery come in which was one of the parts of the final holiday party decoration for the tables. She then went out and bought the final few parts to make the prototype snowman they are having as centerpieces.

While she was out, Kim picked up the beer for this weeks afternoon’s drinks.

When she got back, she continued with some party planning and even made a snowman to see if it would work and it looks so cute!

In the afternoon Kim had to finalise some hotel bookings and place all the weekly shop orders for all 3 offices. She also set up the weekly drinks too!

Linda’s Back!

Linda has come to see us this weekend!

We met her at her hotel and then went for a walk to look at the hospital Christmas lights, which were meant to be amazing.

The lights were ok, but nothing spectacular.

We all got hungry, so it was time to eat! We had a reservation at a place we wanted to go for a while.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great experience.

Kim’s order was wrong and so she had to order something extra after already waiting for a whole and by the time she got hers, Curtis and Linda had already eaten and the food wasn’t even that nice!

We left and stopped Linda off at her hotel, with a weekend of plans set and ready.

We walked back home and chilled out watching some TV… Curtis is very tired!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Virgin, UT

Place 85: Day 1: Virgin, UT 🇺🇸 – Campervaning In Utah!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Leaving Vegas

We were up to get checked out and have some breakfast.

We checked out via mobile and queued up to get our bags in storage.

Once we got our bags checked, we headed over to McDonald’s for a quick easy breakfast and a sit down.

Once we finished our food, we went to the check in counter to ask a few questions we had and by the time that was done, we wanted to go and grab a taco from the place we had visited list time in Vegas.

We took Tom to the Mexican place and each had a carnitas taco, which is delicious pork and vegetables, which was perfect to tide us over.

That took us to the perfect time to go and grab our bags and head off.

We got them and jumped in a Lyft up to a house where we were pickup up a campervan.

Our Campervan

The couple we got the camper from were a lovely older French couple that rent out a few campervans.

We had a tour of it, they told us how to use different things and that was pretty much that.

It’s a perfect size for the 3 of us, too.

We got in it and hit the road, heading to rent a bike from Tom.

Bike Rental

We got to a bike rental place but it seemed that there isn’t actually a shop there. We called them and they said that there is no shop and they only deliver to hotels, so we canned that idea.

We found another place that was en route, so we stopped off there instead.

Tom got a bike for a good price which was nice and easy and we went to grab coffees for the journey.

To Utah!

We set off and up to Utah Tom drove.We had an uneventful drive really, just drove through Nevada, Arizona and finally into Utah.

We stopped off at Walmart once we got into Hurricane, Utah and got a few supplies for our 3 day campervan stay.

We drove the rest of the way, figuring out where to go and then driving down into the gravel roads and finally out into the campsite.

We were greeted and showed our spot, where we setup and got ready to hunker down.

We got a bit of food in us, just some frozen pasta stuff we bought, and then relaxed for a bit before we went to sleep, as we have to be up relatively early tomorrow.

It’s actually quite warm at the moment inside our camper, so that’s a win!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – day 129: Vancouver, BC – 2 Classes 1 Day

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a very busy morning and thought it must have been later than it was, but he had only been at work for an hour!

Curtis did some admin work for a project and then had some lunch.

After lunch, Curtis had a couple of things to do and then had nothing to do! He was asked to do something fairly dull, but at least it was something to do!

Curtis got a lot of requests just as he finished doing what he was asked to do and that took him perfectly to the end of the day.

After work, Curtis went to meet Kim an we went to a shoe shop to get some shoes for Kim.

Kim’s Day

Kim ordered and paid for todays coffee yesterday, and picked a smaller amount, so she picked that up on her way into the office.

Today Kim only had one meeting to help with and they were on the same floor as the main office which meant kim had time to do other things today which was amazing! The first thing she did was set up the meeting room by putting the fruit, drinks and coffee in and made it look pretty.

After setting up the meeting room Kim looked into some catering options for 2 meetings that are happening next week. She also arranged two lunches with the nearby hotels for the upcoming weeks, which is exciting! After this Kim set out some of the leftovers from yesterdays meeting, she had cookies, mini desserts and a platter of fruit.

After a morning of catching up on admin and sorting lunches the catering arrived for the meeting so Kim signed for it and set up the drinks to go with it, including a replacement coffee. Then then regular weekly taco order came in so Kim sorted that first before taking the main catering into the meeting.

As the deliveries of the new drinks had been inconsistent, the account manager popped in to deliver the cold brew that had been missing from yesterday’s delivery and he came with doughnuts. And not just a few doughnuts – 8 boxes of 24! Kim kept those aside to put out for the afternoon when more people will be around.

After the meeting finished Kim cleared away the catering and the. Sat down for some lunch.

After her lunch Kim put the doughnuts out. People weren’t going hungry today.

After lunch Kim had a few messages asking if she could sort out an issue with a hotel. Kim did the paperwork and called the hotel to make sure everything was sorted.

Kim then reached out to the caterers to put an order in for the catering needed next week. Then she greeted and had a nice chat with someone who was in for an interview, and also dropped off the afternoon snacks to the meeting. Shortly after this, the meeting finished so Kim put yet more food into the kitchen and she cleared up the meeting room.

Kim finished her day by making up the paperwork and delivering a box to FedEx.

2 Classes 1 Day

We watched a few YouTube videos and then Kim went to an exercise class.

This evenings class was so good.

Kim finally started to feel the muscle memory kick back in and had some fun with some of the moves. She is starting to feel less fearful of trying moves and is able to string one or two together to make a pretty combo.

After class, Kim had a chat with the instructor about the upcoming competition that Kim has signed up for.

Then kim noticed that there was space in a more dance style class and asked if she could join, so she did! It was a little but challenging for Kim but it was so much fun!

Curtis played some games and ate half a sandwich Kim got from work (again!) And when Kim got home we did some admin, watched a bit of TV and then went to bed!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 84: Vancouver, BC – First Aid Completed & Linda Is Here!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had another quiet day today, but spent a lot of it being fairly productive, getting the helpdesk system changed so it was more friendly as well as easier to use!

Curtis did a couple of tickets, one of which was right after lunch, which was good. It took about an hour to complete that and then it was super quiet, so Curtis went into the lounge, got a beer and chilled out.

Curtis did a ticket just before he left and then walked home.

Kim’s Day

Today was the final day of first aid training! For the morning everyone spent their time running through scenarios while teams were assessed by the instructors. When Kim did hers she felt she made some stupid mistakes, but as time went on she realised that maybe she was being a little hard on herself.

In order to get out and about during the day Kim popped put and to the shipping centre to pick up some Tim Bits for the class and get a coffee too!

After lunch people continued running a few more scenarios before sitting down to sit the written exam. The exam was in multiple choice format Kim used all of the exam time to ensure that she triple checked the the answer she had circled was actually the answer she wanted to have circled. That way she would make less stupid and easily avoidable mistakes.

After the written Kim assisted with two other peoples practical exams before being the final person to complete theirs. Kim’s went relatively well and then she helped tidy up the classroom while people got feedback on their assessment. Kim was last again but had really good responses and feedback.

While Kim waited to know whether she had passed or not she went upstairs to the reception desk to book a 2 more people in for the course.

Once that had all been done Kim was the final person to hear whether she had passed or not. Prior to this Kim had seen all of her classmates leave with smiles and their certifications so she was feeling hopeful.

Kim went in and found out that she had passed! She had a nice discussion with her instructor before saying goodbye. It was a really. Great week and Kim had such a wonderful time meeting so many amazing people and having the chance to work with them!

Kim went back up to reception, picked up the reading materials and then headed home.

Linda Is Here!

We didn’t eat when we got home as we were going to eat later.

We watched a bit of TV and then walked down to a hotel in the city.

We checked in to the hotel for Linda and they wanted to hold the whole price of it on the card for some reason.

We went down to meet Linda in the dock when she got off her boat and walked her to her hotel.

After we showed her the room, we all went out for a long walk around.

Chinese Feast

We were really wanting Chinese food and so we ordered some at around 22:00, when we got home.

We ordered from the place we got it from here before as it was good then. We got szechuan beef with noodles, curry chicken with rice and half a duck.

The food was just as good as it was last time! We ate whilst watching Suits.

A perfect way to celebrate success.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 62: Vancouver, BC – Free Fancy Lunch & 20,000 Views!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis spent his morning catching up on tickets from yesterday, as well as setting up a laptop for someone to replace their old one.

A lot of new tickets came in throughout the day in general, so Curtis was very busy!

Curtis learned a few things today, as well as spent a while trying to fix a specific problem.

For lunch, Curtis went to the food truck directly outside his office building and got a buritto bowl.

The afternoon wasn’t much less busy and Curtis was juggling multiple things at once.

Some things needed testing around 16:50 for a change that was happening in the evening, so Curtis helped with that and then left for the day.

Kim’s Day

Kim spent most of her day on just a few things. When Kim got in she started her day by going through her template emails and adjusting them slightly.

Then Kim moved on to updating her contact and info list of vendors she has frequently used. It’s much easier to have everything saved in one place with active links rate than checking multiple areas!

Kim then spent some time trying to get a quote that she requested yesterday. Having received no answer from one of the companies Kim proceeded to place an order with a different company.

Kim then headed out with a colleague to a local hotel to join their sales rep for lunch. It was a great way to properly and informally catch up. It was also a great excuse to sample a few dishes from their sharing menu. They started with a lovely beetroot and cheese dish, it was so beautiful and tasted phenomenal. Then the show started!

The whole table was covered in plates! There was, scallops, squid, tuna mac and cheese, brocollini, korean chicken, a quinoa salad and a lovely egg plant dish. The girls tucked in and Kim even tried a bit of a scallop. It wasn’t lovely but it wasn’t the worst food she has ever eaten! After trying all that food, and even boxing up a little to take home, they then brought out a small dessert platter! The platter had 3 little blueberry tarts, orange cheesecake and a little chocolate orange truffle. Just the right amount after a massive feast!

After lunch had flown by, Kim’s colleague had to head back to the office while Kim got a tour of one of the rooms, a few of the meeting rooms, the ballroom and the amenities room. It was so lovely to see the hotel and be able to make solid recommendations to any visitors we may have while Kim is here in Vancouver.

When Kim rolled herself back to work she found a few items on her desk that needed to be sent out. She popped them all in envelopes and was ready to use the post stampy machine thing to weigh and out the postage on the envelopes. However, when she went to do it, the machine had an error. After about 5 attempts of trying to call and receiving a dead line and one answer and being hung up on, Kim eventually spoke to someone to trouble shoot the issue and walk her through putting the machine through it’s update. After that long call Kim was able to put the postage on the items and have them ready to be sent out.

Kim then focused her attention to completing the booking for the bus hire for the upcoming summer party.

After she made progress with the paperwork for the bus company Kim then looked into and contacted a company about a cake that needs to be ordered. She emailed the company and then left to go home! It was a productive and filling day!

20,000 Views!

Today, we hit 20,000 blog views! Thank you all so much, especially if you read the blog every day!

When we got home, we went right out for a walk. The weather was perfect for a stroll, so we walked and discussed our days some more.

Once we arrived back at our apartment, Kim had a tuna sandwich and Curtis had some toast as we both had big lunches so we didn’t need any proper dinner.

We sat and started the new series of Lucifer and then had a bit of an earlier night, in comparison to recent evenings.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Las Vegas,NV

Place 77 – Day 9: Las Vegas,NV – Shazam! & Off To Texas!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Checkout

We had to checkout for 11:00 but accidentally missed out alarm and woke up at 10:00.

We got up, showered and had breakfast whilst also packing.

We were out of the room in time and relaxed for a bit whilst we ate breakfast.

We then took all of our things outside and waited for our Uber.

Shazam!

We got an Uber out to Mandalay Bay and check our bags in there.

We took off from here and walked across to Town Square, which is a shopping centre.

We got tickets to see Shazam! In IMAX for a really good price.

The film was really, really good! We weren’t sure what to expect but it was quite funny and a little different to most superhero films.

Shazam!

Rating:- 9/10

Shopping

We did a bit of shopping and Kim was able to get some shorts to replace her current ones.

We then got an Uber back to Mandalay Bay to get our bags and head to the airport.

Flying to Austin!

We are off to Austin!

We got to the airport, did all the usual things and then once through security, it was imperative we got food.

We went to Popeyes to give it another go and were pleasantly surprised!

Kim had chicken tenders with fries and Curtis had 3 chicken pieces with mac & cheese.

It was way better than it was previously.

We are now waiting to board the flight and will arrive late tonight, so if anything of interest happens on the flight or after, you’ll see about it here tomorrow!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 1: Vancouver, BC 🇨🇦 – Small Studio

Kim & Curtis Hale

Morning Travel

We were up earlier then we have been this morning, around 07:30, so we could get showered and grab some breakfast before we had to leave.

Once we ate, we checked out of the wonderful hotel, which We have loved being in, and walked down to the bus station.

Bus Journey #1 – Victoria > Ferry

We got on our bus and had a 40 minute journey to the ferry port.

We waited for about 10 minutes and then got onto the boat.

Ferry Journey

We got off the bus and grabbed some seats for the short ferry ride and relaxed before we had to hop back onto the bus.

Bus Journey #2 – Ferry > Vancouver

We got off the ferry and onto the bus for a 50 minute drive to downtown Vancouver.

City View From The Bus

We eventually arrived and walked the 10 minutes to the apartment where we met the host.

Our Studio

We got the keys to the apartment and went to take a look. It is very small, but it is pretty good for what we need it for.

View From The Studio

We got hungry so we went out to get a Subway for lunch.

Lunch

We ate our subway and got aquainted with our apartment as well as watched some YouTube videos.

Afternoon

We watched the Leafs game and once that was done, we went out to the supermarket to get some supplies for dinner.

Evening

We got back and started making a delicious spaghetti bolognese.

The apartment owner came by with a few requested items and then we sat and watched TV whilst we ate and then next thing we knew, it was 23:30!

Tomorrow should be more adventurous!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale