We woke up around 08:30 and we got ready to go out for breakfast.
We both walked up to the Beacon Drive in, a staple for us when we come here, and got ourselves some nice breakfast and relaxed there for a bit.
Linda came and joined us and we chatted whilst Kim ate an ice cream and then we left for a walk.
A Nice Walk
We planned to go into the petting zoo that was in the nearby park, but unfortunately it was closed! We were able to see some goats and other animals through the fence though, which was really nice.
We did a bit more of a walk around the area and Linda pointed out a few new places and points of interest nearby that we’d not seen before.
A Friend
We headed back to Linda’s place and then after a while, we both walked down to meet a friend of Kim’s for a coffee and we got to meet her child who is now nearly 1!
After a great long conversation, we walked back to Linda’s and got ready for dinner.
Delicious Italian Food
We met a couple of Linda’s friends at an Italian restaurant across the street which we had been to once before. It was AMAZING food! Kim had mushroom pasta and Curtis had lasagne. Both were phenomenal.
We got profiteroles to share for dessert and then we were truly stuffed!
Fisherman’s Wharf
We managed a nice evening walk to Fisherman’s Wharf just down the street, though it was pretty cold, so we came back to Linda’s and relaxed before heading to bed.
We woke up and had to check out at 09:00. We got ourselves ready, checked out and hit the road.
We drove until we got to Qualicum Beach, which had French Press Coffee Roasters where we had breakfast! Kim had bruschetta with mushrooms and arugula. It was very nice, though a little small. She had that with a pretty tasty mocha and a chocolate chip cookie.
Curtis had a sandwich with egg, tomato and some really nice bacon in and a cappuccino which had some very nice coffee in, that was roasted in house!
We had this and then got back on the road and drove onward.
Animal Sanctuary
We drove to the animal sanctuary called North Island Animal Sanctuary which was a really nice animal rehabilitation center which also had animals that could not be released into the wild, mostly due to injury.
Before we got there, though, we stumbled across a small old looking town that had, for some reason, some goats on the roof! We had to stop and check them out
We then started driving again, only to find an antiques store just down the road!
We went in there and Curtis managed to talk Kim out of buying an old sabre, though there were some cool items there.
We drove onward to the sanctuary and once we got there, we wandered around to take a look at all the animals. We took no photos here as it didn’t feel appropriate but the animals seemed well looked after and we got to see some awesome animals there, such as eagles and hawks. There was apparently a bear there but it must have been hiding as we didn’t get to see it, but it was actually a really nice stop along the way.
Little Mountain Lookout
Kim had noticed a place on the map called little mountain lookout which was meant to have some great views and it didn’t disappoint!
We drove up to this which was a VERY steep hill and once we got to the top, it didn’t look like anything. However, a short wander through the trees took us to a sheer cliff edge but with stunning views!
We left here and drove to get another coffee. We got this in a cafe in a small town.
Whilst there, we decided to check our reservation only to find out we had only booked one night and it was tomorrow, not today!
Luckily, we contacted them and were able to sort that out, though we did panic for a second.
Malahat Skywalk
We drove to a place that was suggested to us by Linda which is a new attraction.
This is a skywalk, a wooden walkway through the trees, and then a large spiral structure which gives amazing views and there was also a slide to go down from near the top!
We wanted to do the slide, so we queued for about an hour for that. Unfortunately, we got near to the top where the slide was and Curtis really needed to pee, so just had to hope that didn’t happen on the slide!
It was quite a large and fast slide, but it wasn’t bad at all, other than the bumps for Curtis! Luckily, he didn’t have an accident, which is a positive outcome.
We did the slide and then walked back all the way to the top of the structure which had a see through netting floor which could be walked on.
Kim decided this would be fun to roll on instead, so she did that, but did regret it a little after, due to the sheer height of the tower.
We took a look at the beautiful scenery, technically this area has a fjord, and it really was beautiful.
Nice Hotel & Italian Dinner
We drove onward from here to Sidney, where we will be for 2 night purely to relax and sleep! We have had a busy few days and a busy few weeks before now, so we wanted some time to just…chill.
We got to our hotel and it was around 19:00. We checked in and got to our room which is beautiful.
We were very hungry, so we went to a restaurant super close, which is an Italian restaurant.
We had to sit outside, which is good for COVID, but we were a little chilly. We could forgive that though, as the view was stunning.
We had to wait a while for our food but once it came, it was delicious!
We were pretty hungry by the time it arrived, so we ate it quickly and then decided it was relax time, so we went to the shop to get snacks and then went back to the hotel to chill out for the evening.
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!
Curtis had plans for the morning but he had to do some tickets and some admin and before he knew it, 1.5 hours had passed!Eventually, Curtis got onto setting up a new user, their laptop and their desk. Then, it was lunch time!
After lunch, Curtis spent the whole afternoon trying to get the virtual machine to work. He concluded that it will not work, so back to square one it is.He walked up to Kim’s work to meet her there after work.
Kim’s Day
Today Kim left dor work 2 hours early as a film crew had to set up for an interview for an employee Kim works with. On the way to worm she saw a seal, so getting up so early didn’t seem too bad!
When Kim got to work she found out that the crew would he about half an hour late so she ran to McDonald’s to grab some breakfast!
When she got back she then set up an urn of coffee and a plate of biscuits and ran it up for the 25th floor and they still weren’t there. So Kim went back down and began to tackle the mess of food and drinks leftover from the day before. She started with the drinks and was able to put some in the free drinks fridge and rearrange some of the other storage to make room for the rest.
Kim then went to the roof again to see if the crew had arrived and they had, and were setting up! Which was great news. When she got back to her desk Kim went through and saved the last 3 or 4 days worth of invoices that she neglected to do and chase for a couple from yesterday.
She then spent some more time organising the food and other picnic stuff from the day before, making sure everything was boxed up and tidied away.
Kim.
Kim and her colleague set up some time to go over the summer party and how well it went. Both of them had recieved great feedback, but came up with ways to make it go easier for us for the next time. This meeting was interrupted a little with the arrival of pizza for someone elses meeting.
Once the pizza was out in the kitchen for a free-for-all Kim was sure to grab herself and her colleague some slices before the masses arrive, we refer to it as the pizza tax! Kim the spent a few minutes on the roof before getting too hot and heading back to the comfort of aircon!
After lunch Kim finally convinced herself to finish the last bit of organising and tidying up. Then she went over to FedEx to send something that had been set up the day before. It turns out that they couldn’t deliver it as it is a PO box so Kim just had a nice long walk outside instead!
When she got back Kim spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on emails.
Pasta
We went to a nice Italian place that Kim had been to before.We both got a wine and a half portion of pasta as neither of us were that hungry and their portions are huge!
Kim got the same as she had before which is pasta with a creamy sauce, mushrooms, chicken and peas. Curtis got a simple tomato pasta and they were both great!
Dean Lewis
We got to the venue that Dean Lewis was playing at and there was a huge queue all the way around the block!We queued for around 30 minutes and then in we went.
We opted for seats rather than standing and it was a pretty good call as it was a 30 minute wait before any music!
We had a supporting act first and he was actually terrific. His name is Scott Helman and he is from Toronto.
After Scott, there was a 30 minute break and then Dean Lewis appeared! It was a great set, great lightong and he sounded excellent.
There are videos on our Instagram pages!
The theatre was sold out, around 1300 people! After the few hours we were there, we left at around 22:00 and walked back home.We got some admin done and then unwound by watching a video or two on YouTube and then went to bed.
This morning Kim got ready to spend a day with Linda! She was so excited for this weekend to finally be here!
She got up and ready and walked across the city to Linda’s hotel so they could get some brunch. Kim arrived with a few ideas for brunch and they settled on going to De Dutch, which is where Kim and Curtis went many weeks ago! Kim had the Eggs Benny and Linda had the Dutch toast! Both were very delicious. They spent breakfast chatting and catching up, it was very lovely!
They then headed out for a great day of relaxing and shopping. They walked up and down Robson street, then went to sport check and finally Helly Hansen to find Linda a nice coat!
After these they went for a nice walk around the shopping centre just for some air con!
Haircut
Curtis had a haircut booked for 12:30, so he got up shortly after Kim left around 09:45.
Curtis had a shower and then some cereal for breakfast.
The NHL20 beta is out this weekend, so Curtis spent pretty much all day playing that!
Curtis walked down for his haircut which was in Gastown, so he had to walk through some not so nice parts to get to it.
Coffee
We met for coffee after Curtis’ haircut and just chatted.
We went to 49th parallel and it was just as good as before!
Massage
After the coffee with Curtis they then went back to the shopping centre to have another walk around to kill some time fore their spa booking.
They then went to the hotel where the spa was to check in. They completed the paperwork and were given a tour before being shown to the changing room to get ready. They were given robes and told to relax or enjoy the amenities. Kim went and had a nosey at the pool before going to lounge to relax. They were then shortly collected for their massages. After this week Kim was in great need of a massage and it was so lovely!
They came out feeling lovely and refreshed and had a nice glass of water and Kim ate an apple while they relaxed and chatted away in the lounge.
They eventually decided to leave so went and got ready and walked over to dinner.
Dinner
For dinner Kim decided to visit the Italian restaurant she went to on her first day of work and it certainly did not disappoint! The food was amazing!
Kim then walked Linda back to the hotel before heading home herself.
Purchasing A Fan
Kim got home around 21:00 and realised how crazy hot the apartment is at the moment, so went to buy a fan.
After she got back, we setup the fan and then relaxed, watching some TV and catching up with each other about our day.
Fireworks
We went to watch fireworks happening at English Bay, but we couldn’t see them from where we are!
We came back, watched some more TV and then headed to bed.
Kim and Abbie were up early to go to the beach and do some surfing. The beach was beautiful in the morning sun.
Kim started surfing with one board, but it didn’t seem to be working so she swapped and was much better on that one!
Curtis woke up shortly after they left and had some breakfast and a coffee.
Curtis had a phone interview planned for 10:30, so he had to wait in for that.
It got to 10:40 and still no call, so he emailed but with no response.
Curtis them, oddly, recieved a voicemail even though the phone hadn’t rang at all, so Curtis tried to call back but the number was restricted. Due to this. Curtis emailed again and stated what had happened and now the interview is re-scheduled for next week and via a different system.
Return From Surfing
On the way back from surfing, Kim, Abbie and Tom stopped off at McDonald’s for some food and then went back home.
Kim and Abbie relaxed whilst Tom sorted out shipping and packaging his bike.
We eventually decided we were all hungry and wanted to go for dinner, so we found a spot and went there.
Dinner
We chose an Italian place and it seemed nice from the ratings online.
Curtis had a lasagne, Abbie & Maggie had the vegetarian lasagne, Tom had a calzone and Kim had a pizza.
The food was just ok, if not a bit below average. Some was cold and some was hot but lacking flavour. Nothing really excited us too much, except for the hot bread we got as a starter!
We had a later start today, but still made the most of it!
We walked to the bus stop just down the road and waited for the bus to show up.
We jumped on the bus and sat on it for a while whilst it took us down to the golden state park.
We were here yesterday in the car, but we didn’t get the chance to walk around, so we wanted to do that today.
We walked around the park, just looking around, for a long time, as it was a perfect day again!
There were a lot of people just playing sports and relaxing on the grass.
Coffee
We decided we wanted to find somewhere for coffee, so went to a placed called Beanery.
This place smelled amazing and they also roast their own coffee. Kim had a iced caramel latte and Curtis had a cappuccino. Both of our coffees were phenomenal!
We walked towards the beach and came across the bison pen. There are about 5 bison homed here in total and they are huge!
Dutch Windmill
We walked onwards towards the beach where there was also a large Dutch windmill. this windmill was absolutely beautiful, so we stopped and got some photos.
Dinner
We wanted to go for dinner from where we were, so we caught a bus all the way to downtown.
Whilst on the bus, we had a look at places to go and found an amazing looking Italian pizza place in the Italian area of the city.
We got off the bus near the restaurant and proceeded to walk there.
The restaurant wasn’t too busy so we got our food quite quick. We had a starter of buffalo mozzarella (as it was also a mozzarella bar) with arugula, tomato and bread. This was a terrific starter with excellent flavour.
Once our starter was finished, the pizza came at the perfect time. We got what we called a fancy version of a margherita, the difference being buffalo mozzarella.
The pizza was terrific and took us right back to being in Rome!
We had a tiramisu for dessert, which was alright, and then we left.
Unfortunately the service wasn’t great, but the food was pretty solid!
We started the day as usual – eating breakfast and drinking coffee.
We were up pretty early for us so we were out of the door at a good time, too.
We walked to Beacon Hill Park, past Ogden Point, to go and see the world’s tallest free standing totum pole.
Possible Seals?
It took us a bit of time to get there and, on the way, we saw something flopping around in the water! It was either a whale or seals, but more likely to be seals.
The Totum Poll
We got to a large flag pole with the Canadian flag flying and then had to walk through some light forest to get to it. Unfortunately, this meant accidentally walking past a creepy man living in the woods, but we got past all fine and arrived at the totum pole.
The 39 metre tall totum pole!
This pole was built in 1956 and restored in 2011 as it was showing its age. It was cool to see, but we weren’t there for long.
We walked around the park for a bit and saw a gathering of people around a tall tree, taking photos. We were unsure what they were taking a photo of, which turned out to be a peacock in the tree.
The Killer Peacock
Curtis is not a big fan of peacocks as he was attacked when he was a child, so of course, as we were walking past the big tree, the peacock flew past us and scared him!
Beacon Drive In
We stopped at the Beacon Drive In and curtis got a coffee whilst Kim got an award winning chocolate swirl ice cream.
We all went back to Linda’s and chatted for a couple of hours and then, when everyone left, we all sat and relaxed for about 30 minutes before going to bed.
Mr & Mrs Hale 