Tag: night

Whistler, BC

Place 87 – Day 1: Whistler, BC🇨🇦 – Some Time Away!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast!

We finally managed to have some breakfast from Small Victory!

Kim had an appointment in the morning and then she picked up the breakfast.

We each had a normal croissant, which was amazingly flakey and buttery, and Kim had her usual coffee (Spanish latte) and Curtis had a terrific cappuccino.

We got ourselves ready and we managed to leave by around 12:00.

Off To Whistler!

The drive up to Whistler was really nice, but it was still smokey, so not too much could be seen.

We stopped in at Canadian Tire in Squamish and got some jump cables after our debacle the other week.

We grabbed a coffee too, of course.

We drop up to Whistler and the hotel was awesome!

We got upgraded to a suite, so we have a table and a sofa etc. Super nice!

Village Exploration

We got our stuff up to the room and then just went for a walk around to see different things around the village and different areas.

We walked through a small forest of sorts and saw a Blue Jay, which is cool!

We took a walk through the village area and spotted a few nice places for food!

Came across a nice bridge with an awesome river.

Dinner

Our legs got tired after a few hours and we began to get hungry, so we walked to a place we had seen earlier called Noodles and we grabbed ourselves a box of food each. Kim got a Korean chicken box and Curtis got crispy spicy beef with rice.

We went back to the hotel room and ate our food and chilled out in the room for a bit, then went out to get some things in the drug store. This meant we got to see the Village at night, which was dark for sure!

Drinks!

We went for a drink in the bar downstairs from our hotel room, which was a very empty bar, and then headed back upstairs to play some card games and watch TV.

We’ve planned the remainder of our time here, we’re here until Friday evening, so that’s great!

It’s Curtis’ birthday tomorrow, too!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 125: Vancouver, BC – Richmond Night Market

Kim & Curtis Hale

Morning Appointment

Kim had an appointment to go to at 10:00 this morning, so we were up at 09:00 so she could get ready and go to that.

Coffee

When she got back, we relaxed for a bit and then went out for a coffee!

We tried a bakery called Purebread and were not impressed.

Pretty much everything was just ‘meh’. The coffee, the brownie Kim got and even the service!

Purebread | Vancouver, BC

Our Rating:- 4/10

Sneaky McDonald’s

We got home and watched some TV after the coffee, but were a little disappointed and also hungry, so we went up to McDonalds for a sneaky cheeseburger and milkshake.

Richmond Night Market

After a relaxing few hours, we jumped a train for 20 minutes to get into Richmond aand meet up with some friends from Curtis’ work. They had invited us to go with them to the Richmond Night Market, as they had fast pass tickets for it!

That’s right, fast pass tickets were needed.

The queue, if you don’t have a fast pass, takes about 1.5 hours or more to get in, which is crazy!

We were in within 5 minutes which was great.

Once we got in we were on the prowl for food.

We ended up sharing some mediocre Korean chicken.

We walked around looking at food some more but couldn’t really decided until we got to the corn on the cob which Kim & Afsara were right on board with!

After the corn on the cob, it was dessert time, and we found waffles on a stick which we got, and those were ok.

We finished the desserts and then went for a wander around the place, looking at all of the ‘things’ stalls, rather than the food. This area was a little less crowded too, which helped.

We grabbed a free yoghurt each as it was near the exit and then left around 21:40, after getting there at 19:00 so it was a good couple of hours!

We got on a train and Afsara & Will got off at the one before us and then soon enough, we were home.

We had a really fun time with them, chatting, eating and just having general fun…We’re looking forward to going out with them again!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 59: Vancouver, BC – Canada🇨🇦 Day Festivities!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Music, Lemonade & Japanese Curry

We knew that there were festivities in the city today, so we walked down there, after Curtis had a morning nose bleed and then breakfast!

We got down to Granville Island which had some sort of party happening but it was rather busy and there wasn’t much going on, so we walked to the city instead. There was a giant flag, though!

The first stop was at Starbucks for a coffee and then we walked on to the Vancouver Conference Centre.

We got into the area where some things were happening and looked at the food trucks. There wasn’t much else going on in this area really, other than a couple of music stages and for some reason, the North American Irish Dancing Championships.

We walked out of here and into Canada Place, which had some more activities happening. There was a kids section with a few games and also an Armed Forces section.

We moved on from Canada Place and came across a lemonade stand, so we had to get one! It was just OK.

We walked around some more and then got hungry and fed up of the large crowds, so we walked towards our home and found an Asian supermarket which had a Japanese Curry place inside it!

Curtis got a ‘deluxe curry’ which was chicken katsu, katsu potato & shrimp katsu with rice and curry!

Kim got a chicken katsu curry.

The food was pretty great! We were going to stay in the city for another 6 hours, but we were very tired and there wasn’t much else to do, so we went home.

Firework Hunting

We sat and watched some TV until 22:20 when the fireworks were due to start and then we went outside to see if we could see them.

Unfortunately, they were just a little too far away, but we did some some fireworks in the end. And we did get a great photo or two of the city!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Las Vegas,NV

Place 77 – Day 5: Las Vegas,NV – Stratosphere & Blue Man Group

Kim & Curtis Hale

Breakfast At Denny’s

We completely forgot to get anything for breakfast in last night, so we had to go out for some this morning.

We originally went to a place up the road but it was right inside a casino, which smelled of cigarettes, so we went to the next casino and found Denny’s, which was luckily hidden away out of the way of the casino.

We each got some food and drinks and filled outselves up before starting the day.

Stratosphere

Interestingly, our ‘starting the day’ was heading back to the apartment and relaxing. We were both so tired for some reason, so we just relaxed and watched TV for a couple of hours.

Eventually, we drove out to The Strip, where we got to the Fashion Show Mall and parked there, as it was free.

Once we parked up, we headed into the mall to get a Starbucks to take with us on our 30 minute walk to the Stratosphere.

The Stratosphere is the tower of Vegas and is actually taller than a lot of the world’s towers, including Tokyo’s tower, which we thought was pretty tall. This tower is about 1149ft.

Upon the Stratosphere, there are 3 rides. Kim wanted to go on all of them, so she did! It was actually a pretty decent price, too.

We both went up the tower and went right up to the highest point, where Kim went on the Bigshot. This ride is a short one, but it takes you up and then throws you down, as seen below.

Next up it was the X-Scream ride, which takes you over the edge and back a few times. This one wasn’t great, to be honest.

We moved from here to the ‘finale’ – Insanity. This is a spinning ride which also hangs over the side of the tower. Pretty scary stuff!

We got some good views from the tower, which was nice. Contrasting both the mountains, downtown and the strip.

The Strip

Downtown

Mountains

Drinks In Venetian

We left the Stratosphere and the walked down to Circus Circus where we met a former colleague of Kim’s and went for a drink.

He drove us down to The Venetian hotel & casino and walked through the maze of places to finally get to a replica of the canals and the main square in Venice.

We sat here for a couple of hours and had a drink whilst chatting about all kinds of things. Really lovely guy and was good for Kim to catch up with him.

Blue Man Group

We got a pizza slice after getting dropped off at Mandalay Bay and wandered towards Luxor, which is where we were seeing Blue Man Group.

We got in and it was a fairly small arena. We were given some tissue paper to ‘decorate ourselves’, too.

It was an odd show, with musical and comedic elements, but it was pretty good! We aren’t going to go into too much detail, but we would recommend going, for sure.

Blue Man Group

Rating:- 9/10

Car Park Drama

We walked the 45/50 minutes up to where we parked our car and stopped along the way to take photos of the strip at night.

We got to the carpark, only to find that it was closed! We panicked for a second and then saw some other people who had done the same.

We thought it had been towed or something, but could then see it, so we had to find a way in.

We walked one way, but it was closed there too, and we eventually found a open side door and were able to get the car and drive home.

Another fun filled day!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Las Vegas,NV

Place 77 – Day 1: Las Vegas,NV 🇺🇸 – Vegas Early Night?!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Bus To Vegas

We were up nice and early to shower and get fully packed. We didn’t have breakfast as the plan was to have it at McDonald’s by the bus station.

We got to the McDonald’s and there was a really good breakfast deal, so we got that and then got to the bus terminal and ate.

Shortly after we finished eating, it was time to board the bus.

The bus wasn’t too full and we got seats together, which was good.

All in all, it was about a 5 hour (or so) journey. It was an uneventful journey, with a brief 30 minute stop in Barstow, California.

The rest of the journey was basically just desert.

Arriving in Vegas

We got to Vegas, incredibly tired, and it took us just 10 minutes to walk to the hotel.

We checked in and got to our room and relaxed, briefly. We have a pretty good view.

Walking Around Downtown

We are staying downtown, rather than on the strip. We walked around the downtown area in the day light to see what’s what and what’s where.

We saw a couple of ladies fighting, which seems like standard Vegas!

Pool

After we walked around, we started to get a bit tired, so we walked back to the hotel where we checked out the pool and decided to sit for a couple of hours, basking in the sun.

After the sun started to go in, we went back to the hotel room and relaxed, watching a bit of TV and then we accidentally fell asleep a little!

Dinner

We woke up and then went down to a place called Flock & Fowl.

We got to the place and sat down. It was quite dark but smelled good!

We got a few small snacks, rather than mains. We got a bao each, shared smashed cucumber, sweet and sour boneless chicken wings and delicious sweetcorn.

The food was just ok, nothing was incredible.

Flock & Fowl | Las Vegas,NV

Rating:- 5/10

Early Night

We were just so tired, so we walked around briefly to see what this place is like at night and then we got a hot chocolate and headed to bed.

We watched the film a simple favor which we really enjoyed actually!

A Simple Favor

Rating:- 9/10

We have some plans to actually do things tomorrow, it was just a shame we were so sleepy today!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Rotorua

Place 60 – Day 7: Rotorua – Government Gardens & Night Luge

Kim & Curtis Hale

We had a leisurely morning this morning, after our skydive.

Tom was out fairly early, making use of the last day of cycling whilst the rest of us relaxed.

Kim and Maggie eventually went out to the centre of Rotorua where there is a big garden area called Government Gardens. They walked around this for a while in the incredible warmth past the big house as well as Lake Rotorua and then went for a coffee and a sit down.

Tom arrived back at the house whilst Curtis was there watching hockey and then he cycled his bike back to the shop, getting picked up on the way back by Kim and Maggie.

Eventually, we all went out for a spot to eat at a Thai place in the city, which was pretty good, but still not as good as Thailand!

We went from here to the luge place where we paid for 5 rides each for a discounted price as it was ‘night rides’.

We spent a couple of hours here as it was surprisingly busy! It was really good fun and we even did the hardest run, which was certainly next level. We got some nice photos of the sunset whilst waiting for the luge, too!

We left the luge place around 21:30 and drove home via McDonald’s to get an ice cream.

Once we got back we packed up as it is our last night here in Rotorua before we drive back to Auckland tomorrow.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale