We woke up for our last day at the farm and we were made some waffles for breakfast!
We went to see one of the kids’ gymnastics performance nearby. This was great to see all of the kids having fun.
Unfortunately we had to leave before it was done and drive to Oslo! We had never been so we wanted to see what it was like so we drove there to stay for our final night in Norway. We stopped in Kongsberg for snack and coffee, of course!
We got rid of the car, which wasn’t super easy to find and it was actually in a parking structure but maps took us to a different location! Once we did that we got ourselves checked in to our hotel which was right on one of the main streets. We had a shower and freshened up before walking for some dinner.
We walked fairly far to get a burger for dinner but it was great as we got to see a lot of the city.
Once dinner was done, we continued our long walk around Oslo and all of the different areas! We also went to the cool looking opera house that they have in Oslo.
For the evening we had a nice relaxing time with snacks in bed and watched some TV.
Day 2
We had free breakfast at the hotel but it was a nightmare! Far too busy for such a small spot.
We walked to the King’s castle and we walked around the park that is attached to the castle. It was such a peaceful place to walk around and the architecture, as is Europe, was beautiful.
We went to ‘Frognerparken’ which is the famous park with a lot of nude sculptures in it, which is one part of it but also it’s a nice park and the sculptures look cool!
We walked to find ourselves a coffee and then walked to Askerhus festing, which is an old castle/military fort.
We walked quite far from here to ‘Gamle Oslo’ which is the old part of town which also has a very new part just around it. We wanted to check this out and we loved it.
We went back to the hotel to get ourselves sorted and then headed to catch the train to the airport.
We flew back to the UK to spend a couple more days there.
Kim’s dad, Tom, picked us up from the airport and we had a McDonald’s for dinner on the way home, of course! It was time to sleep once we got back.
We’re back! Hello! We went on a little trip to Sunshine Coast for Curtis’ birthday. You can read about it here.
On Tuesday 14th September, in the evening, we drove out to Horseshoe Bay to catch a ferry out to Sunshine Coast. Whilst it is not an island, it’s technically connected, there’s no other way to get there without a boat, so we took the ferry.
The ferry arrived late, but that didn’t make much difference to us, other than the fact we were hungry!
There weren’t many people on the boat, so it was quick and easy to get ourselves some food. We ate that and then the ride was pretty much over. (it’s only 40 minutes).
We drove off the boat and drove on to our first accomodation, which was a cute little cabin!
Here’s a low quality video of the cabin!
When we arrived, the cabin was incredibly cold as the windows were open, but after a bit of time with the fire on it got nice and toasty. We arrived fairly late, so once we got settled we watched a little bit of TV before sleeping.
Here’s another low quality video of the cabin!
Day 2
We woke up in the awesome cabin and drove down to Gibsons for a spot of breakfast.
We got a breakfast bagel each from a cafe there. The staff were wonderful (and one was British!) which made it a very nice experience.
Once we had our breakfast, we had heard that people were filming down the street for a holiday film! We went down to check that out, but not much was happening at the time, other than there being some fake snow on the floor.
We walked around Gibsons for a bit as there was a nice little marina area and the sun was shining!
After walking for a bit, we found a park to go to for a hike/walk!
We drove to Cliff Gilker Park where it said there were waterfalls and hiking trails, which sounded perfect.
The walk was through the forest with nice big trees and some really nice little wooden bridges!
We saw the waterfall, but it wasn’t really much of a waterfall, but still peaceful.
We walked around here for quite a while, mostly to just find all the bridges…we love bridges!
Once we left here, we drove to a petting zoo to let some animals, but unfortunately it was closed on that day, so we turned around and drove to something nearby that we found, called Robert’s Creek Pier.
Robert’s Creek is a small town with some nice little buildings that we looked at and when we went down to the pier we nearly got blown over it was so windy!
Wind!
We drove back to the cabin and had a look online for some places to get food and also a look for other things to do whilst we were in the area.
We eventually found a place for dinner, which was a Mexican place. Luckily, they were able to seat us once we got there (they were very busy!) And we grabbed ourselves some pretty tasty Mexican food!
We went back to the cabin and watched a bit of TV and relaxed.
Whilst relaxing, we heard some noises outside, so we checked and sure enough, it was a BEAR! We saw him right next to our cabin trying to get at the bins, but we think he scared himself away when he knocked over the bin.
It was our first time seeing a bear in the wild and it was pretty large and right outside!
Day 3 – Curtis’ Birthday!
We woke up, got ready and left the cabin to grab some breakfast.
We went to a cafe (after a bit of back and forth between two) and managed to get a seat. It was pretty small and busy!
We had to wait 45 minutes for our food, which seemed pretty long, and when we got the food it was…Alright. It looked good but wasn’t incredible. Curtis had a smoked salmon and dill cream eggs benedict whilst Kim had a breakfast bowl.
We left here and tried to go to a few cool looking spots with nice views, hikes and waterfalls, but they all seemed to be closed for some reason!
We ended up finding a park near the new cabin we were moving to, so we sat there for a bit and stared into the water.
We checked in to the new cabin and it was not quite as we thought. It looked like a cabin, but was pretty large. It was quite dark and just not as good as we hoped. But it did look cool!
Looks cool outside, right?
We relaxed for a bit once we got in. The weather had started to deteriate, which we knew was going to happen, so we prepared to just hunker down and do very little.
Kim found a really nice brewery called Batch44 and we headed there for some drinks and dinner. Kim also found out there was a quiz, so we entered that and didalright! We weren’t last, which is a win!
We headed back to the cabin and got some really good sleep.
Day 4
It was raining all day, so we just slept and stayed in, watching some TV and playing card games.
We went and got pizza for dinner. Nothing fancy but a bit of a tradition for lazy days!
There was a large wind/rain storm which blew over a power line! This caused us to have an outage and, as the power line was laying on the only bit of road in/out of the town, we were stuck in the dark!
We were able to get some candles from a neighbour and we spent the night playing cards and chatting. It was kinda nice, in a way.
We didn’t get too cold and headed to bed. We were however awoken around 02:00 when the power came back on! But we were glad that was able to get sorted.
Day 5 – The Final Day
We woke up and got some breakfast at a diner style place and then looked for something to do before we needed to catch our boat.
We found somewhere called secret beach (it was sign posted, so not very secret!) And we had a wander around on the beach and the logs that were on there.
Pretty nice place!
Kim found a nice rope swing and had some fun on that!
We took the ferry home and drove back. It seemed to take far less time!
We got home and made some dinner and then it was time for Curtis to play hockey. He’s finished his 3rd game now and is really enjoying being back out there on the ice.
Curtis has a goal and two assists already, all of which came from the last game!
And there we have it!
That was our sunshine coast trip. We hope you enjoyed having a blog to read again. We had some fun times and we were excited to share it with you.
Maybe we’ll have some other fun stuff coming up at some point, but we hope everyone is well.
The temperature got to around 38°C today, also know as far too hot, so we wanted to enjoy the heat but also not burn to a crisp, so we tried to find somewhere that was a little more shaded but also new and beautiful.
Kim first started the day by going to her friend’s place to feed and play with the cats before coming home and making some french toast for breakfast.
Once we got ready, we headed out to Barnet Marine Park, with a stop for some coffee! The first cafe we stopped at turned out to be a little rubbish, so we went to one down the road which turned out to be wonderful! We each had excellent (cold!) Coffees. Kim’s was like a coffee milkshake… Delicious!
We left here and headed to the park. All the main parking was full, but we were able to find the overflow parking and go there.
We got down to the park/beach area and it wasn’t too busy and we found a spot to sit and relax at, in the shade.
We dipped our feet in the water and walked for a while and then we headed back to the car as it got a little too warm and we started to get hungry!
We stopped off at the kittens to play with them a bit and also to feed them. Once we left there, we went home and had leftover Chinese food for dinner.
We got ourselves ready again, after doing a little housework, and went out for a nice night walk!
We first stopped at Mr Ice Cream which is a very popular nitro-frozen ice cream place that has different flavours each day!
We walked down to the beach and the weather was hot but managable, as there’s no sun so it was quite nice.
We walked on the beach, went into the water a bit and just chilled out in general whilst walking around. There were quite a few people out, partying and having fun, but we just stayed away and relaxed.
The sunset was beautiful! We managed to see a lot of the sunset which was a really nice touch to the end of the day.
We got back home fairly late and watched a bit of TV, as well as trying to cool down the apartment ready for sleeping!
Curtis went to get croissants for breakfast and once we ate those and Kim showered, Kim went out to meet a friend and hang out in a park for a while.
Kittens!
Kim went to see the kittens that her friend had for a little bit and they were so cute!
Once Kim was done, she walked back home and then we both went out together.
New Shoes, Warmth & Ice Cream!
We went to get ice cream, specifically, at a place Kim went to around a year ago and remembered it was amazing, so we had to try it.
It was 28°C today, so super warm but beautiful! We got a drink when we got there and a light snack and we ate that whilst sat in a park nearby.
We then had a walk around the park and headed to a shop to get Kim some sandals as her feet were far too warm.
Once we got those, we went to the ice cream store, which had a bit of a queue, and waited patiently for our turn.
Curtis got a coffee flavoured ice cream and Kim got salted caramel. The ice cream was super delicious and we took it to the park and sat on the grass again, in the shade, just relaxing.
We eventually got up and had a bit more of a walk before heading back to the car around 17:50.
Fans, Supermarket & Leftovers
We drove back towards home and stopped at the supermarket but also popped into another store to get a couple of fans (it’s getting warm!) And some screws so we can hang the photo we bought a while ago!
We got back home and had leftovers form yesterday’s delicious Chinese food and then Kim had a shower and got herself ready for work tomorrow. It was too hot to have a bath this week.
Curtis is off work tomorrow, he had been given the day off to recognise National Indigenous Day in Canada, which is a great thing that the company is doing.
We left here and drove to a lake which we thought had a part attached to it, but it didn’t, so we drop up the road a little to an actual park.
The park was more of a dog park and wasn’t actually that good, so we left and drove back towards home instead.
We got back home and relaxed for a bit before we ordered some Chinese food! We have a place opposite us which we don’t believe has been open very long and it sounded like they did good food, so we had to check it out.
The food was a lot like the Chinese food we used to get in England, which is a huge plus for us! They even had the same type of prawn crackers, which we haven’t had for a very long time.
Doesn’t look amazing, but oh it really was!
Once we ate, we went for a nice long evening walk to the beach!
There were a lot of gatherings around, including a band playing to a large crowd, so we made sure to stay away, though it did make a good atmosphere.
The sun was setting so we had some beautiful views and sunlight, which was lovely to see as we were walking.
We watched some TV when we got home and ate ice cream, which we got on the way back home.
Kim went out to get croissants for breakfast and we ate those and then very slowly got ourselves ready for the day.
Here in BC, we are able to travel within our health region, which is quite large, and they no longer suggest not doing so, so we went a little further today!
We drove out towards where we stayed when we first got here, near Burnaby, and walked around a park we’d been to a couple of times.
We walked through the forest areas and almost all of the park. We were met by many squirrels and birds and the weather got way hotter then it was meant to be, which was lovely!
We walked around for a while and then started to need a drink and got a bit too warm, so we headed back towards home.
We needed to go to the supermarket, so we stopped in there on the way back.
After we got home, we did some laundry and vaccuming and then Kim made the teriyaki chicken burgers that she’s made a few times! She made a decent amount of them so we can have them whenever we want without having to make them again!
Kim cooked up the burgers and we had that with sweet potato fries and corn on the cob. A delicious dinner.
We ate and relaxed and then Kim went for a nice relaxing bath.
We watched a little TV after that and then went to bed, ready for work tomorrow.
We woke up fairly late, accidentally, and then had some french toast for breakfast.
Once we were done with breakfast, we watched the Formula 1 race and then got ourselves ready to go out.
We went out for a walk, as usual, but we walked a bit of a different way once we got to the park.
We walked around a lake that is in the park, which was a little quieter, greener and had some herons in the lake that we watched for a bit.
We walked back home and were pretty hungry, so made some dinner when we got back. We had vegetables, egg and chicken on top of rice, which was really nice.
We went out to do the weekly shop, but we also went to Canadian Tire to pickup some new cutlery.
We did our shop and headed back to the car, where there was a bit of an altercation happening. Nothing physical, but we waited with one of the people until the police arrived. That was a bit of excitement for the evening but luckily everyone was ok.
We headed back home and watched a bit of TV, then we did a little bit of reading in Norwegian. Curtis bought Kim a book for her birthday and she took a look at it today and enjoyed reading in Norwegian!
Kim then had a bath whilst Curtis played some games, then we watched some TV for the remainder of the evening.
Curtis’ hockey game last night went extremely well!
His team won 7-0…And Curtis got a goal! That’s 2 points in 3 games so far. Going well!
When Curtis drove home, he managed to scrape the rear wheel arch on a pillar whilst parking back at home. We have an awkward space in our parking lot and Curtis hasn’t had much practice with it…It doesn’t really make much of a difference, and we had one on the opposite side from the person who owned it before us, so now it just matches!
Cinnamon Buns!
We had the cinnamon buns that Kim made for breakfast this morning!
They didn’t grow as much when cooking as Kim wanted, but they were still delicious, especially with the icing and strawberries that Kim made with them!
Murrin Provincial Park
We headed out once we got ready and went to Murrin Provincial Park. This place was not far from where we went last week.
This is a lake but surrounded by hiking trails, and when we got there we weren’t really sure where we were meant to go, so we just started following a trail!
The trail turned out to be a bit of a scramble, but it was really good fun! The weather has certainly got a bit colder, which is great for climbing around and hiking.
We hiked and hiked and got higher and higher until we were right at the top, with a beautiful view of the large lake!
It was pretty windy up there, so we headed down and that began our decent.
We came across some people rock climbing, which was pretty cool to see, but we tried not to distract them so we continued down.
Eventually, we got to the bottom and it was about a 1/2 hour hike in the end which felt good, but it was time for some food!
We drove up to Squamish and got a subway and a coffee (from Starbucks).
We ate our Subway and then drove on home.
Pizza!
Once we got home, we just relaxed for a while and then when we got hungry, we walked up to our local pizza place, Pizza Garden, which makes the most incredible Italian pizza, and grabbed a 4 cheese pizza from there.
It turns out, 4 cheese pizza isn’t what we usually get, so it was a little weird but still pretty tasty!
Once we ate, we watched the film Anna on Amazon Video, then played some games and watched more TV.
We woke up pretty late and Kim had a chat with her family as it was her sister’s birthday today.
Once that was done, we had some breakfast and slowly got ready for the day.
Once we were ready, we drove up to North Vancouver and to Whytecliff Park. We had been in this area before, but not in this specific park.
When we got there, we climbed around some rocks and got some really nice vantage points! It was a pretty nice place but pretty busy for what it was,along it a little bit challenging to get around.
We left here nor too long after we arrived and the weather started to get colder and less nice.
We drove to where we thought another park was, but it turned out just to be a fancy housing estate, so we left here.
We ended up in a place we had been to before and grabbed ourselves a coffee before walking around the seawall.
It was starting to get really windy, cold and feeling like it would rain, so we drove back home.
On the way back, we checked the supermarket to see how busy it is, as it is Thanksgiving weekend here in Vancouver, so everyone will be shopping. Sure enough, it was super busy with a large line, so we decided to come back later.
We headed home and had some pizza for dinner and watched the film Tangled which Kim really wanted to watch.
Once we were done with that, we went out to the shop at around 20:45 to get it done with next to no people there, so it was much faster and easier.
We came back home and played some games and chilled out for the evening.
He did some tickets and then got to do some training in the afternoon as it was quiet, which was great.
Kim’s Day
Kim collected the office visit paperwork, saved it and sent out emails confirming the desks that they can use.
She was then given the task to chase West Coast people for their cocktail choices. She sent out an email to one group and she sent smaller messages to another group. For some people Kim needs a lot of information and for others Kim just needs to know which cocktail they would like.
Today is the day that the new coffee machine is installed! The vendors arrived and set up a big touchless coffee machine. It works by scanning a QR code and ordering a coffee that way, its super cool!
Around logging peoples cocktail choices Kim set up the desks and meeting space for people coming in on Wed, Thurs and Fri. She set up two new hot desks round by the printer. Sprayed all the hot desks with a bleach solution and cleaned down one of the whiteboards. Tomorrow Kim will set up chairs for the meeting and finish cleaning the whiteboards.
To finish the day Kim was able to spend a little time on the quiz, while chasing the final few people for their choices.
Kim had plans this evening! Plans that are outside and with other people! It was very exciting. She got home, changed and left right away! She drove towards the lake where she is meeting some work friends, but when she pulled over to check directions Kim noticed a colleague was stuck as their peddle fell off their bike! So she detoured and picked her up and between the two of them managed to fit her bike in the back of the car. For the rest of the drive over they both wore masks and kept the windows open. Not getting them ‘ronas today!
They made it to the lake and found the two other friends and one of their dogs! Kim was over the moon and spent a lot of the catch-up playing fetch with the dog and it was great! It was so nice to just sit with people and have a chat, in a lovely evening outside. It just seemed so normal. The beat part was that it wasn’t all just work talk too! It was a lovely evening and Kim had a great time.
After this, kim dropped her colleague and her bike at home before heading home herself.
Evening
Whilst Kim was out, Curtis played some games and had pizza for dinner.
After Kim got home, she had some food and we watched a bit of TV.
We didn’t do too much this evening as Kim got back a bit late, but we made sure to play mini golf!
Mr & Mrs Hale 