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.
It’s been 5 years or so since we’ve been in the UK so we thought it was time to visit the family and friends in our home land.
We arrived around 11:00, got picked up from the airport by Kim’s dad and then we went back to Kim’s parents’ place to stay.
We showered and went right out to get our first food item that we’ve been wanting to get for a while…A baguette!
There’s a baguette shop in our hometown (Andover) that sells terrific baguettes, so we walked down to get that and have some lunch.
We relaxed for a bit but stopping ourselves from sleeping after the long travel.
We went to see Curtis’ mum and then we both went with her to meet Curtis’ siblings from school and surprise them! They were surprised, as expected, and they both cried!
After picking up the kids from school, we stayed at Curtis’ family’s house for a bit and hung out with them until we got picked up by Kim’s sister, Abbie, and driven back to Kim’s parents’ for some Chinese food!
That was the end of the first day, which was mostly just getting acquainted with the timezone again and eating food.
Day 2 – Andover, UK
We finally got to take the dog out for a walk with Kim’s family. It was nice to see the doggo again too and be able to take a walk around places we used to walk around a lot.
We needed to go to the bank to get some boring admin stuff sorted but it was good to get that done. We had to visit 2 banks in total but we did it all in a day!
There was a bunch of stuff that we had left in the UK that we really needed to sort out. There was a large pile at each of our parents’ houses so we each had a bunch of stuff to sort. We spent a lot of this day sorting Kim’s items and deciding what to keep (which wasn’t much!).
We had some leftover Chinese for dinner and watched a movie.
Day 3 – Andover, UK
It was time for another dog walk! We took the dog out for another nice long walk and had some decent weather too.
We then went out for brunch with Curtis’ parents at a ‘new’ garden centre, which was really tasty and nice to hang out with them.
Before heading out, we stopped in at our first UK shop on our trip so we had a great time walking around there finding all the great snacks and seeing how cheap everything is!
We had to get ourselves a UK SIM card for whilst we’re visiting which we can also use in other countries, so we went into the town to buy one of those.
Curtis then went back to his family home and cleared out his items that he left 5 years ago and mostly just got rid of everything!
In the evening, there was a really lovely family BBQ at Curtis’ family’s house with a lot of his family as well as Kim’s family so it was a really great gathering with great weather.
Day 4 – Andover, UK
We went out for breakfast with Kim’s family down at a local pub and then went out to Basingstoke for some shopping and wandering around! We used to love going there for shopping and a few other things so it was good to see what was there and Kim was able to take a look at a few shoe shops, too, to see if she could find something she needed.
Once the evening came, we met with a bunch of friends and had some drinks and pizza! We hadn’t seen most of them for many, many years so it was a lot of catching up, chatting and having a really good time!
We found it easier to stay in Basingstoke, so we booked in to a Premier Inn, which is one of our favourite chain hotel brands in the UK so we wanted to stay there too!
Day 5 – Andover, UK
We had breakfast out at the pub again on this morning and then we went over to visit Kim’s sister at her house and see the house for the first time which was amazing to see!
We then had a really nice picnic in the garden as it was Kim’s mum’s birthday! This one was of our more relaxed days which was really nice to have.
Day 6 – Andover, UK
This was a day of meeting with our friends!
Kim met with 2 friends separately, Ashleigh & Eloise, and she had a bunch of really great conversations with them!
Whilst Kim did that, Curtis met with Shane, who was his best man at his wedding. He had lunch with him, and some drinks which was great to catch up. There was a lot to talk about.
We went out to Curtis’ auntie’s house to see her and her family and it was very, very nice to see them.
Dinner was at Curtis’ family’s house which was really nice to get some time with them and Curtis got some home cooking from mum!
Day 7 – London, UK
We took the train to London in the morning which was exciting! We love taking the train and it was super easy from where we used to live.
We did some walking around/shopping, as you do in London, before we went to meet Kim’s cousin, Bethany, in Camden!
Kim used to love going to Camden so we went there to go to the food market with her cousin, who is super lovely and we had a great time chatting and wandering around with her.
Once we finished up with Bethany, we took a train to a place we’d never been to before called Kingston. We met with a friend who lives there and had some dinner with her as well as a nice walk along the river.
We had to take a couple of trains to get back to Andover but we were close to the final train so we had to get a move on and do that! It took a while but we were able to get back home for some sleep after a really busy but amazing day!
We were away for a long time, so this is just part one, but it’s been a while since there were any blogs, but enjoy!
Well hello! It’s been a while, as expected, but we have some recap to do!
Christmas happened and we had no plans, but that was great. We had a nice veggie roast and had some chats with our families throughout the day.
Snowboarding
Kim went out snowboarding with a colleague. They went for an evening and got back fairly late, but had a really fun time! Kim basically had to re-learn from scratch, but her friend was happy to teach her again.
Kim loved it so much and is going again this coming Tuesday!
Another Dog!
We fostered another dog! August, the previous dog, went on to a long term foster and we didn’t have a dog for a bit, but then we went down to the boarder to pick up Harper!
He’s a very good boy! He’s a German Shepherd, Husky, Malamute & retriever mix!
Very lovable dog who loves cuddles and we’ve loved having him around.
We took him out to Steveston today. He loves car rides and seemed to enjoy Steveston and meeting all the dogs. We let him run around a bit (on the lead) and he was having a great time.
A New Job!
Curtis is starting a new job in a week!
Curtis will be joining Legible, where Kim works, as their solo IT person (as a Senior IT Specialist). He’s very excited and glad to be able to get in and help them out with IT and also advance his career!
On Saturday, Curtis was up at a good time to go and get a haircut. He had a really great barber, actually! She was new at the shop but she was very nice and did a great job. Curtis’ll definately be going back to her for his next cut.
Right after that, Curtis walked back home and met Kim, before we walked for about 30 minutes to get to a park for a BBQ with Curtis’ hockey team which the team organised!
Not too many people turned up, but it was nice to have a bit of down time in the blistering sun, eat some food and have some drinks.
We headed back home and Kim went out to get a few items at some stores and Curtis watched the first Leafs pre season game!
Sunday 26 September 2021
On Sundaymorning, we were up early and got ourselves some croissants for breakfast.
We left the apartment into the lovely rain and drove for about an hour up to Langley to a farm!
Kim had booked an alpaca walking experience for us both as Curtis’ favourite animal is the alpaca.
We got there and were handed an alpaca right away. We were able to walk them for a bit and then we got to a field where we met many more alpacas and got to feed them whilst we learned all about them.
We got to see the pigs, chickens & rabbits followed by some cows that came to say hello!
We headed back home after we were there for a while and once we got back we were pretty hungry, so we went out for an impromptu late lunch!
We went to Water St Cafe, which is down in Gastown.
We may have got far too much food, though on the plus side, we had dinner for the next night!
We got some mixed breads along with a cheese caprise, which was very delicious. The bread was really good too.
We finished that and for some reason, we order a meal each. Kim got a carbonara and Curtis got meatball pasta.
We had very little of our meals as it was a little too much for us! But we did have a few drinks which were delicious.
We walked back home in the rain and when we got home we did some relaxing for the remainder of the evening.
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.
We woke up and slowly got ourselves ready. We didn’t sleep well at all last night, so it was a slow morning.
We had some breakfast after we showered and then we relaxed for the rest of the morning.
At 12:30, we left to drive up to Sidney. Linda wanted to go back there after not being there for a while, so we took her there for a wander.
We got a coffee and a treat from the bakery and enjoyed those before walking to the waterside and enjoying the weather and the sea.
We managed to see a beautiful seal, until someone scared it away!
We then sat for a couple of hours facing the water just enjoying the scenery and enjoying people watching. There were a lot of kids playing around us, so it was fun to watch them.
We eventually got hungry so we headed back to the car and got on our way to the place Linda had booked for dinner.
We had planned to meet Linda’s friends, Dee & Steve, there (we know they read the blog…Hello!) But they were unable to attend, so we just went with the three of us.
Kim got a chicken burger and Curtis got a burger and they were alright!
Kim had a chocolate brownie for dessert and then we drove back home.
Curtis was pretty tired as he didn’t sleep well at all last night, so he had a little lay down and Kim did a bit of research for some things.
We didn’t do too much for the rest of the evening, just relaxed and chatted, really!
Kim did go out and check out Ogden Point, which she likes to do when here.
We woke up after sleeping very early last night and felt very well rested.
We had some cereal for breakfast and Kim then went out for a hot stone massage! She really enjoyed it, actually. She felt like jelly!
Mattick’s Farm
Kim got back and we went out to Mattick’s Farm.
This was only about 20 minutes away and once we got there, it was coffee time!
They had a restaurant and tea room, so we went to the tea room and got ourselves coffee and snacks. Curtis got a cinnamon bun and Kim had a tuna and mayonnaise sandwich.
We left here and went to play mini golf! They had a mini golf place at the farm, so we took Linda to play her first round ever!
The game was pretty close, actually, with Curtis coming out with the win in the end.
We really enjoyed that, actually, and it wasn’t really in the sun either, which was good for us.
We drove back toward Victoria and on the way, we stopped at a supermarket which is known for really cheap fresh fruit and vegetables, so we got in there and got some produce there.
Delicious Dinner
We got back home and relaxed for an hour or so and then we went to a restaurant that Linda has been visiting for a long while.
Curtis and Linda shared a ceasar salad and Kim had a French onion soup, which was her first time trying! She really enjoyed it actually, though it was a lot for her!
Curtis had a steak which came with potatoes and veg and Kim had chicken marsala with mushrooms and veg, too.
We really enjoyed our dinner and were perfectly full.
We headed back home and had some strawberries which Linda bought at the veg store today.
Drinks With Another Friend
We went for drinks with a friend of Kim’s from work just down at the brown’s social house in Victoria.
Curtis hadn’t met her before and Kim hadn’t met her in person but we had a good chat and a drink before heading back home to Linda’s.
We’re heading out again tomorrow, so that should be fun!
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.
We work up at a good time again and Kim went out to get us breakfast.
We ate our breakfast and slowly got ready and managed to head out around 11:00.
We drove out to Forbidden Plateau which took us about 1 hour and 30 mins.
Forbidden Plateau used to be a ski resort but now it’s a short hike which allows everyone to get a great view of the water and surrounding areas. It was really quite beautiful!
‘Medicine Bowls’
We drove back down the road we came and took a sharp left to head down towards medicine bowls. This is a small waterfall with rock pools that people jump into and also just swim in. We didn’t have much interest in doing either, because it’s cold and jumping in is scary, but we walked to take a look.
We parked up in a safe location as, unless you have a truck, it’s not possible to drive the entire way there.
We walked for about 20 minutes to make it to the pools. There was a little hike involved but it was beautiful!
We really, really enjoyed this area! We were there for way longer than we expected but we just enjoyed looking at the water, sitting down and relaxing and just enjoying the quiet.
We walked back to the car and saw someone try and drive through the part just beyond where we parked where it was not really possible to drive and they scraped/damaged the bottom of their car!
Beer & Snacks
We drove form here to the nearby town Courtenay, where we had actually been before when we visited Comox in the winter a couple of years ago. We got ourselves a beer at a brewery and relaxed.
We left there and walked to a restaurant to get a quick snack. The snack turned into a huge meal and we really didn’t want that much food. We ate what we could and then we drove back to the hotel, which took about 1 hour 10 minutes.
We were tired, as expected, so we relaxed for a bit at the hotel and then went out to get some snacks and drinks for the evening.
We leave this area tomorrow and head out to a new area to do very little, though!
Mr & Mrs Hale 