Spent the weekend with friends in Eau Claire at Joey and Kelly’s Place. This included a whole lot of floating the river.
Transporting the tubes back to the entry point and doing it all over again.
Gold star for tube carrying.
I believe this was the third time down
Here we are, no sunburns yet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FumdvL0ybTA
Second try on flying home. Our flight was a couple hours later than the day before, so we were able to wake up at a much less ridiculous time…around 6:00 instead of 4:00. Our flight left on time and we finally made it home safe and sound.
the 97 degree weather was a shock when we finally landed, but nicki had the air conditioning cranked for us when we got home.
Mission complete. Success.
Well, we woke up at 4am to go home, but things didn’t work out so well, and we ended up staying an extra day at the airport hotel. Long story short, our plane had a broken part, and I guess there wasn’t an available patr anywhere in the country, so one had to be flown in from Dallas or somewhere. In any case , we had a lovely evening in the Sheraton Hotel.
Alyssa ventured off by foot this day to do a little more exploring. We left with grand ideas of museums and sushi and gaslamp districts and more. Our plans were a little more ambitious than we were actually capable of though, and we ended up just doing breakfast and some exploring around the gastown. That turned out to be just fine though. Vancouver is really an excellent town, with a little bit of everything for anybody.
Gastown Steam Clock
One of our stops was to a place called “Salt Tasting Room”. I really wish we had a place like this back home in Minneapolis. Here’s the idea: They have a menu of wine, a menu of cheeses, a menu of meats and a menu of accompaniments such as almonds and honey and olives. You can choose whatever you like from whatever menu you like, but even better, you can just say to them, “give me three delicious wines, and pair it with three perfect cheeses, with a side of whatever tastes incredible with them.”, and they will! It’s like they know the perfect alchemy for making magic in your mouth and they bring it to you at your beckon call. I really want to recreate this again back home.
Our cheese and wine tasting paired with olives, honey and apricots.
In the morning Alyssa and I geared up with Noel and Jasna’s bicycles and Noel led us down to Granville Island where he has his ceramics studio. From there, we ate some of the most amazing fish and chips I’ve ever had at a riverside stand named “Go Fish”, and then went for a bike ride along the sea wall around Stanley Park.
Waiting for our fish tacos at Go Fish at Granville Island
Perhaps My favorite moment was when Alyssa slowly huffed and puffed her bicycle up a hill, passing a little old asian man on the left. He looked over at her as she passed and said, “Ohh, you very strong!”.
Enjoying an ice cream cone after biking up a really long hill in Stanley Park.
We passed a guy balancing rocks on end. I had no idea anybody would spend such time and training learning such a skill, but this guy did, and he’s really really good at it.
This guy takes rock balancing to a level I had never imagined possible.
This is a pretty famous Vancouver landmark. It
In the evening we met up again with Noel and Jasna, and Noel’s sister Meghan and her new husband Sean, and we all went out for dinner. If only I could remember the name of that place… anyway, it was great.