It is a sunny Saturday morning and I am taking the time to write my first post from BC. It has been a whirlwind of shopping and tourist attractions thus far. The trip here was long but, thanks to technology, not too boring. I played the sims on my laptop, listened to an audiobook on my ipod and took advantage of the TV screen on the seat in front of me.
On our first day, Vero had some free time and we went to explore Gastown. We took the Skytrain to get downtown from our Richmond hotel. The Skytrain is easy to use and very efficient. We are here at the right time because the "Canada Line" from Richmond opened less than a month ago! Gastown is full of tiny shops mostly overflowing with Olympic merchandise. There were some neat trendy stores as well that reminded us of our friend Geneviève who is an interior designer. (You can see her blog here: http://genevieve-interiordesign.blogspot.com/)
From that point on Vero was pretty busy and I was on my own. I have family on both my mother's and father's side here in the city so I spent some time with them yesterday and the day before. Thursday night my cousin Heather and my uncle Don took me to a restaurant they frequent called "Sala Thai" They knew the menu and ordered some dishes for us to share. It was delicious and it was so wonderful to catch up with family I had not seen in years. Good beer, food and of course great conversation. It was a perfect night!
Yesterday I met up with aunt Trudy, aunt Andrea and cousin Andrew. I took the Skytrain to the Waterfront station where they picked me up. We drove to Whistler and I was in awe of the beauty of this province! I didn't know what to expect at Whistler, I had never been to any of the major Canadian ski resort towns. So cute and better shopping than any mall anywhere near PEI! There was snow in the mountains and we could see the construction going on where the medal podiums will be. The drive there and back was breathtaking and Trudy was kind enough to stop and show us some scenic places and let me take some photos. We went for supper in Chinatown and had a great meal. Trudy and Andrea brought me back to my hotel and I dropped! I am so tired at night with the time change and all. We will have supper with them and lots more of the family next Friday. Looking forward to that too!!
Today will involve a bit of shopping at the Richmond centre this morning and a walk (and maybe a bit more shopping) on Robson street with Vero. I better get started on that now! I'll leave you with a little picture where you can see the grass from some of the ski runs at Whistler.
