Bellingham to Bellevue. Downtown Seattle.

Sunday - Bellingham to Bellevue
I swear we always intend to get up early and arrive at our next destination with loads of time and motivation to go and do stuff.

But once we're out of bed, the endless messing around begins. Someone takes forever to do her make-up as well. No idea why it's necessary when you're driving a giant brown turd, but hey, who am I to question the mysterious workings of the Lord.

Our trip from Bellingham to Bellevue was more-or-less uneventful. There was a slight navigational glitch (that is, someone wasn't paying attention to where we were going) and we ended up driving down these tiny, steep back-streets. I wasn't super-keen on towing the Jeep around, so we unhitched for safety.

The turd is surprisingly nimble when it's not towing another ton and a half. Not exactly a drag racer, but it's noticeably quicker and more manoeuvrable.

The RV park we're staying at is a bit more trashy than we're used to. There's obviously a fair few long-term stayers here, due to its close proximity to Seattle. It's pretty pricey for a US facility too. Oh well, at least it's close.

We arrived feeling fairly unmotivated I think. Could have been the amount of Corona we drank the night before I suppose, but I doubt it.

So I cooked corned beef. It was nice, but I wasn't happy with my mustard sauce.
Kat's previous effort was far superior. I lose.

Monday - Downtown Seattle
When we arose (early) this morning for our full day of sightseeing, it was raining.

I was a bit despondent at this, but by around 09:30 it had stopped, and the regional radar looked like it was going to be clear for the rest of the day.

Here's a concept for you - Park and Ride. Why the fuck don't we have this? We drove up the road to a freaking huge multi-story parking lot, and jumped on the bus and headed downtown.

This has a few advantages that I can see.

1. You need less stops, so your freaking bus ride doesn't take so long.
2. People are more likely to catch the bus when they only have to walk 50m to the stop, rather than 10 miles uphill both ways.
3. More people on bus equals less congestion on road.

Un-freaking-believable, that the AMERICANS could be doing something better than us.

If we DO have this facility and I am in fact talking shit about something I know nothing about, I apologise profusely.

Anyhoo. It was a nice bus ride into town.

I had decided we were going to buy a cheap point-and-shoot camera to carry around everywhere with us, so I didn't bring my camera today. Turns out the camera I had been looking at wasn't so cheap, and I baulked at the idea of spending $300 for some convenience factor bullshit.

So... no pictures. I no bore you with what we did in detail, but we walked ALL OVER downtown Seattle. It seems like a very cool city. The waterfront strip is great, and Pike Place Market (and the surrounding streets) look like they have some excellent gourmet shit for one to purchase.

We returned to the turd around 3pm to rest, and then headed out to get some MALL ACTION.
Man it's been ages since I've been in a mall. Surprisingly this one wasn't offensive at all.

Actually we were there for a reason, not just for hanging out (we're looking for new hiking shoes).

There was a distinct lack of rugged-outdoorsmen shops which was disappointing. Frankly their sport shoe selection was shite. Accidentally we exited the mall and found an excellent outdoor shop.

Pity they didn't have things in Kat's size.

I however am the proud owner of some new shoes to replace my poor Nike's which fell apart in FL.

Not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but no doubt it will be EQUALLY AS GRIPPING as this episode. Stay tuned, butt cheeks clenched, for tomorrow's heart-pounding roller-coaster ride through the malls of the USA.

Oh, by the way - dirty little Chung was online today - go look at his pictures here. They are very nice. He make me annoyed when he take pictures because his little pure-bred Asian eyes must be better than mine.

Good thing he's too lazy to post many of them.

Important things to remember when crossing a border

There are a few things that I like to check before crossing an international border.

1. Passport
2. Visa
3. Pants (it's important to wear pants I believe)

Unfortunately someone neglected to check one of the above items before we crossed the border into the USA. I'll give you a hint, it wasn't me, and it wasn't items 1 or 3.

Of course, having assumed that everyone's visas were in order, I had come completely unprepared to provide any documentation proving we weren't Mexican and intending to stay in the country and work for below-minimum wage. So we spent a delightful 2 or so hours in the border post at Blaine until finally, it was sort of ok.

So Kat now has until July 24th to leave the USA, which kind of throws a bit of a spanner in the works, but we'll get it sorted.... at least they let us in to the country, otherwise we could have been hanging around Vancouver for a while.

Ironically, we only made it to Bellingham - we'd discussed staying there, but decided to press onto Seattle. Fate obviously decided otherwise.

Friday is the most important day of the week, because the last season of Battlestar Galactica is running. I decided to tackle the job of setting up the satellite dish. Man was that fun. The compass we got in our "satellite finder kit" has got to be the shittiest compass in the universe, and I couldn't figure out how to make the satellite finder thing work properly. All it does it make a loud, high-pitched noise, which is guaranteed to annoy you while you try to work.

A couple of hours later, and with 40 minutes to spare, I managed to get it up and running.

Man is BSG good this season. I have no idea how they're going to finish it off and maintain the intensity of the first few episodes. I guess if we have to wait until 2009 for the last half of the season they have plenty of time to get it right.

Given we were already here, we decided to stay in Bellingham and check it out the next day, and I'm glad we did, because it's a pretty nice place. We drove to downtown and wandered around. There was a farmers market in progress (with a little too much market, and not enough farming) and you could smell the ecologically friendly stench of affluence. Katmandu clothing anyone?

I'm not sure why, but there's tulips everywhere. It's very pretty.


There was a nice condominium development with tulips in boxes out the front.


More tulips.


Tulip with wasp.


We walked from downtown to Fairhaven, which is about 4 miles, and stopped on a park bench to have some lunch in the sun. It was very pleasant.

No this is not a picture of a discarded wheel from the turd.


Of course the RV parts place was closed, so STILL no hope in sight of fixing the bloody plumbing.

Today (Sunday) we're heading down to Seattle!

Giant Catch-Up Post

Despite what it says on their website you may have noticed that Capilano RV Park does NOT have internet access. At least, they don't from the shelter of your mid-80's RV. Apparently they do, but people had been losing money in it, so I assume it was some coin operated job - not particularly useful for a professional like myself.

Anyway on with the show - this is going to be a bit of a long one, so I'd grab a cup of coffee (or something stronger if you prefer).....

Monday – Pre-Flight Checking, Tom’s Never-ending Cellar
Monday was a pretty busy day as we readied the Turd for flight.

I started work on the poo-valve, to discover that the entire fitting that merges everything ready to be piped out into the ground is all cracked and messed up (my guess is that someone stuck it back together at some point to fix it rather than replacing it) so I have to buy a new one. Ripper.

So even though I didn’t get to mess around with the poo, the day just seemed to fly by. There was heaps of stuff to be sorted through, and we cut up all the plywood skirting that I’d made at the beginning of the season.

Ian (one of the ripping Riverside staff) lent us a rotary saw, which made pretty quick work out of the plywood. I love power tools. They’re load, and they make work easier. What more can a man ask for?

So as the afternoon drew to a close, we started up the fire pit and fired up the Weber. Tom popped over with some warm brie which he’d stuffed with garlic and some bottles from his seemingly endless cellar of his own wines (and ports mind you).

Above is one of the last pieces of snow left around the turd. You will see this piece featured later on.....

So as the light faded we had some brie, grilled some steak, and drank many bottles of wine, beer and port. We had visitors from all over the campground, including some good ole’ boys from Georgia who were taking their million dollar RV up to Alaska.

Our other neighbour Bob popped in (six-pack and McDonalds in hand) to round off the evening and finally as the wee hour of 1AM rolled around we stumbled into bed.

Oh, and I took pictures. Here's some of them now....

I agree this picture is boring - but it is only included to counterpoint previous pictures of how snowy everything was. By the time I write this, it's probably getting close to vanishing.

These poor souls are from Woodalls (the campground guide). Hope they didn't mind the smoke!

Our last sunset in Whistler!

I got a bit camera happy around the fire. There are many, many, many pictures of flames. I present only a few so as not to bore you to death. I like this one. It kind of looks evil.

I had the idea of lighting Tom and Kat with the flash, but still making a long enough exposure to do something nice with the fire. Pity I don't have an off-camera flash though!
I don't need to talk about these, they're just pictures of fire. Still I think they're kind of interesting.


...and the last one. I ceremoniously popped the last bit of snow on top of the bonfire.... rest in peace snow season 07/08!

Tuesday – Flight of the Turd
So a little worse for wear the morning of reckoning arrived.
We conducted our final pre-flight packing, including the stowing of the TV.

In the early afternoon we fired her up for a little shakedown run to the gas station to get some propane, inflate the air ride suspension and check the tire pressures.

There are two rear wheels on each side on the turd, and I had an issue filling the inner tire – I’m pretty sure it was because the inflator connection at the gas station was too short - but I think something like this could be the ticket!

I will try to purchase something like this ASAP before we’ve driven too far.

The Jeep was successfully docked to the Turd at approximately 14:00, and with a little sadness and a little apprehension we commenced our launch.

After a bit of a problem getting the hitch to lock into place, we were all sorted and on our way down the Sea to Sky highway – which is undergoing construction along its entire length for the 2010 Olympics – so in places the road is in fairly poor condition.

I’m pleased to report though, that the Turd made it to Vancouver easily – the oil and filter change on the weekend seems to have helped a bit – the giant 454 was purring along nicely.

Capilano RV Park was a little difficult to get to, even though we knew roughly where it was – Mr. GPS got a bit confused and I swore at him a few times before we made it to the entrance.

We were surprised at how much the nightly rate was (CAD40). Oh well, such is life I suppose.

We headed out to dinner with Jacquie at Red Pepper (the restaurant that you might remember I went to when in Vancouver waiting for China Mike) which wasn’t bad, although a little oilier than last time. Jacquie was just starting a 30+ hour drive to the Yukon. Better her than me I say!

Sadly, it was then time for bed. I’m sure it wasn’t even 22:00

Wednesday - Bikes, Aquarium, Stanley Park, Gastown
You may remember we actually purchased bikes in Florida.

I hadn’t ridden mine until now, so we decided to ride across the Lions Gate Bridge to Stanley Park and the Vancouver Acquarium.

Jacquie had told us it was a “short walk”. I’m not sure about that – I’m going to vote that from the campground to the aquarium would be more like an hour to an hour and a half.

For me who hadn’t ridden a bike since being in Melbourne, it was like climbing a freaking mountain. I had to pause a few times on the way over lest my heart actually explode out of my ribcage. The bridge seemed to go uphill forever.

An old lady with a walking frame could probably have powered past me. In fact, I'm sure one did.

Thankfully there was a long downhill stretch to Stanley Park. I believe it’s the biggest urban park in North America (if not the world). Alas, yesterday it was cold and tending to rain, so we weren’t super enthusiastic about wandering around it.

We arrived at the aquarium, and had a nice sit-down. Phew.


There was a cool First Nations sculpture out the front. I was only able to get a nice abstract detail shot of it. Shame, shame, shame.

The first thing we saw were giant man-eating seagulls. I’m not sure if they were REALLY man-eating, but they were big enough to take you out if there was a few of them and they were really keen on the food you had in your hand.

There were also some industrious blackbirds – one of them was smart enough o pick up the whole tray of leftover fries, and carry them to the roof where he could dine in peace.

All things being equal the aquarium was pretty cool. I especially liked the exhibit which had recreated local spots around Vancouver Island, showcasing the wildlife and conditions that exist at various places.

It made me want to dive again. I wish we had a bit more time here (and our equipment).

We started the long ride home. On this leg I felt much stronger, but Kat was a bit tired. It started to rain a bit, so we were pretty happy when we arrived back at the Turd.

That evening we headed down to Gastown to indulge in some Indian.

Gastown was strange. It reminded us a bit of Collingwood/Fitzroy. Lots of cool stuff, but jam-packed with crazies and hobos. Oh, and no parking either. Sound familiar?

Indian wasn’t too bad, but expensive - $100 for two people is a bit ridiculous, especially since we had one beer each. Won’t be doing that too often. At least we have leftovers for another meal.

Thursday – Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden
Despite not being yellow, Kat thought it would be nice to go to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden. A bit of tranquility never goes astray I suppose, so we trundled off down to Chinatown.

Not surprisingly Chinatown during the day is nicer than Chinatown at night. Still there are many hobos and drug dealers, but hey, as a man who lived in Richmond/Abbotsford/Collingwood for such a long time I should be used to that shit, right?

Anyhoo, Kat drank the magic Chinese Tea and thought she was a hamster!


Like a portal to another world...........


Kat and friend.....


The themes for the day were shooting through windows/doorways/arches and a bit of documentary style photography of the windows (which are all different).


I think this post is long enough as it is, so.... here's a link to the Chinese Garden Gallery!

*** PICS ARE NOW UPLOADED!!! WAAHAHHAHAHA CORONA!!! ***

Well I think that's enough for this post. Tomorrow I'll post the amazing adventures of the girl who didn't check to see whether her visa was still current before crossing the border into a new country. It's a nice children's tale.

G'night!

Quick Update - Vancouver, BC

I'm very pleased to come at you live and direct on some kind soul's unsecured wireless.

A very quick update to say that we made it down from Whistler in one piece - the Turd was running nice and strong - I think the oil change has done wonders for the beast.

A full press release will be available when we cross the border into the USA and have legitimate (and faster) internet access.

Until then, rock on!

Mount Shut

I can't believe it, at 4:00PM this afternoon Whistler Mountain is closing... it's also my final day of work at Whistler Village Guest Relations.

Bit by bit we're having to say goodbye to our work buddies as they make the trip back home or onto their next destination. I'm not looking forward to seeing off the girls. I'll be all teary.

This is a photo of where I work. The octagon shaped building is Excalibur Tickets and the building with the blue roof is G1 Whistler Village where I spend most of my time.


It's not busy today so we're spending our last few hours eating sour lollies that Beth's mum brought over from South Africa and drinking beer on the job, cleverly disguised in Coca Cola cups. We're going to hit the Longhorn for post work drinks and apres (The longhorn is also in the photo - it's the place with the red umbrella's out front) I'm sure we'll have another little send off before we go, but tonight it's going to hit us that it's pretty much over.


Big Sigh. It's been fun here.


Kat

Sick, Dinner, Sick, Turd

Man what a week it's been.

I have no idea what I've been sick with, but night-time has been a nightmare for me.

I'll go to sleep OK, but wake up an hour later, sweating so much that I'm scared I've wet the bed.

I've also been biting my tongue and cheek when I've been asleep, and somehow have been managing to snore while lying on my front. I've also been kind of delirious with strange half-waking dreams.

I've watched documentaries on corn production, first world healthcare systems, the history of photography, and countless hours of other random stuff.

What a super way to end the season.

Anyway. Enough complaining. On Thursday night we had dinner with Tom and Barb some of our neighbours in the campground. Turns out they used to make their own wines (and port) so there was plenty of vino flowing. A very pleasant evening indeed.

Of course, this led to more sickness on Friday, and Friday night. Someone went out partying.
I stayed home like a good housewife.

Saturday morning I felt kind of OK, so changed the oil in the turd.
That's of course what you do when you're feeling better, when you're Mr. Rugged like myself.

Can you believe it though kids, there are now only TWO MORE SLEEPS until we're on the road again. I can't believe it's over, and I'm wondering what I'll do with myself without a board or fins strapped to my feet. I know, bicycle! YEAH!!!

Quicksilver Snowboard Camp

It's almost season end so we decided to make the most of a good opportunity to improve our already mad skills, and attend a two day Freeride/ Freestyle Snowboard Camp.

The conditions for Camp Day 1 were pretty rough. Visibility was bad and the snow which had melted the day before had frozen solid over night. The few cms of fresh snow did nothing to conceal the crud beneath. Leigh rented a smaller/ softer park board for the camp and had to get used to it's handling in the challenging conditions.

We had four in our group and Ross our instructor took us straight into the Park. After some warm up ollies off the park rollers we headed to the kickers. We did some small hits first to practise our technique and then Ross took us off to the bigger kickers.

I think we have only ever hit the medium kickers a couple of times on powder days when you're not so fussed about hurting yourself. They're pretty scary. Ross told us to match his speed to make sure we cleared the knuckle (flat section of the jump) just after you leave the lip. You have to clear the knuckle before you make to the transition which is the downward landing. This is also scary.. The transition, apart from being solid ice sits at about 90 degrees. We learnt later in the day that one of the guys in the other group broke his shoulder after landing on the knuckle section on one of the M jumps in the park.


One guy in our group (Dennis) was actually screaming from a combination of fear and exhilaration as he went over for the first time. Gareth didn't make an attempt but Leigh and I were up for it. Leigh had trouble with the new board, he couldn't line it up very well due to it's high degree of flex. I tried swapping boards with him later in the day and oh boy was it a piece of crap.

So we hit these for most of the day and our goal was to hit all three kickers in a row. This was a pretty ambitious goal. Once you stuffed your heart back down your throat after landing the first jump, you had about 2 seconds to man up for the next jump. We really learnt that it's all about commitment. Before you drop in you have to have already decided to go hard or you're likely to freak out as soon as you approach and the last thing you want is to start flapping in the air off a 20 ft jump. I had one fall after getting some massive air off the second kicker. I landed the jump but then caught and edge on the transition and slid down feet first jarring my ankles and grazing my chin. Battle scar of sorts that I'm pretty proud of.

This is some random person in the photo (we didn't have a camera) but I just wanted to show you the actual Terrain Park we were hitting.

Day two and Leigh has come down with a really bad fever. He was in a cold sweat and state of delirium so I had to go it alone. We did some fantastic steeps off the Blackcomb glacier in the morning and once we had warmed up we hit the Blackcomb terrain garden. The kickers and features are smaller in there and we were all pretty traumatised after our adventures in the Whistler Park yesterday. Nailed the small features, confidence - check. Time for the big kids park.

Now it was time to attempt some Large sized features like the hips. The hip in the picture is actually pretty small. The ones we hit were about 4m tall. The idea is to ride straight up the front, get some hang time, and then change your rotation and land down the side. Takes some practise to get your rotation right. These aren't nearly as terrifying as the big jumps but they require you to think more about your landing and mid air rotations.


I hit some more Medium jumps, none of the guys were keen to try them again. Yeah!!

At lunch we sat and had lunch on the same table as snowboarding legend JP Walker who I used to watch in snowboarding DVD's when I first started riding. He was a really cool guy so this kind of made my day.

After lunch Gareth went home so it was just Dennis, Ross and myself. We were exhausted from riding so hard so we did some Boarder cross racing and focused some more on our spins and 180's as we rode around Blackcomb in the sun pretty much hitting every bump we came across.

All in all it was such a great experience. We felt what it was like to be pushed completely out of our comfort zone. I have a new appreciation for guys and girls who nail it because they work so hard. The mind really has alot to do with it at this level. I think I have a new perspective of my own capabilities too.

Kat

Demo Day, Injuries, Poor Performance

Friday was S U P E R demo day. We rose S U P E R early and made it up to the Roundhouse by just after 0900. Amazing. I was a little disappointed that there was no LibTech tent though. Oh well.

So we rode some boards.

I managed to get on the K2 Darkstar, Ride DH, Society and Concept UL.
Kat rode the Ride Fever and I think the Vista, and had a few spectacular accidents.

To recap: the Vapor is super stuff, therefore to flex it you have to apply tons of brute force. The Fever is a park/jib board, so is super flexible which means if you apply heaps of force, it will flex a lot. Nonetheless the tail-press 180 turned into a tail stand which turned into a flipping over. It was pretty funny to watch, but the consequences were no good.

There is now an issue with her ribs, hopefully it's just bruising and not a small fracture. Good thing she has a cough as well, because I'm sure that's pleasant.

It was great to ride some different boards. Irritatingly I think I liked all of them comfort-wise more than the Vapor. I had my first ride on a bigger board (the Concept UL was a 161) which was S U P E R cool for ripping out massive carves. If I was to have multiple boards, I would definitely have a big board for surfing the pow and bombing at warp speed down the piste runs.

Next Friday there's another demo day, which I shall be using to full advantage. Must arrive earlier. MUST ARRIVE EARLIER.

So Friday afternoon we hooked up with Jacqui and Co for some post-shred beers.

For me at least, this quickly got out of control. My first (of many) steps down the road to perdition had been taken!

We gave some Swiss dudes a lift to the village, and then headed up to The Ghetto (a.k.a. staff housing). At this point the evening gets a bit blurry. I remember (vaguely) smokin' a doobie with Loulie's room mate, packing my horn, and chewing a vitamin tablet.

At some point after this I apparently decided to go for a walk, get lost, get picked up, and get put to bed. I like to call this "Euan Style", and boy did I rock it out. Apparently anyway, for I have no recollection your honour. To top it all off, I forgot to record BSG. WTF?! IDIOT!!

I'd foolishly agreed to work on Saturday, so I did. It was slow, and was pretty nice to hang out with the boys in the sun. Ahh if only I could have stopped shaking. Teehee.

Tomorrow and Tuesday are SNOWBOARD CAMP days. w00ty!

Bad Mood

Well Monday and Tuesday this week sucked ass. My skills were nearly non-existent.
Wednesday was better, but after the successes of last week, a bit of a let down.

Today I also sucked a bit. Still trying to make it over the M size kickers. Technically I am making it over them, but lacking the speed to clear the step down. I think I managed to go fast enough on one of them, but bailed the landing. It's a fuckin' mission working up the balls to hit them fast enough.

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe never. Maybe I suck.

What is MOST pissing me off today though, is the fact that Sean's brother David, from whom we bought the turd, is now claiming that he thought that we were going to give it back to him, basically for free.

So the scenario goes a little something like this:
1. We buy The Turd(tm) from David.
2. He gets USD8000, pays off his loan, and lives happily ever after.
3. When we're done, we give him the RV back. For nothing.

WTF?! This makes NO FUCKING SENSE at all to me. Sorry Daniel, I'm still ranting about this.
Why would anyone in their right mind (or us) agree to this arrangement?!

I mean we bought the turd for a few reasons.
1. It was easy.
2. It was going to be easy to sell.
3. It was pretty cheap.
4. David needed the money.

I mean this was supposed to be a win-win situation for everyone, not a case where we pay off David's debt out of the goodness of our own hearts.

Thankfully we own the turd, and have the title to prove it. So sadly for everyone else, we hold all the cards. But this feels like a situation that could easily get out of control and end badly for everyone.

Anyway. Tomorrow there's a big demo day as part of the Telus World Ski & Snowboard festival, so hopefully we'll get to try out a few 2009 boards and figure out whether there's any candidates.

Peash.

Good Mood

Man I am in a super good mood today. Have a break from work (even here) has really left me pretty refreshed, so I had a great day there yesterday. Being paid probably helps too.

Goin' to have some breakfast and head up the mountain. Ripper!

You know what's weird though, there are, as of today (Monday) only 2 weeks to go until we leave Whistler for good.... despite my bout of wanting to leave in February, I think I'll be sad to ride into the sunset.

Pre-Work Funnies

Someone managed to put the alarm clock an hour forward between yesterday and this morning.

This means we were both up an hour early, but neither of us noticed this - even though there are three other clocks in the turd.

Thus Kat arrived at work one hour in advance. Thankfully, I will not be.

It's snowing. Yay.

Indie Grab, 180, BSG

Finally another trick to add to my arsenal of .. err.. 1.

I managed to pull off my first indie grab over a kicker yesterday. Yeah!

For those who are not in the know, this is where you grab the toe edge of your board, with your back hand.

Anyhoo. I also kind of managed (or is that mangled) a frontside 180. Wasn't very impressive though. Will work on it this week. Look forward to my broken limbs shortly.

Last night we tuned into the first episode of Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica. The long hiatus certainly hasn't affected the power of the show, but hey - you can watch it yourself.

Looks like I'm *shock horror* working tomorrow. What the? That's not right! There I was enjoying the luxury of being a kept man, but now the dream is over. *sob*.

Cypress, Vancouver, Mike China

It's been a while since my last update, as we were in Vancouver, and then entertaining the world famous Mike China.

** WARNING - This is a very long update. There are pictures though, so if you prefer to watch, scroll down :-) **

Cypress Mountain Day 1 (Thursday)
Cypress is in fact in West Vancouver. This must be very cool for Vancouverites, as it's only a short drive over the Lions Gate Bridge. It also gets around double the snow of Whistler as well, their current base is nearly five meters.

Alas, it's also much smaller than Whistler - the first sign of this was the fact that I was unable to buy tickets for more than one day at a time! The second sign was the fact that we could ride from the very top to the very bottom in about 5 minutes. After the vast expanse that is Whistler/Blackcomb, it was pretty funny.

We had a lot of fun there - despite its small size, it has some great tree runs, and the "Glades" and
"Top Gun" runs were awesome. Unfortunately the visibility was terrible, so I didn't get any photos.

I have decided that noone in Vancouver has any excuse not to be good at snow sports. With three mountains within an hours drive, and Whistler within 2.5 hours you have the perfect setting for a life of ripping.

The hotel wasn't too bad either - it looked a bit dilapidated from the outside, and the room initially had a bit of old-person smell, but the bed was king sized (and very comfortable) and it had a fridge for the beer.

Chinatown
After months of no Chinese food I was pretty fired up for our visit to Chinatown.

Except, it sucked.

We walked around for ages, couldn't find any restaurants that were open, and were confronted by many of Vancouver's finest crazies. It seems that British Columbia (much like our home Victoria) has closed many of its mental health facilities, leaving those who used to reside them to wander the streets. A little disturbing to be honest.

We had to jump back in the Jeep and head to another suburb before we died of hunger.
We found a Singaporean restaurant (that turned out to be more of a generic asian experiance). Coincidentally we had ventured out during some kind of charity night, so Kat entered a competition to win $2500 of vouchers, and received a free tea cup. Woo!

Cypress Mountain Day 2 (Friday)
Another great day. Kat had to get the Greyhound back to Whister ready for work on Saturday, while I hung around in Vancouver awaiting the arrival of Mike China.

Finally however, I managed to get some decent Chinese food. We had tried to go to a restaurant in North Vancouver on Thursday night (but it was closed and opening on Friday). I headed there with Jacqui and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. The Ma Po Tofu was excellent, and it was a delight to eat Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) again after what feels like about 10 years.

If you're ever in North Vancouver, you should defiantly check out Red Chilli Szechuan Cuisine (741 Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver -604-986-2088). Excellent.

Vancouver (Saturday)
I don't know whether you've ever been in a city with no plans, no guide book, and no clues. I don't recommend it. I spent a whole day in downtown Vancouver, and it was pretty boring. Partly my own fault, and partly due to the fact that it felt very much like Sydney's CBD on the weekends. Oh well.

Finally it was time to head to Vancouver airport, and await the arrival of Mike. The plane from Denver was a little late, but nothing dramatic. A couple of hours later (through a near white-out on the road) we arrived at the Turd. Thankfully the two beers that I had in the back of the Jeep were still kind of cold, so we had them, and hit the sack.

Riding
Finally I took the camera up to the mountain. Of course the sky was not blue, but hey.

Here's our guest, looking very dashing.


I was surprised that after 2 years of not riding, Mike was pretty darn good at it.


Kat was grumpy, but still looked good in the trees.


Gettin' some lean in...


...and a little more. Great lookin' jacket. Good thing it's mine!


Despite grumpiness, there was still a little air.


....and bringing a bit of smack down in the terrain park.


Alas no photos of me yet. Sunny tomorrow, so I will give Kat a quick lesson in pro-photography.

Guitar Hero
Of course, what evening is complete with out some guitar hero.

Demonstrating his infinite prowess....


There ain't no hair like big hair, ladies.


By this stage I'd had a few beers. So the old long exposure and crazy zooming came out.


There's nothing quite like strange portraits to warm the cockles.


Someone looks kind of evil huh?


Departure
All good things come to an end, so this morning I took Mike back down to Vancouver. The turd is much quieter and less interesting now.

That is all.

Stay Tuned

Updates, snow photos, and worshipping at the temple of Mike China coming soon.

Just as soon as we're done entertaining his Lordship.

Rock on.