Las Vegas & our wedding

We managed to get a great deal to Las Vegas, so decided to pop down for a weekend. We flew down on Saturday morning - it's only a 2 1/2 hour flight - so we were there by lunchtime. Time for a spot of shopping before we checked in to our hotel, the Excalibur, on the strip. Not a flash hotel, but the price was right! The Excalibur is done up like a castle, with turrets and things. I hunted out the Mr Cashman slot machine and promptly lost $5.

A couple of our friends actually booked the same weekend in Vegas, and they arrived Saturday night. We had a few drinks in our room, thanks to the cheap American alcohol (I may have mentioned that before?!) - a bottle of Jim Beam for $11.99, thanks very much! They came and met us and we went out to a fantastic piano bar in New York New York. There were two grand pianos set up, facing each other, and they took written requests. These guys could play anything! They were fantastic. We stayed there for a while and then headed over to the Irish pub, also in NYNY, where they had a great Irish band playing, and even a woman doing a jig! Andrew and I called it a night about 12.30 or so, as we'd been up since 6am that morning, and the others stayed out.

Sunday morning Andrew and I got up to get ready to get married! We only decided the week before to do it, it was a good opportunity since we were going to Vegas anyway. We wanted something really low stress, and this was it! It was just the two of us, so it was really nice and personal - we picked our own music, we had Lionel Richie "You Are" (you are the sun, you are the rain.....) at the beginning, and then Marvin Gaye "How Sweet It Is" at the end.

Afterwards we went and picked up the girls and went to the Las Vegas sign for some more photos - the quintessential Vegas wedding photo! Then Andrew and Kerri wanted to go on the rides at the top of the Stratosphere tower, so we drove up there, and Lindsey and I decided to grab a drink while we waited. I hadn't even had any water since we left the hotel at 11am - and now it was about 1.30pm. Parched, we walked up to the bar, me still in my wedding dress, and ask for two glasses of water, and Lindsey ordered a beer. Next thing you know, the bartender is refusing me a glass of water (after pouring it, made a big show of taking it back and tipping it out), as I don't have any ID on me! I know he was doing his job, but he didn't have to be a bastard. He could've still been polite, but chose to take the other route - not nice. Needless to say, I wanted to get out of there, but had to wait for the others to finish their rides.

By the time they met up with us I wanted out of my dress, so we went to the hotel, got changed, and then out for lunch - to one of my fave places, The Cheesecake Factory! It's the third time I've been (San Francisco & Seattle) and it's always good, and they have such a huge menu that it's easy to please everyone! We all had a great meal, with cheesecake to take out, and then relaxed back at the hotel for a bit before going to Mandalay Bay for the Lion King. I've seen it twice on the stage before, but none of the others had - it's so good! So well done, the make-up and costumes are amazing. Timon, Pumba and Za-Zu are fantastic - they're my faves! Afterwards we had a quick flutter at the Luxor before heading to bed.

Monday morning and it was time for a bit more shopping and then some people watching along the Strip - Vegas has the best people watching in the world I think! There are so many different types of people, it's fascinating. We met up with the others for an early dinner before heading to the airport - we went to T.I. for their buffet - it was pretty average and we didn't feel it was worth the money. There are much better buffets to be had in Vegas, so we'll remember that for next time! By the time we landed in Vancouver it was midnight, and we were welcomed by - you guessed it - rain. Ah, home again!

Whistler weekend

I'm having a bit of a change of pace - I finished up at my job on November 30th. It was definitely time for a change and to do something different. I don't have another job lined up, I'm just taking a break for a bit, and will start looking for something new and exciting early next year.

This means that I now have every weekend free! One of the reasons I quit was that I needed some balance in my life - Andrew and I were both sick of not having enough time together. And the first weekend in December we took off up to Whistler for the night. There was actually about 12 or so of us that went up. Saturday morning we stopped in Vancouver to rent snowshoes - it was a GORGEOUS day - perfect blue sky, and Vancouver was looking amazing with the snowy mountain backdrop. Then it was up the highway to the mountain. It's about a 2 hour drive from Vancouver, so it's not far.

We got up there and met up with some others for lunch, and then three of us went snowshoeing. It was our first time, so we stuck to groomed trails and it wasn't too bad! We ended up going right around Lost Lake, about 3km in total, not bad for a first effort. You have to lift your feet up higher than normal, so it's a good workout - imagine even more so if you're walking in more ungroomed trails. We had pretty crappy snowshoes, so it would be interesting to see how it would be if we had decent ones. We'll be giving it another go I'd say!

We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit - we were staying at the Fairmont Whistler Chateau - a real alpine style hotel right at the base of Blackcomb. We got upgraded to a slopeview room, which overlooked Blackcomb slopes and the pools and hot tubs - pretty cool! We'd bought some wine, and had complimentary chocolates waiting for us, so we were set for a while. You can see the view from our hotel room on the right here.

Our other friends had rented a couple of apartments, so we walked over there and hung out and had some drinks. Everyone was pretty tired, a lot of people had been boarding that day, but we had plenty of laughs. One of the Aussie girls leaves on Wednesday, so it was the last time we'll see her for a while, so it was nice to be all together.

The next morning was pretty leisurely, we checked out at 11am and wandered down to the Village in search of food, and then headed back home. The Vancouver Santa parade was on, so we got stuck in the street in our car not being able to get to our building! 20 minutes later it was OK though and we finally made it inside!

FIrst snowfall of Winter

This winter is supposed to be the worst in 55 years! Sounds like we're going to get the winter this year, that we could've done with last year when we had the Winter Olympics! So we're in for a cold one - it's not even offcially winter, and we got the first snowfall that stayed on the ground on November 25th!

We woke up to this view in the morning - we even had snow on our balcony! Last winter we only had a few snow flurries downtown, and then snow never settled on the ground, so for it to snow this early, this much - I think we're in for a cold one!

Walking to work, it was quite pretty - a lot of people didn't go to work that day if they had far to travel. I did feel that it must have been blatantly obvious that I was a foreigner though, as I clearly didn't have my snow legs - I was walking every gingerly! Getting home was interesting though, I took the bus, and half way up the hill the driver had to ask us all to move to the back half of the bus as he couldn't get enough traction to get up the hill! We got there in the end though!

We did have some cold temperatures over those few days, it was down to around -9 C at times, bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrr.......... and when we woke up the next day, the snow was pretty much all gone. Until the next time......

Disneyland & LA

Over Thanksgiving weekend in October I went down to Los Angeles with a couple of friends. We had 5 days in the sun - gorgeous weather, abnormally warm, it got up to about 34 degrees! Perfect. Being Thanksgiving weekend, the airport was crazy busy, and I managed to almost miss my flight, thanks to being singled out for a thorough check at security. Luckily I made it and we were on our way! A quick 2 1/2 hour flight had us arriving into LA and on our way to stay at Anaheim.

We got to the hotel a little before check-in, so dumped our bags and went off for lunch. The original plan was to spend the afternoon at Disneyland, but we decided to hold off and spend the day at the pool instead. It was so hot and we'd all had an early start, so what better way to spend the day! For dinner we went to a Mongolian grill place, which was nice, we sat outside on the patio and had drinks - lovely!

Saturday morning we headed off to Disneyland! All three of us had all been to Disneyland as young kids, so we remembered bits of it, so we were looking forward to seeing it as adults. We'd been lucky enough to get a free 3 day pass each thanks to great travel agent deals - they're normally over $200 each! We picked them up and headed into the park, walked along Main St and then saw the castle! All of us commented that we remembered it being a lot bigger, but then I guess we were a lot smaller back then too! The park was all done up for Halloween, lots of pumpkins and orange everywhere. Now, I'm not one for big rides, and Disneyland wasn't the main reason for me going on this trip, but the others went on lots of rides. I went on a couple, shat my pants at the fast ones (which weren't even fast by normal standards), and hit the shops while the others continued. They raved about a lot of the rides, there are plenty to please the adults as well as the kids! The line ups for a lot of them were long, but you can get fast passes, which means you get to come back at a certain time and skip the line, so you can work it out.

Then it was back to the hotel pool before dinner, we went back towards Disney for dinner, to Downtown Disney (just outside the park). We went to a fantastic place, with New Orleans style cuisine. It was a big typical Southern style building, with a big veranda, you really feel like you could be in the South! Our waitress was amazing - and we tipped heftily. The food was really good - great steak & jambalaya. The whole thing was a real experience. We had a few too many drinks and then went to another bar, where Lindsey finished off her bottle of wine she'd smuggled in from the other place...... we're classy girls.

Sunday morning was a slightly slow start with slightly sore heads, and then we went to the California Adventure Park, which is still part of Disney - the neighbouring park. It has a lot more of the bigger rides - including a big big rollercoaster than Nat went on. We did a few things around there, went for more swims at the hotel, and then in the evening we went for another good dinner at the Rainforest cafe, and then back to the Park again. We were going to see the World of Colour - it's a show they have on twice every evening. They have fountains going in time to music, which they colour. They'll also show pictures from Disney movies in the fountains - very impressive! They're like the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas, but with colour.






The next morning we picked up our swanky black Dodge Charger and headed up towards Malibu. It took us a while to get up there, as LA traffic isn't the best! Most of the beaches there are private, so we couldn't do much, so turned around and drove back to Santa Monica for a nice lunch on a patio on 3rd St Promenade, and then a spot of shopping. Nat & Lindsey went down to the pier and the beach, but as I'd been there just in July last year I chose to shop instead! Next stop was Venice Beach, where we saw lots of great street performers, eccentric people, it's such a great spot for people watching! Also Muscle Beach, with the outdoor gym, and outdoor basketball courts a la White Men Can't Jump. Late afternoon we drove down to Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, in Orange County. By the time we got there it was getting dark, but we found a great place for dinner - a packed little bar with the BEST Mexican food I've ever had - and it was super cheap! It's definitely on my re-visit list for next time. I was proud of myself for driving everywhere - I drove more in LA than I ever have in Vancouver!

Tuesday was our last day - Hollywood, including lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, then a drive around Beverly Hills. I love driving around Beverly Hills, all the flash houses and palm trees, it's like the intro to 90210 back in the day. We had a quick stop at the Beverly Center for a last minute shop, then it was time to drop the car off and head to the airport.

Everyone knows security at LA Airport is supposed to be top notch, so I was surprised to find 310ml bottle of sunblock in my handbag halfway through the flight home. Turns out security is pretty shit and you could probably get any old thing through! Comforting.

August & September catch up

In August I went to see Michael Buble in concert. I'd never been that big of a fan, but I actually like his take on old songs, and his new stuff too now. I think maybe it's partly to do with the fact that he is rammed down our throats on regular basis on the radio, as they try and get their Canadian music quota in. That, and I think he's quite good looking.

Anyhow, he put on a great show - he's quite the entertainer.

They're quite relaxed with smoking pot over here, and sure enough, there were people lighting up behind us - in an indoor arena!! Ridiculous - I'm not a fan.

I also went to see Crowded House with Nic, awesome concert - made us think of home lots! I think most of the crowd was from NZ or Oz! They performed so well and Neil Finn was quite the comedian and really interacted with the audience. They're SO good!

September brought what is fast becoming my favourite time of year here, autumn/fall. The colours are gorgeous! I love the leaves - and there is such a distinction between the seasons here that is lacking at home.

The leaves are beautiful on the trees, and when they fall it's just as spectacular. You have to relish it as it doesn't last long!

Road trip

In the long weekend at the beginning of September, we took the Friday off work and drove up to visit Adam & Jeanette (our landlords) in Prince George - still in BC, but nearly 800km north of Vancouver.

We left early in the morning so that we'd be there at a decent hour. There's not much in between - Prince George is the biggest city in Northern BC at about 70,000 people. Between Vancouver and PG there's only small towns, with not much going on, but enough facilities to get you through easily enough. We rolled into PG about 5pm, and were waiting at the traffic lights when the guy in front of us decided it would be a good idea to reverse. Straight into us. There was someone waiting behind us so we couldn't move, so got rammed! It was pouring rain, and his side mirror had got taken out earlier that day when he hit a moose. There wasn't really much damage, so we got $150 and went out for dinner the next night!!

We had a great night with Adam & Jeanette with the usual wine & whiskey, and the next day we went for a drive around town and had a bit of a lazy day - which was really nice after the long drive. On Sunday we headed out on the hunt for moose. We're still yet to see one and we've been here over a year - no moose or bear as of yet. I still think it's all a ploy by Canadian tourism. Adam took us out on the logging roads as he sees them all the time out there - we looked for over 2 hours, and NOTHING!!! Stupid moose. So that night we had moose roast. If you can't see 'em, eat 'em. We'd never had it before, it was a bit gamey and a coarser texture than beef, but pretty good!

Real estate is SO cheap in PG. You can get a nice, 10 year old 4 bedroom house for around $350k. So reasonable! But then you have to deal with the winters - a few months where it doesn't get above zero, endless snow, dark.......hhhmmmmmm......

Monday came and it was time to drive back - the time actually goes pretty quickly. Once you know the places to stop you take advantage of them as they are few and far between!

Alaska

The last weekend in July rolled around and it was time to head off on our cruise to Alaska! We were sailing out of Seattle, so drove down early that morning, stopping over the border to pick up a couple of cheap bottles of wine to take on board, and got to board the ship around 12.30pm - in time for some buffet lunch! We had really been looking forward to this trip - it was one of the things we had decided to do before we even left home. It was just a 7 night cruise, leaving and coming back to Seattle. This time we were on the Golden Princess.


The day after we boarded was a sea day, so we were on the ship all day. It was VERY foggy and quite chilly - the foghorn was sounding every half hour or so. We spent most of the day indoors, playing games and having cocktails. And eating, naturally. Not a bad way to spend it!

The next morning was an early start as before we got to Juneau it was announced we'd have a good chance of seeing humpback whales between 7am-9am. So we were up on deck early and were lucky enough to see LOADS.
They were spouting all over the place. We had a naturalist on board who commentated from the bridge throughout the cruise on any points of interest - wildlife, waterfalls, glaciers etc. Then at lunchtime we arrived in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. It's the only US State capital that is not accessible by road, you can only get to it by sea or air! It's a smaller town, about 30,000 people, but the biggest place we went in Alaska. The area that we went to was very touristy, lots of shops targeted at tourists, souvenirs etc. Apparently the "local" part of town is away from the cruise ports, guess they must be preserving themselves from the influx of tourists they get each summer. The Alaska cruise season only runs from May to September (the summer), so that is the only timeframe for them to make money in these small towns.

The next day we woke up in Skagway, which was the only place we had booked a tour. We jumped on a minibus to take us up the valley and into Canada. You climb up in elevation pretty quickly, and the scenery became very alpine. Still, there are a lot of trees and it's quite lush due to the rainfall, but due to the elevation the treeline isn't far above you, where nothing grows. The views were impressive, the mountains jagged. Skagway itself is a cool little town, which has been maintained/redone to be like it was in the goldrush era (this was the starting point for the Klondike goldrush). Lots of great looking buildings!
That evening as we were leaving Skagway we were sailing down the fjord, with more beautiful views - lots of glaciers which cause these waterfalls to come seemingly out of nowhere and plough through the trees to the ocean. Mountains climbing out of the sea, to massive heights, still snowcapped even at the height of summer. The sun was setting, creating amazing colours - with the depth of field we had with the mountains, creating fantastic colour blocks - gorgeous!



As per usual, the west coast sunsets are gorgeous. I've always appreciated a good sunset, but the west coast, by crikey, puts on a bloody good show. I don't know what it is that causes the colours here, but they're great. Every night.





The next morning was another early start as we were sailing in Tracy Arm Fjord in the morning - so we were up on deck at about 6.30am to see it all. It reminded me a lot of Milford Sound, with mountains rising straight up out of nowhere, and the ship getting so close to the shore that you could almost reach out and touch the trees. The other aim of going into Tracy Arm Fjord was seeing Sawyer Glacier. We did get to see it, but it was very hazy. There were a lot of forest fires going on at the time which caused the air quality/visibility not to be so flash, unfortunately. Still, you could see it and we got pretty close. There were loads of icebergs around, which compared to our 290m ship seemed small, but when you saw the little fishing boats next to them, they gave a bit of perspective!

The next day we were in Ketchikan just for the morning. Ketchikan is known for it's salmon and totem poles. We actually found out the next day that the ship picked up 900lbs (400kg) of salmon from Ketchikan, and 3 mealtimes later, it was gone! As we walked through the town and along by the river, you could see the river was full of salmon - they were everywhere! That afternoon it was lovely and warm so we got some sunbathing in and lazed on the deck, reading our books and sipping cocktails - bliss!

We also did a wine tasting session that afternoon, and got to try wine that was $180 a bottle, which was nice! More free cocktails later on, as that evening was the Captain's Circle cocktail party, which is for any repeat Princess travellers. I won a bottle of champagne, which was mixed blessings really - on the second to last night we ended up with a bottle and a half of red wine and a bottle of champagne to drink! We pushed through it though and managed to polish it off.


The last day we were supposed to dock in Victoria, BC for the evening - we were prepared for our 7pm docking with an early dinner (and had the champagne!), when it was announced at 6.30pm that we wouldn't be docking as it was too windy! Not too big of a deal for us as we can go over to Victoria any weekend, but I felt sorry for all the others on board that were from further afield and missed out! There seemed to be a lot of Texans on board, complete with giant belt buckles, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats - and that was at breakfast! There was also a lot of big family groups - exteneded family, grandparents, cousins etc, which was nice to see.

When we docked in Seattle we umped in the car and went shopping - as we'd been away for a week we had full customs quota to take back to Canada so it was all on! Had a good day shopping and got back home in the evening. Alaska was really pretty, but I'd like to see more. I'd like to get up to Denali and see more inland, but we didn't have enough time. Maybe next time?!

July's exploits

This photo was taken as we were ready to go out to the Flight Centre annual ball - this is my team, we were going for the cheesy "family in front of the fireplace" look - I think we pulled it off! We had a great night, in a huge place big enough to fit all 800 or so of us, and hot enough to melt everyone's makeup.

July was the month of "waiting for our visas - and waiting some more". We applied in February, and after much chasing up, finally heard back in the last week of July that we'd been approved for another two years. It was a loooong wait, but worth it in the end! So we're here for a bit longer, staying in the same apartment and jobs as well. It's a relief to be able to plan more than a month in advance!

We did try and make the most of the nice weather we got and saw a few sunsets - they're just gorgeous here, they get a deep red or bright pink colour, so different than at home. There was also a fireworks festival on, which had four displays in a two week period - there was a barge set up in English Bay and they let them off there, the weather was great so it was pretty cool.

Andrew's brother Aden and his girlfriend Kristin also came to visit for a few days. Kristin is from Calgary so they were over visiting her family and stopped in for a few days on their way back. Was great to see faces from home and catch up. We went up to Whistler for the day (it's so different in the summer!), watched the fireworks, had a nice leisurely lunch in the sun by False Creek, it was great.

Shopping in Seattle

Friday after work we drove on down to Seattle. American immigration officers get a bit of a bad rap worldwide about being strict and staunch - all the times we've crossed the border we've always found them to be reasonably relaxed and friendly and quick with a joke. It's the Canadian ones that are serious and don't show any personality! On previous trips they've told us that they've had the immigration froms translated into Kiwi. This time on the way down the Americans are asking the usual - where are we going, for how long, how much cash do we have in the car.... and then he says "Alright guys, give it to me straight.................. (our hearts pound, what have we done wrong??!!)......... which is better, vegemite or marmite??" We laugh, shout our answers and he gives us back our passports and we're on our way!

We stayed at the Sheraton that night - we had a free night to use, thanks to travel agent discounts - and when we arrived they had a little plate with meats, crackers, buffalo mozzarella............ lovely. We were lucky enough to get a corner suite, so the windows went right around and gave us a great view. After a relaxing night we headed out for a spot of shopping. This weekend was supposed to be about sightseeing, but all we did was see the inside of shops - but what great shops they are! I hardly ever go shopping in Canada, I save it all for the USA - much more variety and it's cheaper. Win win! Andrew was amazingly patient with all the shopping.

5 new pairs of shoes later and we went out for a great dinner - to the Cheesecake Factory. They do have a lot more than just cheesecake, but booooooooooy is their cheesecake amazing. They have a full cheesecake menu with about 30 different flavours. We were so full after out meal that we had to get the cheesecake to go - and had it for breakfast! We picked up a bottle of wine - one that we normally buy in Vancouver for $13.99 we got in Seattle for $4.99. I say it again - God Bless America. That night we stayed at the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle.

After a tad more shopping the next day (no more shoes, just clothes and alcohol this time), we trundled back across the border and were home in time for dinner. Productive weekend!

Vancouver's Lighthouse Park

It's the middle of June, and we're still waiting for summer here. The temperature I'm ok with - around 18-20 degrees. But some blimmin sun and blue sky would be nice, Canada. We did get a day that was beautiful - so decided to make the most of it and go exploring. We drove over to Lighthouse Park, which is over in West Vancouver, about 20 minues from our place. To get there you drive through the swanky suburbs and straight away it feels like you're away from the city. I do love that about Vancouver - it's so easy to get out! As we're still waiting to hear on whether our visas have been granted so we can stay another year, we're trying to make the most of it at the moment in case we don't get to stay. Lighthouse Park was beautiful, and so close to the city, and yet you feel like it's a world away. Lot of different trails to choose from so there doesn't seem to be a lot of people around either. One thing we did find really odd, was that in NZ if you meet people while you're tramping, you always say "Hi" or at least smile and make eye contact. Oh no, not in Vancouver. It became a bit of a game to us - we'd say "Hi" and smile and watch them try and hide and avoid eye contact at all costs!

Oregon

The weekend before my birthday was a public holiday, so after work on the Friday we drove across the border and towards Oregon. We were going to stay in Astoria, with my Mum's penfriend of 50 years, LaRee. My sister also lived with her for 6 months when she was 17, so there has been a family connection there for a while! We had a beautiful sunset on the way down - the summer sunsets in this part of the world are beautiful. Astoria is just on the border of Washington and Oregon, on the Oregon side, at the mouth of the Columbia river. It's about a 6 hours drive from Vancouver, plus border crossing time.

Saturday morning we went for a drive up to the Astoria column, which has a great lookout over the area. We had a great view of the bridge spanning the river between the two states - all 6.5km of it! Breakfast was at a great little cafe which reminded me a lot of home - very "Wholemeal"ish for those of you that know it. This is the kind of cafe that is missing in Vancouver and makes me drink Starbucks. Amazing cardamom buns and cardamom coffee - Mmmmm cardamom is highly underutilised in everyday life. Astoria has a lot of great Victorian architecture as well - some great buildings.

Andrew and I then went down the coastline - when we visited LaRee when Sheryn was living with her, I was only 7 - and hadn't been back since. I remembered bits and pieces but was really looking forward to seeing places I'd remembered. The big one was Cannon Beach, as that's where LaRee used to live, so we'd stayed there for a couple of weeks. The weather wasn't the greatest (but we're used to that by now!), but part of what makes the coastline so beautiful is the weather and the moodiness the clouds lend to it. We stopped for a look around Cannon Beach, lots of quaint little shops, arts/crafts stuff, and salt-water-taffy a-plenty. 25 years later I still have nightmares about the stuff! We went down as far as Tillamook, and went to the French cheese factory - lots of tastings - cheese, wine, dips, preserves, mmmm....... That evening we went for dinner at the Supper Club in Astoria. I had the most amazing cajun prawn linguine - I have since tried to recreate it at home, and it came close - but this stuff was amazing. I'd drive 6 hours just for some more of that!

Sunday morning and LaRee and her husband Andy took us sightseeing - first to the markets, which were great - there was a lot of willpower needed not to buy anything, and now there has been a bit of regret at not buying anything! Oh well, you can't have it all. It was raining on and off, but luckily by the time we got out to the coast again it had eased for a bit. We went to where there was an old shipwreck on the beach - very cool. It's the "Peter Iredale" and was wrecked in 1906 - so over 100 years old.


We drove over the aforementioned bridge to Washington state, and up to Cape Disappointment. There is a lighthouse there, and more rugged coastline. Lovely. It was so nice to be out of the cities, as even when we drive down to Washington state we stick around the cities as we're normally there to shop! We stopped at a small town called Ilwaco, where we went to a couple of art galleries, and one couple who have a gallery there actually spend 6 months of every year living in New Zealand! A lot of their paintings had NZ influences - pohutakawa etc.

In the evening as dinner was cooking, LaRee took us down to see the sea lions. Just down by the docks there are masses of them - as soon as you get out of the car you can hear them, it's amazing!
They're barking like mad - most of them are pretty sleepy, but there were a few that were perky enough. Apparently they cause quite a bit of havoc with the boats and fisherman, but they were really entertaining for us! So much so that the next morning we went back for more on the way home!

Iceland volcano eruption

I took SO many photos of the volcano erupting in Iceland and wanted to share a few - the lighting was amazing! It seems surreal now, looking back on it, that I was so close to something that caused so much havoc to people around the world.

Iceland

As we boarded our flight in Toronto, we nestled into business class for the five hour flight to Iceland. Iceland was a country I'd wanted to visit for years, so I had been eagerly awaiting this trip for a few months. We flew over Greenland, and as we started our descent into Reykjavik, we could see the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajökull in the distance, spouting ash. The drive from the airport to the city revealed a flat, barren landscape, with lots of old lava & rock. After a great beakfast at the Icelandair Hotel Loftleidir, we had a city tour around the capital of Reykjavik, where we were shown the parliament buildings, main city square, and other interesting places. The houses are like little lego blocks - blocks with flat rooves, no balconies - so they have flat sides, and different colours. We then drove to our hotel for the night, the Hotel Hengill, which was near the biggest lake in Iceland.

Iceland uses something like 98% renewable energy - mainly geothermal. They pride themselves on having clean air, and even sell tins of it at the airport! They have quite a bit of land for such a small population - they only have 300,00 Icelanders - and two-thirds of those live in the Greater Reykjavik area. This means that once you leave the capital, everything is very spread out. Villages may only consist of five houses, and gas stations and restaurants are few and far between. This only adds to the dramatic landscape, with there being little civilisation, and a mixture of barren, desolite landscape, and then waterfalls, volcanoes, glaciers and the Atlantic. A lot of the landscape was carved out during the Ice Age, with cliffs dropping off quickly to the flat landscape and out to the Atlantic. The country experiences around 10,000 earthquakes a year (around 27 a day!), however in the 4 days we were there we didn't feel anything - most are too small to notice.
The next morning we went to Gulfoss and Geysir. Gulfoss is a big waterfall, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. It abruptly plunges in two stages down the crevices in the earth. Iceland sits on the edge of two of the biggest tectonic plates - the European and the American. This has a lot to do with the volatility of the country - the geysirs and volcanoes, and also means that there are crevices in quite a few places. The plates move on average 2cm a year - making me wonder if one day the country will be split in two! Geysir is home of the original geyser - which is where the word comes from.

The original Geysir only spouts every few weeks now, however 50m south there is the Strokkur Geysir, which spouts every 4-8 minutes at a decent height. We stopped for lunch at the fabulous Hotel Ranga, near the south coast, which is near two of the most famous volcanoes in Iceland - Hekla, which erupts every ten years (and is due to erupt this year), and the currently erupting Eyjafjallajökull. This was the first place we started to see evidence of the ash, with the wooden decks covered in black ash, and cars covered in it. It is a beautiful hotel, complete with a stuffed polar bear in the lobby! There are no polar bears in Iceland, however occassionaly one will arrive via iceberg from the Arctic - by which time, after a few months with no food, they are very hungry and attack people & animals, so end up being shot!

Then we continued along the ring road that runs right around the country, and past Eyjafjallajökull. We were given masks to wear as there was so much ash, it poured in to the coach. The first view we couldn't see so much as it was a bit cloudy, however as we moved around to the eastern side of it we could see it really well - the ash was just billowing out, the ash cloud was changing every 5 seconds or so - so much ash! Quite spectacular, we were only about 2km away, and I couldn't help thinking how much it was affecting these people's lives. The news has concentrated so much on flight disruptions and the people being affected by that, but these people living in the vicinity are affected every day - and living in uncertainty. The ash is harming their animals and destroying their crops. Crops are hard enough to grow in Iceland's harsh climate and with the volcanic soil, without having ash everywhere as well! The clean up job is constant. I expected the ash to be fine, like talcum powder, but it's actually more like sand - they're quite big grains.

We stopped at a little museum, which had such gems as the first ice skates - cow bones that you strap to the bottom of your shoes and slide along on. I'm not sure what the NHL would make of those! Then it was on to our second night's stop at the Icelandiar Hotel Klaustur. We always seemed to start our meals with a bowl of creamy soup, and then follow on with either fish (arctic char or halibut), or lamb. Both the fish and lamb are very good, and plentiful! Breakfasts were typical Scandinavian style - bread with cheese, meats, liver pate, smoked salmon/herrings, tomatoes, cucumbers and so on.

The following day we headed further east towards the major glaciers, and to Jökulsárlón, which is where there is a large glacier lagoon. We took a boat ride on the lagoon, amongst the icebergs, to see them up close. They're quite beautiful - different colours of white and blue, depending on how long they've been around for. This lagoon has been in movies such as Bond's Die Another Day, and Tomb Raider. A seal followed us for a while, and kept curiously popping his head above the water, which was an added bonus! The guide broke off bits of the ice, and let us taste it - the ice was over 1000 years old.

Then it was time to head out to the coast, where we were hopping to see the Puffins - unfortunately they hadn't arrived from their migration yet (apparently we were only about a day early!), so we missed out on that. It was great to be out by the wild coast, with the waves crashing and the ominous ash cloud overhead. Heading back to Reykjavik we went out for dinner before settling in to the fabulous Hilton Nordica Hotel.

On our last morning in Iceland, after a sumptious breakfast buffet at the Hilton (and tasty skyr, an icelandic yogurt), we went to the famous Blue Lagoon.

It's a geothermal spa, with the water being just slightly warmer than body temperature, and rich in minerals such as silica and and sulphur. It's known for it's healing properties, and it's a lovely way to spend the time before our flight, floating around in the milky blue water, with silica mud all over our faces!
Regrettably it was then time to board our flight back to reality - having realised another dream destination, and ticking somewhere else off the list!