The Taelemans´ Blog

It is a bit early, but it is difficult with the time difference. So we wanted to make sure that everybody got our New Year wishes in time.

Although we are far away, we are still thinking about everybody back home and we want to wish all of you a Happy New Year!
Annik, Hugo, Kris and Ine

Picture taken in Brackendale.

Maybe very cliche but:

          H ours of happy times with friends and family
          A bundant time for relaxation
          P rosperity
          P lenty of love when you need it the most
          Y outhful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

          N ights of restful slumber (you know – dont’ worry be happy)
          E verything you need
          W ishing you love and light

          Y ears and years of good health
          E njoyment and mirth
          A angels to watch over you
          R embrances of a happy years!

PS: Sabine, if you read this post, thanks for the wonderful cookies:)

Two days ago we went snowshoeing on Cypress Mountain. Cypress is one of the three “local” mountains of Vancouver.

Snowshoeing is something that none of us had done before, but since my parents don’t ski or snowboard, we thought it would be nice to do something in the snow and let them participate:).

We began with an interpretive tour, just to get us started. The trail was amazing. We made a stop at the Hollyburn Lodge for a burger and some hot drinks.

The left picture below shows the start of the trail.

In the first picture: Me, myself and I (actually enjoying the exercise:)) (normally you shouldn’t be in the snow this deep, but I was standing off the trail).
Yes, I am very aware of the fact that my feet seem even bigger in this picture than they normally are, it’s the snowshoes!!!!…

After lunch my parents decided to hike down to the base station, Kris and I, did a small detour which was a moderate level trail.

All four of us loved it and Kris as well as me are even thinking about buying ourselves some snowshoes. I also noticed that you can do some snowshoe clinics so I’m probably going to take classes in February.

Yesterday we’ve been to Victoria. We took the ferry at 8am and arrived in Victoria around 9:35 am.

We drove directly to the Royal BC Museum, which is one of the most beautiful and interesting museums I’ve ever visited.

Through unique galleries, the Museum showcases the human and natural history of British Columbia and temporary exhibits from other countries and cultures. Authentic artifacts and specimens are displayed in highly realistic settings, giving visitors the experience of another time and place.

First Peoples Gallery
This gallery gives visitors dramatic glimpses of First Nations cultures before and after the arrival of Europeans.

Modern History Gallery
The sights, sounds and smells of the past are so vivid that you might – just for a moment – think you’re really there.

Natural History Gallery
This gallery takes visitors on a journey across time and through dramatically changing environments.

In the afternoon we met some friends and we went for a walk downtown Victoria.
The picture below shows the Parliament building of Victoria.

At 6pm we took the ferry back to Vancouver.

Since it was a very exhausting day yesterday, we decided to take it slow today. We’ve visited a few things in Vancouver, but more about that later this week. Tomorrow we are going o Grouse Mountain (let’s hope the weather is good). My parents are going to do some hiking and Kris and I, are going snowboarding. A last session in 2008, preparing for a good start in 2009 (hopefully in Whistler:)).

Oh and in our last post I mentioned that we ate in the Old Spaghetti Factory, here is a picture of the inside of the restaurant.

Gastown, downtown Vancouver

Photo credits go to Kris.

Like I’ve told you before, my parents made it for Christmas.

They were stuck in Toronto for 24 hours, but luckily they were able to catch the first flight, on Tuesday morning, to Vancouver.

As you can expect, they were very tired, but they had to keep going until the evening because otherwise they would give in to their jet lag. I decided to take them out to visit some furniture shops because if we wanted to enjoy our Christmas dinner, we needed some dinning chairs.

On the 24th we prepared our Christmas dinner and of course ate it. After dinner we went for an evening/Christmas Eve walk. Kris wanted to take some pictures of the huge Christmas tree in Port Moody.

On Christmas day we went to Whistler. Our first stop was Brackendale: Winter home of the bald eagle. I think we’ve seen enough bald eagles for the rest of the year (but we’re going back with some friends in January, on the day they count the bald eagles). We did quite a long hike to the perfect viewing spot near the river. Because there was a lot of snow it took us a while to get there, but it was definitely worth it!!

After the hike we proceeded our trip to Whistler. We had to be there in time for our Nicklause North Sleigh ride and Fondue Dinner.

A beautiful 30-35 minute ride through wooded trails beside Green Lake before returning to the Den Restaurant at Nicklause North Golf Course for a four course gourmet fondue dinner (including an appetizer, cheese fondue, Chinois fondue and finishing with their chocolate fondue for dessert.)

It was a wonderful white Christmas day with an amazing dinner. We all ate waaaaay too much, but we really enjoyed it!

Normally we were going to Grouse Mountain today, but it was snowing again, so we decided that it wasn’t worth going up, because the mist would block the view.

So instead of going up the mountain we went downtown. We’ve visited Gastown (it is a tourist attraction, but they have a few nice souvenir shops though…). We had lunch in the Old Spaghetti Factory. The restaurant is special because it is decorated in a nostalgic theme using genuine antiques, stained glass, Tiffany type lights, and an authentic trolley car (in which we were seated). Which was rather nice!

Still on our agenda:
- Tomorrow we go snowshoeing (on Cypress, Grouse or Seymour, not sure which one to choose). Doing some exercises will be good to get rid of the extra weight we gained because of the dinners we had the last few days.
- On Sunday we will probably take the ferry and go to Victoria and the Royal British Columbia Museum.
- Visit Canyon lights
- Bright night at Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium
- Downtown
- Metrotown
- …

I think we could say we have a very busy agenda. I hope the weather allows us to do all these things, because it keeps on snowing, which makes it hard to visit everything:)

Below some pictures of the last few days.

Some kids building an igloo in front of our apartment

And last but not least, our sleigh ride in Whistler.

Hi Everybody,

As you maybe have read, my parents finally arrived in Vancouver. Just in time for Christmas:).

We went to pick up the roast beef and the vegetables. The gifts are ready, so we can start 0ur Christmas Eve dinner.

We will be going to Whistler tomorrow (for a sleigh ride, some snowboarding and a fondue dinner). Kris and my dad will probably provide you guys with a few pictures, no worries.

As for now, we just want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! I hope you will enjoy your holidays, and we’ll be back later with some stories from the activities we’ve done.

Normally I would be on my way to the airport to pick up my parents, but due to the huge snowfall of the last day, their flight from London to Vancouver got canceled. They were told to fly to Toronto and catch a connecting flight to Vancouver from there. But when they arrived in Toronto their connecting flight got canceled too, so for now they are stuck at the airport.

They are not sure when they will be flying to Vancouver as all the flights are fully booked… Apparently there is no flight available before the 24th… They are on the stand by list, so they are waiting, and running from gate to gate in the hope that there are some available places on one of the upcoming flights…

Not a good beginning of their holiday, but we will try to make it up to them… As for now, we can only hope for the best and cross our fingers…

It’s really weird because normally there isn’t this much snow out here and of course the snow started falling the day before they normally arrived here…

(I have to admit though, that I still like the snow, I just hope they arrive very soon and we can be reunited:))

Like I said, let’s hope for the best…

We had a great time!
I think we will both be addicted to hockey any time soon… We loved the game and it was a great experience. Although I have to learn a lot about the rules and regulations, I think it’s a very different sport. It is quite aggressive, but in a good way. Everything is going very fast, and there is constantly something happening so it’s nice to watch.

There have been a few fights, but not as much as I expected. (fighting is apparently part of the strategy… The persons who fight, need to sit in the penalty box for a few minutes, which means that they can’t play during that period).

Before the game, there was a ceremony for Trevor Linden. On that night, Trevor Linden’s No. 16 was raised to the rafters of GM Place. Although we have never seen him play, it was cool to be there. It was pretty emotional for a lot of people and the atmosphere was great!

And on top of that, the Canucks won the game for Linden: 4-2 (against the Edmonton Oilers)

We also bought ourselves some liquor:
- Pod Pack: 4 different kinds of beer brewed in Victoria, Vancouver Island
- Naked Grape, BC white wine for my mom
- Sawmill Creek: Rose wine with strawberry and cranberry taste
- Ice wine: I got this from Kris as an early Christmas present. It is a rather sweet tasting wine. The special thing about it, is that it’s produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. It is different than a Sauternes though, because ice wine grapes should not be affected by noble rot.
The Ice wine I got is called Inniskillin from the Okanagan Valley.

No Christmas shopping for today. Why?

Well it has been snowing quite a lot today and I do have the car, but the snow cleaners can’t keep up with the snow, which means that the roads are still fully covered with it. So I more or less decided to stay home and instead of shopping, go out for a walk in the snow.

I have to pick up Kris tonight, to go to the Canucks game, so I will be in the car long enough… (driving at 40 km/hour makes it a long trip, although it is only 15km away from port moody:)). But not like most people, I love driving in the snow. This morning when we drove to EA, Kris didn’t take the fast lane, then he was able to drive around in the snow a bit longer.

Weather forecasts predict some more snow today, tonight and next weekend so this is probably going to be a white Christmas:).

I also have a picture from the archive: Grizzly bear on Grouse Mountain. The picture was taken in September, but since it is such a nice one, I thought I would post it on the blog.

A while ago Kris told me that he had some work for me. I was starting to get worried, I didn’t want to go through more papers because that’s what we have been doing for one month and a half… He wouldn’t tell me before he got home, so I was pretty curious.

When he arrived, he showed me a box with the following text: “Gingerbread house kit”. He had bought the kit because all revenues went to charity and he knew he was going to make me happy with it:).

I decided to wait before making the house until I got some more free time on my hands, and today was the day. It took me two hours and I’m not really satisfied with it because it was really hard to decorate it the way I wanted. The icing was the most difficult part, but I really did enjoy it.
Ooh and I almost forgot, everything is edible, so no glue was used.

Here are some pictures of the progress:

I’m totally getting into the Christmas spirit and I’ve bought myself two movies: The Sound of Music and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I know those are not Christmas movies but they are family movies. Although I’ve seen them a thousand times, the thought of being able to watch them a thousand and one times is cool:)

Tomorrow I have the car so I’m going to do some Christmas shopping, sorry Kris can’t tell you anything…Surprise, surprise.

Sorry guys, but we have been extremely busy lately.

I have been preparing the Christmas event last week so I really didn’t have the time to write something.

On Thursday it was the night of the event. I have to say that we did a wonderful job and that we received some nice compliments. We offered people a glass of wine and some appetizers. Unbelievable to see how people respond on the word “free”. People become animals (well maybe that’s just a little bit exaggerated, but still…).

Like I said, we offered people one glass of wine (because we were working with a really low budget, and this was mentioned on the invitation). A few people came back to ask if they could have another one, so I explained them why not, and most of them understood. But there were a few that asked me for something else to drink, and when I turned my back to get them what they wanted, they just ran of with a glass of wine… They actually stole it… How rude is that…

But well, we had 200 people coming in, so I think we can be happy that most of them enjoyed it:)

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On Sunday we decided to go to the Santa Claus Parade, I have to admit that it wasn’t what we expected of a parade, but they’ve definitely done their best.

We are used to seeing the parade of the Carnival of Aalst. And well, people are spending one year to make the trucks that participate in the parade. So we can’t expect the Santa Claus parade to be as nice as the one we are used to (where people have more time on their hands to prepare everything…).

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