The Taelemans´ Blog

Our Saturday mission: Find clothes for the red carpet event. We succeeded and as a reward we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. But first things first.

So we went to Metrotown on Saturday and we both didn’t know what to get (but you already knew that). Surprise, Surprise, Kris talked me in to buying a cocktail dress. So I’ve bought a black cocktail dress. Perfect match with my new shoes.

Kris decided to wear a black suit, and he bought himself a nice looking shirt, tie and belt.

Pictures will follow on Friday (because then we have to go to the event).

So after too many hours of shopping we decided we’d reward ourselves with a visit to the Vancouver Aquarium.

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Today was a sunny day in Port Moody. Since we could only go to Fright Night at 6pm we decided to take a walk. There is a trail that starts not far from our apartment. It’s a rather short one, but definitely worth doing.

It’s a trail along the the bay and the path you are walking on, is a wooden path, so you feel like you are walking in the “Hoge Venen” (at least I felt like that:))

We were standing on some kind of platform and watching the shoreline and then suddenly somebody said: look there are some bear paws next to the water. So since it was still low water it meant that the bear had probably visited this spot early this morning (the footprint wasn’t washed away and it’s high water around 4pm).

If you click on the pictures you will be able to see them a little bit bigger and you will be able to see the paw. On the second picture you can find the paw in the shadow of the pole. Just underneath the small rock.

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This morning after our breakfast (with a boiled egg and some orange juice) we’ve made our backpack (lunch, drinks, spray and camera). We arrived at Buntzen Lake around 12:15.

We decided to start wit an easy hike, so we did the Buntzen Lake trail. The book said the trail was 8km long and it would take us 4 to 5 hours to complete it. The maximum elevation gain was 100m.

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Finally!

Everything went really well this week. The moving went really smooth. Yesterday our shipment from Belgium arrived and although customs opened a few boxes, everything is here without any damage.
I didn’t remember what we’ve put in all those boxes, so seeing a few things back again, was really surprising.

I also managed to get everything in order so we’re actually ready to start our new lives. We didn’t buy everything immediately, we still need a dining table and some chairs and a few other practical things, but we’ll probably wait for that.
We can sleep, eat, take a bath or shower and watch tv,, so we’re good to go for know.

As promised, I have taken a few pictures of our new place.
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Today we got up early, to be in Whistler on time. They expected a lot of visitors for the turkey sale, so I wanted to be there around 10am.

On our way to Whistler we saw a bald eagle. Pretty cool because the eagle was actually flying for a change, instead of sitting on a nest. The wingspan of a bald eagle is between 168–244 centimeters. So I think we can conclude that we saw a really big bird today:)

When we arrived in Whistler it became very clear why we left early today. There were a lot of people carrying a lot of bags. NOOO, less shopping items for us…

I have to admit, we didn’t enter the turkey sale tent, because to many people where queuing. But we visited another tent and I bought myself a hoodie and a goggle. Actually Kris was going to buy a goggle because he didn’t have one. But then he saw the cutest girlie goggle ever and he said to me that I had to try the goggle and that he will take over the one I already had (unisex of course). Thank you Kris!!
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I started today with my drivers lesson and it actually went quite well. The guy told me that I should do fine on the road test if I keep in mind a few rules.

It’s actually pretty different than in Belgium. You have all kind of tests and each test has a different level. We’ll be doing the class 5 road test which means that we have to be able to do following things:
Drive (”no shit Sherlock”)
Be able to name the different hazards on the road while driving
Park up or downhill
Reversed parking
Make a 3 point turn

That’s it, no maneuvers at all except for the parking and turn…
So, I really hope I pass the exam,… But well worries for later…

Then the most important thing of the day: WE SIGNED THE CONTRACT!

It’s officially our apartment to rent. I have a quick sneak preview of the view we have from our living room. You can’t really see the whole view you see from the apartment such as the mountains on the right side of the picture, but still it might give you a glimpse.

The rest of the images will follow later.

After the signing we decided to go downtown for dinner. We went to Ponchos, a restaurant we were advised to go and check out. Really nice Mexican food!

Since we had to drive past one of the main shopping streets in Vancouver, there were still a lot of people shopping after work. And specially for Elke: We also saw this one guy advertising for a fast food place on Robson Street. The guy was dressed like a chicken and actually enjoying it. He was definitely dancing like a maniac!

If I don’t find a job, at least I have some options left:)

I know the picture is rather small, but well, take my word for it, it was funny.

Our day started with a visit to the Linen N Things shop. A shop where you can find all sorts of, of course, Linen and Things… You can buy all kinds of household goods, not too expensive, so if we know for sure that we have an apartment it probably will be one of our first stops.

After that we went to the Ikea. Yes, they have an Ikea in Vancouver. The only thing different with an Ikea in Belgium is that the sell cinnamon buns. But they also sell the hot dogs (at the exit of the shop). We already decided which bed we are going to buy, surprise, surprise, the same we had in Belgium:)

We didn’t buy anything yet because we want to be sure first. Well except for one thing, I’ve bought a pillow. The cool thing is that they sell pillows for stomach sleepers, back sleepers and side sleepers. OK, this probably sounds stupid but I was not aware of the fact that they make different pillows for each sleeper.

This week we are going to find some other furniture stores so we can find a cool sofa and if everything goes well, we will probably be buying some stuff next week to get settled.

After our visit of the Ikea we went to Port Moody to drive around a bit. Yesterday I noticed a sign of a recreation area not far from Port Moody so I asked Kris to drive up there.
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Today we’ve been house searching. We saw a lot of different properties so we had a big choice.
But of course we needed to pick one out and if they accept our application we will be the proud tenants of an apartment in Port Moody. (Pictures will follow) So Let’s cross our fingers and hope they accept us as tenants.

The apartment has an amazing view. You can see the mountains (really close by) and the bay. But like I said details will follow later as soon as we know if we have the apartment.
The only thing I can say besides the fact that it;s really beautiful is that we will probably need bear spray:) Yes indeed, it’s really close to the forest and we know for sure that it’s bear country. Not far from the apartment, there is a local supermarket, and a few weeks ago they had to gett rid of a bear who entered the supermarket. ( ok so far for the bear stories).

The only thing we did today (besides house searching) is go to the supermarket and I finally found cupcakes sold piece by piece. I never tried them but it looks good ( I know a real calorie bomb, but just this once). Check them out.

The left one is called the chocolate truffle, and the right one is the strawberry delight.
As for the box underneath them, those are the Halloween cookies. And if everything goes well, we’ll move in to the apartment the 15th of October, so I will be in time to bake some Halloween cookies myself.

Well, that’s it for today, we are pretty tired because of the driving around today, so we’re going to watch some television and go to bed early.

Today we took the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler. Except for the Icefield Parkway, I think one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever drove on.

A lot of construction works along the road (because of the winter Olympics in 2010), but still a nice scenic drive.

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Today we’ve visited Grouse Mountain. The two main reasons of our visit:
- It’s our home snowboard resort (for next winter)
- It has a grizzly bear habitat ( wiiiii)

We drove up to North Vancouver and took the skyride to the top of Grouse Mountain.
The first show we saw was the lumberjack show. Pretty funny show with two lumberjacks competing against each other.

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