Okay, not really Hockey Night in Canada… more Hockey Afternoon in Langley – which for the record IS in Canada, but only barely! 😛 Once upon a time, a long long long time ago, Mr K lived on Vancouver Island and worked at a Wendy’s. Now at that Wendy’s Mr K used to work with Peter and Scott. Scott still lives in Victoria and he manages a veterinary clinic, but Peter is living here in Vancouver and works as a firefighter in Langley. As it turns out, Peter has a young son who he regularly takes out on a Friday afternoon ‘stick ‘n’ puck’; which is a casual open ice hockey session for friends to get together and just slap the puck around for an hour or two… and Mr K and the Teenager signed up to have a go!
Getting ready to hit the ice…
And they’re off and running… err, skating. Bit wobbly at first, but they both gained in confidence really quickly.
Peter’s son – looking quite the pro in his Canuck’s jersey. He told us all about his favourite players and the number of points, goals and assists they had made so far this season. This kid is awesome, cute as a button, intelligent and polite, and really into his hockey. 🙂 
I was taking photos (obviously) and trying really hard to crop other people’s kids out of these pics, but there were about 24 people on the ice at any point in time and another five in rotation skating in whenever anyone came off. It was pretty hectic, and I swear there were four-year-olds out there who could skate rings around Mr K. 
The team from Down Under… making that shit look good fellas! 😛 
Turns out playing ice hockey is not like riding a bike…
Intense!
Look at that grin – I think he likes ice hockey even more than snowboarding.  
Dad and the Teenager all hot and sweaty but totally exhilarated. Grandpa would be proud! 🙂 
After ice hockey, seeing we were in the area, we took the opportunity to go and have a sticky beak around Pete’s work. Peter has been working as a firefighter for eight years now, but was volunteering and working part-time long before that. He strikes me as one of those fortunate people who have always known what they wanted to do in life, and he went out, worked hard, and got it done. 
The fire station was really interesting – as you can imagine, these guys respond to way more situations than just fires and their trucks seem well equipped for most situations.
Showing the boys the ropes.
Thanks Pete, what a great day – coffees, hockey trivia with your Small Child, some stick ‘n’ puck ice hockey for Mr K and the Teenager, followed by a tour of the fire station. I hope you make it to Australia one day so we can show you and the family around Brisbane.
I could not count the number of people who seemed to be here just to see the Nemo Fish. Poor little things will never be known as Clown Fish ever again… “Look at the Nemo Fish, Jackson. Isn’t he cute?” Thanks, Disney.
Last time I was here there was a surprising display of a wobbegong shark.. he doens’t seem to live here anymore.
After whipping through all the familiar Tropical displays we went for a wander through the Amazon rainforest area. Which is a huge greenhouse of trees, flowers, birds, boa constrictors, alligators, frogs, and even a resident, (though somewhat camera shy), sloth.
Tiny poisonous frog… highly advise against eating these.
From there we meandered into the Pacific Coast area – which is nothing like the Pacific Coast area we are used to. Anemones in a multitude of colours (thank fuck for Grammarly – I’m still half asleep and can’t spell right now, which probably means I should put off writing until later, but I’m not gonna so bad spelling and typos ahoy!). I particularly love the bright green and strawberry coloured northern Pacific anemones.
They have some seriously impressive jellyfish display – this aquarium has some of the best jellyfish displays I’ve ever seen, they’re so serene, I could watch them for hours. In fact, I’d love to have a huge wall of jellyfish at home. Today the Teenager learned that the collective noun for jellyfish is a ‘smack’. He told me this very proudly, to which I responded off-handedly, ‘Yes, I know.’ Which caused a slightly disappointed expression… sorry kiddo, it’s hard to teach your mum new words*, you can take it home and dazzle your English teacher though.
Strawberry anemones… my favourite – this photo does not do them justice at all.
Laid-back and cruisey looking starfish that I swear would speak like Alison Janney if it could, you know, talk.
 Outside to the Marine animals area – dirty big seal.
Lesser dirty big seal – Northern Fur Seal if anyone is actually interested. (Complete with annoying lens aberration that I am going to have to investigate when I return home. Grrr.).  
Sea otters. I won’t bore you with the multitude of bad otter photos and videos I took in the poor lighting conditions today… but this guy picking his nose was a highlight.
Then around the corner to see some endangered South African Penguins.
These little guys weren’t very animated and I felt sorry for them living in this enclosure – the penguins we saw in the Falklands seemed much happier, huddling, and nesting and hatching and waddling across the sand.  
We seriously don’t need it, but I was really close to buying this fishy cribbage board for Mr K, made by a local artist named 
The suspension bridge has a huge long history that I probably wrote about last time I was here, but in case I didn’t and in case you’re interested, 
On the other side is the tree top walks in among the enormous fir trees.
Half arsed selfies seemed to be the order of the day. 
Among the tree tops.
As it got darker, my photography got wonkier!
A little cabin near a pond… where’s my tripod. :'( 
Further into the Adventure Walk was a lovely area that was filled with these large lighted globes of varying sizes that had been artfully arranged throughout the trees. It created a wonderful fantastical space that was heightened by it all being reflected in a still pond.
We had timed our visit so that it would be fully dark by the time we were walking back (all of 4:30-5:00pm) and the bridge all lit up looked very cool.
The canyon floor – shot handheld, at night from a rocking suspension bridge! 😛 
I love these fuzzy night photos. 🙂
AND – very excited – I finally found myself a fantastic Woolrich lumberjack flannelette shirt. Last time we were here, I searched high and low for one, but maybe they just don’t sell well in the summer season?! Very happy with my wash.
We arrived at Whistler around 4pm in the afternoon – which of course is when it starts to get dark here in the middle of winter, and quickly found our accommodation which was not as easy as it sounds when all the road signs, road markers and hotel signage is covered in snow!
We found the Aspens on Blackcomb eventually and were pleasantly surprised to find our two bedroom suite which was to be our base for the week, was much larger than it appeared in the photographs online – I know, when does that ever happen? We have a kitchen, two bathrooms and a decent sized living room.
And the view out the windows was very exciting – around the pools and out the back gate is the Blackcomb piste! Apparently, I chose well – the ‘ski-in/ski-out’ locations are considered very desirable. Who knew? Well, actual skiing type people probably knew.
The following morning, alarms were set, and excitement was high as we were getting the kids off to skiing and snowboarding school. We walked straight out down to Whistler Village to the Skier Plaza where the multitudes of people getting ready to hit the slopes when it was barely daylight, made my head spin!
This little dude was the only chill guy in the place, and seemed in no hurry to get up the mountain.
After we got the Teenager squared away in his first ever snowboarding lesson, we went for a walk down into the Village – everything was covered in snow, which again has the effect of making everything look the same. We were hunting for the Starbucks to meet up with some friends.
Cool chairs outside Starbucks – a little too ‘cool’ for me, I was glad we found some seating indoors.
We spend a wonderful couple of hours catching up with Barry and Sandra, whom I had the pleasure of getting to know on my huge 84 night South American adventure earlier this year. It’s crazy to think that we met travelling around South America and visited heaps of beautiful places all over countries like Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru, together – I mean, we went paragliding off a cliff in Rio de Janeiro together, and hiked up Machu Picchu together! – and now here we are meeting up at New Years in Canada! This is one of the best things about travelling, meeting wonderful new people whose company you enjoy so much, they turn into lifelong friends. <3 Fingers crossed that our plans come together and we get to do the TransAtlantic with these guys and the other beautiful people I met cruising around South America, too. It’s hard work trying to keep up with your friends who are already retired… But I can’t wait! 🙂
Being from Australia, everywhere we look is a stunning new vista – just looking down the street with the layer of snow covering the trees and the footpaths is beautiful.  I have taken hundreds of snow photographs.
Now it had stopped snowing we could actually see the place we were looking for the night before! 🙂
The drive to Vancouver was beautiful – blue skies, a layer of fresh snow everywhere as there had been about 15cm overnight. The snow plough guys were out in force working on the roads and they were definitely improved over last night’s conditions. More speed landscape photography – the 99 Sea to Sky Highway doesn’t really have a great many lookout points where you can stop safely to take pictures, and those areas that are intended for lookouts are currently poorly signed due to signage being, well buried in snow!
We made good time down to the city and went to see Kurios, 
Then it was time to hit the 99, Sea to Sky highway back to Whistler. We were a little worried about what the road conditions would be like driving back in the middle of the night – mostly because the Canadians around us seemed worried about it – but the snow plough guys had been working their butts off and the roads were clear and predominantly dry on the drive back. Much better than expected. We were back in Whistler by about midnight and gave a grateful salute to the snow plough drivers as we passed them just outside of Squamish. What a huge day… and tomorrow – more snow fun for the people!
The characters are as engaging as the music is beguiling – the main vocal performance by Sophie Guay is a funky jazz, blended with some sort of electro-swing (?) sort of thing that runs through the whole show. She literally sings for the entire show and gives an amazing performance.
The incredibly talented contortionists are often a highlight, and these four girls were unbelievable on a huge mechanical hand that must have been about 16′ across. They are just mesmerising to watch as they pose in all sorts of weird and wonderful positions.
I won’t give away too much other than to say there is an amazing Russian cradle duo, some very strong and talented, ‘Siamese Twins’ on aerial straps, a couple of absolutely gravity-defying balancing acts, and a beautiful and cleverly presented hand puppetry scene. I loved all of it!
But being here in the middle of winter, our experience was going to be somewhat different. The Gardens were started in 1904 by Jennie and Robert Pim Butchart. They had made their living from a concrete factory and had moved to this part of Vancouver Island for its rich limestone deposits. Once the quarry was mined out – this area formed the basis of a pleasure garden which was designed and built on by various landscape architects over the following century, pretty much.
At the moment there is an unsurprising Christmas theme running through the temporary displays that have been dotted throughout the gardens. Based on the 12 Days of Christmas, I managed to snap some pics of some of them – but probably not all!
The Rose Carousel at the centre of the gardens:
Totem poles that were given to the gardens to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the gardens.
Complete with otters!
One very cold Teenager:
A dragon fountain near the entrance to the Japanese Gardens.
The famous Rose Garden, with all the rose bushes hidden under the snow!
Lords A Leaping:
At this point, we decided we needed to head indoors to warm up a bit – so we visited the gift shop and found ourselves a crazy variety of salted caramel hot chocolates and weird eggnog lattes. After warming up we braved the gardens again for another quick whip around in the dark with the park all lit up for Christmas.
The Sunken Gardens all covered in Christmas lights.
Maids a Milking:
We had a wonderful, if freezing cold, visit to the Gardens, and stopped on the way back for another typical Canadian experience – A&W burgers and frosty mugs of root beer for dinner! Seriously? Slushy root beer in this weather? 🙂