A load of Bulls!

It was a fine summers day as I left Kitsilano beach on June 25th to pick up my Mother and Sister from the airport. They did much better than Dad getting through immigration and customs. Laura attributes this to her sweet smile, but I think it has more to do with her terrifying temper.

It had been a long day for both of them, so we started of their Canadian odyssey wondering had it really been 9 months since we had last seen each other, and walking around English Bay. In the evening we went to the Boathouse restaurant which has stunning views over English bay, great food, only matched by a very well chosen wine menu.

Next day the girls had managed to defy the jetlag and get a solid nights sleep. First things first, I wont all the way back over to English bay to bring then into downtown. First port of call was the Harbor Centre. The Harbor Centre is a big tower which has a viewing deck at the top. You can see Mt Rainier and baker, in Washington state, all the way from up there.

Next it was a brief pit-stop in Gastown for a coffee, and Laura (Girlfriend not sister). She joined us and introduced herself to Mum and Laura. I already know her. She made a very good first impression. After that it was a bit shaky (Just kidding Laura Z)

After that, it was back to my swinging bachelor pad in Kits. Our good intentions to clean up and make our place look half respectable for Mum, somehow failed to materialise. Never mind.
The afternoon consisted of a walk down to Kits beach and then onto Granville Island, for some shopping and Dinner at Bridges with Ian.

To cut a long story short, next day we went to Grouse mountain. It was at this point that I decided to bring my camera along, so I can allow some of the pictures to do the talking for me. It was a blisteringly hot day with snow still all around us. The highlight had to be the two Grizzly bears Koola and Grinder, and the world famous Lumberjack show.

Next day we went off to Stanley park and the aquarium. This is always a fun place, although I did manage to fall asleep during the whale show (In my defence, It was the forth time I had seen it). That evening we had a BBQ at ours, but as we were heading off on our Rockies tour first thing the next morning, I was booked a room for the night in the Coast Plaza Hotel.

I like to think that the first hotel would set the standard for the rest of the holiday. The problem was, because I had got there so late, I didn't have a chance to take full advantage of the two person Jacuzzi in my room. However, the three person bed was very comfortable and a good night rest was had.

Next morning we awoke to go for breakfast on the 36th floor. Beautiful views over English Bay and plenty of sausages got us off to a great start. It was here that we first met up with our co travelers, whom we would be spending the next 11 days. A sprinkling of Americans, Canadians and Kiwi's were out numbered by a mass of Australians. Most of which were, delightful, funny and sound, and just a couple had my mind racing back to the first season of Kath and Kim. Alto we were introduced more formally, to our guide Claudio, and our driver Steve.

We started our journey up through a town called Hope (RIP Gene Pitney), and then to our first layover at Lac Le Jeune. Le Jeune in in the middle of nowhere. Populated by bears and sea creatures, Loonies and the occasional Hotelier. We were nor allowed TV's in our room because the power supply is very limited to the middle of nowhere. However, the best thing about this hotel, and any other hotel we stayed in, was the food. It was sublime. Dinner and breakfast alone gained me half a stone. And I don't care!

Next day we were off to Jasper, in our first national park. Jasper was a fun place and all geared up to celebrate Canada day. I was in dire need of a cheer up as England had just been knocked out of the World Cup, by some cheating Manchester United player. I will not even have by blog bear my name.

It was in Jasper that I did the Edith Cavelle glacier walk, which was fun and very informative.

Next we went on to Banff. We stayed here for two nights as well. Banff was a really nice town. I remember that a lot of Bunacers went there for the ski season. I bumped into one while I was shopping. I had completely forgotten her name, and being to polite to ask what it was, I never found out. Mind you I don't think she remembered what mine was either.

It was from Banff that we took the Glacier tour. We took what looked like a moon bus up to the top of the glacier and were allowed to go out and have a look around. The view was something quite spectacular. After another talk about glaciers, I am quite an expert now.

It all starts getting blurry at this point, but I think the next stop was Kamloops. It rained. The End!

We hit the road once again to go to Whistler. We arrived at 6 pm and had to leave early the next morning. We did a quick rush around the shops and had a good meal but there wasn't time to explore in great detail sadly.

After our overnight stop in Whistler, we darted off to Victoria. I really liked Victoria. I had been in the winter with Dad, but in the summer it comes alive. This was also our opportunity to go whale watching. We went out in a fairly decent sized boat and powered for about 1hour 30mins until we got to the whale area where the families lived. It was a beautiful day, without a cloud in the sky. We saw plenty of whales and a much rarer sea otter, swimming on it's back, playing in the sun. They were very near extinction at one point.

We did quite a bit of shopping in Victoria, we also enjoyed the night air and beautiful Empress Hotel, and Parliament buildings that overlook the bay.

Back to Vancouver where I spent another night in a hotel after returning to the Boathouse with Ian and Laura for dinner. Up again we were, nice and early for the start of our Alaskan Cruise on the Norwegian Wind.

We boarded the impressive ship at about 1pm. We had a quick mooch about the deck, pools casino, shops and theatre as we waited for our baggage. I was a little uneasy about how I would feel about being confined to a ship for a whole week. After 24 hours of luxury, food and alcohol, I wondered how I had ever led a normal life before this point. It was heaven.

So what did I do to pass the time. Well what any well balanced family would do on such an occasion. We HIT THE SLOTS BABY! Yes we gambled on the 5 cent slots. We started of with $3 each and ended off with about $60. We re-invested all that in the ships bingo tournament and lost the lot. Never mind!

I also spent a lot of time perfecting my golf swing in the on board driving range. The boat was a dream. We swam in the pool, ate at all the different restaurants, read, slept, gambled, ate more etc.

It was my Birthday for the formal night, so the three Bull, got dressed up in their fancy attire and hit the one restaurant that had a cover charge. We ordered a bottle of champagne, courtesy of my little sister and enjoyed a splendid meal and generally enjoyed the evening in each others company.

We had three ports of call in Alaska. They were Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. All three towns were pretty similar. They looked Alaskan, had wooden sidewalks, lots of bars, and was only open for half of the year. They had far to many jewelry shops for pure authenticity, but hey ho. We tended to get off the boat and then mooch around as my Sister would systematically tear through the shops which had been stupid enough to give her a money off voucher or offer her free stuff. As a student fresh out of Uni, she still has that mean fighting penny pinching quality, that is lost on the more refined or lazy people like me.

Skagway was a bit different. I decided to go on a little excursion at Skagway. I was driven back into Canada through the Yukon and spent the day canoeing and horseback riding. This was great fun, especially the horse riding, as it gave me a real pioneer spirit feeling, riding through the mountains as if it was Montana. It was superb. The only thing that would have made it better is if they'd have let me wear my cowboy hat, instead of a tired old cycling helmet.
The last three days were spent on the boat traveling back down from the glacier fields, down the back passage and back to Vancouver. The scenery was breath taking, with the ice bergs and the whales making periodic guest appearances.

Thank you to mum and Laura for having me along, it was great seeing you, and a posthumous thank you to Aunty Pat, who helped fund this escapade. We did you proud!