I thought I would take another brief break from the Japan posts to stay current with other fun things going on. After getting back from Taiwan, we had a brief trip over to Galiano for the remainder of the weekend. We got sme things done, relaxed and then came home for a busy week. Thursday was Justine’s birthday, on Saturday we went to Reifel and had a Skydigger concert in the evening and Sunday we went up Sea to Sky Gondola with Alex and Matt. Oh and we’ve started packing up to move most of our stuff out for the reno.
Quick Galiano Weekend
After getting back from Taiwan on Friday night, we headed over to Galiano on Saturday morning. We had been away quite a while, and we needed to have a look at things. It was raining pretty good when we arrived, so it was low key and we just chilled out. I was pretty messed up from the long trip, so a nap was in order.
It did clear up on Saturday afternoon, so we went for a walk in the forest and did some mushroom harvesting. We found some nice chanterelles that we added to our dinner that night. We also made a nice fire outside and sat and enjoyed the evening.
Sunday morning I was up fairly early and headed down to the golf course to get a round in while the weather was nice. On the way, I stopped by Lion’s Hall and saw the huge pumpkin! Apparently the biggest pumpkin in BC was grown on Galiano Island this year. The thing is massive.
That is one big pumpkin.
The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. We did some small projects on Sunday then worked all day Monday before heading home. It was nice to get back over. I think the trips will be less frequent for a while, as we have lots to do back in Vancouver.
Justine’s Birthday!
Thursday was Justine’s birthday! We had had a busy week, so we kept it pretty low key. We did take off from work early to attend an event that I’ll fill you in on a bit later. After the event, we went out for dinner. I decided to try the Vancouver version of the Taiwanese dumpling restaurant that I had been to in Taipei. The place was huge! Way bigger than the one I went to in Taiwan. And the menu was pretty much the same, and the food was equally spectacular. We had a fun night out to celebrate the big day.
A Long Overdue Visit to Reifel
On Saturday, the rain stopped and we had a pretty nice day. Justine had been her usual organized self and had booked us in for the morning. I find this hard to believe, but I think this might have been our first trip there this year? It ended up being a fairly quiet day at the sanctuary, but it was still very nice to walk around in the sunshine and enjoy the day. We did see a few cool things along the way.
The most interesting thing that happened was a raven chasing a hawk! This went on for a good 5 minutes before the hawk was able to lose the raven and escape with his life! No idea what set it off, but it was quite the chase!
The chase continues…
On the way home we did something I was hoping we’d never have to do again - get a storage locker. For the reno, we need to move out a lot of our things, and as we do not have space in the building, it was really the only alternative.
Saturday was a busy day, and Saturday night we headed across town to West Broadway, to the area I used to live in when I first moved to Vancouver. There’s an old movie theatre called the Hollywood Theatre, which at the time (over 25 years ago now!) used to run second run movie for really cheap. I used to go all the time. It closed for a while, then became a church and now it’s been reborn as a live music venue. I had not been to it since it reopened, so I was curious to see what it was like. One of my all-time favorite bands, the Skydiggers, had made their way back out west and I was excited for it t be a great night!
They did an amazing job converting the theatre! Great combination of standing and sitting, and even some table that you can reserve at the back.
The new venue is great - good size, good sightlines and great sound. The opening act was a woman called Jimi, an Edmonton transplant to Vancouver that was a great guitarist, had a great voice, played some blues and generally put on a really good opening set.
The Skydiggers were their usual, awesome selves. They played a nice mixture of all the expected hits, but mixed in a collection of material off the new album, which I really like. It was a great show.
Sea to Sky Gondola with Alex and Matt
Sunday the weather held and so we needed to make the most of a suny day in November. As November holds birthdays for both Justine and Alex, we decided to get together and do a trip up the Sea to Sky Gondola. Neither Alex or Matt had done it before, and so we thought it would be a fun day out.
We did two short hikes, the Panorama trail and the Wonderland trail. I think I like them better in the winter, covered in snow. But it was still really nice to get out. Our friend Nicole met us at the top, after doing the much hard hike up from the base.
