X Canada Adventure

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Visiting in Vancouver

Today I stayed in Vancouver to visit with Auntie Frances and Uncle George. We met at the residence that Uncle George is staying at. He will be on his way home tomorrow. Auntie Frances has made preparation for his arrival. We had a large lunch. Auntie Frances kept feeding me. (Mom, I'm sure you will be happy to hear that.) After lunch I got a tour of the residence. It was really nice. All in all we had a great visit and I got some excellent pictures that I will share with everyone soon.


I then started on my tour of the city. I decided to got to UBC and the beaches then up to Stanley Park. I took a path that was supposed to go down to the water/beach. It ended up being very overgrown, full of logs and thorny bushes. It has been raining all day which made everything extremely wet. An hour later when I finally made it out my jeans and fleece were wet and heavy. I still managed to bike around UBC. It is a beautiful campus. I asked for directions from a guy. He tried to explain where I should go, but I had no idea what he said. He spoke in the accent (I guess that is what you would call it) that deaf people have. I tried soooo hard to listen.
I then headed to the beaches. Very nice. I was getting pretty cold so decided to head back to Kevin's place. I ended up stopping at a bagel shop for a snack. It had a gas fireplace...mmm....I dried off and warmed up pretty quickly.
Kevin and Alex (his roommate) and Brad (their friend) went out for all you can eat Sushi for dinner. I am sooo stuffed still.
I plan on biking quite a long way tomorrow. Hopefully the weather is better.
Lates.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Comox to Vancouver

I started in the morning at 8:30am after seeing Jayme off to work (sucker).
My shoulders hurt. They get pretty tight when I ride. My ass hurts. My feet go numb. And my legs are beginning to cramp. I will stretch my legs again later tonight.
Went from Comox to Nanaimo via the 19A highway. It is less busy and more scenic than the 19. When you get to Nanaimo it is another 10km to the ferry so don't get too excited. (Took me 6.5 hours) Just take your bike into the ticket office with you. I took the ferry from there ($12.65) into Horseshoe Bay in North Van. I decided that I wanted to take a road called Marine Dr. that goes along the water instead of taking the main expressway 1A. Other than having some really expensive houses to look at. It was a misery world of hill climbing and winding roads. There were lots of people on road bikes. It looked like they were training. Then there was me slowly hauling all my gear up and down the hills. I mentioned there were nice houses along they way. I got to take long looks at them cause I was going soooo slow. I suggest that anyone take 1A though it would probably be busier.
I finally made it to Kevin's house in Vancouver.

Make sure you give quite a bit of time to get around the city. It's quite large when travelling by bike.
My nifty bike computer says that I went 141km today. But I think it's more like 147 as I forgot to turn it on at one point during the day.

Vancouver is very nice. The Lion's Gate Bridge is very long but the ride through Stanley Park after was pretty good. I will get to look around the city a bit tomorrow. Once I got to Kevin's place at 7:3opm in Vancouver, East of downtown we took the bus to a Vietnamese restaurant.
Kevin and I have talked quite a bit about my trip and bikes and stuff. It's nice to talk with someone who is as into bikes as I am. We are just relaxing tonight which is probably for the best considering my condition.
I have spoken to Auntie Frances and will be visiting her and George around lunch time.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading. I'll try to have some interesting stories for you soon. :)

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Last Day In Victoria


Hello again,
So Jayme and I were very lazy today. We hung out in the morning did some laundry. Then drove to Parksville to visit Darcy and gossip about the wedding that she went to the day before. We went to a pretty nice restaurant with a patio and soaked up the sun. We went grocery shopping on the way back to Comox and picked up the last things that I needed to hit the road. We also rented Assult on Precinct 13. It was pretty good (a typical action flick).
Jayme's parents were so nice to me while I stayed there.
Sorry this post isn't too exciting, but I can't tell you the details of the wedding, or what I learned about Jayme. It's too scandalous. :)

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Visting with Jayme

Hello again,
Last night I went and got my picture taken at a sign that says "Mile 0," It's a plaque for a person that ran across the country. I thought it was fitting for my trip. After that Darcy and I drove up to Parksville where she has a wedding to go to. Jayme met Darcy and I at Darcy's Aunt's, Auntie Linda. (It reminded me of Giselle and Ben.)

Jayme and I are now in Comox and have decided not to go surfing. I'm a little disappointed, but I think it's a good idea. We will try to go kayaking around here either tonight, or tomorrow. Right now we are just getting ready to go shopping after a hearty breakfast. Jayme's family is just as nice as I remember them.
The weather has been amazing here. Very hot, very sunny. Hopefully it's a sign for the whole summer.
I will update this post later when I have more to report. Later.

So, Jayme and I have been very lazy here. We went shopping and picked up some stuff that I need for my trip. All I need now is food.
We had a great dinner with her parents and then went for drinks with her friend Brian. It was good times.

Friday, May 27, 2005

A Day in Victoria

I have spent the day in Victoria biking around. I cycled up Mount Doug. (That's for you Erin and Doug now I can be in on the jokes)
And I biked around downtown. I ate lunch in a nice little vegetarian place called Green Cuisine in the Market Square. It was pretty good. It was cafeteria style so I took a small bit of everything.

If you're looking for a good hill-climbing ride to warm up for the Rockies I recommend Mount Doug. It's not too long, but the question "Will this ever end?" does creep into your mind. Just follow the road all the way up. Mount Doug Park is on the Northeast side of Victoria a few km out of town. It's on any map of the greater city. (Approach from Shelbourne St.) It might be nice to swing through UVic on the way back, but I didn't think of it until after.
Cover Pt. and Beacon Hill Park are very nice, and there is an ice cream store on the East side of the Park.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Flying to Victoria

So, here is my first real entry. If you're looking for some indepth insight into the psyche of Dong, you can forget it. I'm as shallow as the pee in Paisley's crate on the drive to Marcia's last night.
Everything is falling into place nicely. The past few days/weeks have seemed very busy. (Moving May 1st, leaving work, packing, visiting and camping.) I talked to Jayme last night and arranged that I will be staying with Darcy in Victoria tonight. I met her last summer with I was hanging out here for a week.
She was very nice then, so I'm expecting more of the same:)
Apparently it will only be Jayme and I this weekend so we may not get up to Tofino, but we shall see.
Time passes....
Darcy and her roommates are super nice. They have been so welcoming. We went to have eats and drinks at a the Sticky Wicket. It was a big night. I had two Sprites and a pineapple juice:)


I arrived in Victoria on time. There is a stand in the parking lot to reassemble your bike. Very handy. I got a city map from the Information desk. There is a trail that goes from the airport all the way downtown. I think it's called the Lochside Rec Trail. Go straight out of the airport on the road and follow the signs (very easy). It weaves in and out of fields and neighbourhoods. Stay left at the only really big trail junction. The left arm goes over a large walking bridge over traffic(Trestle Bridge). Then take a left on the next bridge(Johnson Bridge). This is where you get off the bike trail. After the bridge you will be downtown. The trail is about 26km and took me about 1hr 15min

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Last Day Packing

Crap is hitting the fan.
My new minidisc player sucks crap, well, the software sucks crap! I've been on the phone way too long with tech support (with zero customer service, pssh I should know.)
Ok, it's not going all that bad. I still have quite a bit to do though. Most of my packing is done, I just have to deal with the cats and random things around the house.
I'll be flying out of TO at 9:05 tomorrow morning.
Perhaps I'll update later tonight.
Lates

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

I Leave Tomorrow

Soo much to do.
Gots to go.
Bye.