Two nights in Edmonton

On Saturday 19th December, we drove to Edmonton, Alberta, to spend two nights with Megan and Justin - their last two nights in the home exchange house they had been living in since July.


(Megan's photo)

We had been planning our Christmas with them for a couple of months - five nights in Canmore (near Banff, in the Rocky Mountains) - so we went via Edmonton to (a) extend the fun, and (b) help with the logistics since they would have lots of luggage and no vehicle. They were flying back to NZ and on to visit Australia two days after Christmas.

We saw lots of beautiful snow-covered pine trees and mountains on the 11 hour drive to Edmonton. You'll see MANY more photos of such things in the upcoming blog entries, but here are a few pics from the drive...







On Sunday, the four of us drove a couple of hours to Rimbey, AB, for special meetings. We were missing ours in Vancouver on the same day, so it was wonderful we could make it to Rimbey!

Back in Edmonton that night, we had Mucho Burritos for tea (M&J's last meal of their favourite takeaway) and then drove around to look at Christmas lights. There's a street that calls itself "Candy Cane Lane", with about 200 houses decorated in Christmas lights and lawn ornaments, and people drive slowly, walk, or hop aboard a horse and cart to see them all. We chose the "drive slowly" option since it was about minus 15 degrees Celsius!

Here are some duelling snowmen that were on one of the front lawns...


(Megan's photo)

After Candy Cane Lane, we drove to Maisie's Magical Christmas House, where we did get out and walk around. Maisie was a lady who decorated her house in an unbelievable array of lights and Christmas decorations each year, and it became a bit of a local attraction. After she passed away a few years ago, her family have continued the tradition.







Despite us being rugged up like this and still cold at -15 degrees, at Maisie's house we actually saw a guy in his 20s who was only wearing a t-shirt (well, and jeans)!!!



More photos at Maisie's...




















(Megan's photo)

The next day, Monday, Megan and Justin finished packing up and cleaning their house, and around lunchtime we set off for Canmore - our winter wonderland!

To be continued...

Canucks game!

On Monday 14th December, Ben and I went to our first ice hockey game! Ben's boss gave him tickets a few months ago, so we had been looking forward to seeing the famous Vancouver Canucks for quite a while! The game was in GM Place and the Canucks were playing the Los Angeles Kings.

On the way in, we had some traditional hockey food...





As opposed to the BC Lions football game we went to, this time the stadium was packed - 18000 people! Before the game, the US and Canadian national anthems were sung. Here's the anthem singer beside the Canucks' famous goalkeeper, Roberto Luongo...



Once the game got underway, it was all very exciting! Most of the time, we weren't quite sure why players were getting penalties, but apart from that we mostly knew what was going on! And it wasn't as stop-and-go as the football game we went to, which made it about a hundred times more interesting to watch! Ice hockey is very fast and action-packed, and the agility of the players on their skates is VERY impressive!

Here are some photos and videos... the Canucks are in the blue jerseys and the Kings are in the white jerseys. The umpires (of which there were three or four on the ice at all times) are wearing vertical black and white stripes. As well as their umpiring duties, they had the important role of breaking up fights - see the second video below!

The Canucks won the game, 3-1. After the first Canucks goal, we very quickly realised that it's the done thing for all Canucks fans (i.e. most of the audience, since it was a home game) to stand up and cheer wildly! So of course we joined in on the next two - and it's a pretty amazing feeling to be in a crowd of 18000 Canadian hockey fans when the Canucks score a goal! And also when Luongo stopped most of the Kings' attempts to score!



Ice hockey has three periods, which we didn't know. During the third period we'd managed to convince ourselves there would be a fourth, so the game seemed to us to end very suddenly!! But in a nutshell, this was an absolutely awesome experience and we would happily attend another Canucks game!

"Go Canucks Go!!"

More game photos are in our Dec '09 Picasa album.

Girls' Car Racing Night

On Saturday 12th December, we hosted a "Girls' Car Racing Night" at our flat! The idea for this came about some months ago after Ben got the game "Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed" for us to play against each other. We thought it would be great fun to network some laptops together and get a bunch of girls - presumably with similar levels of inexperience - competing against each other!

We ended up with 7 girls and our 2 IT guys, Ben and Gerard. The competitors were Janelle, Shonna, Juanita, Myla, Anyu, Janae and me. All involved had a ton of fun - including those who took 15 minutes to de-stress after each race, and the one who felt so nauseous she had to sit out (not naming any names)!!!

Here are some photos...

























And a video!

American Thanksgiving

At the end of November, we enjoyed our 2nd Thanksgiving of 2009! Canadian Thanksgiving was in October (read about it here), and then we had the privilege of being invited to Donna and Terry's home in Mt Vernon, Washington, to celebrate US Thanksgiving on Thursday 26th November! (Donna and Terry are the parents of one of our Vancouver friends (Janae), and are the folks we stayed with on our way to Montana.)

We drove the 2 hours to their place on Wednesday evening, and Kelly and Janae arrived soon after us.

Here's the view from Donna and Terry's beautiful log home on Thanksgiving morning...



And here are Janae and I, preparing for a full day of eating and relaxing...



In the late morning, disaster struck - a blackout while the turkey was in the oven!! The power stayed out for an hour or two, but luckily the gas BBQ saved the day. Our hosts were impressively calm considering that about 15 guests were on their way!!

Here are the tables set and guests arriving...







And check out this awesome food... Americans LOVE their Thanksgiving!!











Us with Janae and Kelly...



And dessert!





Wayne with his helping of cream, which MAY have had some apple pie with it...



And here are some photos from the afternoon stroll Ben went on with some of the more energetic ladies...







The day after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday". Most people take this day off work as well, and make a four-day weekend of the festivities. Black Friday is known for incredible bargains and crazily crowded shops - to the point where people start lining up soon after midnight for shops that open as early as 4am, and we've been told that people have actually been killed by stampeding shoppers. Unbelievable!!

Thankfully, instead of shopping, Black Friday at Donna and Terry's consists of playing games and baking! :) I had just come down with a cold so stayed away from the baking, but Ben got right into the gingerbread house building and Christmas cookie decorating! Here he is with Jaclyn and Julia, and their mum, Tonya...























Late on Friday night, we decided we should go shopping after all, so that we could say we've experienced "Black Friday"! So Donna took Ben and I shopping from 9pm until the shops closed at 11pm! By then the crowds had gone (along with the most common clothing sizes), so we had quite a pleasant experience! We only hit Target and Macy's, but each of us found a couple of nice things. :)

The next day, Saturday, we spent a few more hours relaxing and enjoying wonderful company before it was time to head home for Ben's work Christmas party. Before we left, I had a go on the old gospel meeting pedal organ they have - it folds up into a box with a handle to carry it about!







So, after three nights and two and a half days, our American Thanksgiving came to an end. (And to think we were impressed when our Canadian Thanksgiving took 9 hours!!) We had a wonderful time and definitely hope to repeat the experience if we're still here at that time next year. THANK YOU DONNA AND TERRY!!!!

More Thanksgiving photos are in our Oct-Nov '09 Picasa album.