The night Delle arrived - Thursday, December 8th - we got straight into the white Christmas spirit by taking her to the second annual Vancouver Christmas Market (click here to read about our visit to the first one last year).
It was a fun evening of quaint European-style market stalls, carol singers, delicious food (pulled pork baked potato and black forest baked apple for us), and glühwein. We met up with a few friends, ate dinner, watched Gerard take Claire on the carousel, and wandered through an indoor display of amazingly intricate (and some amazingly expensive!) Christmas ornaments.
This is Chantelle and Bree trying to teach Ben to knit one night in early December... :)
I learnt to knit last winter with Angharad's help, and recently completed my second project: a scarf for Delle (my first project was a scarf for myself). The pressure was on to finish it by the time Delle arrived on December 8th to spend a few weeks with us... as she'd need some warmth during her first real winter! After 10 months of knitting (well, with a 6 month break in the middle :P), I finally finished her scarf the night before she arrived...
Oh, and since then I've knitted another scarf as a Christmas present for Roxy! Onward and upward in 2012... perhaps I'll learn to knit dishcloths? :D
On Tuesday, November 29th, I happened to check the website of one of our favourite singers, Meaghan Smith, who is from Ontario, Canada... and discovered she was playing in Vancouver that same night! Of course we cancelled our standing Tuesday night squash game to see her. :)
It was the first night of her tour and she was promoting her new Christmas album, It Snowed. Although we had never seen her live, and hadn't known of her performing in Vancouver before, it turned out that her last concert here was the night of the post-Stanley Cup riots back in June. She said there were burning police cars outside the club, and no one was allowed to enter or leave!
Thankfully this concert was much less eventful. It was wonderfully intimate... a small venue on a rainy Vancouver weeknight, just Meaghan and her husband Jason onstage, less than 40 people in the audience, and $10 tickets! We even got to meet her afterwards.
This is Meaghan telling the story behind my favourite song of hers, You Got Out, before singing it. They weren't even planning to play it - someone shouted out a request for it during the encore!
This year we had American Thanksgiving dinner at Shonna and Joel's home on November 26th. We hardly took any photos, but here's one of the turkey and the hosts! :)
After my 6 days in Western Australia, I landed back in Brisbane early on Monday morning, November 21st. Our friend Jo collected me from the airport and I spent the day with her and her little boy, Dexter. We jumped on the trampoline, went grocery shopping so I could stock up on Aussie junk food, and had one last Red Rooster meal for lunch. :)
That evening we went out for Vietnamese in Fortitude Valley with a few other friends, went for a walk alongside the Brisbane River and over the Story Bridge, and finished up with some yummy ice cream.
L-R: Delle, Jo, Glen, Dexter, Lachlan, Sheralyn
Brisbane city
L-R: Delle, Sheralyn, Lachlan
That night I slept at Glen and Jo's for a few hours before our alarms went off at 3am for Jo to take me to the airport for my flight back to Vancouver (via Sydney). Thanks, Jo, for getting up early two days in a row, and for sharing such a fun day with me in between!
And thanks also to everyone else who helped make my 2 weeks in Australia such a wonderful time!
On Sunday, November 20th, Mum, Dad and I went to a nearby meeting and then had lunch back at the caravan park. After lunch, they took me into Perth to show me some of the sights in Western Australia's capital city.
Then we walked out onto a pier on the Swan River and watched a tour boat pull in...
Next we drove up to Kings Park and Botanic Garden, which has an incredible location overlooking Perth city and the Swan River, but which was so full of Sunday afternoon picnickers that finding a park was almost impossible! We found one eventually though, and spent a while enjoying the view before continuing on our way.
The Bell Tower and pier from another angle
Grass trees
Red kangaroo paw
Jacaranda tree
Next we headed to Fremantle, where we stopped at a hilltop memorial overlooking the coastal city...
...And then we drove into Fremantle and wandered through the streets, where we came across a street market with a "sticky maze"! I really liked Fremantle - it had interesting architecture and a fun vibe.
That evening I took Mum and Dad out for dinner at Miss Maud Swedish Restaurant to thank them for a wonderful 6-day caravan trip. This smorgasbord restaurant was recommended to me by one of our blog readers (thanks Jac!), and has been open 365 days a year without exception since 1973. Not a bad effort, eh?! We all enjoyed our delicious dinner at Miss Maud's, and I thoroughly recommend a visit if you're ever in Perth!
Later that night, Mum and Dad took me to the airport for my flight back to Brisbane. Thanks, Mum and Dad, for a great trip!
