Gabriola Island weekend, Part 2: Beaches

After our kayaking expedition finished unexpectedly early on the Saturday we spent on Gabriola Island, the ten of us squeezed into John and Helene's 7-seater SUV and drove to Drumbeg Provincial Park on the south end of the island. This was a very pretty, deserted, rocky beach with purple starfish galore (and a few pink ones). I thought it was funny that Drumbeg Park was named after "the Scottish home of the land's former owner, Neil Stalker" - yep, definitely a wise marketing decision to NOT name it Stalker Park!!!

L-R below: Ben, me, Connie, Ruth, Heidi, Helene, John (seated), Stuart, Rosanne, Juanita...

L-R: Ruth, Connie, Heidi, me...

After a coffee break, we squeezed our group of 10 back into the available 7 seats and headed to another beach to watch the sun set. The view out to a little rocky island with a lighthouse and red and white buildings was simply adorable, but the wind was pretty nippy by that time so we were happy to head back to the B&B and whip up a feast for supper (Canadian meaning - i.e. tea/dinner) - lasagna, salads, and garlic bread!















And that was our introduction to Gabriola Island!

**To see lots more photos from our Gabriola Island weekend, please click here or on the link under "Our photo albums" (above right).**

Gabriola Island weekend, Part 1: Kayaking

On the last weekend in September, ten of us spent two nights on Gabriola Island - one of the picturesque Gulf Islands off of Vancouver Island. We stayed in an awesome beach house B&B right on the water, and the attendees were: us, Stuart and Rosanne (now living in London for a few months!), John and Helene, Connie (the weekend's organiser), Juanita, Heidi and Ruth. Ben and I car pooled with Ruth for the four ferry rides involved in getting to Gabriola and back - here are some pics Ben took from the first ferry, going from the mainland across to Vancouver Island on Friday evening...

After a lazy Saturday morning, we launched our five double kayaks (hired from the B&B) into the water just down the beach from the B&B. And then we set off on what we had planned would be about 7 hours of kayaking! During the first hour, we paddled along the shore, past some low cliffs formed by interesting honeycomb-like rocks. We even saw a seal - for a split second before it ducked back underwater as a seagull swooped it (no pics I'm afraid)!









About an hour into our journey, it was time to find a spot to enjoy our pre-packed picnic lunches, so we paddled into a harbour where a lot of boats were moored. Getting across to the harbour involved a difficult paddle across an open patch of sea, while the wind tried mightily to push us onto the wrong island! During our lunch break we found out that the wind was forecast to increase, and since we had planned to paddle much further that day but our return paddle would be against the wind, we decided to wrap it up early. First, however, we enjoyed our hard-earned lunch on the shore of Gabriola Island, not far from the very awesomely-named boat in the second photo below!













After lunch, having called the B&B owner and arranged a pick-up spot for the kayaks, we just had to paddle to the other side of the harbour. On the way, Ben found the remains of a rusting catamaran for us to kayak through!! Back on solid ground, while our kayaks were being loaded we witnessed a very interesting method of four-wheeler transportation being carried out by two guys setting off on a hunting trip by boat...









Then, we had the rest of the day to explore the island by foot/car. I'll tell you about that next time!

**To see lots more photos from our Gabriola Island weekend, please click here or on the link under "Our photo albums" (above right).**

Gastown + Lonsdale Quay Market

We spent the first Saturday of fall with Angharad and Gerard (while Janelle was away for work), exploring Gastown and going by Seabus across to Lonsdale Quay Market in North Vancouver.

Gastown is Vancouver's oldest district, and in recent years has become quite a hotspot for locals and tourists alike. We'd heard it mentioned a lot but hadn't been to explore it yet, and definitely only got a taste this day as it was a spontaneous detour and Lonsdale Quay was our real destination. But Gastown is definitely on our list of places to return to - it has old buildings, cute shops, and lots going on. On the day we were there, a classic car and motorbike show was being held in the street, which really added to the overall charm!













Gastown is also home to the world's first steam-powered clock. We spent a few minutes waiting around with a dozen other people in order to hear the very exciting soft whistling noise the clock emits on the hour - just like a little steam train. ;)



Click here for the quirky story of how Gastown got started, and eventually grew into the City of Vancouver.











Next, we boarded the Seabus (the ferry that goes between downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver) and headed across to the Lonsdale Quay Market. There, we invested in some lunch, fudge, mango salsa, and even a knitted beanie. Speaking of salsa, there were some lessons in that going on too. :)











That evening, the four of us hung out at our place and tried out the mango salsa on some nachos - delish! It was a very enjoyable day. :)

Trivia night

On the night Cathryn and Lachy stayed with us, Saturday 29th August, we hosted a trivia night at our place. Although trivia nights are popular social and fundraising events in Australia, most of our Canadian friends were not acquainted with the concept, so we decided to introduce them to it. It seems to have been a hit, since one of the attendees is now organising another one!

We had three teams, each with three or four participants, and I compiled the questions and read them out. Team formation rules included no one being on the same team as their spouse, and each team requiring at least one Aussie. We had five rounds of questions (two before dinner and three after), with about twelve questions per round. The categories were Geography, People, Random, Where We Live, and Canada and Australia.

The teams were:

"The Blueberries": Harold, Ben and Heidi...



"The Lonely Planets" (due to the book they used as a backboard for their answer sheet): Juanita, Myla and Lachy (plus Darwin, who had to leave after two rounds)...



And "The Asians" (creative name also inspired by the Lonely Planet book they used as a backboard): Rosanne, Kathy, Cathryn and Gerard...



At the end of the evening, they ranked as follows:

In third place, "The Asians"...



In second place, "The Blueberries"...



And trivia champs, "The Lonely Planets", with their winners' Toblerones...



It was a fun night!