So, people have been encouraging me to keep writing (even if mainly for myself) and I keep coming across things this summer, I want to write about so it just makes sense to keep doing so!
Our one-year anniversary in Canada has come and gone and this summer is vastly different from last. The main reasons for this difference is we know more people and feel like Vancouver has become more our home. It's been so great going to BBQs, festivals with people, birthday parties, etc. At the same token, we are certainly feeling that "all things familiar" (family, NY, bagels, Americans and all their idiosyncrasies, etc) are SO far away. Even though America is just 45 minutes and a border crossing away, Canada and its people are still VERY different!
Since I "closed" the blog, we had the unfortunate incident of the Vancouver Riots over, what else, but The Stanley Cup Final. What do I have to think about that? LAME. The cops here were a sorry bunch...half had the day off and the "reinforcements" sent from the suburbs consisted of two police cars (which we saw racing across Cambie Bridge) 30 minutes after a lot of the fires started. It's been a bit funny hearing of the stories of people getting fired from their jobs, the arrests of spoiled rich kids, etc since then.
Fast forward after the riots and we enjoyed a wonderful time at this year's International Jazz Festival, which is held all over the city. The nice part is the final weekend is a huge festival at David Lam Park which is a block from our apartment. We went both days and sat out in the hot sun with friends...The first day, we were out for 6 hours and I got a nasty farmer's tan on my arms...Typical mother: makes sure everyone is lathered up with sunscreen and then slaps some on herself carelessly. I'll be paying for it til the fall, I'm sure.
What else? Hmm, we saw Wicked, the musical. Absolutely amazing and surprisingly funny. It was our first time at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, fairly new and pretty impressive. It was nice to go to a musical without fighting huge crowds, longing for free parking or dealing with massive amounts of tourists.
The weekend after we watched Wicked, we packed up the kids and went to Kelowna. All I have to say is AMAZING. It was about a 3.5-4 hour drive and Napa North welcomed us. Melvin and I agreed that it was actually more pleasant than Napa though because of this beautiful lake and a number of beaches that were accessible. Also, it was less commercialized and touristy...residents were abound with their local produce stands on the road, family vineyards and wine shops. We hope to go back again soon.
July's weather has been a disappointment on most days. It's been warm but quite grey. August seems to be making up for it though and I don't think I prefer to be in the East Coast's stifling heat either. At least we are able to go outside in comfort....If most of the year weren't so grey and rainy here though, we have to admit that it's the perfect climate to live in.
This is quite a long blog post, so I'll save more for later, especially all kid updates. We also have more visitors in town next week, so more fun in the sun (I hope) is to be had!
It feels great to be back :)
Since I "closed" the blog, we had the unfortunate incident of the Vancouver Riots over, what else, but The Stanley Cup Final. What do I have to think about that? LAME. The cops here were a sorry bunch...half had the day off and the "reinforcements" sent from the suburbs consisted of two police cars (which we saw racing across Cambie Bridge) 30 minutes after a lot of the fires started. It's been a bit funny hearing of the stories of people getting fired from their jobs, the arrests of spoiled rich kids, etc since then.
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| NOT TOO FAR FROM OUR APARTMENT! |
What else? Hmm, we saw Wicked, the musical. Absolutely amazing and surprisingly funny. It was our first time at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, fairly new and pretty impressive. It was nice to go to a musical without fighting huge crowds, longing for free parking or dealing with massive amounts of tourists.
The weekend after we watched Wicked, we packed up the kids and went to Kelowna. All I have to say is AMAZING. It was about a 3.5-4 hour drive and Napa North welcomed us. Melvin and I agreed that it was actually more pleasant than Napa though because of this beautiful lake and a number of beaches that were accessible. Also, it was less commercialized and touristy...residents were abound with their local produce stands on the road, family vineyards and wine shops. We hope to go back again soon.
This is quite a long blog post, so I'll save more for later, especially all kid updates. We also have more visitors in town next week, so more fun in the sun (I hope) is to be had!
It feels great to be back :)
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