Our Canada Trip - Part 4

Breakfast at the hotel

 

View from the dining room window

Thursday morning we were all awake really early thanks to our body clocks being on SA time!  Malcolm was picked up by the car rental company, driven into Vancouver city centre and after signing the relevant paperwork, given keys to our rental car (a Honda Odyssey).  From there he had to drive back to the hotel, alone, on the wrong side of the car, and of the road!!

Yes - he was pulling a face at me...!

 He did very well!!  Throughout our time in Canada he only made a few mistakes – mainly turning into a road on the left hand side (into oncoming traffic!!).  One night he very nearly rode into an elderly woman walking across the street!!  She got quite a fright (as did we) and then started yelling at us, and swung her shopping and hit the car in anger!!  That’ll probably go down in our family’s history as a memorable moment, one we laugh at now...

One of the weirdest things about being overseas is how much is different, and how much is just so similar to home...  Like having to drive on the right hand side of the road – it just feels so wrong at first, although you adjust quite quickly.  You have to remember to do everything opposite, including looking out for oncoming traffic at an intersection.  I tend to look in the wrong direction.... L



The view looking north-east while travelling towards Vancouver.

The filling stations are so similar to here, with their convenience stores open all night long.  Different though is the self-service there.  Here it all gets done for you.  Shopping centres are much the same – except for the fact that most of the shops have different names.  MacDonalds doesn’t change at all... not even the taste!  Coke and Sprite taste the same, thank goodness.  In the UK they’re disappointingly different.

Most people were friendly, and it was never crowded there.  I thought that maybe we were there at a quiet time of year, but friends of ours said that it’s much the same all year round.  Actually, I’m convinced that crowding is an African problem.... If there are two things that I’ll always associate with Africa it will be overcrowding and dust!

Anyway, once Malcolm had returned with the car, we set off to find a Walmart.  (Can some of my US friends please enlighten me as to whether there really is a stigma attached to shopping at Walmart, and why...) 

  I had been unable to find a suitable jacket here, since it was summer, and the only ones left over in the clothing shops were the ones nobody wanted.  I did find something warm enough at a store that stocks clothing for outdoor wear, polar expeditions etc, but it was about R1500 and only available in a mulberry-like colour.  So I checked online and found a parka at Walmart that was to my liking, and at half the price of the one here.  Thankfully they had them in stock and I took it.  (I’m looking forward to winter here this year – I’ll be soooo warm).  We also bought shoes for some of the kids suitable for snow and some jackets for others, as well as beanies and hats and scarves.  It was a lot of fun shopping like that!

After that we had to hurry back to our hotel to meet Julie and her family!!!  This is one of the best things about blogging – making friends on the other side of the world!  Getting to actually meet them is quite a bonus!  Julie and her family drove through from the US specially to meet us, and took us out to lunch.  It was wonderful to see people you’ve only seen photos of before..  I would have liked to have had some more time together and get to talk more, but it was wonderful as it was, and anyway, my brain was kind of befuddled from a combination of jet-lag, not enough sleep and generally feeling overwhelmed by all I was trying to take in!

We went to Steveston, which is south of where we were staying.  It’s a fishing village so it was appropriate to have fish and chips for lunch.  The fish on the menu was a lot different to what we have here – in name at least.  Cod, halibut and salmon.  Cod is apparently available here, but it’s not something we see each day, salmon you can find everywhere (but it’s pretty pricey; and smoked salmon is a lot more common than fresh) and halibut I’ve never seen on any menu before...  I had salmon, and it was delicious!!  The chips were a bit strange to us though – much darker than ours are here!!  I’m not sure if they’re naturally that brown or if it was the way they were cooked. 

The two families around the lunch table - from left:  Kerry (Julie's husband), Eden, Daniel, Nathan, Ben-Jonathan, Wyatt, Tate, Gunnar, Julie, Myself, Jordan, Keren and Malcolm.

After the meal we went to the Gulf of Georgia Cannery which is an old cannery that is now a museum.  You can read Julie’s account of it here – I don’t think I’ll remember enough to give a good, factual account ;-).  It was interesting though, and gave us some insight into the history of the area. 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 



We had to check in as workers... ;-)

  The kids had fun trying things out like peughing fish: 

 

 Seeing how much people were worth in fish:

and dipping their hands into some fish guts!  (fake of course).

By the time we were finished it had got considerable colder outside.  I can’t remember the exact temperatures, but the fall weather in Vancouver felt a good deal like our winter...!!  We stood outside a bit, took some photos and then said goodbye to Julie and her family, and headed back to our hotel.

Hopefully we’ll see you all again soon, Julie!!