New York, New York!!

(humming) da, da, da-da-da....
At the end of March, Dan left Dave and the land of maple leaves, for the big city of New York New York!
A week of sightseeing, shopping on 5th Avenue, eating New York Pizza and much-needed catching up, saw Alison, Kim and Dan feeling that much more fulfilled, having seen and experienced this amazing place.
Observing rush hour in Wall St (and Dan being asked if she worked around here!)...

























Seeing the view from the top of the Rockefeller Centre...




















Empire State Building...




















Relaxing in Central Park (Al), and taking in the city views...

New York continued

Al and Kim at the Clinton St Bakery - apparently the best pancakes in New York!



Waiting for Tiffany's to open!!! Yep - a lovely morning was spent in here (and a lovely credit card bill to match!!)

Times Square subway station (my camera couldn't deal with all the lights outside!)

Shopping at Macy's (the world's largest dept store)

Cool picture don't you think?

Oh yes, of course...

Madison Square Garden - where we watched the NY Knicks lose terribly to the Boston Celtics

We just had to sample some New York Gourmet food!

New York - the end

For Lou... this reminded me of you! (In Little Italy) Maybe we'll see the real thing in a couple of years???



Blurry but funny! An NYPD officer gladly accepts my request to be photographed (and offers to handcuff me as well!)


My favourite thing in NYC - walking across the Brooklyn Bridge...beautiful!


The city from Central Park

The Knicks game (look at the score...it only got worse and would you believe, SO many locals walked out at the end of the 3rd period and booed their own team!!! Now... would we do that to the Aussie cricket team?)

More shopping...this time, at Bloomingdales!


So there ends a wonderful trip, spent with wonderful friends. It was a nice break from the fresh air of Canada!

Wonderful Weekends in Whistler

No.... that's not a new hairdo (although....)
It's Czarina and Dan being a little silly after a dazzling day skiing in Whistler, in March.
It was amazing - unlike anything we've ever seen, and we totally know why it's labelled the best ski resort in the world.
Gorgeous, long runs, the most beautiful glacier...
We hiked up to the glacier on Blackcomb mountain and skied down the back side of the mountain, on un-touched, fresh powder...ahhh!
Season ends soon (I think May?) but opens again around the beginning of November. Anyone keen for a ski?!

Inukshuk

An 'Inukshuk' is a formation of rock that the first nations people created, before white men arrived in Canada. In their nomadic times, the Inukshuk was a symbol left by tribes, as they moved on to other places to hunt and gather. It was left as a symbol of safety and harmony, so that other tribes would know that the area was... well, safe and harmonious.
We spent our morning in Sechelt finding rocks so we could make our own little Inukshuk. It now sits in our bedroom in Vancouver.
This is a picture of it from a hut we found on the beach.

The Sunshine Coast (that's what they call it anyway!)

A Sunday in March with our partners in crime, Czarina and Maarten, was spent on Gibsons and Sechelt, on the Sunshine Coast, just an hour ferry ride north of Vancouver.
This is Horseshoe Bay, in North Vancouver, where all the ferries leave for mid-Vancouver island and the north coast.
Yep...as you look at these pictures, you'll wonder, like us, why they call it "Sunshine".
Despite the dreary day, it was great to see some small fishing villages, to eat fish n chips from a fresh, local store, to stroll on the "beach" and collect rocks and to see how some of the locals live, in beautiful houses right on the water's edge. It all felt very 'Canadian'.

Snowshoeing at Cypress

No, it wasn't spent drinking green beer... St Paddy's night was spent night-snowshoeing on Cypress Mountain, just a 45 min drive from Vancouver city.
This is Dave's colleague from work - our guide for the night, who early on in the night claimed "Cypress was his backyard", only to get us lost a few hours later!!!
It was a great experience, snowshoeing through thick, powdery snow in the dark - quite scary though as I passed a hole with a river running inside! I don't trust my coordination with sneakers on a paved road, let alone in chunky snowshoes, in snow, at 1030 at night on a cold mountain!!!!
Snowshoeing is a great sport - such hard work and especially considering it's at higher altitudes. The beer was definately deserved when we eventually found our way home/to a pub!