Snowline Cabins Maple Falls

Cooling my heels until I go to Mt Vernon WA for my front tire & oil change on Tuesday. So I thought I would explore this area, maybe as far as Vancouver or not. Kind of looking forward to eating some of the freshest fruit going!
Staying here is also less expensive than Vancouver or trying to get over to the island then reroute back to the mainland for the ride down to Seattle. Besides, I keep saying I don't like riding in big cities.

Our tourism class had a field trip to Fort Langley and we left our school in Vancouver around 11:20. It took us around 1 hour more or less to arrive at Fort Langley. First advice: if you want to see the whole village of Fort Langley, please do not visit on Monday or Tuesday. When my friends and I arrived there around 12:30, a lot of the shops were closed. I was pretty disappointed but I managed to find a retro ...

... We could go down and do standby but with a total length of 38ft it was unlikely that we would get on as there was only one choice for us, she infact had to stop herself from laughing, if we had our passports we would be able to get on she thought and do standby at every port until we reached where we wanted to stay.... all in all it was going to cost around $6000 round trip so we decided to head East across the US and leave Alaska for another time.

... it the 'Scream' or 'Nightmare') was finally repaired on Thursday, December 13th. It took them a couple of extra days to get the patching done and approved, but by 6:00 pm we were able to sail out of the port, through the channel, and into open waters. NCL replaced the captain with that of the Marco Polo (one of the sister companies and ships) who was heading home for Christmas. With his years of experience on this route and his "take control" attitude, he made us feel as ...

... the food courts for lunch ( we meet a very nice couple who wanted to go to NZ and some odd local people - some hippy lady with two children , a boy and a girl but I am buggered if I could figure out which was which ) and then walked to Stanley park to see the famous totem poles. I would love to show pictures however we had just hopped onto the train to Vancouver when we realised that we had forgotten to bring the camera. It was pouring with rain also ...

... when I'd thought I'd have some vacation time. Instead I got laid off and paid out for that vacation time up front. And because I had put aside a few $1000 already, and deprived myself of daily Starbucks and new summer clothes, I was able to jump at this opportunity for a big trip. Yes, travel is expensive but so is daily life; No matter where you are, you're eating and sleeping and spending. Beyond the big plane ticket, I don't find budget backpacker style travel ...

Finalmente Vancouver, es extraño ser el último en entrar al avión y ser el primero en salir, en saberte en un pais nuevo, jamas había estado en Canadá y aqui se toman muy en serio el asunto de las "First nations", el aeropuerto es extraño, tiene cascadas, representaciones de bosques, montañas nevadas, y la conjugación entre mar y montaña, hay totens con figuras que me recuerdan osos, mapaches, aguilas, de pronto un cuervo gigante de ...

... guests from Vancouver Health Dept. During coffee afterwards it was suggested that if I had statistical analysis of how all these design details affects residents eg, number of falls, amount of calming medication admistered, then this could be the basis for a PhD. Food for thought, but in a perverse way I do miss the rough and tumble of fighting with Quantity Surveyors and Structural Engineers.

Not much to report here I'm afraid. I had a lovely chance to spend some quality time with my Uncle Phil and his family over Christmas, and walk around downtown Vacouver getting my E-2 work visa processed. Walking in some areas of Vancouver made me feel like I was already entering an Asian world, although in reality this is just some ...

We were lazy today and slept in rather late - boy did it feel good! Vancouver is a nice city, although it reminds me a lot of NYC. There's a street we visited last night that's very posh - all expensive stores. Steph had a chocolate-covered strawberry to die for at the Godiva chocolate store. mmm.... Dad's been stressing mom out all day worrying about things, but I think that's settled down since we set sail. We boarded early - it gave us time to eat and ...