Part 3: Luxury snowflakes and cakes
Part 3: Luxury snowflakes
Firstly, a special hello to my brother Adrian who has just managed to sign himself up to this list. Well done brother, you are cool.
So to continue this grand story...on Boxing day we headed back over to Victoria where I got to be the proud host showing off her new hometown. It was great exploring and finding lots of cool new cafes and restaurants (culinary world tour) for me to visit this semester. Also went to a jazz tribute concert to Chet Baker which was SUPERB and another resolution was added to my list – learn to play jazz on my keyboard.
We then headed up to Tofino (about 4 hours up island) – famous for its surf, long beaches (we went to a beach aptly named "Long Beach") and electrical storms. The drive up there made for THE most spectacular road trip. We went through such beautiful terrains – surrounded by ice-capped mountains, roads lined with snow-dusted perfect pine trees and glassy lakes. I would definitely say this part of Vancouver Island rivals NZ as one of the most beautiful places in the world. It really was
breathtaking (once again, see photos coming soon - it's a photographers paradise!). Tofino was a great retreat. We relaxed, breathed fresh frosty air, sat by the fire and read books, knitted, wrote letters, made pasta, went on walks, had coffee in quaint little cafes and chats with random people. Quite a pleasant corner of the globe – I highly recommend it to everyone!
And as I highly recommend Tofino for a relaxation retreat, I don't recommend staying in Victoria for a big New Years! Otherwise known as the home of the nearly-wed, nearly-dead and under fed – there wasn't much-a-happnin in this quiet city in terms of large-scale public celebration. We had a nice gourmet home-cooked meal at home accompanied by a NZ bottle of wine that my parents had brought over and went downtown to a nice restaurant/bar. We ran to the waterfront to see the fireworks. But
alas, there were no fireworks...or any kind of excitement of any other type - we thought maybe our watches were wrong! So anyway, we welcomed in 2004 with looks of bemusement and confusion, and proceeded home for hot cocoa, a "reading hour" and some quiet reflection by candlelight.
We headed back across to mainland again (and were pleasantly surpised to find a foot of snow had been dumped all over Vancouver) to prepare for the celebration of my NZ birthday – a day skiing on Mt Baker down in the States. Highlights were crossing the hostile US/Canada border (fortunately they didn't yell "WHAT'S YOUR CITIZENSHIP?!", but they did have a nice big picture of George Bush which was equally as scary), going to a typical US supermarket where you could only find extra-large-king-jumbo-sized chocolate bars, watching new-on-skis-Jenny zoom past me as I turned to see how she was doing (she is now embarrassingly better than me), having perfect snowflakes fall on my jacket and realising they really are as they are drawn - so intricate and delicate!, and lastly being led through powdery snow and stupidly deciding to slow down which led to my sinking up to my waist. 20 minutes later, after retrieving my lost skiis (and my legs) from under the snow and feeling like I was about to die from exhaustion, I found I had to climb up - with skis on -
an almost vertical ramp to the chairlift = kill Tee dead. Might I also quietly mention that the chairlifts didn't have those pull-down safety bars, making for very scary rides precariously perched on the edge of the seat (clever me had my backpack on)...ehrm and I only managed to "slightly" fall off once (SHH! don't tell anyone!). So it was a wonderful day despite waking up the next day with previously unknown muscles aching.
And the next day was my Canadian bday! It was a fab day though, and a brilliant sun shiny day. I woke up to find a whole bunch of carefully and surreptitiously bought prezzies from my Ryan family siblings and a cinnamon roll bun bday cake with candles – the first of 4 lots of candles on 4 different cakes I’d get to blow out that day! Had a scrummy HUGE brunch at Sophies Cosmic Café, a very eclectic place often frequented by Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn amongst many other stars (like me haw haw) and then did a whirlwind tour of more amazing places in Vancouver. Granville Island treated me to another bday cake and rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday To You" sung in a very crowded cafe by a family of 6 that I’d just met, then to see my people in Chinatown, Gastown (where the main St closed off due to a fatal shooting earlier that morning – eeks), Stanley Park (truly beautiful), Caffe Artigianno – home of the best latte in town, then rushed off to the ferry home. I managed to finish reading "Brave New World" during the trip (excellent) and felt much the wiser for my 22 years. I arrived in Victoria to see more white, which was a shock and more of a shock to arrive home and find my roomates (flatmates) had decorated our apartment with streamers, banners and make me sushi, 2 more bday cakes with sparkler candles and heaps of more cool prezzies. I felt so loved! It really is touching to have such
awesome caring friends as roomates – I’m such a lucky girl! [and yes I made 4 sets of different wishes! YEAH!]
So that wraps up the fantastic holiday I had with the Ryan clan - good food, good company, lots of laughs and lots of beautiful scenery! I could have gone on forever, but my photos will explain a lot more. I've got about 300 of them just from the last week and it's taking awhile uploading them and sorting them out all good and proper!
I'll be writing again soon.
Thinking of you all from this winterywonderland. Please email me back at eelaseret@yahoo.co.nz to let me know how you're doing!
Love Teresa
Firstly, a special hello to my brother Adrian who has just managed to sign himself up to this list. Well done brother, you are cool.
So to continue this grand story...on Boxing day we headed back over to Victoria where I got to be the proud host showing off her new hometown. It was great exploring and finding lots of cool new cafes and restaurants (culinary world tour) for me to visit this semester. Also went to a jazz tribute concert to Chet Baker which was SUPERB and another resolution was added to my list – learn to play jazz on my keyboard.
We then headed up to Tofino (about 4 hours up island) – famous for its surf, long beaches (we went to a beach aptly named "Long Beach") and electrical storms. The drive up there made for THE most spectacular road trip. We went through such beautiful terrains – surrounded by ice-capped mountains, roads lined with snow-dusted perfect pine trees and glassy lakes. I would definitely say this part of Vancouver Island rivals NZ as one of the most beautiful places in the world. It really was
breathtaking (once again, see photos coming soon - it's a photographers paradise!). Tofino was a great retreat. We relaxed, breathed fresh frosty air, sat by the fire and read books, knitted, wrote letters, made pasta, went on walks, had coffee in quaint little cafes and chats with random people. Quite a pleasant corner of the globe – I highly recommend it to everyone!
And as I highly recommend Tofino for a relaxation retreat, I don't recommend staying in Victoria for a big New Years! Otherwise known as the home of the nearly-wed, nearly-dead and under fed – there wasn't much-a-happnin in this quiet city in terms of large-scale public celebration. We had a nice gourmet home-cooked meal at home accompanied by a NZ bottle of wine that my parents had brought over and went downtown to a nice restaurant/bar. We ran to the waterfront to see the fireworks. But
alas, there were no fireworks...or any kind of excitement of any other type - we thought maybe our watches were wrong! So anyway, we welcomed in 2004 with looks of bemusement and confusion, and proceeded home for hot cocoa, a "reading hour" and some quiet reflection by candlelight.
We headed back across to mainland again (and were pleasantly surpised to find a foot of snow had been dumped all over Vancouver) to prepare for the celebration of my NZ birthday – a day skiing on Mt Baker down in the States. Highlights were crossing the hostile US/Canada border (fortunately they didn't yell "WHAT'S YOUR CITIZENSHIP?!", but they did have a nice big picture of George Bush which was equally as scary), going to a typical US supermarket where you could only find extra-large-king-jumbo-sized chocolate bars, watching new-on-skis-Jenny zoom past me as I turned to see how she was doing (she is now embarrassingly better than me), having perfect snowflakes fall on my jacket and realising they really are as they are drawn - so intricate and delicate!, and lastly being led through powdery snow and stupidly deciding to slow down which led to my sinking up to my waist. 20 minutes later, after retrieving my lost skiis (and my legs) from under the snow and feeling like I was about to die from exhaustion, I found I had to climb up - with skis on -
an almost vertical ramp to the chairlift = kill Tee dead. Might I also quietly mention that the chairlifts didn't have those pull-down safety bars, making for very scary rides precariously perched on the edge of the seat (clever me had my backpack on)...ehrm and I only managed to "slightly" fall off once (SHH! don't tell anyone!). So it was a wonderful day despite waking up the next day with previously unknown muscles aching.
And the next day was my Canadian bday! It was a fab day though, and a brilliant sun shiny day. I woke up to find a whole bunch of carefully and surreptitiously bought prezzies from my Ryan family siblings and a cinnamon roll bun bday cake with candles – the first of 4 lots of candles on 4 different cakes I’d get to blow out that day! Had a scrummy HUGE brunch at Sophies Cosmic Café, a very eclectic place often frequented by Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn amongst many other stars (like me haw haw) and then did a whirlwind tour of more amazing places in Vancouver. Granville Island treated me to another bday cake and rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday To You" sung in a very crowded cafe by a family of 6 that I’d just met, then to see my people in Chinatown, Gastown (where the main St closed off due to a fatal shooting earlier that morning – eeks), Stanley Park (truly beautiful), Caffe Artigianno – home of the best latte in town, then rushed off to the ferry home. I managed to finish reading "Brave New World" during the trip (excellent) and felt much the wiser for my 22 years. I arrived in Victoria to see more white, which was a shock and more of a shock to arrive home and find my roomates (flatmates) had decorated our apartment with streamers, banners and make me sushi, 2 more bday cakes with sparkler candles and heaps of more cool prezzies. I felt so loved! It really is touching to have such
awesome caring friends as roomates – I’m such a lucky girl! [and yes I made 4 sets of different wishes! YEAH!]
So that wraps up the fantastic holiday I had with the Ryan clan - good food, good company, lots of laughs and lots of beautiful scenery! I could have gone on forever, but my photos will explain a lot more. I've got about 300 of them just from the last week and it's taking awhile uploading them and sorting them out all good and proper!
I'll be writing again soon.
Thinking of you all from this winterywonderland. Please email me back at eelaseret@yahoo.co.nz to let me know how you're doing!
Love Teresa
posted by Tee at 2:32 AM
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