This week Brianna felt the call of home, and so on Monday evening for our FHE activity we drove to the USA. A YouTube video that's been doing the rounds lately talks about part of the US that is cut off from the rest of the country because it's on the end of a Canadian peninsula. This place - Point Roberts - is pretty close to our home. Here's a map:



The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMkYlIA7mgw.

So at about 8pm we headed to Point Roberts. As we approached the border, Brianna could smell the freedom and became a little excited. When the US border patrol guard inquired as to the reason for our entering the US we told him it was to see Point Roberts as we'd never been there before. "So you're coming at 8.30pm to see Point Roberts", he replied, seeming to imply that it was a little stupid. But he let us in anyway.

We didn't have much time in Point Roberts but saw some things. These included huge mosquitoes that didn't seem to care that Brianna was a US citizen, tire-shredding spikes in a wharf parking lot, lots of interesting houses, and a beach. Here're are couple of photos:

American beach. Middle-right of the photo is Canada.

Brianna frolicking under the American moonlight. Gary - our car - can be seen waiting patiently in the background.

In other news, Dan worked a lot this week at a temporary office job, and on Saturday Brianna met the following interesting people at Rona:

1. An Italian man who came to Canada after the war and only went to 4th grade but had his teacher write a letter saying he'd completed 5th grade (a requirement to enter Canada) in exchange for 50kg of grain from his father's farm.
2. Someone spray-painting pennies different colours for a magician.
3. A man severely allergic to dust mites.
4. A rebar worker with a tattoo that says "Guilt-free life".
5. A lady who uses wood pellets for cheaper, less smelly cat litter.
6. A trucking company owner who puts his fuel on his airmiles card and flies around the world first  class.
7. A lady who made a sculpture (on the counter) with her purchases.

Today we had a special combined sacrament meeting with two other wards, and heard from President Goeders (our stake president), Elder Christiansen and Elder Aidukaitos of the Seventy. We need to have faith, seek first the kingdom of God, and have current temple recommends.

Till next week, love everyone.

Lots happened this week, and most of it fun. Brianna's good friend Alessa came for a trip to Vancouver, along with her parents, and Brianna was a great tour guide.

Over a few days Brianna and Alessa went to, did or ate these things:

Lynn Canyon suspension bridge and little walkies

Vancouver temple

Metrotown Mall (souvenir shopping)

Crystal (Asian) Mall

Poutine (chips, gravy, cheese curds)

Tandem biking in Stanley Park

Granville Island

Seabus to North Vancouver

Vancouver Library

Tried on expensive hats

Vancouver Art Gallery

Chinatown

Dr Sun Yat-sen Gardens

Jazz Night at Fairview (most of the people there were about three times as old as Brianna and Alessa)

Hiked the Grouse Grind

Fish 'n chips

Got ferry to Vancouver Island

Celebrate BC combo from White spot (fast food chain)

Walked around Victoria (Empress Hotel, BC Parliament Building, historical presentation)

Fisherman's Wharf (lots of brightly-coloured wooden shops built along a wharf, and a pirate ship)

Scenic drive round Victoria

Butchart Gardens

Pita wrap from place in Burnaby

Pita wrap from Donair Dude (after the one from Burnaby was subpar)

Start of the Grouse Grind. Since arriving in Vancouver people have recommended we try it. Recently named one of the world's 10 most dangerous hikes, "Mother Nature's Stairmaster" involves a 2.9km non-stop climb to the top of Grouse Mountain. Elevation gain 853m.

Some joker spray painted "3/4" on a tree a couple of hundred metres earlier on the Grouse Grind trail than the sign pictured here. Dan thought he would be a hero and try and run it, but started walking less than 1/4 of the way through. The world record time for an ascent is around 23 mins. For novice hikers it's recommended to allow 2 hours.

Brianna looking out for icebergs on the ferry to Vancouver Island.

Victoria, Vancouver Island

The Empress Hotel, Victoria

The Wades (L to R: Steve, Alessa, Jane) in front of the BC Parliament Building.

Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria

Butchart Gardens. This is the Sunken Garden, which used to be a limestone quarry.

Butchart Gardens - Japanese Garden

Love and miss y'all.

Because we finally got a car last week we wanted to take a drive somewhere and decided Whistler was the place. We woke up early one morning and headed North along the Sea-to-Sky highway. Here are things we did and saw:

First stop: Shannon Falls, near a very photogenic bluff known as "The Chief", which we don't have a photo of.

A tree doing bicep curls with Dan.

On the chairlift up Blackcomb Mountain - one of the two mountains next to the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort. The other one is Whistler.

Recently they built the PEAK 2 PEAK gondola experience between the two mountains. It's about 3 miles long, lasts for 11 minutes and has the longest unsupported span for a ride of its kind in the world. The mountain in the photo is Whistler, which we were heading towards.

This is where we got off the gondola. The peak of Whistler is in the background. You had to get another chairlift to get to the top.

Before summiting Whistler Dan tried out this bobsled.

Chairlift to the top of Whistler.

Top of Whistler. As we walked off to the left of the shot we pretended we were a tree and a feather.

This is called an inukshuk. This giant one at the peak of Whistler was created for the olympics and is a symbol of hope for Canada. There were lots of people waiting to take photos of it so we just took one with this lady.

Brandywine Falls, on the way back from Whistler.

Mountain Woman fish and chips. The kitchen is inside this old school bus.

So that was a fun trip. Also this week these things happened:

A guy came into Rona, where Bri works, and when she asked how he was doing he said "I'm doing great, because I have a new liver".

Dan was in the city for a job interview, dressed to impress, and an older suit-wearing guy and young hijab-wearing lady assumed to be his daughter approached Dan and requested through gesturing that Dan tie the guy's tie for him.

Till next week, love.

Brianna and I have been reading "The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua. In the book, Chua recounts how whenever the family would get back from a trip her mother-in-law, Florence, would always ask her granddaughters what colours they saw and what odours they smelled. This made us think about what colours and smells we'd remember from Vancouver.

We both agreed that one of the major smells we'd remember from our time here is marijuana. The sickly sweet, pungent aroma of burning Mary Jane seems frequently to waft over well-used pedestrian thoroughfares here. Therefore, being on foot as we often are, we get many whiffs of the stuff. On a related note, the marijuana lobby seems to have some pull in Vansterdam - you often hear of events promoting its legalization, read articles about it in the paper, or see planes pulling banners advertising for "Sensible BC" - a pro-mj organization (see photo). To me the name of this group seems ironic because while I don't know everything about marijuana, I know it impairs memory, which is an important thing. 

Banner reads: "Marijuana Referendum: Sensible BC"

When thinking about the colours of the city, green immediately jumped to mind. Trees seem to just spring up out of the ground here. Not just any trees mind you, but pine trees. If you were to imagine Vancouver as a garden in which buildings are the plants that you deliberately put there, and trees are the weeds that just appear of their own accord, Vancouver would be overrun by weeds. It seems like every spot that doesn't have a building on it (and there are lots of these spots) has a pine tree. It's very beautiful. There are also lots of vegetable gardens even in urban areas, like this one:

Guy: "Hmm, my organic Kale is looking a little wilty. Better feed it some more recycled nutrient paste..."

Anyway, speaking of colours, we had a chance to see many this week on a trip downtown. Just in time for Pride week, Davie street (kind of like Oxford street in Sydney, or whatever the main gay street in Utah is) had a multicoloured crosswalk installed, which I can be seen standing next to here:

We also saw lots of colours on this wheel-of-fortune, which Brianna skillfully won a free coffee and 50% off haircut from:

 The main reason for our trip was to see one of the three "Honda Celebration of Light" fireworks shows. Three fireworks shows were put on on three different nights by the UK, Canada and Thailand. We arrived quite early and while waiting for the show to start were entertained by the banner-pulling marijuana plane, and also this much cooler one:

Then we saw the actual show, and it was everything a fireworks show should be. For example, notice how at the finale the choreographers did not hold anything back:

So that was a fun day. Also this week, we bought this car...:

1995 Toyota Corolla

... and saw this cat taking shelter from the blazing Canadian sun:

Finally, Brianna passed her International Studies course with flying colours, only has a couple more subjects to finish for her degree, and organized another Relief Society harvest of the communal garden. Yeah!

Till next week, love to everyone.