After reading Laura’s account of our first day in London, I thought I’d put up a few of my favourite shots from the day to complement her narrative.  
As promised, here are some of the photos we got in Vancouver. We’re in London now, and after walking for about 10 hours yesterday (we estimated about 14km), we have a ton of photos from here already, but first things first. Although it is my intent to write more once we get a bit more used to life on the road, for now I think I’ll let the pictures do (most of) the talking.  
It costs 22 Canadian bucks for an adult to visit the Vancouver aquarium but it’s worth it. They take remarkably good care of their tanks and creatures of all shapes and sizes. Ever seen a Beluga whale? How about  sea horses or a prehistoric fish that’s about 6 feet long and 1.5 feet wide? If you haven’t then you need to go the Vancouver Aquarium. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the aquarium presented their written material. The descriptions were short and memorable. They also have some awesome interactive exhibits such as video sequences that you can control the speed of, in order to see just how fast the reflexes are of different creatures. I had the best time learning random facts like there are 24 species of Piranha but only 3 species even pose a threat to humans and that’s only if you wade through a shallow pond of water…Continue Reading
Front and center is Dale and Des's beautiful daughter Isla!
Fresh mussels. Shrimp.  Steak. Asparagus. Broccoli. Zucchini. I love food. Des, Dale, myself and Chris all did different tasks to create an amazing dinner at the Millers’ place. The next day we went to Dale’s parents house (also Millers) for dinner. Margie whipped up a fantastic red meat pasta sauce which we washed down with two red wines: “Gnarly” and “Gnarlier”. I preferred the “Gnarlier”. After dinner Mr. Miller brought out the Scotch and Port. We ended the evening with a crash course, delivered by Chris, on how to clean your camera sensor.  
Only 10 more days. Now I’m getting excited. Woo-hoo!!!! We had a huge turkey and ham dinner with Chris’ aunts, uncles, mom and dad. Son and dad bonded with Uncle Dave over a game of snooker. Dad won.  
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After a grueling overnight in the G-hound, we finally made it south to warmer climes. We’ve been in my parent’s adopted hometown of Sorrento, B.C. now for about three days, and I tell you, retirement living has never had it so easy. It’s about 4 degrees celsius, which is downright balmy for a Canadian January, and the lake views and mountain vistas are easy enough to take. We had a late Christmas get together with the Aunts and Uncles here down at the retirement park’s club house, and it was a chance once again for my Old Man to prove he’s better at pool than pretty much any one else I’ve ever met. He’s also better at shuffleboard than his son, but in fairness, he has about 40 years on me. We did a couple of group shots, but I’ll just put up the best one. In the other ones…Continue Reading
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Today is our last day in the North. Around lunch time (in about 3 hours), we’ll be taking a bus to a place called Dawson Creek, where we’ll catch another one to Kamloops, B.C. This’ll be the longest Greyhound ride of our Canadian leg, and all told we’ll be in Greyhound’s nasty clutches for about 18 hours. It makes me shudder, but we have no choice. At least we’ll be leaving this snowy tundra behind. Luckily, we’ve also had the pleasure of spending the last week or so visiting with my sister Kelli and her family. It’s always nice to see the kids, even though they seem to be giving her a bit more grief than usual by not always doing what they’re told. We did a lot with them, including getting to attend Kindergarten for Delaney’s Special Helper Day. That was pretty cool. We also brought a late haul…Continue Reading
Ahhhh, Edmonton in the wintertime. Luckily we had some good friends and family to soften the blow of -30 degree temperatures. Yup. Seems like we covered most of our bases in Alberta’s capital city. We’re now about 5 hours north, in a place I tend to think of as the other armpit of Alberta (second only to Ft. McMurray): Grande Prairie! Our Greyhound ride was mostly uneventful, with only one drunk redneck getting out of hand. Luckily she waited until the last hour of the ride to start being obnoxious. GP has been on record during the past two weeks as the coldest city in the province, with daytime highs of -32 celsius (that’s -25F for our American friends). Of course, Laura and I are bringing the warmth with us, and things are supposedly going to get back around the 0 mark soon. Woo-hoo for zero! We’ll have some more…Continue Reading
It’s been a long week since Christmas. We are both pretty much dead tired, but at least our move is over. Our cat Zappa is in his new home, and we are heading north on the Red Arrow bus to Edmonton. This actually marks us finally leaving Calgary behind. On the morning of New Years’ Eve, we woke up and loaded our 16′ rental truck before heading over the Rocky Mountains at noon. The drive was grueling, with blowing snow, oncoming darkness, and three delays due to road accidents, but we made it in time to celebrate New Years with my folks. Unfortunately, we spent New Years Day doing pretty much the same thing all over again, except this time it involved unloading the truck and driving east across the mountains to return it. The weather was actually worse on the way back, but we made it okay. Today we…Continue Reading
I like pretty dresses, with matching purses and shoes. I like to blow dry my hair every morning and sometime give it curls. Fresh ground coffee beans are a great way to start the day or perhaps a home made espresso on the stove, brewing away. In the winter time, colour coordinated scarves, mittens and toques are a must. I like matching pillows and curtains and a house decked out with plants. To pass the time, I knit, sew, play the piano or simply cozy up on the couch to watch a movie on a 46″ flat screen T.V. Laura’s Closet I used to cry when I lost a ring, or broke a glass or plate. I use to get upset if I ruined a piece of clothing,expensive or cheap. But over the past five years I have grown away from the materialism of my childhood. Sure, I still like nice things, like pretty…Continue Reading
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Laura and I are up to our eyes in boxes and tubs, ruthlessly reducing our belongings through online sales and the ever-growing Goodwill pile. Our house is in shambles, Zappa (our cat) is freaked out, but we’re making progress. We’ll be out of here in a  couple of days, and officially homeless. We’re already officially jobless, and that feels pretty good, so I’m sure the whole homeless thing will too. As part of this work, I also had my first chance to try to pile everything I plan to bring into my bag. You can see a pic of that below. Click here to see one with notes itemizing everything. Back to the slog…