Vancouver visit

We're taking the TransCanada and Coquihalla highway to Kamloops this afternoon, which is about 250km. We are on a lunch break in Hope, at the Owl Street Cafe, and still have phone reception, so we thought now is a good time to write down some stories.


Again, one of the highlights of this stopover was the people we got to spend time with- Jesie and Brendan, and Michael for a little bit this morning. We couch-surfed in a nice little apartment facing the ocean, and walked across the street to the beach with our coffees on Thursday morning. Our friends have been here for a few years, and shared lots of interesting ideas about life on the west coast.
Vancouver really came through with memorable meals, starting with a sushi dinner on Wednesday night that included big fat sashimis for what seemed like a mistake of a low price. After a hard morning of shopping at the Arcteryx outlet store (!), we recovered over Granville Island and Nelson Brewery beers, along with salmon and lamb burgers. Then latter that evening we had an incredibly unique dinner with Jessie at her favourite spot, Radha. Kombucha is a sort of mildly alcoholic juice that is made by brewing tea, adding sugar, then introducing a special kind of fungus into the mix. The fungus digests the sugar and gives you back a slightly carbonated, kinda fruity, flowery tasting drink. Lauren has been feeling extra adventurous lately, so to go with the kombucha, she ordered the living food special of the day, which was curried carrot soup and pizza... totally raw and dairy-free! Both the soup and pizza tasted delicious (cashews can do some cool things), and she had her horizons broadened. Colin had a winter salad and a sesame miso tofu dish which was stellar. Our meals filled us some much-needed nutrition and gave us great business ideas for Yukon (Colin O'Neill, personal raw chef).

Thursday also brough us hugably close to the largest trees we've seen yet. Lynn Canyon, and the neighbouring parks have great trails and a chance to lay on some huge rocks beside a rushing river. The river in many spots along the trail gave us views of very dramatic and very loud waterfalls. It was a terrific afternoon hike.

Jessie took us to a friend's album release party at a neat place downtown on Thursday night, then we packed up this morning and said goodbye to Vancouver. Photos from the last few days will be coming along soon. We'll be in Kamloops until Sunday morning, then headed north to Whitehorse! We've decided on taking the Alaskan Highway from Prince George, and we're expecting to be in our new home by mid to late next week. Lauren is finding that since we've arrived in our time zone (Pacific, 3 hours earlier than Toronto), this adventure is seeming less like just a vacation, and more like the start of a life in a new place. Colin is looking forward to getting to Whitehorse and putting down some new roots.

Talk to you soon,
Lauren and Colin