Vancouver's happy

Stanley Cup Finals begin tomorrow. I think I might end up being an awful Canucks fan and opt to go to the gym over watching the game. It's terrible I know. It's my current dilemma. Of course I want to watch the game downtown with my friends, but I really miss doing gym and it means a lot for me to be able to be back training again. 

I found these on yahoo.ca from Game #5 in the Western Conference Final (the game when the Canucks advanced to the Stanley Cup Final) It's fun to watch the moment where the city erupts.

Vancouver's reaction when Kesler scored with 14 seconds left to put the game into overtime (see 0:30 - 1:10)

Vancouver's reaction when Bieksa scored to put the Canucks into the Stanley Cup Finals (see 0:00 - 0:30):

This past Sunday I wandered up to the 8th floor of my apartment building and discovered the ROOFTOP PATIO!! It's awesome. There are tables and lounge chairs up there. I can definitely see myself spending time, eating dinner, relaxing up here this summer!

This is looking North from the roof. The major street on the left is Granville and I take the bus North along Granville to get to work :)

This is looking South at Granville St. 

This morning Subway was giving out free breakfast from 7-10am. At about 9:45am someone from my office asked if we had gotten out free breakfast. Caitlin, from my office, looked straight at me and we both bolted out of the office, ran down West Georgia in our heels and made it to Subway in time for our free egg muffin melt and coffee. WHOO - the things people do for free food. It's nuts. 

Tomorrow is the first day of JUNE!!! Where the heck did May go? Anyway, whether or not I watch the game at a pub downtown, I'll be rooting for the Canucks tomorrow night, wearing my canucks t-shirt and all!!!

Lighthouse Park

Hiked around Lighthouse Park this afternoon on the very North West part of Vancouver. It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful by the water. It reminded me of being in Muskoka, Ontario :)

Here's Emily after she spotted me taking creepy stalker shots of her when she wasn't looking :P

We literally sat on the rocks for a good hour. It was supposed to rain this afternoon. Did it rain? NOPE!

So calming.

Yeap, we climbed down those rocks. Haha felt like a hiking pro after this :)

Emily brought pineapple and Matt cut it on the rocks. No cutting board? No problem!

There's David, our trusty guide. If I had been guiding us, we would have no doubt been lost by this point.

 Here we all are in front of the Lighthouse. (L-R: Matt, Pratik, Daniel, Moi, Edwina, David, Emily)

Side note: I'm wearing my new Canucks t-shirt (one of two shirts I bought yesterday)

Of course what's a hike without finding a washroom sign with headless people?!

Had dinner downtown at... oh I forget the name. Haha that's twice in a row now I can't remember the name of the restaurant. It was a vegetarian place, and though I'm not vegetarian it was a nice restaurant, with a live musician.

Vancouver is warm. Vancouver is beautiful. I think I'll stay for a while.

Are YOU ready for the Stanley Cup Finals?

The Canucks are in the Stanley Cup Finaaaals...

It's been 17 years since the last time they went.

Speaking of #17...

...Kesler for MVP!!

Go Cancuks Go!!! Let's make history!!!

That video made me smile. When they say "Don't you know the whole city is all in a buzz..." they're not kidding. I've been sucked in. I bought a Canucks shirt today. In fact, I got a little excited and bought 2. Come on... I need something to wear to watch the Stanley Cup FINALS!!!

Edwina and I went to... I forget the name of the restaurant. Somewhere downtown. It was on Robson St. The food was really really good! I had chicken penne. Edwina had... I forget. LOL I'm tired. I'm having trouble remembering details. 

After dinner (and our sherbet) we went to Chapters. Edwina found a book that we read in ICO CLASS!!!

I'm crashing early tonight. Friday night. I know. But I've been out late all this week. I can't believe I've been here almost a month. Time has gone by so so fast (too fast in fact). Summer, slow down!!!

That was there before

Not too much new here. It feels a little weird not to be going downtown to a bar to watch hockey tonight. Canucks are resting up for the STANLEY CUP FINAL!! Oh I've become such a hardcore Canucks fan. It's hard to live here and NOT become a Canucks fan. It sucks you in I tell ya!

Here's a really cute commercial, starring Roberto Luongo - the Canucks goalie

Last night I went to the gym in Coquitlam (takes me about an hour to get there from downtown Vancouver). I did giant flyaway's on bars. WHOO!! Haven't done those in about 3 years. I'm slowly getting skills back. Feels good :) After gym Naomi and I went to hang out at her friend's place. I didn't get home until about 2:30am. Staying out late always seems like a good idea at the time, then comes the morning and my 7:30am alarm clock goes off. And to make things even better, I worked overtime for the first time today. I was at the office until about 9pm working on a project that is due tomorrow. I believe I'm going to sleep well tonight. Gotta rest up for the upcoming hockey games!!!

Shoutout to Caleb!! I miss you... but thanks for coming to visit the other day ;) I almost forgot you even came to Whistler with us.

NO WAY JOSE

I wore my lucky underwear tonight, and it paid off.

The Vancouver Canucks have advanced to the STANLEY CUP FINAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh man. Intense night. My throat is sore from all the yelling and cheering! 7 friends and I went just south of downtown (across the water from Granville Island) to watch the game tonight. The pub was right by the water.

We watched the game at The Pirate Pub. Between the 2nd and 3rd period the entire pub sang happy birthday to "Katie" ...whoever that was. 

That is Granville Island across the water (looking south)

SO ONTO THE GAME!! The game was intense. I think I've said that about every game, but this one was definitely the best so far!!! "Best" meaning I think all my friends and I were emotional wrecks by the end of it. Close game. LOTS of close goals. LOTS of good saves from both teams. LOTS of drama. LOTS of action!!

Game started off with Vancouver scoring the first goal. 2nd period San Jose scored 1 to tie it up at 1-1. About 2 minutes into the 3rd period San Jose scored another goal to make it 2-1. There were lots of really close calls. Both teams were fighting hard. It was do or die for San Jose. 

With about 2 minutes left in the 3rd period, with San Jose winning 2-1 the Vancouver Canucks pulled their goalie, Luongo, and with 14 SECONDS left, Kesler scored!!!!!!! EVERYONE in the pub went wild!!!! It was insane!! 

Onto overtime #1 - my friends and I made predictions as to how long they'd be in overtime for. I guessed 4 minutes. I figured both teams were pretty fired up, and it wouldn't be long before we had a goal. The 20 minutes of the first overtime went by incredibly fast. Before we knew it, overtime #1 was over.

Onto overtime #2. It was stressful. Overtime is always nail biting because it's sudden death. First goal wins. These guys must be tired. Playing in their 5th period of the nights, and being near the end of the series, having been playing every 2-3 days, and with lots of travel, these guys are tough. I was tired just sitting there, and I wasn't even doing anything!!! The Canucks pull through... About 10 minutes into the period Bieksa scored!! And the pub went wild. Everybody was hugging each other, giving people high fives, whether or not they knew each other. It was such a cool atmosphere.

After everything settled down, David, Emily and I headed downtown to catch a bus/skytrain to go home. Everyone in the streets were going nuts. People were yelling, cheering, singing, hanging out of their cars, honking their horns - one person was spraying water from his watergun out of a car window. This video was taken about an hour after the game had ended and people were still going crazy!!!

Vancouver Canucks - 2011 Western Conference Champions!

Because Tampa Bay and Boston are still playing (3-2 for Boston in the series) the Canucks get to rest a bit before the Stanley Cup final begins. I'm so excited to watch it unfold :)

Victoria Day Weekend

LONG WEEKEND!!! I've had a long (and amazing) weekend. This afternoon I'm relaxing, doing laundry and getting all energized up for a nice week ahead.

Saturday morning a friend, Derek, came to visit from Kamloops. Derek, Edwina and I headed to Metrotown mall for a bit of shopping. Derek was looking to buy a hat.

True story: took us over 30 minutes to find Derek's car in the underground parking lot

Saturday night we went to The Lennox Pub

Sunday morning we headed to North Van to watch Game #4!! A bunch of us met up at Waterfront Station to take the Seabus across the water!

Here's Edwina and Emily getting ready for the BUS DE SEA (that's my made up name for it)

Looking South towards downtown Vancouver from the Seabus

We watched the game at Queen's Cross, a cozy little pub in North Van. Game was good. First period was quiet, though Vancouver got a lot of penalties. 2nd period Canucks were on fire - scored 3 goals within about 2 minutes. 3rd period Cancucks scored 1 and the Sharks scored 2, making the final score 4-2 for the Canucks. Vancouver is now 1 win away from the Stanley Cup Final!!!

(David, Me, Edwina and Emily)

GO CANUCKS GO!!

Next we burned off some of that beer by exploring Lynn Canyon (that's Emily on the left)

We hiked around for about 3 hours, and the sights were gorgeous. We walk along a suspension bridge beside a waterfall. 

This is Emily, Pratik and Derek on the suspension bridge.

I so badly wanted to go swimming - if only the water had been warmer than oh-my-goodness-so-freezing-cold.

Lots of people were hiking around Lynn Canyon. It was supposed to rain this weekend but it DIDN'T!!

There were so many sets of long stairs - definitely got a good quad and calf workout...

...and when there weren't any stairs, we roughed it. 

Here's Emily, me and David down by the (ice cold) water.

We stopped for a break to have some trailmix provided by the lovely Lisa

The five of us here all go to U of Waterloo and are all working in Vancouver this summer on a co-op term. I hadn't met any of these awesome people before coming to Vancouver but we're all having a great time in BC!

(David, Lisa, Me, Emily and Pratik) 

Sunday night we went to a restaurant called "Social" and then headed to "The Moose," a bar downtown Van. We stayed downtown pretty late. I love nights when you don't really have anything specifically planned, but you hang out with friends and end up having a great time. Last night was definitely one of those nights.

Lots of fun. Great weekend. 

Canucks play in game #5 tomorrow night, and the game is in Vancouver so there'll be a lot of excitement downtown :)

Work. Game. Beach.

WORK 

...is great. People are so nice. I'm working on 3 different projects at the moment - one being a small residential renovation, one is an automall in Burnaby and the other is a Recreation Centre on Vancouver Island. 

At lunch, I joined the Toastmasters meeting. Toastmasters meetings are setup to help people work on their public speaking skills. Our meetings last an hour. Different people are assigned different tasks such as introducing the word of the day, preparing inspirational speeches, giving a short talk with visual aids about a certain topic etc. and everyone is evaluated on a number of things: their confidence, the number of times they say "um" or "uh", their sense of humour and how many times they can incorporate the word of the day into their presentations. It's actually really fun. There's a group of about 10 people in my office who meet bi-weekly for these meetings. 

GAME

...was intense. I feel like all the games at this point in the series will be intense. Vancouver lost, unfortunately. I went to Doolins Irish Pub downtown with about ten friends to watch the game. Vancouver was losing 4-1 until the 3rd period when they really fought hard and ended the game 4-3. Still lost, but showed a lot of heart. At least they didn't embarrass themselves the way the San Jose Sharks did and lost their composure last game, losing 7-3 to Vancouver.

BEACH

...is beautiful at night. After the game, we walked along the seawall and eventually found a log on the beach and chilled there until almost midnight. The water was so calm. If I had had my bathing suit with me I no doubt would have taken a dip in the water!

Long weekend ahead!! Shout out to my sister Comet (who happens to be a golden retriever) - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOO!! :)

Canucks lay a beating

Front page of the paper!! They sure did! Canucks won 7-3 last night in game 2 of the western conference against San Jose. I couldn't watch the game - I was at Club Aviva Gymnastics in Coquitlam. BUT we had the radio on and everyone was listening closely!

 On Monday I went to Pheonix gym club for their adult class and Wednesday I went to Aviva. My very good friend Naomi, who I've know since I was about 8, used to coach at my gym in Toronto and now lives in Vancouver, coaching at Aviva. She invited me to her gym last night. I've done gym 3 times in the last 9 days and my body's really feeling it. It feels SO good to be back doing gym again, conditioning and all, but my body (especially my back) is hurting. It's okay though. It's worth it to be able to be doing gym again. And my body will get used to it soon, once I get back into shape :)

I'm having a blast here!! I'm loving Vancouver. Weather's been gorgeous the last couple days. Today 5 of us from my office went down to The Mill Marine Bistro for lunch. We ate on the patio by the water. I actually got a burn on my face from sitting in the sun!

This is Marine Square Park - near Stanley Park, by the water

Then tonight for dinner Edwina and I hit up Granville Island.

Of course we're rooting for the Canucks! It's hard not to catch Canuck fever here.

One more day of work until the LONG weekend!

Tomorrow night - GAME #3!!! GO CANUCKS GO!

Whistler's Ultimate Adrenaline Rush

See that little blue blob in the lower left of the picture? Yeah, that's me :)

Edwina and I hit Whistler yesterday. It's gorgeous!! We started the day on the greyhound. Took us just over 2.5 hours to get to Whistler from Vancouver. The ride up was spectacular!!! The photos I took from the bus, with the crappy window reflection and the fact that it was overcast yesterday, don't do the views justice. Trust me, it was a beautiful ride!!

When we first got to Whistler we grabbed a bit to eat and headed to THE BRIDGE!!! 

From there, I proceed to jump OFF the bridge!

Sure felt the adrenaline rush jumping from the 160ft high bridge spanning 300ft over the glacial fed Cheakamus River!! WHOO it was AWESOME!!! I wanna do it AGAIN! And next time I want to be strapped by my ankles. I was going to do that this time, but the guy at the bridge convinced me that the bounce at the bottom was more thrilling when you're strapped by the torso. Edwina said if we come back she might try bungee jumping too!!

I had the option of jumping forwards or backwards off the bridge. I asked which was scarier, and the guy said backwards. And so that is what I did :)

GOT A FREE SHIRT!!! I was so excited about that :) After Bungee Jumping Edwina and I headed for ziplining!! 

We zipped along 5 ziptracks, the longest being a 2200ft long one. Here's (sorta) what it feels like to zipline in Whistler (it was really windy, which is why I kept spinning - sorry if it causes dizziness while watching the video)

T'was a good good day :) We then headed back on the greyhound to VanCity (aka Vancouver) and arrived home around midnight. We definitely need to do this again, and perhaps stay in Whistler Village for the weekend.

Tonight the Vancouver Canucks played in Game #1 of the Western Conference Final! This is semi final for the Stanley Cup. A couple friends and I went to Gastown (an area in north downtown, by the water) to a bar to watch the game. This is the Steam Clock in Gastown, powered by... STEAM! Every 15 minutes it does a little TOOT and puts in a little act. 

The game was intense. After the 1st period Canucks were trailing the San Jose Sharks by one. 2nd period, both teams scored 1 goal a piece. Canucks really picked it up in the 3rd period. They scored at about the 10 minute mark, then scored again 2 minutes later and WON 3-2! The energy level in the bar was insane! The whole room lifted everytime we scored, and of course when the game was over and we won. People were yelling and singing in the streets. Vancouver's never won a Stanley Cup and they haven't made it this far in the playoffs in 17 years. And the city's pretty happy at the moment :)