Canada

After visiting Alcatraz island we escaped and drove to the world famous Yosemite National park...

We spent a couple of days camping and hiking, mainly to the tops of waterfalls.

It turns out you get quite wet when hiking next to huge waterfalls...

Harriet pondered the mysteries of the universe...

While i hung out with this little fella...

I also took advantage of the incredible scenery to put my photography skills to the test...

I even tipped my hat to Ansel Adams and tried to replicate his style with this...

Firstly, apologies for the huge delay. These photographs are over 6 months old now and I am only just getting around to putting them up here. What can i say? We've been busy living the dream.

We took a trip through the Californian Redwoods and checked out nature's giants. As a bit of a nature lover and biologist I was in awe of these ancient beings and just being around something that nature produced hundreds and hundreds of years ago was incredible. Driving down roads between these trees has to be one of, if not the greatest drive in the world. We even drove through one of the trees itself! Our van is the biggest vehicle that can fit through the gap in the chandelier tree so it was a big of a tight squeeze. 

We abandoned the redwoods and began our long journey through California down to San Fran. First we headed to a small town called clear lake...

and after a quick overnight stop to sample the world famous wines in the Sonoma Wine Valley... (Disclaimer: not my photograph)

We headed for the bright lights of San Francisco with the chance to sleep in a proper bed!

I drove, with my learners sticker on the back, across this fairly well known landmark...

I picked an oyster and when it was opened and revealed the pearl inside apparently I had picked a rare silver one that symbolizes love and so we had it we had made into a necklace for Harriet...

On our second day we jumped aboard the ferry and went to explore this famous rock... Alcatraz

Cape Meares... This is what the Oregon Coast looks like... (Who knew?)

To prove that I haven't stolen that photograph from one of the Greek islands and to prove that it is in fact the Pacific Ocean and not the Mediterranean sea here is a photo of Vinnie (Our car) looking resplendent whilst soaking up the sun...

We got to a place called Cape Meares which is a day use View Point. We took a chance and set up camp and slept in the car (Illegally) but it was worth it for these views...

And after being threatened by a park ranger of a $420 fine for camping in a day park we fled the scene onto our next adventures.

Here's my photo of the day though...

We headed for Cannon Beach today, the quaint little town of Cannon Beach. A beautiful beach and almost a small English style seaside town...

We also threw our love lock key (See post from Seattle) into the Pacific Ocean...

We checked out Ecola State Park...

and posted some postcards in the most bizarre post office in the world...

Geezer Derrick chopped some wood and built us a fire...

Next morning we headed back to beach to explore the famous rock pools. They are home to millions of creatures of all completely different colours...

Finally time for me to get my 'Ansel Adams' on and take some arty landscape photograph...

We camped on the northern oregon coast for two nights...

We did some shopping...

Did some Laundry...

Went on the windiest beach but it did have a pretty cool shipwreck...

and we visited Fort Stevens the only part of the US mainland to be fired upon during WW2 (or since 1809 in fact) ... (We didnt take any photographs of that though.

We did some more fire building, wood chopping and camping...

And made crazy light photographs with the flames...

We're getting too far behind with these blog posts, there just isn't enough time in the day. So they may be grouped together or just a collection of photos from now on...

Portland is an amazing city and we fell in love with it completely. We don't have enough photo's to show you how awesome it is but here are a few anyways...

This doughnut is a Maple Bacon doughnut!

I got selected for the USA 'Soccer' team whilst shopping in Nike Town, Despite being sponsored by Adidas...

We spent hours in Powells world of books. Which is the biggest book store in the world. They stock over 1 million books, we bought 5! ...

Just time for a quick dip in the salt water pool...

Day 2 in portland...

A quick visit to the grotto, a catholic outdoor cathedral and huge gardens...

Before picking up some $3 bottles of wine and setting up camp on the Oregon Coast...

Today we left Seattle and headed around 200 miles south to Portland in Oregon.

First we checked out the world famous Pike Place Market...

At the Pike Place fishmongers they shout out orders and throw fish over the counters at each other. 

We saw the "world famous" Giant Shoe Museum...

An American Jazz Duo...

We also went to the Post Alley Gum wall where there is millions of pieces of used chewing gum stuck all down the walls. Kind of beautiful but mainly just disgusting...

We found a love lock wall and added our own...

And we said goodbye to Seattle and 200 miles later.. hello to Portland

and checked into our unique, rock and roll/jazz/blues themed hotel...

Today we woke up bright and early to take part in the "World's Happiest 5K race.) This is how we started...

Here is us during the race...

The Color Run is a 5K race. Everyone wears white and at every 1K marker a big group of happy teenagers throw dye and paint at you. Then at the end you have a huge color paint/powder party. With that in mind, here is how we ended the race... 

Next we spent 3-4 hours in the shower before getting our 'tourist' on and going on a guided tour of the history of Seattle in the undergrounds...

and learnt mainly about how the city was built on the back of taxes brought in from prostitution.  Only 75 cents to rent a room in this hotel for an hour...

We also discovered that the bar that we went to last night after the baseball is one of Seattle's oldest bars and also where Nirvana started their career...

Next we checked out the touristy shops and Senor Derrick tried to trade in Mexican Jumping Beans...

To end the day we went and sat in the sun with some beers before stumbling upon an incredible Italian seafood restaurant called pinkdoor that offers incredible beer, beautiful food and bizarre entertainment...

Not a bad day, Tomorrow we drive to Portland, (OR) but before that we will be checking out Seattle's Public Market...

Today we queued for hours and endured the border officials interrogations but eventually we made it to Seattle, WA.  Here's what we did... Picked up our passes for tomorrows Color Run (The happiest 5K on the plannet!!)

Took strange kaleidoscope photographs through a tube of mirrors...

Went through the coolest train tunnel...

on the way to see a baseball game. (Seattle Mariners vs Kansas City Kings)...

at Safeco stadium...

We also stopped by this little stadium just to take a photo for Tommy Derrick...

Before hitting our first American bar and soaking up some live Seattle music...

Today is the day that we leave little ol' whistler and set sail for the open road. Today we head to Vancouver, BC before sneaking across the border to the US tomorrow.

Anyway, we're all packed up and ready to go...

We had to say goodbye to this little chappy though... (I hope he manages in the wild without us...

It's been almost 3 months since we last updated the blog and so instead of attempted to back log here is a quick update: I left my job with WhistlerBlackcomb and went full time at the Hotel where I work. It's going well. The temperature is picking up and the snow is melting.  We've bought a car...

It's a beautiful 1990 Chevy Astro with a 4.3 Litre V6 engine.  I've taken my theory test and Harriet is currently my "driving supervisor" for cruising around the streets of Beautiful British Columbia. (We've only had one driving related argument so far!)

P.s. That monstrosity of a vehicle has a name! May i introduce you to Two-Tone Vinnie! Vinnie, Harriet and I will be travelling down the west coast of North America all the way down to California and then all the way back up again, sightseeing, camping, hiking, driving, being tourists and generally having a great time. We've both taken 4 weeks off work and will be setting off on our adventure in may!

To make life a little bit more comfortable we thought about removing the 6 chairs from the back of the car allowing us to be able to sleep in the car when the weather is rough and we don't want to brave the elements in a tent. However, seeing as the price of wood in canada is pennies (or in this case cents) I decided to put my grade B GCSE in Design Technology to good use and build a bed in the back of Vinnie.

So, after spending approx $40 on wood (only £22) I spent the first day sawing the wood and building the frames of the bed...

On the second day I added the top pieces of wood to the frame...

It was pretty tiring for my old back...

So George lent a hand...

In no time we had finished the main part of the bed and even cracked onto the other frame...

Now what I should have mentioned is that I designed this bed to fold up and make a sofa type chair and then fold back out to make a bed...

George and I also realised that if we folded it the wrong way, it made a pretty handy desk...

Me and Adam both worked for the Mountain back in January as well as our other jobs. One of the perks of the Mountain job is a free coach trip down to Vancouver. I call it a coach, it is more of a "vintage" school bus.

It's a beautiful drive down the Sea to Sky highway,

On Granville Street I saw I shop that reminded me of Tommy playing football "Winners" and a restaurant sign that made me laugh!

We headed to Kitsilano, a surburb of Vancouver with a beach and lots of independant shops and cafes.

The above picture is of a meditation art installation.

The below picture is of a dog beach, we just shouted "Franco" at all the dogs to confuse them.

We walked along the beach along to Granville Island Market which is a huge indoor public market. We had an amazing fish and chips, we didn't take a picture because we were fascinated by a man who had put bird seed all over him, so birds sat on him.

We caught the Aqua Bus, a tiny rainbow ferry which was cute and fun!

We then walked to Chinatown and explored the gardens.

We headed to Gastown for the closest Adam has come to English beer in Canada at the Steamworks.

I had a pint of Cascadia, a cool session ale!

We then returned to Chinatown for some authentic Chinese food before heading to the bus. Turns out authentic Chinese food is pretty intense and not as tasty as a Hoo Tak from back home!

After a snow drought after Christmas, here are pictures showing our bus stop and the lift line madness. It took me 45 minutes to get on to the lift on this mad Saturday back in January. HD

Firstly we have to apologise for abandoning the millions of fans that regularly log onto this website desperate for an update of how we are doing. And due to our long absense we're going to try and whip through the last month and a half with a torrent of photos and let them do the explaining.

Here goes...(Brace yourself, it's been a big month!) Firstly my (Adam's) staff party. In summary unlimited free drinks in a 5* restaurant ran by one of the best chefs in Canada!...

Ice cream made at the table...

Champagne Sabering...

Vodka tasting in the ice room...

$30 glasses of 21 year old rum...

My bill came to $393 dollars (Approx £240) an appalling waste of money but one that I was never going to turn down for free. The next big thing in our exciting month was our first Christmas together:-

We had a very Christmassy Christmas that started with offensively bad singing at a carol service...

Drinks around the fire...

and a very calming midnight mass to end the night.  A bit different to Harriet's usual Christmas Eves...

On Christmas Morning we woke up, had breakfast and opened amazing presents for each other...

Went skiing...

Had waffles at 6000ft in the air...

Skied some more and went home so that I (Adam) could prepare the greatest Christmas dinner this side of Jerusalem (well george liked it at least)...

Harriet even had her annual sprout...

Finally we ended Christmas as it's supposed to be done. Drunk and falling asleep watching Die Hard. We had a very happy Christmas but not as happy as this little geezer...

He had a pretty heavy day on the Desperados too!!...

After working flat out and battling sickness we ran into New Years Eve and our big plans became small quiet ones. First I skyped these beauties at about 2AM UK time...

Then We went for dinner at this little italian place...

Had some drinks and watched the fireworks at midnight...

and fell asleep on the bus home! Next was Harriet's Birthday! She had to work! Dressed like this....

(Sometimes it takes so little keep her happy!) After work we went for the best Pizza in whistler! (No photo's available. But trust me it was amazing.) It was at this place...

and the pizza was cooked in here...

The Eagles. We went to see the eagles down in a little town called Brackendale, Squamish. There are over 1700 bald eagles here for the mating season...

It rained the whole time we were down there...

p.s. here is Harriet pretending to be an eagle...

A couple of days later we finally got another skiing day together! We were in the queue at 6:15AM and uploading early for fresh tracks and breakfast at the top...

Some more waffles and a couple of beers.

A long skiing day...

Finished off with Apres at Merlins. Dancing on Tables. Amazing Burgers and The Hairfarmers...

This Sunday saw Whistler's first Fire and Ice Show. To explain it in simple terms, they build a massive kicker (ramp) at the bottom of Whistler mountain, throw in a ring of fire and then send a tonne of skiers down the mountain doing back flips and tricks through it...

And then at the end they chuck in a few fireworks and send all of the skiers through the hoop at the same time...

I think the event was sponsored by Kokanee and there was an after party at the Garibaldi Lift Company (GLC) with the hair farmers playing...