Sjoukje in British Columbia, Canada (October 2002)

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Part 1

Sunday 20-Oct-2002

Sjoukje met Ton at a trip to a cranberry farm in Surrey. After the trip we went to downtown Vancouver to pick up some cash at Ton's apartment. At Granville Island we shopped for dinner and met Richard and Magda. Then we went to the Yaletown Brew Pub for drinks. We met Richard and Magda there too. In the evening we had dinner at Ton's apartment where he cooked his favorite menu with oven baked red snapper. Richard stopped by for some drinks too. Sjoukje and Ton had a walk on the beach in front of Ton's apartment (Sunset Beach). It was misty and cold, but we decided to take of our shoes and experience the 'nice' water. Joeck, Vida and Sjoukje returned to their place at the end of the night.

Monday 21-Oct-2002

Sjoukje decided to stay in Vancouver on her way to Victoria.

Tuesday 22-Oct-2002

Sjoukje made a trip by ferry to Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia. That evening she left Ton a voice mail.

Wednesday 23-Oct-2002

Sjoukje phoned Ton at work and asked him to join her on her trip to Tofino on Vancouver Island.

Thursday 24-Oct-2002

09:00 hrs: Ton took the 09.00 hrs ferry from Tsawwassen to Vancouver Island and met Sjoukje in Victoria around 11.30 hrs.

13:00 hrs: We arrived in Nanaimo at Weyerhaeuser's office on Front Street where we visited some of Ton's former colleagues.

14.00 hrs: We stopped at Subway in Parksville for a sandwich.

15.00 hrs: We arrived at Cathedral Cove National Park (privately owned by Weyerhaeuser) for a walk in the rain forest.

17.00 hrs: Arrival in Tofino where we found accommodation at the Ocean Village Resort. We visited Tofino village to buy dinner (crackers and blue cheese cream).

We spend the evening under the stars (and moon) at the beach in front of the resort where we met people around some beach camp fires.

Friday 25-Oct-2002

Breakfast (crackers and blue cheese).

Sjoukje had her first private golf lesson (from Ton) on the driving range of the Long Beach Golf Course. Sjoukje did amazingly well. She was thinking about taking a lesson in Holland some day.

Back to Tofino for dinner at the Sea Shanty Seafood Restaurant where Sjoukje ordered fish and Ton ordered crab.

Walk at the beach at night.

Saturday 26-Oct-2002

Breakfast in the hotel.

Walk on Long Beach.

Walk on one of the rain forest trails. Sjoukje and Ton were filmed for an Attractions Canada TV commercial and had to sign a waiver.

Drive from Tofino to the ferries.

Back in Vanouver we ordered Greek take-out food from Stepho's and stayed at Ton's apartment.

Sunday 27-Oct-2002

When we woke up we were confused by the different time indications on the clocks, while we also thought that the news reader on the Dutch radio made a mistake announcing the time ... it seemed that last night we change back from Daylight Savings Time (DST) to Pacific Standard Time (PST).

12:00 hrs: Breakfast at Milestones on Robson Street.

13.00 hrs: Trip to Whistler. We stopped at Horseshoe Bay (BC Ferries), Porteau Cove (diving site and X-Files filming site), Shannon Falls and the mine at Britannia Beach (film set for many films).

19.00 hrs: Back in Vancouver we ordered pizza.

Monday 28-Oct-2002

11.30 hrs: Breakfast (we missed the deadline for Sjoukje to take the 12.30 train to Vancouver).

13.00 hrs: Walk on the beach (Sunset Beach, English Bay) and picked up a latte at Starbucks.

16:00 hrs: We drove to Main Station.

18:00 hrs: Amtrak train departure from Vancouver to Seattle. Painful.

Part 2

Wednesday 20-Nov-2002

02.50: Sjoukje arrived at Pacific Central station with the Trainways bus (not the Greyhound). When the Greyhound arrived and she was not in it Ton was pretty worried about Sjoukje's arrival.

03.00: We arrived at Ton's apartment and talked until 6 AM. We slept until late that day. Ton canceled his day to work.

16.00: We went to Grouse Mountain. The gondola brought us up to the mountain where we say the 5 PM movie "Born to fly" in the Sky Theatre. At 6 PM we had a gourmet dinner at the restaurant. Our seats where right at the window so we enjoyed a great romantic view of Vancouver. The weather was just excellent. There was no snow on the mountain though.

Thursday 21-Nov-2002

Ton had to work to make up for yesterday. Sjoukje spent the morning shopping for new clothes on Robson Street. They had lunch at Chinese restaurant King Fortune on Burrard Street (dim sum menu). On the menu: Sticky rice steamed in lotus leaves, steamed meat balls, vegetarian spring rolls, steamed pork dumplings, banana balls with sesame seeds and tea.

After lunch Ton quickly stepped into the office. On the way home they stopped by at Richard and Magda's B&B on 1137 Barclay Street.

We then went shopping at Urban Fair supermarket.

Ton made grilled chicken + ravioli with pesto sauce for dinner.

Friday 22-Nov-2002

12:00 We drove to Whistler. On the way there Sjoukje took great pictures of the scenery. Around 17.00 PM we checked in at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Whistler (click here for more pictures). We immediately used the hot tub, swimming pool and steam bath. We went to the Mongolie Grill for dinner.

Dim Sum at King Fortune Restaurant

Saturday 23-Nov-2002

Early day. We rented ski equipment for Sjoukje and were taken to the Day Lodge by the hotels shuttle bus to upload to Blackcomb Mountain with the chair lift (Emerald Chair).

Without ever having skied before Sjoukje came off the lift with skis under. It went great. The second lift (Solar Coaster) brought us to Christine's lodge, were we had breakfast. After breakfast Ton thought Sjoukje the first ski moves.

She did absolutely great. After lunch we went for another hour before downloading back to Whistler village. Here we were picked up by the shuttle bus. The hot tub and pool after skiing felt awesome.

Sjoukje, first time on skis (Blackcom Mountain in Whistler)

Sunday 24-Nov-2002

We had to check out by 11.00 AM. After parking the car we had traditional breakfast in the village before driving back to Vancouver.

On the way back we stopped at the Brandywine Falls, Alice Lake (just north of Squamish where we had Starbucks coffee) and Whitecliff Park in West Vancouver (close to Horseshoe Bay). We then took the coastal road in West Vancouver back to the Lions Gate Bridge and downtown Vancouver.

At 18.00 PM we met Ton's friends at Milestones restaurant on Robson Street (Silvia and Bernie, Frans and Marieke, Richard and Magda, Mariane and Michelle). We ate lettuce wrap.

Monday 25-Nov-2002

Sjoukje and Ton left Vancouver at 07.30 AM to SeaTac airport just south of Seattle (and north of Tacoma). We had a quick croissant at Starbucks before driving to the US border where there were almost no cars. After getting the visa stuff checked we continued our drive to the airport where Sjoukje left to Chicago at 14.20 with United Airlines.

Drinks at Milestones Restaurant on Robson Street (Vancouver)

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Last Updated: 25-Jan-2003