BC Lions!

One more thing I can finally cross out on the list of things I want to experience is… watching a live Football game! Nope, not soccer, but the hard core American Football sport!

My friend from the gym has season tickets for the BC Lions home game and last July 22 was a home game so he invited me (or I invited myself) to watch. It’s the first time I’ve watched this sport live. I used to only watch football from the movies and maybe some highlights from ESPN or TSN, but not watch the whole game.

BC Lions is British Columbia’s home grown football team in the Canadian Football League (CFL). If USA has NFL, Canada has its own version which is the CFL. Although NFL is popular in the states, I don’t think CFL is nearly as popular in Canada as it wants it to be. It might be because Canada is more of a hockey country, just like how Philippines is a basketball country.

Mind you, I’m not really a great big fan of American Football. Perhaps because it was never big in the Philippines or maybe it’s just too much testosterone. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed watching this match! I was into the game! My friend was kind enough to teach me the rules of the game throughout the match. By the end of the game, I knew what a 1st down, 3rd down, yards gained, punt was!

And you know how it is in live games, everyone’s just in it! I heard a guy seating a couple rows behind me shouting “Knock his head off!!!” and then another lady a couple of rows down dancing like crazy! It was all fun. As for me, I ended up stomping my feet (they do that to distract the opponents while they’re making their plays), shouting and cheering for the big boys.

Unfortunately, BC Lions lost though. But what the heck, it was a fun night, my first live football match, and that’s another first for me!

Garibaldi Lake

Today was spent hiking on Garibaldi Park in Squamish, British Columbia. This is about 30 minutes further north of Stawamus Chief, which we hiked a couple of weeks back. This hike took us approximately 7-8 hours, covering a distance of 25km. Elevation's hard to determine. Our ultimate goal to doing the hike is to get to the beautiful Garibaldi Lake, situated right smack in the middle of mountains, which is why, the only way to get there is to hike, or if you’re rich, perhaps, use a helicopter.

Here’s the picture of the trail map around the Garibaldi Provincial Park. This picture is from VanLiving.Net.

Our trek started from the Rubble Creek parking lot, going up to the junction (roughly around 6-7 km hike). From the junction, we decided to take the longer route so that we can pass by Taylor Meadows. Taylor Meadows is supposed to be a very pretty place at this point in time, but look what we encountered halfway up there:

(Left) from dry path to (Right) wet snow!

Hiking in snow is no fun at all. It’s slippery, it’s soft, and worst of all, it’s wet. Most of the effort was trying to be balanced. As my friend told me, the experience of hiking and walking through snow is like one who’s walking on a tight rope, trying to keep the balance, and the rope just keeps on wobbling. A couple of times I almost twisted my bad ankle.

And another thing I realized with hiking in the snow is the illusion that it is packed snow, but when you step on it, your whole leg submerges down! I think It happened to me a couple of times, which I hate more because if you don’t have any balance, you might just break your leg.

And what’s worst, I had my runners on! Which is not a good idea at all. If you hike, better use proper hiking shoes.

Continuing on with the hike, from Taylor Meadows, we somehow lost track of the markers and got lost for around 40 minutes, just wandering around the snow until we found the markers again. The good thing about my friend, he had his Garmin GPS so that we somehow had an idea where we were wandering to.

At this point, we’ve been hiking for roughly 3 hours already. And according to my pedometer, I’ve been walking 12000 steps already! Talk about being tired and then, worst – being lost! But somehow we managed to find the markers again (thank goodness!) and continue our way to Garibaldi Lake. By the way. I somehow managed to snap picture of the Black Tusk! Awesome isn’t it?

Even though we’ve been trekking for a while now, I still have energy left to continue the hike. But with a view of the lake (see below), I don’t think you’ll be tired at all! It’s well worth it after all.

 

Garibaldi Lake is amazing! It’s also extra special because there were still snow around, and we have to admit, even if snow is very hard to work with, it still looks beautiful with nature. And can you believe it, snow in the middle of Summer! Weather here is really absurd these days.

We stopped here for a quick snack and to enjoy the view for a moment. My other friend let me taste this Korean rice cake or something. It wasn’t bad, but… after eating the whole slice, my stomach suddenly felt really really absurd. Ang sakit! It was tolerable, but it didn’t help at all with the trek back. Of course, I didn’t tell her that. That’ll be too rude as she offered that to me anyway.

Our trek going back is to go via Barrier Lake path instead of the Taylor Meadow trail. That’s roughly another 10km back to the parking lot. Hiking down is as hard as hiking up. Going down, your ankle, knee, calves take all the weight. While going down, my legs and ankles are about to just give up. So in order to lessen the stress, I tried running down (after we got past all the snowy area, which was almost an hour later). Running down definitely lessened the pain. In fact, it was really fun running down the hills. You just have to be careful though. There were rocks all over the trails and some of them are protruding and they were as sharp as a knife.

Finally, around 3 PM, we finally made it back to the parking lot. We started around 7:30, if I’m not mistaken. What a day! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to track my overall steps via my pedometer because my iPod Nano died an hour before we got to the end zone. But according to my friend’s GPS, he said we trekked a total of roughly 25 km. Not bad at all.

This is definitely something I wouldn’t mind doing again, but not just in the next few weeks. Perhaps next year again!

Random Thoughts for the Day

Ipod Nano

I have a new Ipod Nano! I’ve been scouring craigslist for a few weeks now and I was finally able to find one selling his brand new nano 6th gen for just 110 CAD. Normally, the Nano sells around 149 (+ tax) in the Apple Store, so at 110, I think it’s a good deal.

Although I do have an ipod Touch, but I once tried using it during running and it was felt pretty bulky carrying it around. I wanted something small and handy that I can carry during hikes, runs, and even in the gym. In fact, I have an unopened ipod shuffle 3rd gen back in Manila but never wanted to use it, and was intending to sell it off because I didn’t like that model. Anyway, I ended up with the Nano because it had lot more features than the shuffle, and with the 6th gen Nano, Apple shrunk it to a size close to that of the shuffle 4th gen.

Let me see if I can improve my Grouse Grind time with this new gadget I have.

Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market is an amazing store where you can get all these diverse organic and natural products that you won’t see in any other grocery store. Just going into this store is an amazing experience. All the unique items there are awesome, and I especially love their selection of breads. I also heard the salad bar is amazing but I haven’t had the chance to try it out.

I’ve been here a couple of times already, and I usually just look around. I like going back here every now and then and so when my friend saw my tea mug (I have a post about it a couple of weeks back), he said he wanted one too, thus after we picked up my Ipod Nano this morning, we went straight to Whole Foods at Broadway and Cambie so that he can get himself a new tea mug. Oh boy did he like the other model as well, and he ended up buying 4 tea mugs in total! I was thinking of getting one for my sister too, but ended up not getting one because I am not sure if she’s an avid tea drinker as I am.

Anyhow, I did end up buying an organic green tea + jasmine tea. I’ve always loved this type of tea, but I haven’t tried out this brand yet. This was a bit expensive though. So hopefully this is worth the price I paid for it.

And since I loved their assortment of breads, I got an Italian Garlic Bread too. My colleague highly recommended that specific bread to me, so I got one earlier, which cost me almost $6 by the way, and I’ll give it a try tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Stefano’s

My landlady and landlord (Ate Mae and Kuya Toni) are celebrating their wedding anniversary this coming Monday and as an advance celebration, we went to Stefano’s, a Greek restaurant in New Westminster.

I’ve heard nice things about this restaurant, food is good, ambiance is wonderful, and music (live band) is entertaining.

Instead of ordering the usual Souvlaki, I got the Halibut Teriyaki instead with Ceasar’s Salad. According to their menu:

Halibut Teriyaki - west coast halibut fillet broiled and topped with teriyaki sauce   $23

I loved my order. I don’t usually enjoy Greek food as much, not a big fan, but this one was really good. I find the Halibut usually bland, thus the addition of the teriyaki sauce was definitely a plus factor. However, I was disappointed with the desert we ordered – Tiramisu cake. It was all cream, hardly any of the good parts of an actual tiramisu was there. Very disappointed.

Although I was disappointed with the desert, I enjoyed the music and the band though. They were playing all different music from love songs to disco songs! And at Stefano’s, they have a nice dance area too so diners can dance and enjoy the music! Of course I didn’t dance (and I never will!) but it was so much fun watching people of all ages dance! That’s probably one of my frustrations – I can’t dance!!

Slippers

I have new fluffy slippers, a gift from my very thoughtful landlady!

Which means, I can now use my 3+ year old ipanema slippers, which is still by the way in the best condition, outside. Well worth the 1k I paid for it! I’ve been looking for another slipper sana, but, I can’t seem to find a similar one. Unfortunately, Ipanema doesn’t make the same type of slippers anymore.

Grouse Grind So Far

As part of my fitness theme for this year’s Canada “work/vacation”, I’ve been challenging myself to do the grouse grind, not just do it, but improve on my time. Back in 2009, I bought myself the grind timer so that I can keep track of my hikes. Last year though, I went home to Manila before the grouse grind opened, so I didn’t have any hikes under my belt last year.

But this time, since I am extended here for another month, I’ve set a goal for myself to do the grind every week. It’s a good calorie burning exercise, and endurance training as well. So far, I’ve done three grouse grinds this season, with time improvements compared to two years ago:

Last night’s grind was my personal best so far. I’m trying to crack the one hour mark, so hopefully, in the next few weeks, I’ll be able to do so. And it only means one thing, more training in the gym! In fact, I did go to the gym earlier and got a 30 minute run as well (but I barely hit the 5km mark!), and did some nice circuit training too.

I thought I was going to make the one hour mark last night, but my time in the 3rd quarter wasn’t good. Took me a good 20 minutes there, which ideally should’ve been just 15 minutes. The change I did this time was to slower my pace the first quarter. In my second grind, it took me 15 minutes to reach the first quarter mark, but I was so tired afterwards, thus the 1:10 result. Last night, my first quarter was 20 minutes, but I had more energy all throughout.

What I really want to improve on are my legs and my heart. Some times, I just have to stop because my heart’s beating like crazy already. And at times, my heart’s ok, but my legs are just giving up. More training needed!

You know it’s summer here in Vancouver when…

1. I need an electric fan in my room.

2. I’m wearing shorts at home.

3. My landlady changed my sheets to something cooler (no more comforters!).

4. The window in my room is now open.

5. I don’t wear my jacket outside.

6. I need to apply sunblock when I go out.

7. I’ve changed my walking route to and from the office, because I want to get as much shade as I can. The sun heat here is terrible!

8. It’s 9PM and there’s still light outside!

9. I finally sweat when I’m outside.

10. You see more people in parks and beaches, sunbathing and showing as much skin as possible.

11. You see more people riding their bikes, roller blading and running outside.

12. When I get asked by security (on my way to the gym) why I’m not enjoying the sunny weather outside.

And you know we’re Filipinos here because when we’re waiting for bus stops, we try to look for the best “shaded” place as possible! And my friends and I were talking about how the sun is just painful here, and we all agree that we all just want to take out our umbrellas to shield ourselves from the sun, but we’re just too embarrassed to do it! After all, people here are totally into this summer weather, which they only get for just a couple of months a year. Summer here is something people here really enjoy!

Welcome summer in Vancouver. Haven’t seen you in two years!

Blog Site: Welcome Home Blog

My usual routine before I go to bed is to read some random article online via my iPod Touch. Last night, I was supposed to go to sleep around 11 pm, but as per my routine, I stumbled upon this pretty nice website: Welcome Home Blog.

This blog posts different videos of American soldiers coming home from military duties and surprising their loved ones. Each video you’d watch, you’d probably be shedding a tear or two. I think I’m going to have puffy eyes today because of all the “crying” I did last night by just watching these videos. Oh, and did I tell you that I ended up sleeping at 12:30 am?? I just couldn’t stop watching these touching videos.

I recommend everyone to find time to check this website out. Although we’re not Americans, but the idea of family and love will always be the same for everyone. And make sure to have a tissue paper handy at arms reach.

Quebec Trip: Montmorency Falls, Charlevoix

Another two places we visited was the Montmorency Falls and the Charlevoix City in Quebec Province.

Montmorency Falls

Montmorency Falls is a tourist destination in Quebec Province. It is a huge waterfall situated just close to Quebec City. The entrance we used was from the top, thus, we had to ride the Gondola down (it’s not free by the way) to be able to get a shot like the one below. Unfortunately, it was really windy and rainy during this time so we stayed only for a few minutes at this point and went back up to the top of the falls via the same Gondola.

On top of the waterfall, in the surrounding area, houses the Parc de la Chute-Montmorency. It is a restaurant or meeting area where one can dine, hold business meetings, or even wedding banquets.

Pictures above were taken mid point of the falls, there’s a viewing area. You can see the St. Lawrence river from here. Very pretty sight, especially since you’ll see bits of pieces of snow still there, but melting away. I wonder how beautiful this place would look like during Winter and the Fall seasons.

You’ll also notice in the picture above on the left, that there’s a bridge that crosses across the whole waterfall. Unfortunately, when I got to that point, the battery of my camera died. So no pictures.

You can read more about Montmorency Falls here.

Charlevoix

After dropping by Montmorency Falls and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, our next pit stop was to go to Charlevoix and do some whale watching and to visit a casino on the side.

Unfortunately, it was such a windy and rainy day that when we got to the whale watching site, there was no boat sailing out! Too bad… but the good thing is, we found this nice trail which ended up in a shore line area with these huge rock formations looking out to a body of water. This sight was amazing. My aunt’s said that it looked similar to the ones in Newfoundland (originally part of the itinerary but had to be scrapped out because of time constraints).

We stayed at Charlevoix for one night, before heading back to Quebec the next day. From Quebec City, we went travelled to Montreal, then to Cornwall, and then back to Mississauga.

More about the next pit stop on another blog post.

Quebec City Trip: Frontenac and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

This is supposed to be a continuation of my previous post: Niagara Falls. Took me a while to finally finish this up.

Niagara Falls was just the first stop on that trip. The following day, we drove up to Cornwall, still in Ontario to go to my Aunt’s place first. She lives there and is working as a physical therapist. Cornwall is a nice little town, 4-5 hours away from Mississauga City. I like this place because you can pretty much go from point A to point B by just walking. And it’s a quiet little place, I wouldn’t mind staying there to relax. In fact, my dad once visited this place as well and he fell in love with it, saying that this place would be a great place to retire and live the simple life.

There’s a lot of things one can see in Quebec City.

Château Frontenac

This is a grand hotel located in what I would say is Quebec’s version of Intramuros. It’s in a fort and sits beside this body of water – I think it’s the St. Lawrence River.

This was our first stop in Quebec City. I just love the ambiance of this city. Everyone’s speaking French, the weather is cool, and the architecture is beautiful, like a mini version of Europe. For instance:

Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

This is one of the most beautiful Basilica’s I’ve seen in my life. The basilica is huge. The basilica per se has been around for hundreds of years, but in the year 1922, the original basilica was destroyed by fire, thus, this one in the picture is actually the rebuilt basilica. If the outside was magnificent, wait until you get inside – it’s breathtakingly beautiful. 

Outside view of the Basilica and the inside ceiling view.

De La Salle is here!

At the back area of the basilica is the “Stations of the Cross”. It’s almost a lifelike replica of the different stations of the cross. I can’t recall in the Philippines where I’d seen a similar Stations of the Cross where you go up the hill as you go to each station. It’s very beautiful. Even though it was cold that day, we visited each station, and trekked all the way to the top.

I can only imagine what this would look like during Fall and Winter season, it would be very very beautiful. You can read more about this Basilica here.

I will need to post these pictures somewhere!!!

This is just the half of the trip – there’s still the Montmorency Falls, Charlevoix, Attempted Whale Watching, Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal. That’ll come in the next post!