west coast livin'

2 months in and life is dang good here on the west coast. some highlights...

work: things got busy for chris quick, but early reports suggest that he's well-liked and a hard worker. he has a spectacular view of the mountains from his 5-star office building, which includes a "kitchen attendant", state of the art technical "stuff", and treats-day friday. things started off slow for me, but have picked up considerably. i'm working in 4 areas of the hospital, seeing a wide range of kids and teens with varying problems. although i have my own office, i have to step outside to take in the view, which is never disappointing, even on the rainiest of days.

play: chris has nearly lost his mind mountain biking on the famed north shore. i can't even begin to explain the tricks he and the others are doing on these trails.



we both have apres work ski passes for cypress mountain, 1 of the 3 local mountains 30 minutes away and my new snowboard is rearin' to go!

view of vancouver from the base of cypress mountain


windsurfing has been weak to say the least, but this was apparently expected. not to worry, though. chris is making up for it with a trip to maui next week....we both bike to work everyday and i've found a tacky gym in the neigbourhood with lululemon-clad ladies and their personal trainers. does shopping count as play? i think so. the shopping is nothing short of amazing.

my former mountain bike, "citified" with fenders and bike lights...


it rains ALMOST EVERYDAY, but that doesn't mean that one's style has to suffer...here is my solution for all of the rain

although we've had lots of fun exploring the city, we've had the chance to make some day trips as well...

pictures from squamish, bc...



pictures from the sunshine coast (gibson, bc), home of the beachcombers!!


the ferry ride home from the sunshine coast....

day 21 - george, washington to vancouver, bc!!! (453 km)

The homestretch. I was so anxious to get to Van but Chris seemed more leisurely about it, wanting to stop into outlet malls in Seattle etc. I know what you’re thinking – Aimée didn’t want to shop?! But this is the truth. I just wanted to Git ‘R Done after 3 weeks on the road.

The first sight of a “Vancouver, BC” sign warranted a high 5 to each other. We were so close. We arrived in Van late afternoon and we were met at the apartment by our landlord. It’s just like the pictures :)

We feel so fortunate to have made this trip with no major pitfalls along the way. We had 21 days of sunshine and it was a once in a lifetime adventure, well worth all the driving, which, if you’re interested, added a mere 8279 km to the odometer!

We hope to update this blog periodically about our life here in Van, but don’t expect daily posts like we’ve been providing ;)

Hope to see you out west for a visit!

A&C

ps: it’s raining in Van today…go figure

day 20 - hood river, oregon to george, washington (310 km)

We left Hood River and a great 6 days of relaxation behind to seek out our last adventure on this whirlwind tour. We had heard from a friend about a place called the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington (yes, the town is called George in the state of Washington – how clever).

The Gorge Amphitheatre is a 20,000 seat concert venue located above the Columbia River Gorge and is considered one of the premier and most scenic concert locations in North America and the world. When we looked up the venue on the internet a few weeks before the start of our trip, we were blown away by the images AND the fact that the Dave Matthews Band would be performing the labour day long weekend, just around the time when we’d be ending our trip and heading north to Vancouver. We were sold.

The drive to George saw us heading inland into the Washington desert. It was very reminiscent of the landscape in Nevada and Colorado with the white, mountainous landscape, followed by corn fields, reminiscent of Nebraska and Iowa. It felt twilight zonish, as if we were retracing our original steps and heading backwards!

The concert. What can we say about Dave? Dave rocks! The concert was like an out-of-body experience. I kept saying to Chris, “I can’t believe I’m here!” Surrounded by the breathtaking scenery coupled with listening to the songs of such a rockin’ band was the most perfect way imaginable to celebrate the near-end of our journey.

One last day of sailing in Hood River

A pro windsurfer doing tricks, making all the amateurs look bad


Oregon wine - check out the brand AND name of the wine - so fitting for Chris!

The Gorge Amphitheater (above & below)

We were 44 rows from the stage! but these pix don't show that.

The parking lot at the Gorge Amphitheatre (look way into the distance!)


The Gorge in Washington

days 15 - 19 – hood river, oregon

Hood River or “The Gorge” as it is affectionately known by windsurfers, was our first real stop where we get to relax and spend multiple nights in one place. It’s nice to get back to regular day stuff like getting groceries, doing laundry, and poking around a few nice shops each day instead of trying to cram it all into one or two days. We’ll spend a total of six nights here in the Gorge before heading to Washington to see Dave Matthews.

The Gorge is an outdoors person’s dream. It’s got hiking, mountain biking, snowboarding and of course windsurfing on the Columbia River Gorge, where it’s consistently windy almost every day of the summer. The town of Hood River is also a really funky spot with shops galore, microbrews, tons of local wineries and 300 or so days a year of sunshine. AND did we mention that there is no sales tax whatsoever in Oregon!?

Chris has been windsurfing a few times here and we went on a bike ride at the local mountain biking hotspot, which is said to be amongst the best. From what we saw, it was really fun – a hard packed dirt/clay track through the woods with lots of jumps and stunts thrown in. Chris had the misfortune of bending his front wheel on one of the jumps and that was the end of the mountain biking in Hood River. We also had the opportunity to do a hike up one on the local mountains, which provided stunning views of Mount Hood (and also apparently Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens if we hadn’t quit before getting to the top) and the Hood River Valley.

Where's Chris? A stunning view of Mount Hood on our hike

Another spectacular view (of Mt Hood silly :)

Oooh! Looky looky at all the pretty kites!

Chris doing a body drag

Hello from The Gorge!

Oregon wine - mmm mmm good!

The infamous jump where Chris busted his bike

days 13, 14 & 15 – coastal drive: san francisco to hood river, oregon (1115 km)

We left San Fran and entered Marin county, thus starting the famous #1 Hwy up the west coast. We had been forewarned that despite the beauty of the scenery, we likely would decide to veer off Hwy 1 in favour of the interstate. We couldn’t understand why someone would suggest driving on a freeway over the Pacific Coast Highway, but when we started the drive, we began to understand why someone would make this decision. This is a rollercoaster ride of a road, complete with cliffs and 15 mile/hr turns. To say that it is VERY turny would be a gross understatement.

That being said, we stayed on Hwy 1 for an entire day and the spectacular views were well worth the motion sickness.

Chris was stoked to windsurf for the first time this trip and his first time ever in California (cold water!!!) in a little town called Bodega Bay. Nothing spectacular, but a chance to get his sea legs wet.

Camping in California was great – perfect temperature and no bugs. And it was great being on the coast again. While Nova Scotia is a far cry from California, it was nice to experience something familiar.

The next day brought us through the Redwood Forest and the Avenue of Giants – home to the majestic Redwood trees. Very very cool to see. We camped in the Redwood State Park for a night before venturing into Oregon.

Where's Aimée?

The Oregon coast was arguably more spectacular than the California coast with steeper cliffs, bluer water and forests right to the water’s edge; the colours were incredible. Plus, there was hardly a sole around – it’s quite deserted along the whole coast until Portland.




Chris got to windsurf at a place called Pistol River, a famous wavesailing beach and had what he described as “although terrifying, the funnest day of windsurfing ever”. In windsurfing terms it was 4.7, down-the-line, and logo high but don’t feel bad if you don’t know what that means. We met a cool couple from Portland there and camped with them (and 200 other windsurfers) that night.

Chris before venturing out at Pistol River

Chris tearin' it up at Pistol River

An Oregon winery (which we plan to take advantage of while here)