Gravel bars are sexy places!

Hello from Vancouver!

We have had a wonderful couple days here so far. It started with a smooth flight from Edmonton and then we headed to the hotel. Our hotel is lovely and the staff have been excellent.

After we were settled in on Monday we headed out for a bite to eat and ended up at a nice little cafe with a view of the mountains. Since flights always tire me out no matter how short they are, we came back to the room for a little nap. Once we woke up we called my brother Graham and went out for dinner at a little Japanese restaurant. The meal started off with a deep fried pumpkin ball containing a cooked egg which was delicious. Next up was an oyster dish that was to die for, I could have eaten 4 of them. Afterwards the three of us split 2 sashimi tuna steaks and washed it all down with the best green tea I have ever had.

With our bellies full we started walking down to Stanley park and wandered around the park for a couple hours. At one point we heard a strange humming noise coming from behind us. We turned around and saw an electric skateboard coming down the path towards us towing another boarder behind them. Then at the end of our walk, Ryan saw a waddling movement in the grass that turned out to be a cute little skunk. No worries, we still smell lovely.

On Tuesday we started our day with a icky tasting dose of Ducoral, our anti-diarrhea vaccine. Once we had washed the taste of that out of our mouths we decided to head down to the Vancouver aquarium. Our favorite parts were the belugas, the otters, the sloth and the techno jellyfish which looked like they had little multi-coloured lights shooting up and down the sides. After the aquarium we were getting a little hungry so we grabbed a slice of pizza and people watched while snacking. Then it was off to check out Graham's boat!

We headed to the seabus station and set off on our first boat ride of the trip. The seabus is an excellent way to travel and has never missed a crossing. Graham met us on the other side and we headed towards the marina. We hung out on his boat for a little while chatting and having a little snack of pita chips and dip. Then we wandered off to check out the rest of the marina. Among the boats there are also some really cool floating houses. One of them was very reminiscent of a little hobbit home, all it was missing was the round door. On the way down the dock the first time we heard an interesting noise that sounded like a drowning banshee. We tried to figure out what it was but couldn't so we just kept walking. On the way back we saw one of the residents standing out on the dock outside his house. He then informed us what the crazy noise from earlier was. Apparently, otters were having some sexy time under his house...

SOLD!

On Monday night we got our usual call from Bob, our real estate agent, and since I thought it was his normal Monday night update on the housing market I didn't call him back. I figured, well we only have a week left on this real estate contract before putting plan B in effect (renting the house) so I'll just call him back in the morning. The next morning he called me at work and to my complete surprise, we had an offer!

After we made a quick counter offer and it was accepted we did a muted jump for joy, muted because last time we had an offer it was quickly dashed by our uniquely crappy condo documents. This time, after another initial scare over the documents, the other conditions were smoothly removed from the contract. Now our house is officially sold!

Time for the flurry of activity to begin. We have so much to do and less than a month to do it in as the possession date on the house is March 27. Luckily most of our stuff is already in storage and house is pretty empty. Tommorrow we head out to buy our backpacks, shoes and some other sweet gear and I am so excited.

Look-out Graham, we are on our way! First stop Vancouver!

My First Tattoo

Finally, after a lot of thought, procrastination and nervousness, I headed over to Urge Studios and had my first tattoo done by Dylan.

It is the Egyptian cat goddess Bast. She is the goddess of, among other things, the sun, women, dancing and entertainment. On her chest is the eye of Horus which is a symbol of protection, and a scarab which is the symbol of creation. Behind her is the sun, which symbolizes the god Ra.

I must admit that the process was a little more painful than I had anticipated. However, as soon as the outline was done there was much less wincing on my part. When the color was being done I had a little snack while reading my book which was a great distraction. I was in the chair for about 3 hours, including a couple breaks, but it was totally worth it and I am very happy with the results.

Still here after all this time...

Well as you can tell by our lack of exciting posts from exotic destinations around the world, we are still in Edmonton waiting for the house to sell. The price has been reduced for a second time, down to $156900. Although the house is still being shown regularly there are no takers. We have only had 3 showings since the price dropped and 1 was just yesterday so I suppose we shouldn't jump to conclusions too fast.

We are still very committed to taking this trip of a lifetime, it's just taking a little longer to get off the ground than we had initially anticipated. Boo the housing market and the damn economic downturn. Ah well, I have complete faith that the house will still sell and we will be on our way in no time. We may just have to go the other way around the world.

To quelch our wanderlust in the short term we've decided to take a trip on the train to Jasper in February and go snowboarding in the mountains for a couple days.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for us, the house has to sell sooner or later!