Two weekends in a row in Vancouver, B.C.

Jay and I have spent the last two weekends in a row in Vancouver, Canada playing with friends for one weekend and with my parents this past weekend. Two weeks ago we met our friends Pete and Erica at Cypress Mountain for a day of very interactive (i.e. a ton of uphill and downhill) cross country skiing. We had some seriously cold weather but we stayed warm with our uphill jaunts and ended the day with icy fingers and brownies.

Pete knew about a fantastic Chinese restaurant and we had a super yummy dinner with freshly made rice noodles. This food was to die for.

 The next day we went to Chinatown and watched the Chinese New Year enter the scene! 

 Dragons! 

Vancouver

After Pete and Erica left we swung by the UBC area to visit my old friend Katie and her husband Chett. They made us an incredible Indian dinner and followed up with great conversations and good times. Then Jay and I left and drove to Squamish, where we spent the night so we could be ready for a day of skiing at Whistler on Monday (a holiday). We love Whistler, so it was really fun to finally get back to this mountain!

The next weekend my parents arrived! Yeah! They had a layover in Chicago and beat the snowstorm by taking off about two hours before it arrived on Thursday. We headed up to Vancouver on Saturday and spent the day touring the city and taking in the sights - including this lovely view of the city from Stanley Park.

The next day was pouring - so we decided to spend the day in the Vancouver Aquarium with the rest of the city. Despite the crowds, we had fun. I had not been to this aquarium and am usually a bit of an aquarium snob, but this one was fantastic....especially their exhibits on local marine life like these kick ass nudibranchs.

 It almost looks like we were diving! 

My mom almost got eaten by a whale shark!

Sustainable seafood?

NPR is running an excellent series on sustainable fisheries. Take home message, which I already knew but I'm not sure how many of you did....follow the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch. Do NOT trust or use anything labeled or certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.  The council is essentially bought out by fisheries organizations to say that fisheries, like the Patagonia toothfish fishery (ak! they lie!) are sustainable. The Monterey Bay Seafood Watch is not buried in conflicts of interest and has a much more reliable and factual sustainable seafood list - they even have a free app for your fancy phone to help you in restaurants and while shopping. Listen to these three stories or read on! Be wise in your choices....


http://www.npr.org/2013/02/11/171376509/is-sustainable-labeled-seafood-really-sustainable

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/12/171376617/conditions-allow-for-more-sustainable-labeled-seafood

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/12/171376575/for-a-florida-fishery-sustainable-success-after-complex-process

Mt. Hood, Oregon

Weeks before it actually happened we planned a ski trip to Oregon to meet up with our friends Jennifer, Erik, and Gwynne. The problem with planning ahead is that you never know what you are going to get for snow! Well, we got spring skiing conditions in the middle of January - slush and clear blue sky days. The views were well worth the slush and we had a blast at Mt. Hood Meadows on the first day and either downhill or cross-country skiing the second day depending on the person.

 Gwynne and Erik soak up the sun. Yee haw!

Jay, Jennifer, and Erik with the top of Mt. Hood in the background.  I knew that the ski resort was on the volcano but I didn't realize how close we would really be to the top! It was unreal to take a chairlift and feel like you were going to go straight to the top. Talk about gorgeous.

We ended both days by leaving the ski hills behind and heading to a different spot on the mountain - the Timberline Lodge (this is also where they filmed The Shining). It was much nicer to watch the sunset over Mt. Hood than to sit in traffic on the small road connecting the mountain to Portland. Not to mention that a beer is really nice to have after a fun day working the leg muscles.

If you look closely to the left of this image you can see the chairlift taking people to the highest point of a ski hill on Mt. Hood. We didn't ski here this time, but maybe we will in the summer as you can ski here year round!

 Lazy legs ping-pong at our cool rental cabin

 This big breakfast was really exciting for Jay, Erik, and Jennifer

Jay went back to Mt. Hood Meadows for the day to ski with his old friend Liam while I hit the cross country ski trails with Gwynne and Jennifer. It was quite the epic adventure - which was surprising considering that we were not really out there that long. We all managed to perform some nice wipe outs, lots of laughter, and incredible views.

Good friends!  Jennifer and Gwynne

On our way back to WA we stopped in Portland to see Liam and Marcela (we had not seen them since their wedding back east on the Cape) and meet their baby, Benjamin. They live in a really great neighborhood in Portland and we are really excited to have more east coasters moving west.  Too bad we didn't take any photos!