Venture Vancouver

Snowshoe adventure at Mt. Seymour, originally uploaded by selihpxe8.

Robson Square, originally uploaded by Qantas Travel Insider.

I went Ice Skating tonight for the first time in a decade and the first time since being in Canada. I went to GE Ice Plaza (Robson Square Ice Rink). Its great, it is only $3 to rent some skates. When I got there, no one was skating and security and first aid staff were out on the ice. Aparently someone had hurt their ankle and then was refusing to get off the ice. They were eventually escorted out and then the zamboni was put on to clear the ice. It is awesome to watch a zamboni do what it does.

It wasn’t that long until we got to go onto the ice. I went out holding onto the edges real tight. There are these granny walker type things that staff place into the rink and that anyone can grab onto and run with it. It is supposed to be for children to learn on. I used it a bit to get a feel for what  my feet should be doing and to feel sort of what it is like to ice skate. It wasn’t long until I got the hang of it and could skate around the whole rink without having to hold onto the edge.

I had skated for 2 hours and was starting to get tired and a blister on my foot. It was a good time to take a break as they soon stopped the music and got everyone off the ice to allow the zamboni to do its thing again. I loved the music that was playing, mostly 90′s stuff.

I went back onto the fresh ice but it felt more difficult than before. It felt really bumpy and slippery. I didn’t skate for much longer as I was getting hungry. I soon left with 2 friends to go get some food at the Lennox Pub. The place was packed at about 10.30pm and there seemed to be only one table free. There was one empty chair at the table and a empty glass. We figured that the table just hadn’t been cleaned up yet. The three of us went in search for some extra chairs to place at this table so that all of us can sit together. It took us a good 10-15min to find chairs and bring them over to the table. Once we sat down and was ready to settle in, someone tells us that the someone is sitting at that table? We were all baffled because it sure did not look like anyone was sitting there, nor had anyone sat there the whole time we kept returning to the table with an extra chair, and still, as we were leaving, we still did not see anyone sit there. Perhaps the staff just didn’t want us there, but I hate how they waited until we found spare chairs and brought them to the table and settled in before they told us that the table was apparently ‘taken’.

We left in search of food and walked down granville until we hit the Two Parrots pub. This place was much nicer than Lennox. It wasn’t as packed. The Two Parrots have this two pound burger deal thing, that if you are able to eat it by yourself within 30min or an hour then your next burger will be free. Its a $25 burger. I think they should give the burger you just ate for free for accomplishing eating it. Although the yam fries were droopy.

On the way to the Two Parrots we saw George Stroumboulopoulos, and my friend just had to go say hello and shake his hand. I of course, had no idea who my friends were talking about, although the guys face looked familiar.

Its unfortunate that the Ice Skating Rink in Robson Sq is only open until the end of Feb. I’d recommend anyone visiting Vancouver should go ice skating at least once. There are rinks around that are open after Feb.

On the Drive, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

I had heard that Commercial Drive was once Little Italy. There is a little italy in Melbourne, that is still very much italian focused. I went to ‘the drive’ and walked from Commercial Station up to Venables St. I have an Eye Witness Travel book which lists Commercial Drive as a shopping district for tourists. I would not recommended tourists go to this area. It is not a pretty part of the city, it looks old, degraded, dingy, and just very worn. I am sure this place has seen better days and that when it was little italy, it was a hustling bustling awesome place. The drive has some interesting restaurants and food shops, but as for shopping district, not so much.

Unless your definition of ‘shopping district’ is shopping for smelly second hand old clothes, books and furniture perhaps, but then you could help the homeless and buy such items off them instead of for some of the price tags I saw.

I think ‘the drive’ is a great place for locals, especially local artists. There were heaps of walls that were covered in muriels and the homes down each cross street were colourful and interesting. As mentioned there are some good food shop markets, restaurants, bakeries and cafes which make the drive a great local place to hang out. If I lived in one of those cozy colourful houses, the drive would have everything I could need. Read more… …

best goalie, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

Tonight I am going to see my first live hockey game ever at Rogers Arena, but before the game, food is in order. The Kingston Taphouse on Richards st was recommended. I was really surprised at how large this place is inside, you would not have guessed it from outside. There wasn’t that much time before the game and I also wanted to buy a jersey beforehand too. The Kingston staff were able to place us at a table straight away and served us immediately.

I ordered a maple glazed grilled salmon. It was pretty good. Some parts tasted too ‘grilly’ but the parts that had the maple on it were sublime. We were out of there pretty quickly and made our way to the arena.

While walking to the arena there was a guy in a wheelchair with a cat in a little suit on his shoulder. I wish I had taken a photo, it was cute. There were quite a few beggers asking money from the huge horde of people making their way to the arena.

Read more… …

Rogue Kitchen, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

Pointy Muttart Conservatory, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

9am
I enjoyed a complimentary breakfast in one of the conference room areas of the hotel and set out to walk around downtown Edmonton. Edmonton is a really beautiful city. Today I walked around downtown at street level even though there are climate controlled pedways to get me around. I liked walking the streets in the cold, the air was fresh, it smelled fresh and the streets were quiet. The sun was shining and it was great to walk around. I noticed that there were no homeless people asking for money on any of the streets.

I walked up 103 street to go by the Greyhound Bus Station to pick up my ticket for later today, I’ll be taking a bus to Calgary and then another bus to Drumheller. I also went past the Old Spaghetti Factory on the way to the bus station and knew I wanted to have my last meal in Edmonton there. I then walked along 104 Avenue, nothing much to see there, the CN Tower is not that interesting. Walking down 99 Street is where all the interesting and wonderful things about Edmonton can be found.

The Sir Winston Churchill Square has the Edmonton City Hall building with its pyramid looking shape, and its pond out front (which of course was iced over and families were out ice skating on it). There is also the Art Gallery of Alberta with is unusually shaped building that I have no words to describe it.

I then walked as far south I could go and along Jasper Avenue. The Fairmont Hotel caught my eye with its beauty and the background intrigued me. I love how all the Fairmont Hotels are old fashioned buildings. I went further south to get behind the hotel and found myself at a spectacular view of the frozen North Saskatchewan River. I was also looking over Louise MckInney Park and could see Muttart Conservatory.

What is with all the pointy pyramid like structures in Edmonton, there seems to be a few that I see just walking around.

This view was fantastic, I stayed here quite some time just enjoying the view. I then started to get cold, it was minus something by now and even though I had just spent time in Fort McMurray I wasn’t fully layered up and could feel the cold getting to my bones. Below are some photos I took in Downtown as well as at the Mall.

I walked back to my hotel and  relaxed. I was allowed to have a late check out time of 2pm without any extra charges. This hotel was quite nice. The staff were most helpful and the place was nice. Read more… …

Northern Lights Attempt V, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver.

10am
Today is the last day of the tour and the last chance of seeing the aurora. I have doubts that we’ll see it as it is snowing outside. The aurora is supposed to be strong, but  it is cloudy out there. Yesterday was the best weather for viewing it but the aurora was weak.

The day was spent in the hotel room, with more watching dvds on a laptop and ordering room service.

10pm
We went out and waited again, and again, there was no show.  I did make a snow Angel though!

We got back to the hotel around 2am, we went to sleep straight away as we had to get up in a few hours to get our shuttle to the airport, our flight leaves at 8am.

Although we didn’t get to see the northern lights on this trip, I did like this tour. I will try again to see the northern lights but I think I’d like to go to the Yukon or Alaska.

Saturday December 11th 2010, 1pm, -24°C, cold and a bit windy
Location: Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Flat Fort McMurray, originally uploaded by Venture Vancouver. I got up late. Went down to the inhouse restaurant and ordered breakfast. They had a buffet but I felt like having eggs benedict, which was only available to order not as part of the buffet. The food was pretty good and very filling. I then took a taxi to ‘downtown’.

I walked around peter ponds mall. It is a typical mall but I found most of the people there, both customers and especially employees of stores, were really quite unhelpful and borderline rude. It cost $40 to get to the town and back including tip. The weather was too harsh to walk around town and surprisingly the mall didn’t have any items that would help to keep one warm such as toe and hand warmers. 

The rest of the evening was spent taking a nap to prepare to be awake at night to try to see the aurora, ordering room service and watching dvd’s that we brought with us. We went out again at 10pm to the viewing site and waiting again until 1am, but still no aurora. Tonight was the best weather for it, but the aurora was weak.