J&M got Maui'd!

Maggie and I got up at a decent time the morning we wanted to go stand up paddle boarding. We had originally wanted to show up at the dock when the place opened at nine so that we would be sure to be able to rent a couple of paddle boards as our coupons were on a first-come first-serve basis. We arrived a couple of hours later than we had planned, but I was not too worried: The weather was very cool, and I did not expect the place to be busy on a weekday. I was wrong, but fortunately they still had a couple of boards left for us to use. Maggie on a paddle board. Our instructions on how to use the paddle boards was pretty basic and limited: Where to stand, where not to go, and if we had kayaked or canoed before. Then we were left to our own devices. Since we were both beginners, neither of us felt comfortable getting off of our knees, especially when the wakes of boats would rumble under us. A decent breeze was powerful enough to stop my in my tracks. I felt so ill prepared and

The plan for today was to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and then return back to the house so we could get ready for the sunset cruise dinner. We had originally planned on doing our stand up paddleboarding and tour of Granville island today, but the weather reports were indicating that it would be cold and cloudy during the morning, which did not bode well for a water outing. Maggie on the Capilano Suspension Bridge. In the end, the morning turned out to be fairly sunny and quite warm, especially after noon. This kind of irked me since we basically had to double back to the house after our visit to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which was also a change of plan as we had wanted to check out both Grouse Mountain and Capilano Suspension Bridge on the same day since they were next to each other. So much driving! Maggie leaning on one of the large trees in the park. In any case, the bridge itself was okay. I can see how it had a interesting view over the gorge and some inte

Maggie and I had an ambitious plan to hike the Grouse Grind in the morning, check out the stuff at the top of the mountain like the lumberjack show, visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge in the afternoon and then head downtown for dinner at Guu. Well, we did get up at a good time to start the Grouse Grind. Starting the Grouse Grind. We were doing pretty good when we passed the 1/4 mark. This was after one thousand steps.  But things started to really slow down at the halfway point. Halfway up: About 1500 steps. But we did continue upwards past 2000 steps. (Note how I am now carrying more stuff.) We got to two thousand steps! But we had to take it easy after the 3/4 mark. Maggie was unhappy that we still had seven hundred steps to go. But we still made it to the top in one piece! We made it to the top! We were able to watch the lumberjack show, but the mountain top really got foggy when we reached the top, and after we had lunch it started to rain p

Maggie and I went to Whistler on Monday and Tuesday. We were initially going to go for only one day, but she convinced me to stay for a night and that was a pretty good idea, considering how little time was allowed for people to stay up on the mountain. Us and the Inuksuk. On the first day, we drove up the Sea to Sky highway, and we had some fantastic views of the coast and the mountains but figured that we would have more time on the way back to take pictures. We had a hiking excursion at two which we did not want to miss, and wanted to make sure we arrived with time to have lunch before our hike. View from the Roundhouse. Side note: Actually, we wanted to do the Via Ferrata on Tuesday, but it was booked up by the time we had called on Sunday. In fact, we were told that there were no spaces available for any of the guided hikes on Monday or Tuesday so we kicked ourselves for not booking ahead of time. Moments after we hung up, while we were trying to book our gondola t

On Sunday, Maggie and I got up relatively early and went with a hike up the local mountain with Brad and Nancy. It was a fairly short hike, but it was a good workout as we had not done anything like this at home! It would also prepare us for the Grouse Grind. Maggie and I after our first hike in Vancouver. After the hike we went to meet with some of my family for Dim Sum. Many of them have not met Maggie before so it was good for them to finally get together. Family photo after Dim Sum. After Dim Sum, we headed back to the house for a quick nap before meeting up with one of Maggie's friends for a sushi dinner.

Maggie and I are on our vacation on the west coast! Hopefully the weather will cooperate while we are here. We woke up pretty early yesterday morning, five for me and five-thirty for Maggie, for our eight o'clock flight. My dad gave us a ride so we did not have to worry about calling a taxi or finding parking so that made the trip to the airport easier. I had checked us in the day before so we breezed through the check-in line and security and got to our gate in minutes. Even though we woke up early, I had to finish packing and spent some time finishing off the rest of our food for breakfast and some flight snacks, so we still only arrived an hour or so before our flight left. Still, we did not get much sleep the night before so I was half expecting to sleep on the plane. That did not happen. I ended up watching Moneyball, The Ides of March, and half of Wrath of the Titans before we landed in Vancouver. Maggie rewatched The Hunger Games, and Moneyball and also did not get a wink