Vancouver

Geofford and I have made it safe and sound to Vancouver. We arrived last Thursday in Vancouver after an extra-long flight - or so it felt because my earphones didn't work -> fortunately the nice man in front of me allowed me to use his sound so that I could watch the movie - 13 going on 30, which in the end wasn't that great of a movie, oh well. My Uncle William and Aunt Stella came to the airport to pick us up and we stayed with them night.

The next morning we went to pick up our car and I was a little disappointed when we had to drive a Corolla instead of the Civic that I asked for. In the end, the little car was good enough for us as it had air-conditioning - more on that later. After a little bit of shopping and breakfast, Geofford and I set off for Kelowna to meet his best friend Seryna. Since we were not in a rush we decided to take the Crow's Nest Highway instead of the Coquihalla (which was faster) - it was a beautiful, impressive drive through the mountains. I was only scared once when we were rounding a turn and we slowly started skidding into the other lane, but the little car held and we didn't hit anything (or as Geofford told Mehmet - it could have been a lot worse since we were skidding towards the cliff instead of off the cliff - with that perspective I guess it wasn't that bad). Other than the drive was quite pleasant - especially since we had a/c and the outside temperature according to the dash temperature gauge was holding steady between 34-36 degrees Celsius.

Once we reached Kelowna we met up with Geofford's best friend Seryna. She was super nice and was a lot of fun to hang out with. Since it was so hot (I think it got up to around 38 with the humidty) for most of the time we were there - we ate and sat around just hanging out. On Friday night we went to dinner at Kelly O'Brien's which was the irish pub - so lots of fun. After being terribly ambitious Saturday morning with a run and some plyometrics, we visited Summerhill Pyramid Winery - which was pretty fun.

On Sunday we returned to Vancouver - or more specifically Coquitlam via the Coquihalla Hwy, which was pretty fun - there was a lot of downhills, which I got to drive. I think there was this one stretch that was 8% for 17km. I think it would be more fun with a car that I knew better - I was a little worried about the brakes on the car, but we got to Coquitlam safe and sound. In Coquitlam, we stayed with my Uncle Sammy and Aunt Winnie (#10 on my mom's side) and they had a bbq for us and my Aunt Hannah and Uncle Thomas (#5) and my Aunt Betty (#3) also came over. As usual there was too much food, but we were able to run it off the next morning before we set off for Squamish on the Sea to Sky Hwy. That was another gorgeous drive - hopefully our pictures turned out.

Now I am beginning to get super excited about Nationals. I was a little disappointed when a few of our players were unable to come for various reasons - and then I found out on Friday that another of our players broke his arm at practice on Thursday. But hopefully everything will turn out and everyone will play their hearts out.