After a 
pretty emotional and tiring few weeks, Dan, the boys and I finally began our adventure, and arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday afternoon, to be met by torrential rain. Amazingly, we managed to stay up until 9pm (5am UK time!), and awoke to a dull, but thankfully, drier City on Wednesday.
Following a hearty breakfast consisting of pancakes with maple syrup and corn beef hash, we hired mountain bikes to explore the much venerated, 1000 acre Stanley Park. Thankfully, by mid-day, the sun appeared and we had relatively leisurely (especially for Ollie who got muggins to push him up most of the hills) 8km cycle through the forest and along the sea wall.
Since then, we’ve managed to pack in some of Vancouver’s best, including Whale Watching (sadly no whales but a beautiful 4 hour boat trip!), a visit to Capalino Suspension Bridge, Vancouver’s oldest visitor attraction, and a seaplane flight. Yesterday was capped off with one of the local delicacies, a Japadog -essentially a Japanese version of a hotdog consisting of a pork sausage, Teriyaki mayonnaise, seaweed and onions, from a street vendor. Doesn’t sound great, I admit, but believe me, they are delicious!
Whale watching
The boys are so far managing well, and thanks to Facetime, coping better than I expected without Adele being around. Cameron is already missing his friends though, so I’m hoping that Facetime will again come to the rescue this weekend!
First impressions of Vancouver – on the plus side, it’s a laid back, friendly, multi-cultural city, surrounded by stunning scenery. The only negative is the high cost, especially the food.
Sounds like you’re having a wonderful start to your journey! Hope to see more pictures of the Canadian nature soon.
Hi – thanks for the note, sorry for the slow response, I was reminded by Adele today that I should be responding to peoples’ posts!! We have indeed had a great start to the trip, Vancouver was amazing, we were only sorry not to have more time in Canada but at least we now have an excuse to go back!! Hope you are ok and enjoying Stockholm. Ben
Hi Ben and Family
Great first travel blog and very excited to read about your adventures. Having heard great things about Vancouver and now the Japadog it is certainly on my list.
As your adventure begins mine is coming to an end with 2 weeks to go. Although sad to be heading home being able to catch up on your adventures will give me my escapism when sitting at the Ark! Also gives me a challenge to find some spelling mistakes!!
I also love the idea that the children wrote the first blog…long may it continue.
Happy and safe travels
Graham
Hey Graham, thanks for the note, it was great to hear from you, I can’t believe that you are nearing the end of your trip – I think you’ll find it challenging being back at work for the first few weeks, I certainly did when I went around the world in my late 20’s, but you’ll soon get back into the swing of it!
We are having a great time, albeit missing Adele who, as I think you probably know, had to remain in the UK until early October. We have only been going for 2 weeks, but have crammed in so much it feels like much longer. Vancouver was fantastic, what a beautiful City, and so friendly. Seattle was also nice, and lots to do with the boys, but now that we’ve picked up the RV and have the open road ahead of us, its beginning to feel like real travelling. The RV is great, 30 feet long, and a home from home really – its got a 6.8 litre engine, so only does 10mpg so thank god petrol is so cheap in the US!
Washington State is stunning, we went to Mount Rainier NP yesterday and were blessed with blue skys and 90 degree heat – a little warm for hiking but amazing – today we visited Mt St Helens which is equally stunning, but for different reasons. Amazing to think that several hundred feet of a mountain could collapse in a matter of seconds and cause so much devastation.
We are doing our best to keep up with the blog, WIFI permitting, and the boys are also pitching in, as you’ve seen. Its proving to be quite challenging fitting in school work, but the National Parks have terrific talks so the boys are learning lots about geography and history. I also think that they are learning a lot by osmosis as we meet and talk to different people, you know how rewarding and interesting that can be!
Has Pepo got a role lined up for you when you get back or are you going to investigate other options at GE?
Well, keep in touch, I’ll be thinking of you sitting in that iconic building as the winter approaches!
All the best Graham.
Ben