Better late than cherry???

Hey There!

Remember me? I'm ashamed to look at the date of my last post - it was in April and here we are almost at the end of May! This past month and a half has been a month of ups and downs. Thankfully we seem to be on an upward motion at the moment :)

In April, we managed to escape for a weekend in Kelowna with our good friends Joni and Kent from Saskatoon. It was a nice, albeit cloudy and somewhat cool weekend. For some shots of that weekend click here.

What else has happened? Well, I won't bore you with down bits - but I did pass my 30 year mark. Yes, I am now officially out of my 20s. I can't say that I was really affected though. I got many b-day wishes including a treasure hunt sent all the way from Sweden that had me wandering around my neighbourhood with a ladle. Guess where I ended up...at the Swedish bakery around the corner from my house where a princesstårta and other treats were waiting for me! (I was just thankful I didn't actually have to dig in the park with my ladle!)



Yes, I know I looked a little dorky (having thrown on some jeans after our baseball game) but I didn't mind, I did score a cake out of the deal.

Ben and I also celebrated our third wedding anniversary, an occasion that was marked by slightly undercooked burgers at a local pub. (Don't worry we sent the burgers back and got fresh ones.)

We have been playing softball - well Ben has been playing, I've been attempting to play. My sister and I are also playing on a soccer team together, and we were both a little sore after playing our first game. And when I say a little sore, I meant we could barely walk for the next 3-4 days. Thankfully we are both doing a bit better now, having played 4 games so far. Ben and I have also been gardening in our community plot. I will take some photos of it soon, and show you how it progresses. So far the only drama has been that someone stole some of our flowering plants. Boo, hiss! But we planted some more and they are still there.

Now, the moment you have all been waiting for - the story behind Vancouver's cherry blossoms.

So I had to do a little digging (thanks to the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival website) and it turns out that it was way back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s that the Vancouver Park Board staff initiated a number of significant ornamental tree plantings. In the 1930s, the mayors of both Kobe and Yokohama, Japan presented the park board with 500 Japanese cherry trees and gradually the city began to move away from the large, long-lived trees (i.e. Elms, Maples and more) to smaller, ornamental trees like flowering plum, cherry and crabapple. They did this because they "gave better value in colour and decorative effect, but also saved damage to the sewers and pavement". In 1990, a street tree inventory counted that nearly 36% of the cities 89,000 trees were represented by flowering plum and cherry trees. Now there are more than 130,000 street trees so the flowering population is surely higher.

If anyone ever has a chance, Vancouver is a beautiful place to be in mid-April to May, and I tried to take some photos but they just don't do the trees or the tree-lined streets justice.




I had to throw in a rainy day photo as this is how we normally see the trees.




These last three photos are actually of a magnolia tree (I think) but I have been seeing more and more of these around and I think they are beautiful!

That's it for now, time to get dinner started, I hope to be more mindful of my blogging in the coming weeks. We are off on a camping adventure soon so hopefully I'll have something to write about!

Hugs to everyone,
Erin

It's been a busy spring!

Hej Hej,

It seems like this is becoming a familiar mantra but man, have we been busy! Not only has spring sprung with all its chores: gardening our community garden plot, soft ball practice and more, but we've also had the added fun of having our extended family visit from Japan.

We've been hanging out with our new nephew, Jake.



Reading and playing with nieces, Maya and Amy



Going on a day trip to Stanley Park!



And a family vacation to Whistler!





See I was there...I'm finally in a picture. I didn't go skiing though, P. and I were the babysitters so the ski photos are courtesy of B.



And if that wasn't enough excitement us women (Y. is not in this picture) went to the India Arie concert last night (way past my bed time). She was fabulous and I highly recommend her concert to anyone who enjoys soul/funk/r&b style music.



I know this post doesn't have a lot of substance, but I'm feeling like these guys after all this excitement so it may be time for a nap.



Next time I'm going to post some photos of Vancouver's beautiful cherry blossoms so stay tuned. I can feel the excitement already :p

Ciao from Vancouver,
E.

Correction

A couple of corrections from my previous post:

B. isn't actually that proud of the photo, he says there are far more impressive ones from previous trips.

And Taz was actually in the washing machine with dry clothes, maybe he felt it was time for a bath.

Trevlig helg,
E.

"If You're Going to San Francisco..."

Hej Hej,

Ok, so I know that I went to San Francisco in January but I have been asked why I haven't posted anything about the trip, so I thought that on this early Saturday morning, with my cats contentedly fed and B. sleeping soundly, I should finally make the effort and tell you about my trip. I say my trip because since B. was there for 3 weeks and I was only there for a weekend, he'd have to give you all the details about his trip.

I arrived in San Fran on a glorious sunny day. B. met me at the airport and then I got to experience the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) for the long ride to his hotel. He was staying in Pleasant Hill, which is about half an hour outside of downtown San Francisco by this train. We got to his hotel and then immediately walked across the street to a steak house, which was packed with people. We had to stand in the bar waiting for a table for about an hour but at least there was a band :)

The next day we borrowed Janet's daughter's car and headed out to the Napa Valley. It was another beautiful day, think 20 degrees Celsius, and the valley looked amazing. I have to say that if you are ever driving in unfamiliar territory that a GIS machine really helps (although it may not give you the most efficient route). We visited the Robert Mondavi winery where we went on the tour. It was one of the best wine tours I have ever been on and I've been on a few. I learned a lot about grape production, brix and soil properties in the Napa Valley. We ended the tour with a tasting (of course) and then we were back on the road.

We were feeling a bit hungry at this point so we looked into our guide book and chose a restaurant up on the hill - it was called Auberge aux Soleil and it was one of the most memorable meals of my life. We knew it was going to be expensive based on the guidebook but we thought we'd splurge. You know a place is expensive when they have free valet parking when you arrive. We managed to score the last table on the deck that looks out over the Napa Valley (the Inn and restaurant are nestled on the hillside). And for my foodie friends: I had a crab and pear salad to start and then a version of a nicoise salad: seared ahi tuna, a bed of spinach, an egg boiled and then deepfried in panko crumbs. It was so good, and the sun was definitely adding to the great atmosphere.



We hit one other winery on our way back to the city. It was a beautiful building but the wine wasn't that memorable.

On Sunday, we went to San Francisco. First stop was a trip to Alcatraz where we toured the cell block and then walked around the island. Once we escaped...:p we started our tour of the city at Pier 31 (?) Fisherman's Wharf, witness the sea lions, had some sour dough sandwiches at this huge bread factory/restaurant/kitchen store and then caught the expensive tourist tram to Union Square where lo and behold they had an ice skating rink. People were ice skating in tank tops mind you. I can't imagine what it must have cost - money and energy wise - to keep that rink cool enough to skate on. But I guess they weren't expecting it to be 20 degrees in January. From the square we trekked through China Town and then made it up to the Coit Tower where we looked down over the city. We investigated Lombard Street the "crookedest street in the world" and finally made it back down to the Embarcadero (where all the piers are), where we found a great Thai restaurant to eat at. We were pretty pooped by this time as we had been on the go since about 7:30 and it was now 6pm. I'm pretty sure we walked around 15 km. That pretty much concludes my trip to San Francisco, so now you're in the know.

Here is a link to all our photos of San Fran. Click here!

Our beautiful sunshine is now gone in Vancouver, but we had it good for a long time so no complaints. We were able to go on several walks down to the beach. We're headed out to Abbotsford, about an hour away from our house (due east) tonight to have dinner with friends we haven't seen since New Year's. Other than that the weekend is unplanned. B. attended a keg party last night with his colleagues from work, not sure what time he'll be getting out of bed. I avoided the party as I didn't really feel like hanging around with a bunch of beer-drunk people (I guess I was in an anti-social mood), but I did go have dinner with some good friends and ventured over to North Vancouver (across the Burrard Inlet).

B.'s so proud of this photo from his ski trip to Big White so I thought I'd throw it in.



Ok, this is getting to be quite long, so I'll sign off!
Hope everyone is doing well! Vi saknar er!
E.

P.S. How cute is this photo of Taz who likes to climb into small spaces, even if the small space is a washing machine full of damp clothes.