Canadian Christmas Blog 1
Daisy & Jack
Vancouver & Nanaimo
19th December Heathrow T3 to Vancouver on Air Canada
We were able to check in electronically and the queue for baggage drop was barely five minutes so immediately we liked AC! We were spending Christmas with the Canadian side of our family - Joyce, my sister, Devon and Mark, my late brother's sons.
When we went in 2008 via Seattle, by the chronically dysfunctional North West Airlines, our flight was delayed by 24 hours which meant we were housed overnight in a rabbit hutch hotel in Hounslow. When we arrived in Seattle there was a 5 hour baggage strike and amazingly not a NWA rep in sight nor in this City of Microsoft any wireless available so we couldn't find out for ourselves what was going on and so we missed our connecting flight to Vancouver and had to find another hotel. For a country which has redefined service, NWA and the owners of the airport were nothing short of a disgrace. To us NWA became Not Worth Asking.
We flew on an AirBus which was very comfortable. The service and the food could have been better. On board was Mo Farah with his family and I had a brief conversation with him. We arrived on time - we had travelled just short of 3000 miles in 10 hours which given we were travelling at 550 mph didn't add up. We had just missed an amazing snowstorm which we didn't appreciate until we were caught in rush- hour traffic as there was a foot of snow on some of the roads and sidewalks. After checking into our hotel opposite BC Place we walked in the rain to Yaletown a few blocks away where we camped at a restaurant called Earls which was warm and friendly. We fell into bed just after 9pm.
20th Vancouver: FT interview & another flight to Nanaimo
We took a long time to wake up and sharing a bathroom meant we were not sitting down for breakfast until nearly 10am. We found a great place called Cafe Medina in Gastown. Its sign outside read "Life's too short for bad coffee" and so it proved.
Daisy went back to our hotel to prep for her FT piece she was writing about property in Vancouver (she was having lunch with the CEO of Sotheby's International) whilst we moseyed into town to buy some Christmas presents for two new Wyatt's who'd arrived since we were last here.
We had a late lunch at the Yale Brewery in appropriately Yaletown before heading out to the airport where our plane was delayed by 90 minutes. The 14 minute journey to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island took only 14 minutes but can cost as much as £450 return!! Joyce, my sister, met us at the airport and we were quickly ensconced at the Crow & Gate pub where we had supper with quite a tasty local Pinot Gris. We moved on to where we were staying for the next five days to my nephew's house in Cedar, south of Nanaimo. Devon and Tina have recently been joined by Maelle (three weeks old), a sister to Jacob (two and a half). We shot the breeze for a couple of hours before crashing out.
21st Preparing for Christmas Supper (tomorrow)
Daisy transcribed her interview whilst Jack went with Devon to buy the groceries and beverage for our Christmas supper tomorrow as our hosts will be spending Christmas Day with Tina's parents. I read How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen . When the boys returned we pealed carrots, sprouts, sweet potatoes and potatoes, parsnips and beet root and prepared the soup, gravy and stuffing. In the evening Joyce joined us for supper at White Spot in northern Nanaimo. We then watched the Spielberg movie Lincoln which was very disappointing though Daniel Day-Lewis may yet win an Oscar nomination.
22nd Christmas Supper
After making sure the turkey was safely ticking over we did a little bit of late shopping before having a great lunch at the Frog and Puddle. Mark (Wyatt) and Rachel arrived from Vancouver in the afternoon. He was a fine soccer player at High School and frequently the toast of BC. Now, he makes commercial videos and is a fine photographer. Supper was wonderful and my thoughts wondered as to when we would next sit down to a Canadian Family Christmas Supper given the last one was four years ago.
23rd A Wine Tour
Daisy and Jack spent the day with Joyce, my sister, pouring over old family albums where they came across my Granddad playing cricket with my father! There was also a note on the back of a photo from my Granddad to his wife Florence from Ypres dated January, 1919 where he had been serving during WW1.
Meanwhile, with Devon, I toured Duncan, home to thirty or so based vineyards though we managed just three! The wine industry is less than 20 years old but it is beginning to make a name for itself, at least, in Canada. Included in our tour was Averill Creek - where we bought a Pinot Gris 2009 and a Cowichan Black 2010 dessert wine, Venturi - where we added a Pinot Noir 2008 to our basket and a Brandenburg No.3 2008 dessert wine - and at Merrivale where we purchased a couple of bottles of different ciders.
In the evening, we all watched the Seattle Seahawks dismantle the San Francisco by 42-13.....for once it was the 49ers who would be sleepless.
Christmas Eve: Skiing at Mount Washington
I finished Exposure by Michael Woodford about his brief time at Olympus as President and CEO during which he had stumbled across an internal money laundering exercise of between $1.5-2 billion. Devon kindly took Daisy and Jack skiing at the Mount Washington resort two hours north of Nanaimo. The forecast was better for the afternoon and so it proved. They had an absolute ball plenty of runs, not such big queues and compared to Davos and Verbier considerably cheaper....£25 just to rent skis and boots!!
I went late Christmas shopping with my sister and treated her to lunch. I bought flowers for Tina and for Devon, a book on Willie Nelson called Roll Me Up and Smoke Me when I Die and Diana Krall's latest album Glad Bad Doll (she's a native of Nanaimo).
In the evening, Devon and Tina hosted their respective families (who were still on the Island) for supper. How can I put this...we were certainly worse for wear by ten o'clock!! Back at base we were at the receiving end of emails and texts wishing us Happy Christmas though we were eight hours behind.
Christmas Day @ St Philip's Church, Cedar
We went to church in Cedar and walked back in the rain. It was such a sweet church - almost log cabin in feel - and so very friendly. The rain soon turned to snow which made our day though sadly it did not last. I had such lovely presents - a red tie, two shirts, Paul Smith cuff links, a Ted Baker scarf and a Dave Brubeck cd!! Perfect. We all phoned home to family and friends before setting off for yet another Christmas supper at the home of Sandy and Marty, friends of my sister. It was such a kind gesture to invite us.
Boxing Day
Jack left at 0520 to catch the ferry in Nanaimo across to north Vancouver (90 minutes) so he could join Mark, his cousin, at Cypress to ski. Jack has the physique to be a world class bob-sleigher. He stayed overnight on the mainland and would join us tomorrow at Vancouver airport for our trip to Montreal.
We went into Nanaimo to find Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day for Devon and struck lucky at our first shop. It was the only Zeppelin missing from his collection. We stayed on for lunch at Longwood Brew, Pub and Restaurant which had its own micro brewery. We slept most of the afternoon away.