April 20, 2018

I am in complete awe of the Fall colours here in Vancouver!  The joy of living in a country that shows you 4 true seasons has been absolutely amazing and really does give you a true appreciation of mother nature.

Here are some photos from around the beautiful streets of Vancouver that show the intensity of the red, orange and yellow trees!

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April 8, 2018

Canadian Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October and such a lovely tradition that we couldn’t wait to take part in.  It turns out that the Canadian tradition has different beginnings from the US version and it marks the beginning of the harvest season in this part of the world.  

We were lucky enough to spend our first thanksgiving in Whistler with 20 Australia friends who live in Vancouver.  We stayed at the beautiful Fairmont Chateau where they go all out with pumpkin carving and a special dinner to celebrate the occasion.  It really was the perfect way to enjoy this celebration, give thanks and enjoy the beginning of the magical Fall season in Canada.

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April 6, 2018

With Mr A away back in Australia, the girls and I headed for a fun weekend away in LA during September.  We met up with some close friends from Australia who were holidaying and had simply the best 3 days of fun!  

We caught at crack of dawn flight out of Vancouver and with a 2 hour flight time to LA we had touched down and were out of the airport mid morning ready to have fun!  We Ubered our way from the airport to our hotel in Santa Monica were we decided to base ourselves for the weekend.

We stayed at the very stylish Viceroy Hotel on Ocean Ave.  The location was fabulous with wonderful Ocean views and just across the road and we were on the beach.  The rooms included 2 comfy queen sized beds and a nice sized bathroom so it was perfect for the 4 of us.  The pool area, lobby, bar and restaurant was also just lovely.  I booked everything via expedia which is where I book a lot of our trips these days.  The hotel also had bikes you could borrow but you do need to get hold of them early as they are very popular! 

Once our friends joined us at the hotel we decided to spend the day wandering and watching along the famous Santa Monica and Venice Beaches having lunch and enjoying the shops, street performers and all the magic the comes with this eclectic part of the world.

On Saturday we decided we wanted to do a hike to the Hollywood Sign so we caught the train to Hollywood and from there we order an Uber to take us to our hiking destination!  The plan was going great until both our Uber driver and our friends Uber driver got completely lost and we ended in one location and our friends in a completely different location!  Our first bad experience with an Uber driver as neither could speak English. So with the girls and I now at Griffith Observatory and our friends miles away and nowhere near the Hollywood sign we had an interesting morning trying to find each other!  Needless to say our hike to the sign didn’t eventual but a short hike in the hills around the observatory plus a walk around the observatory had to suffice!! 

On our way back to Santa Monica we took a detour to Melrose Ave as the girls we keen to find the “pink” wall and all other interesting walls along Melrose!  It was a fun afternoon of photo taking and people watching.  

On Sunday we stayed in Santa Monica and hired bikes to ride along the beach, enjoying the magical weather and the fabulous bike path that goes for ever.  More people watching, eating and enjoying being out discovering the fun of the Santa Monica area.

Here are my favourite photos from our weekend away!

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