I have five words to say about Toronto: GPS WILL NOT HELP YOU. Not a fan of Toronto, to be honest. Not a fan at all.

Nothing really went right today, and now we’re gonna be up until 1:30am packing for our flight tomorrow morning. *SIGH*

We left an hour later than we wanted to, to pick up the rental car – which was a bitch and a half to find at Pearson International Airport. We found a Timmy Ho’s and tried to order a latte, only to find out Timmy Hos in Toronto don’t serve latte. In fact they don’t seem to sell any “specialty coffee” at all. No latte, no cappuchino. Nothing. Just coffee or tea and that’s it. Oh and hot chocolate. Me without morning coffee… not a happy site. To make it worse, I asked for a white sweetened coffee and got plain black. The people were all speaking french, too! We’re in Ontario, people! Not Quebec! By the time I realised the woman is stupid and can’t take a simple order there was a huge line… so in the bin the sodomised excuse for coffee went.

By the time we got to Budget Rent-A-Car, both of us were in bad moods. The coffee incident pissed me off, and Wendy unfortunately got the brunt of it, which i’ve since apologised for. If the lady had said we were in the wrong place, I seriously think I was going to cut a bitch. We ended up taking a GPS system, but keeping the smaller car. It was a little more than we were originally quoted but nothing to horrendous and we can cover it.

Then we got lost trying to get out of the airport. Seriously, it’s just not a roadtrip with us if we don’t get lost at some point. Anyway we finally found where we were going and tried to get to the Hockey Hall Of Fame. Except we didn’t want to drive to the HHOF, we needed to park nearby. But we didn’t have the exact address of where we wanted, so we tried to get as close as possible. GPS didn’t like that very much.

Anyway after finally finding where we were going, getting cut off, cutting others off, we found a parking garage near the HHOF. It was $3.00 for every 30 mins, and $12 for all day. Holy bejeezus. We didn’t want to put in a $20 in case it didn’t give us change – that’s happened before in Chicago. So we tried Wendy’s Australian credit card. Didn’t like that. Tried the CAD Travel Card, it accepted that. Go figure. Got parking paid for, looked for an exit. Found one – notice on the door stating the exit was closed due to road works. Tried to find another exit. Got lost in the parking building. FINALLY found our way out to the street.

Walked down to the HHOF, and into the mall where the entrance is. By this stage, it was 12pm, and 2 hours LATER than we wanted it to be. So we had Maccas for lunch – bleh. Wendy got a small filet-o-fish meal… ate the burger, half the fries and drank half the drink. Seriously their small here is like our large back home, and you can’t get smaller, it’s ridiculous. I went classic and got a big mac meal. He managed to eat the whole thing. Then, guess where we went…

STARBUCKS! OMFG they actually served Latte’s! I thought I was going to kneel down and kiss the floor of the place. A message to Timmy Ho’s of Ontario… screw you, Starbucks WINS hands down!

We went into the gift store first and got some things – mostly for our friend Dianne but also for us, some Carolina Hurricanes things and a couple of HHOF shirts for us since they were on special. And a Buffalo Sabres official game puck since it was $7 (awesome because they were $12 at the game!). Once we were loaded with stuff, we went into the HHOF.

HOMG. Just… HOMG! We walked around for 3 hours. We won’t bore you with details, but Wendy got teary when she saw Brett Hull’s display in the NHL Legends section. We saw the original Lord Stanley’s Cup, which is in a vault in glass! And then we toured all the other NHL trophies before we got to the big one. The current Stanley Cup. Actually it was the replica. The actual current Stanley Cup is in Minnesota today. But hell, it was close enough. We got photos taken with it and talked to the handler and it was awesome. I had a go on the “be a player” and “be a goalie” interactive games but Wendy chose not to. Needless to say, I wont be playing in the NHL anytime soon. Wendy took a photo of Lliam Webster’s jersey in the WORLD OF HOCKEY display, and we got to see the limited time display of the History of Olympic Medals for both winter and summer games. It was really interesting to see how each country designed their medals.

From there we decided to go to Niagra Falls. You can’t come this close and not go to the Falls, right? So we loaded up the GPS (again) and headed to Niagra. We got there around 5pm. We couldn’t find anywhere to park and stop and take photos because all the parking lots were $14 straight up! UGH! But we saw them. Impressive. But fucking annoyed we couldn’t stop to get photos! We continued on to the HSBC Arena. Border Control/Customs was a breeze. The guy was very nosy about what kind of jobs we did that gave us 6.5 weeks off. Wendy’s like “I saved up my holidays…” etc. Anyway, they let us though and off we went to HSBC.

Found the HSBC Arena okay. Got a park about 4 blocks away, but it was $5 so we weren’t complaining. Met up with this couple who were there from Niagra to watch the game. He was a Leafs fan, she was a Sabres fan, and they ended up walking with us to the arena, just talking. We got inside, found a souvenir stand, bought a Buffalo Sabres shot glass to go with our collection of shotglasses for every city we go to, and then got some pizza for dinner and found our seats. The pizza was typical hockey food… big, cheap and kinda tasty. I guess you have to be there to understand.

The game was awesome! Wendy wanted the Sabres to win, so i went for the Panthers. Personally i didn’t care who won.. the sport of hockey was the true winner for both of us. The glass seats we had were almost on the blue line, so we saw a LOT of huge hits into the glass in front of us, and saw up close how fast those shots really are. I was wearking a Dallas Stars hat, and had people behind me mumbling “Is that a Stars cap, what’s he doing here”. I almost responded.. but decided to behave myself and leave them alone. The Sabres were sloppy on the PP and PK, and the Panthers simply outplayed them for most the game, eventually winning 6-2. Thomas Vanek was incredible to watch… super fast, great hands and a wicked shot. He came so close to scoring but hit the pipe! Ryan Miller forgot his game and really messed up a few times leading to Panthers goals.

After the game we walked back to the car and headed home… a move that should have been a simple “drive north” type thing, but alas, we decided to find food and coffee to keep us awake. Afterall, it was 10pm when we left Buffalo and we had a 2hr drive back to Toronto. Customs were great and super quick, and after paying the toll… did you know Canada charge a toll to cross the border? Sheesh! Anyway, after going through the border we head north and take a turnoff to get some food; Timmy Ho’s BLT Combo (Coffee, BLT sandwich & Donut). So far so good… until we head back to the road and, along with the help of our great yet annoying GPS… get lost.

That’s right people, we had a GPS and still managed to get lost! 15 minutes later we’re finally on the freeway again and heading north, until we find where the 403 and the 407 split… the GPS, being is saying take the 407 Express Tollway. WTF.. we don’t want a tollway, so we take the 403 – and head the wrong direction! All of a sudden we’re in Guelph or something. The GPS meanwhile is “recalculating” to get us back where we wanted to go (hotel). So we follow her directions and finally get onto the 407! That’s right, the bloody tollway we avoided that started this mess was where we finally ended up. More than a few expletives were issued by the 2 of us!

We eventually got to the hotel, got the parking pass and headed up to the hotel. By this time it’s 12:20am… did we mention we had to be up at 5:30am?

So that’s our 1 day in Toronto… only 2 things went right; the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Buffalo Sabres game. That’s right folks, in order to have a good time in Toronto other than the HHOF, we had to go BACK TO THE USA! UGH! Whodathunkit!

It’s now 2:10am so off to bed we go.

Today was attempt #2 at getting to Buntzen Lake. We were going on Friday but it rained so much and it was definitely too cold to go looking for the lake – plus it was getting dark really quick. Today, however, we got up at 8am, and were out the door by 9:30am to find Buntzen Lake.

For those who haven’t heard about it, Buntzen Lake is in Anmore, which is in the northern part of the Greater Vancouver area. It’s a massive lake – 4.8Km long – and the trails around the lake is used for hiking, mountain biking and equestrian riders. It’s a really beautiful area, with plenty of picnic benches, and is up in a forest setting, with massive pine trees surrounding the area. Buntzen Lake has been used in a number of movies, including Jensen Ackles’ movie, Devour, as well as Lake Placid, The Highlander, Freddy Vs Jason and The X-Files. It’s tv credits include Smallville, Pathfinder, 4400, and the two shows I care about: Dark Angel (starring Jensen Ackles) and Supernatural (of course).

It was used in Supernatural‘s season 1, episode 3, “Dead In The Water”, and was prominent in the episode. Rumour has it that most of the lake scenes were filmed on the north side of the lake, but due to the rain, even if the trails were open we weren’t going to walk them anyway. However, I have a feeling that the picnic area we were able to get to was used in Supernatural for the jetty that was used in the opening sequence but I haven’t checked the episode yet though so I can’t be sure. Either way, it was wet, cold and windy there. We did get some photos taken – Sam protected the camera with his hat! Standing on the jetty though, it was just such an impressive location. The surrounding pine trees are SO tall, and the air is crisp and clean. It’s a shame it was wet, because it would have been even more beautiful with the sun shining. We took a morning tea snack and at our rolls under the covered picnic area and enjoyed the scenery.

From there, we went hunting for Bordertown, which is located at the very end of 224th Street in Maple Ridge. When you get to the very end of the road, you turn left and just follow it around. If we weren’t afraid of being arrested and deported, we would have climbed the fence and gone exploring but alas we are so we didn’t. So I got photos of the tresspassing sign! Bordertown is Supernatural filming location #2 for the day, and was where they filmed Season 2, Episode 21, “All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1″. It was the deserted town where the special children were taken – and we see Andy and Ava again, and meet Jake for the first time. We get more of a glimpse into what Azazel, the Yellow-Eyed Demon, wants with Sam Winchester.

Since we were in Maple Ridge, and our friend Rod – who I’ve known since about 1997/98 through the internet! – was in town from Vancouver Island (where he lives) and was staying in Maple Ridge for a day or two, we organised to meet up at Supernatual filming location #3, The Billy Miner Pub! Billy Miner Pub is located on River Road, Maple Ridge, on Port Haney. It was used in season 2, episode 3, “Bloodlust”. The Pub’s interior was used for the bar scenes where Sam and Dean meet Gordon Walker, a fellow hunter with a specialty for vampires, for the first time. Sam, Rod and I had lunch together at this dank, dark and a truly comfortable pub. It’s small, and since it’s Heritage Listed, there can’t be any changes to the building. It was actually freezing inside the pub too – I was wearing 5 layers of clothing and I was still shivering! But it was great!! I looked around the room and I could just see in my memory Dean and Gordon sharing bourbons and bonding over hunting. It was just surreal. And to be there with Sam and Rod… it was the best 3 hours I’ve had in a long time. We talked about work, about Canada, America, Australia, Mexico, family, travelling, HOCKEY, and generally catching up. It was just brilliant!

We were headed to Kitsilano Beach after we left the Billy Miner Pub. To get there, we had to go back downtown and then over the Granville Bridge. Since we were so close to home and it was getting dark, we decided to stop at the motel first and grab the game tickets for that night so we could go straight to the Vancouver Giants Vs Edmonton Oil Kings game. It’s a good thing we did because when I got the tickets I discovered the game started at 5pm not 7pm like we thought! It was already 5pm! So we rushed down to the Pacific Colosseum, paid the $8 for parking and rushed inside. We missed the first 15 mins of the game, but the score was still 0-0 when we got there so it was okay. First stop was the merchandise store though! We got a Vancouver Giants puck to add to our collection and I couldn’t resist a Giants’ Moose called “Monty” – he even has a Giants’ hoodie on! So cute! (Those who know me well, know I can’t resist a fluffy, furry stuffed toy!) We were a little disappointed with the clothing choices so we didn’t get any shirts and I couldn’t find any scarfs for the Giants, so we just took our two selections and headed for the food concession stand. It was the end of the period, so we got some dinner (burgers and fries with skins on them – I’m so over burgers!) and then headed to our seats – Section T, row 4, seats 5 & 6. We were to the right of the penalty box, and below the glass line, which was great! Sam got some fantastic shots in the last 2 periods of the game. The Giants won the game 4-2. Sam was going for the Oil Kings – he has some sort of skewered loyalty to the Bruins because they were his first WHL game! I, on the other hand, was going for the home team, since I didn’t really care either way. Thomas Vincour, the Stars prospect on the Oil Kings, was scratched again, so it didn’t matter to me who was playing.

Once the game was over, we headed back to the hotel where it is nice and warm! We have some laundry to do tonight because we’re out of clothes again (I love Worldmark having a washer and dryer in the hotel room! So convenient!) and it’ll be good to get to bed before 12, because we’re up again tomorrow by 7am and out the door by 8am! Tomorrow is our last Supernatural filming location tour – and it’s the big one. A four-five hour driving tour with about 15-20 locations listed in one big giant loop. We’ll take a detour to Kits Beach on this tour to get some snaps. And then tomorrow night, we’re meeting up with my friend Paola and a friend of hers for dinner. I’m very excited about dinner!

Sam will update the photos from today when he gets the chance, but for me? It’s time to settle back on the couch and watch some CSI Vegas, since TSN is on football. BLEH.

Due to an issue with roaming on our Blackberry’s, we will be out of contact on them until we hit Chicago (Wednesday) and get a US SIM Card. If you need us, drop us an email or facebook message, or call us at Worldmark’s “The Canadian” on Hornby Street (Vancouver).

Chilliwack Day dawned wet and cloudy. We set the alarm for the ungodly hour of 7am, so we could be out the door by 9am. First stop was Fort Langley. To get there, we had to go east on West Hastings St, which changes into East Hastings St. We’d been warned that was an area to avoid on foot, as this is where all the vagrants have been moved to in preparation for the Olympics in February. It’s an old part of Vancouver, with a lot of run down and decripit buildings that have most likely been condemed, and bars on all doors and windows. It reminds me a lot of the ghetto areas of New York on all the cop shows on TV. Its okay to drive through but I wouldn’t feel safe outside the car.

But to get to Highway 1, you have to go down E Hastings St. On E Hastings Street is a Supernatural filming location, which Sam was adament we were not going to, only driving past. That was fine with me, assuming I could get a photo. I missed it yesterday as we headed to Port Moody but thankfully this morning I got a photo of the outside of “Sparticus Books” where Supernatural Season 4, Episode 18 “The Monster At The End Of This Book” was filmed. The scene was where Sam and Dean find out their lives have been turned into a book series, with a disturbed fanbase of girls who are a little too into their “characters”. The photo was taken with the camera though, so it will have to wait until we’ve updated the photo gallery to be added.

Once we were on Highway 1 though, it was smooth driving to the township of Langley, apparently where the province of British Columbia was founded. It was in Fort Langley that our next stop on the Supernautal filming location tour was located. It was pretty easy to find, to be honest, and again, I didn’t think to take any photos with my blackberry! They’re on the camera too. But the park was the location for the end scene of Supernatual Season 2, Episode 9 “Croatoan”, where Dean admits to Sam what their father, John, had whispered in his ear before John exchanged his life for Dean’s… That if Dean couldn’t save Sam, he would have to kill him. Yet another emotionally charged scene for Jensen. The park is beautiful and yet I can’t help but wonder if they drove the Impala onto the grass or used movie magic for it!

After Fort Langley, our next stop was Abbotsford. The Matsqui Lutheran Church is located in a northern part of Abbotsford and was our last Supernatural filming location for today. This one I do have a couple of BB photos of! This area was the location for Season 5, Episode 2 “Good God, Y’all”. The intersection by the church is the main intersection in town in the episode where the whole town has gone mad and turned on each other, everyone thinking everyone else is a demon. For those who watch the show, you’ll recognise these:

It was really cold in Abbotsford too. The mountains had low cloud cover and it looked likely to snow up there as the day wore on, which would account for the temperature. Still, wasn’t as cold as Port Moody!

We headed into Chilliwack for lunch, where we found a Timmy Hos of course. We got a soup and sandwich combo and a doughnut for desert – blueberry doughnut. OH. MY. GOD! So good!!

After lunch we headed out to find Bridal Veil Falls, the 6th largest waterfall in Canada. Unfortunately, they’ve already closed the walking tracks for winter as there are landslides in the snow and rain. But we managed to get some on the camera from the side of the road. Considering how well the photos came out, I can only imagine just how big that waterfall is in person!

Since we couldn’t hike to the falls, we turned back to Chilliwack and went to the mall on the outskirts of town. After wandring through a couple of stores we went into Sportchek, and I made a beeline directly for the NHL gear! I got a black long sleeved TEAM CANADA t-shirt (on special for $25 CAD) and Sam chose to forgo his Texas Stars jersey and got an authentic Team Canada jersey for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games in February. These jerseys are only available in Canada – no store in Australia will import them – we know friends who have tried! It’s a really pretty jersey actually! And on special for $135 CAD. Most authentics cost over $250 CAD/USD.

Right now, we’re sitting in Wendy’s, a burger chain in North America, and waiting for time to slowly drag by until we get to go watch the WHL’s Chilliwack Bruins Vs Edmonton Oil Kings at the Prospera Centre here in Chilliwack. We’re also hoping to catch up with Rob and Matt after the game. Rob’s playing hockey tonight against SFU in Burnaby, so we’ll have to see. Either way, Sam and I have to figure out what to get for dinner ince neither of us want junk food. We are junked out already!!

Cross your fingers we find something and I’ll ETA the post later the game with the rest of the night!

ETA:

The game in Chilliwack was awesome! We got there early and ended up talking to some Canadians who picked that Sam was a Kiwi from his accent – a first! It was around 5 degrees or less because we had steam coming out of our mouths as we talked. Once they opened the doors we went right to find our seats: section R, row 6, seats 7 & 8. Centre Ice.

Sam needed to find a bathroom, and I spied merchandise so we headed back upstairs to see what wares they had to offer for a junior league team. For those who don’t know hockey – which is probably at least half the people reading this blog, let me take a moment to explain the game we were at. The Chilliwack Bruins, and their opposition the Edmonton Oil Kings, are in the Western Hockey League (WHL). These guys are like 15-18 years of age and they are all playing to get noticed by the NHL scouts for the chance to get drafted into the NHL to play hockey professionally. My favourite player, Mike Modano, played in the WHL from 15-18 years of age with the Prince Albert Raiders, which is north of Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, Canada. He was drafted 1st overall in the 1988 draft by the Minnesota Northstars. So these kids are playing for the love of hockey, the dream of making it in the NHL to play professionally. They want it so bad they can taste it every game.

Anyway, we were really impressed with the range of merchandise available. And The saleslady was just so lovely and helpful. We had a lovely chat to her about our trip, the WHL and our love of hockey. There were about 10 different t-shirts for women, 5 for men, long sleeve shirts, hoodies, jackets, 5 or 6 different hats, 4 different beanies (or toques as they call them here), jerseys, jackets, pucks, bags, keyrings, stickers, temporary tattoos, pens, umbrellas… You name it they probably had it. They even had post-it notes with their logo on it. Sam selected a long-sleeved shirt (on sale for $20 down from $30), I picked up a Chilliwack Bruins scarf ($11!), and we got a Bruins puck to add to our growing puck collection!

Heading back to our seats after Sam took his detour, we settled in to watch a great and exciting game of hockey. There were 3300 fans there – probably about half the capacity but they sure made a lot of noise! The boys were really fired up. You could see they weren’t as polished as the NHL guys – their positioning and puck handling no where near the NHL level, but what they lacked in that extremely high level in skill they made up for in passion, creativity and sheer fearlessness. The game went to Overtime (OT) in the end. I was giving a running score update on my facebook status update – not that anyone really cared, but it’s my status I’ll do what I want with it!

I must make mention of this, as we were really impressed with it. When the lady sang the national anthem, 90% of the crowd sang along with her. It gave me goosebumps. I don’t know all the words to “Oh Canada” just yet, but I’m getting the hang of it! But yeah, that just really impressed us. It reminded me of the Newcastle Roadtrip earlier this year when the microphone stopped working on for the girl singing the Australian National Anthem, and the crowd took up singing where she left off. It was just a moving thing to watch.

The really amusing thing about our time in Canada is a lot of people have heard our accents, and either stop and stare or they whisper amongst themselves asking each other where we’re from. No one has really asked! It’s a little weird actually. The kids sitting behind us at the game tonight were asking each other if we were from Australia – at least they got the country right! Others just look at us like we stepped off a spaceship!

After the game, we stopped in at Timmy Hos for a coffee for the road, since it’s an hour and a half drive from Chilliwack to Vancouver downtown. We left around 10pm and got home at 11:30pm. On the way home, we saw the Canadian Police doing a drug bust on East Hastings St, and got diverted due to a car accident that had cops, fireys and ambos there. Thank goodness for GPS on the BBs!

And now it’s off to bed, since we’re going to attempt to go to Buntzen Lake tomorrow morning, then we’re off to Billy Minor Pub in Maple Ridge to meet up with my friend Rod, who I’ve known online for 11 years! I can’t believe I finally get to meet him! I’m so excited! Tomorrow night, it’s the Vancouver Giants WHL team taking on the Edmonton Oil Kings here in Vancouver. Once again, a jam-packed day!

Today we were supposed to go to Buntzen Lake, but by the time we’d managed to get up, have breakfast, get ready and head out downtown to get some more cash out of the bank – and while I’m on this topic, can I just warn everyone how Visa unfriendly Canada is?? OH MY GOD! Only 2 banks that we have found will accept Visa – RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) and Scotiabank.  Everywhere else is Mastercard! Very uncool. Especially since the Winter Olympics in Vancouver 2010? SPONSORED BY VISA! Anyway, the nearest RBC is in the same building as Timmy Hos, so it’s not that much of a hardship to walk down to West Georgia St. We got coffee too! No doughnuts though – we were good. We’ve had our one doughnut for the trip – and BOY WAS IT GOOD!

Once we had coffee and money, we walked back to the hotel stopping at the hockey shirts and clothing store – OMG THE WALL OF JERSEYS! We walked in and I just stood there and breathed in the smell of NHL merchandise from all 30 teams. It was a special moment for me. In 1998 a friend of mine from Vancouver, who is a Canucks fan, sent me a Vancouver Canucks t-shirt in an effort to get me to switch from Dallas to Vancouver. It didn’t work – but I did wear the t-shirt. A lot. I still have it, though it’s very worn. So, while we are here, I wanted to replace my shirt with a replica. Thing is, you can’t get that shirt any longer because they’ve changed the colour blue they use for their uniforms. Back in 1998, the Canucks were more of a navy blue. Now they’re more electric blue. Anyway, I got the closest thing to what I had given to me 11 years ago! BUT the best thing is, it’s an incentive t-shirt. It’s a size L. In order to wear it, I have to lose another 10 kilos! WIN-WIN!

After the hockey shirt store, we went to the local IGA for milk and rolls for lunch for the weekend (35c each!!), and headed back to the hotel. We made some rolls for lunch, and gathered our belongings and headed out with the intention of going to Buntzen Lake. The Lake is a commonly used area as a filming location, as well as a popular hiking and picnic destination. Supernatural has used Buntzen Lake in season 1, episode 3, “Dead In The Water”. Not only that, but it was also used in a relatively unknown C-grade independent horror movie called Devour, that Jensen Ackles starred in. Incidentally, Jensen’s the best part of the movie. I know. I have it on DVD. Anyway, the aim was to head out to Buntzen Lake, and since we were going past Port Moody, we decided to stop at Rockey Point Pier, which is another Supernatural filming location. This particular location is where Dean (Jensen Ackles) finally admits to his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) that he remembers what happened in Hell. It’s a significant moment for the brothers in Season 4. It was at the end of episode 8, “Wishful Thinking”.

Sam took this awesome picture of us on his blackberry – those of you on our facebook flists may have already seen it. There’ll be more in the photo gallery as soon as Sam gets control of the laptop and is able to upload them. And if we look cold? That’s because we are! It was freezing!! I’m not kidding. I was wearing a lycra singlet, a long sleeved shirt, a t-shirt, my Dallas Stars All-Star Game hoodie and my waterproof NZ windbreaker jacket. And I was still cold! With the wind-chill factor over Port Moody, it had to be below 0 degrees Celsius. Easily. We estimated about -3 to -5. I haven’t felt that cold since I felt the winds off the snow capped Mt Ngongotaha in Rotorua ten years ago!!

But it was amazing to walk the pier. I remember the scene vividly. It was such a powerful scene for Jensen – opening up as Dean to admit his painful experience to his little brother, someone he never wants to show any weakness to. And standing there, where they had filmed it… it was just surreal. It was really, really amazing. And cold. Did I mention that?! It had been raining on the way over, and it stopped as we pulled into the car park of the pier. The rain held off until we made it back to the car, only starting to rain again as we opened the car doors. The timing was just impeccable.

By then the rain started coming down hard, and since where we need to go at Buntzen Lake is on the north side and you have to hike there, we think, we ended up heading into Burnaby and checking out the stores. First stop was Best Buy, to see if they had Supernatural on DVD. I need to replace my Seasons 1, 2 and purchase 4 for the first time. Rhonda, my darling lovely Rhonda, has Season 3 waiting for me in Dallas! As Best Buy had them for sale at $45 CAD, we left them there! But across the road was the biggest shopping mall I have ever seen! It had to be as big floor wise as Stonebriar in Dallas (next door to the Frisco Dr Pepper StarCentre, home of the Dallas Stars), but instead of 2 levels, this one had 3. OMG. We didn’t find DVDs, but we did go into Chapters, which is a bookstore here in Canada. Much like Dymocks back home. When I found the hockey books, I looked at Sam and declared I didn’t want to leave!

OMG. Hockey books! Books on hockey! I had heard such a thing existed, but to see it first hand?? A very emotional moment for me. There were books on the Canadians, and books on why the Maple Leafs suck – I’m not kidding. TWO OF THEM. I wanted to buy them just for the laughs. But alas, we don’t have the dosh to throw around until the end of our Saskatoon leg. Plus, we need spending money at the Hockey Hall Of Fame in Toronto. So, unfortunately, the hockey books stayed in the safe hands of Chapters. What I did get, was the first Supernatural novel, “Nevermore”, which I have been hoping and dreaming and wishing I could get my hands on. And the best part? It was $8.99 + tax! CHEAP AS CHIPS! The bookstore’s computer catalogue said there was a copy of the second book, “Bone Key” but we couldn’t find it. I swear we spent 30 minutes checking the 4 shelves of Sci-Fi/Fantasy to find them. Speaking of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Dianne and Chuck would have loved the Stargate and Star Trek section! It was impressive. And this was a relatively small Chapters store. There’s one here in downtown that’s a half city block and 2 levels. I can’t wait to check it out on Tuesday! When Sam went to the checkout to get my book, he spotted The Hockey News Collector’s edition of the best hockey jerseys magazine and picked that up too. If you’re lucky enough to find The Hockey News in Australia, you’ll know that each edition is like $30 AUD. So we thought $7.99 + tax CAD was a bargin for this one.

Once we were finished there, we headed back to the car, stopping at Blendz for a skinny cappuccino. We’ve now tried the three prominent coffee stores in Vancouver – Timmy Hos, Starbucks and Blendz. Sam has declared Timmy Hos the winner. By a foot. Anyway, we then headed back to the car and drove home to get ready to meet up with Matt and Esther at a pub downtown to catch up and watch some hockey!

Matt is a great guy we met in 2006 when we really got to know the import players of the Brisbane Blue Tongues. Matt was a friend of player Rob Vos, and was in Australia on holidays at the same time as Vossy being there to play for the BTs. When the Canadian imports came to the Supports Club events, Matt and Rob’s girlfriend Sandra came along and were integrated into the Supports Club as honorary members. Matt and I have been friends on facebook since the 206 season ended, and when he heard we were coming over to their neck of the woods, he was the first to say, “Hey! Let’s get together and catch up!” So that’s what we did! Matt and Vossy now live about 45 mins to an hour east of Vancouver, and since Matt and his beautiful and lovely girlfriend Esther were coming downtown for a friend’s birthday dinner anyway, they came in early and we met up at Doolin’s Pub on Nelson Street to watch the Dallas Vs Vancouver game and get a beer.

Well, the boys got a beer. I had coke and Esther was on water. It was awesome to catch up and talk hockey and Canada and Australia and just talk to people who know us. We had such an awesome time! After they left, Sam and I stayed to watch the rest of the game. Sam was drinking Guinness, of course, being an Irish pub. When they brought out his last one, the froth had an irish clover indented on the top – it was really impressive. I think he managed to get a photo of it, but you could only see it in certain light, so I’m not sure. Either way it was awesome. The Stars even managed to win, 2-1 in regulation! I know, I’m stunned too! Turco had a great game, and it was awesome to see Modano and Lehtinen out on the ice again this season. It was great to watch, even if we were getting glares left, right and centre from the Canucks fans around us in the bar! We even got booed at the end because we won! Awesome.

Tomorrow we’re heading out early and going to Chilliwack! There’s a hockey game on tomorrow night there, the local WHL team, the Chilliwack Bruins are playing the Edmonton Oil Kings – which is one of the Dallas Stars’ junior farm teams. So, we’re making a day of it. Just east of Chilliwack is the 6th largest waterfall in Canada, Bridal Veil Falls. We’re going to try to find it. We also have 2-3 Supernatural filming locations on the way there, and we want to check out the town. Then the hockey game. Since Matt and Vossy live out that way, we’re hoping to catch up with them after the game too, if we can. That would be awesome!

But it also means an early night, since we have to be up at 7am! So this is me signing off!

Day 1 in Vancouver had us waking up around 9am. 7 hours sleep we desperately needed! Once we were up and dressed, we headed out in search of sustenance: COFFEE! But first we needed money since we didn’t have any Canadian $ on us. That took awhile to find since it turns out that not every bank deals with Visa over here! As Sam said as we went on a 3 mile hike to find a Bank that takes Visa (which is RBC if you were wondering – Royal Bank of Canada!): Canucks tickets: $160, Flights to Canada: $1200, an ATM that accepts Visa: PRICELESS!

Once cash was secured, we found the nearest Tim Horton’s – or Timmy Ho’s as we like to call it – for a coffee! OMG SO GOOD.

We found a Subway in the same mall as Timmy Ho’s and had a ham and cheese flatbread – I didn’t think to take a picture before I ate mine and neither did Sam. Since it was 10.30am we headed down West Georgia St which is what we were on to where Budget was. The aquisition of the car was successful. We got a silver Toyota Camry Hybrid – better for the environment and our pockets as we’ll use half the petrol!

Today though once we got back from Budget, we walked down to the end of the Hornby St where we’re staying and caught the aquabus across to Granville Island. Granville Island is just south of Downtown and is the home of the Granville Island Marketplace which is this huge fresh produce market. We had some lunch:

Then we wandered around the markets and along the waterfront and the harbour. It is such a beautiful area! We took some wonderful photos with both ours and Sasky’s camera. We’ll upload them later to the photo gallery.

On our way home to the hotel we picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables so we can make our own dinners instead od eating out every night. It has been carb central so far and that has to be reduced!

On the aquabus back to Hornby St, Sam got some photos of the snowcapped mountain in the distance. Just amazing!

Tonight we’re at the Vancouver Canucks Vs New York Rangers NHL game at GM Place. Right now, warm ups are on. GM Place is smaller than the AAC in Dallas, but it is awesome to be here!

ETA: The Canucks Vs Rangers game was awesome. We were talking to some Rangers fans from NYC who has flown over for the Canadian roadtrip for the Rangers, and they were kind enough to take a photo of Sam and I in front of the doors to GM Place. It was great just chatting to them and talking about the differences between Australian and NHL hockey.

Anyway, the Canucks – would you believe – are sponsored by Mastercard! You think we could get money out at an ATM? No. Not on anything other than my credit card anyway. So we got out enough to get something to eat. We chose soft pretzels and share a collectors cup of diet coke.

The game was a good one. It was a sellout crowd and unlike the sellout crowds in Dallas where half the lower bowl don’t show up because they’re purchased by businessmen instead of fans, the whole crowd actually showed up! It was phenomenal. At one point the entire crowd (well the 95% that were Canuck fans) was chanting “Rangers SUCK, Rangers SUCK!” And my personal favourite, “Avery SUCKS!”

I won’t give away the result in case anyone reading this hasn’t seen the game and doesn’t want to get spoiled. I will say this… I did miss how the Stars do the National Anthems, and of course the crowd asking Bill how much time is left in the period. The Canucks repeat their scorers and penalties in case the crowd didn’t hear them the first time. And the arena looks smaller than the AAC. But it was definitely awesome to go and experience Canucks hockey.

There was an all-in brawl which I think only the goalies didn’t take part in, the atmosphere was amazing and the crowd was really behind their team. It was such a different experience to a Stars game. Not that I don’t love my Stars – I do. It was just… different. A lot of Canada has been different but its just been phenomenal so far!

We walked to and from GM Place. On the corner of Hornby & West Georgia Sts is The Vancouver Art Gallery. In front of the Art Gallery is a countdown for the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. It’s in 100 days if you’re wondering!

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at Timmy Hos for a coffee. We ordered skim lattes and got sugared hot milk, so I don’t think the Timmy Hos on Hornby will be getting our business again.

Right now Sam is trying to get our internet working on the laptops but so far has been unsuccessful. I’m hoping he doesn’t throw the Dell out the window before the night is through. Though, I’m that tired I am tempted to go to bed!