After waking up at 7am and having showers, we set about packing everything up. By the time Nathan and Michelle arrived to take us and Jen to breakfast and the airport, there were just a couple things left to be put away – and a couple of additions thanks to Nathan and Michelle! Thanks so much for the pucks and game programs!!

Zipped up and ready to go we carried out stuff down to Nathan’s truck – well, Nathan carried a lot on his own. He’s a strong boy!! Anyway we were away! We went to Dennys for breakfast where we were served by this really nice albino guy. The food was good! Pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and toast. So yum!

By the time we finished eating though it was time to head to the airport. We said goobye to Michelle in the parking lot while Jen and Nathan came inside with us, Nathan carrying both our hikers backpacks because of our tattoos, and because he’s that strong!! Though he really did love our backpacks, thought they were brilliant, which they are!

Anyway we got checked in and then it was time to go through security, where Nathan and Jen can’t go with us. Trying hard not to cry, we hug them both goosbye really hard and thank them for everything, especially Jen for without her we couldn’t have gone to Texas! And as they walk away we go through customs.

There was no issue going through Dallas other than we had late numbers for boarding the plane. It meant that by the time we got onto the plane, we couldn’t sit together. I was lucky and two guys who knew each other moved over so I could have the isle seat, while Sam sat in the row ahead on the other side. Sam doesn’t like to fly so flying apart wasn’t a great thing at all.

I spent the 40 minute flight talking to the guys next to me. We talked sports and about our trip. They had been in LA and were flying home to Austin after seeing the TU Longhorns play in the semi finals for the Rosebowl which they won. The Longhorns now face Alabama in the Rosebowl final on January 7 2010! GO LONGHORNS! Anyway they were really nice. I explained to them the rules of cricket after one of them asked how it worked because it had always intrigued him.

When we got to Austin, we had 30 minutes to get off the plane, buy a shot glass, go to the toilet and board our plane to LA! We managed it and this time, the guy Sam had been sitting next to on the flight to Austin had saved us a seat so we could sit together because he doesn’t like to fly either so he knows what its like! Wasn’t that lovely of him?

We talked to him about our trip and how much we love Dallas and he told us how he was going to LA from Dallas on business but he lived in the Frisco area. We love Frisco, its so beautiful there.

Anyway we got to LA on dusk, and we had to find our way to the correct terminal, go upstairs, check in and then go through security all over again! While we were waiting to check in to V Australia we got to chatting with this lovely young lady from the south island of NZ who was going to Bible College in Virginia and very excited about going home to see her family for Christmas. She was on the flight to Australia ahead of ours, destination: Sydney.

We checked in and headed to security. This time, customs didn’t like the look of my carryon duffle – the pucks came up as unusual on the x-ray! I was amused. I was pulled aside and “asked” if they could search the bag. Of couse I giggled and said sure. He riffled through the bag and pulled out the pucks, frowning. I told him they were hockey pucks. He said that some of them had monoliths on them. I replied that they were autographs, actually! Anyway satisfied that I wsnt carrying dangerous goods he zipped up my bag and sent me on my way!

We went looking for dinner then. Our choices were Starbucks, Burger King or some cafe bar place that was expensive. Since we were down to our last $20 we chose BK. The line was long and the place packed so when I saw a spare table for 2, I took the bags and sat down with them while Sam stayed in line and ordered. Food tasted goooooood. Actually cardboard would have tasted good at that point!

We had about a two and a half hour wait for our flight to Australia. Sam read, and I reorganised my duffle that Mr Customs ruffled. Sam went and got us coffee with the last of our change and when he came back, he told me that a cop had staryed talking to him at Starbucks and she looked remarkably like Kate Beckinsale! Its only fair since I got to talk to Jensen Ackles I guess!

We were tired by the time we boarded the plane and we actually had the last row in the plane. Turns out they are GREAT seats! No one behind you! But down side: last pick of the food unless you request a special dish.

The flight was pretty smooth I think. I don’t really know I was passed out for 10 of the 12 and a half hour flight thanks to some Tylenol night sinus because I was still sniffling from the previous 3 weeks. Sam slept for about 5 hours which is awesome for him. He watched “District 9″ and was disappointed. I didn’t get to see the end of “Public Enemies” but I really want to!

Anyway we landed in Brisbane at 6.05am and we were at home by 7am.

We have had the best 6+ weeks ever on this trip, and have met amazing people (Paola, Sue, Emma, Cynthia, Julie, you all kick ass), seem some amazing sights and had a load of laughs, tears and a rollercoaster of emotions. And of course special thanks and love to Bel, Terry & the kids – we miss you guys so much!! Thanks for everything!!

These last couple of weeks however has been better than ever.  It was beyond fantastic to see our friends again.  No, not friends… family.  Rhonda, Jen, Jesse, Kelly, Val & Nathan, Julie, Mickie & Frederick, Clay & Harry, Leni, Amber & Grady and the Short family… all of y’all are more than just friends, you go beyond that.  We are blessed to have you as friends.  While we may be miles away in Australia, our hearts will be in Dallas.

We will be back.  Our plans to return will begin as soon as we land in Australia!

For those back home, our flight lands at 6:30am Friday morning local time.  Thursday will not exist for us at all, as we take off Wednesday evening and land 13hrs later on friday morning.  Wiggy eh?

To the cities we visited and our friends… we love you all.

This isn’t goodbye.  It’s Seeya later

Today started only 2 or so hours after the last one ended.  After spending til 1:30am packing and getting ready for an early start today, we were rudely awoken by our alarm at 4am to get down to the Greyhound station by 5:30am to catch our bus.

A note to anybody thinking of doing this… don’t!  2hrs sleep is not really conducive to an active mind, and we’re pretty sure when that 4am alarm went off, only a fraction of our brain cells actually woke up. Not only that, Wendy ended up throwing up due to exhaustion before we even left the hotel! She’s fine though, so no need to anyone to worry!

Vancouver has been the most amazing place to visit, and captured our hearts from the first day sitting in Timmy Ho’s and walking over to Granville Island (see the photos, they’re amazing!) to the last day walking through the rain and going up the Vancouver Lookout.  For those who’ve never been here, we encourage you to find a way to do so.  We don’t want to leave to be perfectly honest, “but love, and a pesky curse defanged me”… oh wait, that’s a quote from Buffy   – Chicago and more of a journey await us so depart we must.

The bus trip was uneventful, and even though we did intend to enjoy the sights that we missed on the bus up to Vancouver (it was night after all), we both ended up pretty much passing out by the time the bus hit its first stop in Coquitlam and slept for about an hour, waking up just before we arrived at the US Customs office on the border of Canada and the United States.

We had been told horror stories about the US Customs people on the border, especially those on the buses.  I don’t know if it’s our amazing personalities, or the fact that we already had Visas, but the Customs officer was incredibly cheerful, even joking with us.  We literally took less than 2 minutes to clear customs and get back on the bus.

The rest of the trip was a blur or sleep-wake-sleep-wake, and we don’t really remember all that much.  We did get some photos as we passed through Seattle, and will be uploading them as soon as we can.

We were sitting in SEA/TAC (that’s Seattle Tacoma International Airport for the uninitiated) drinking “Seattle’s Best Coffee” and eating a Turkey Croissant when we decided to see if there was some free wi-fi.  Rod, if you’re reading this, you’re right, Seattle’s best make some damn good coffee! Though the Hazelnut Coffee is… unusual. Very… woody in taste.  Back to the wi-fi… there was none that was free, but for $8 we could have 24 hours access. Since we’re not going to be here for more than 3 hours, we didn’t think it was worth it. So instead, we found our gate, curled up with a book and our Ipods and settled back to rest up for the trip east to Chicago.

The flight to Chicago seemed to go on much longer than it should have, most probably due to us being so tired.  Wendy spent much of the flight catching up on sleep but managed to get some amazing photos out of the plane window as we flew over the western part of Washington State. I don’t sleep well on planes, so read a book and watched a movie on the ipod.  It was night when we approached Chicago, so we got a good look at the true size of the city from 15,000 feet in the air… and wow, when they say this is a big city, they’re not kidding!  It just goes on, and on, and on, and on!  We finally landed at Chicago Midway Airport and after chatting with a Chicago police officer for some time (great guy) and getting our bags, we headed over to see about catching the shuttle that runs from Chicago Midway to Chicago O’Hare Airports.  It turned out that we missed it though, so had to catch a taxi instead.  40 minutes and $70 (fare + tip) later we arrived at the Wyndham O’Hare Hotel, tired, hungry and pretty much over being on a bus, plane or in a car!

Being a hotel, it doesn’t have the luxuries we had at the Vancouver hotel, so our first stop after checking in was the local dinner restaurant down the road where we got an Angus Burger each.  It was either that or Maccas, and we figured the restaurant, while not a bowl of veges, was the healthier option.

Upon returning to our hotel, we grabbed the laptop and headed down to the lobby where they offer free wireless internet and did our daily email catch-ups.  That done, we’re now off for a hot shower and some much needed sleep!

We’re heading out on the road early today as have a bit of traveling to get to our 4 primary destinations; Fort Langley Park (Fort Langley), the Matsqui Lutheran Church (Abbotsford), Bridal Veil Falls (east of Chilliwack) and a Chilliwack Bruins WHL hockey game at the Prospera Center (Chilliwack).   After the game we hope to catch up with Matt and Vossy for a beer before heading back to Vancouver.

Photos from Day 4 will be updated this evening along with photos we take today.

Day 3 dawned with rain clouds in the air and raindrops on our windows. Actually it’s perfect weather to snuggle under a blanket with the fire going and watch hockey on tv… Except hockey is on at night here, unlike Australia where the NHL is on during the day. Therefore we needed something else to do.

And what better thing to on a wet day than to go to an aquarium? Vancouver Aquarium to be exact. Home of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins and of course Beluga Whales! So that’s where we headed. Vancouver Aquarium is located in Stanley Park – which is this beautiful large protected park on the peninsular between Coal Harbour and English Bay. It has a number of attractions and is really reminicent of NZ scenery. It took us a while to find it but the drive was lovely and we got to see the Olympic Rings that are on a barge in Coal Harbour.

The photos on the blackberry phones really don’t do the whales, dolphins or fish any justice, so I’ll leave the visuals until we can upload some good ones. We started in the Tropic Zone and saw the fish and animals that are found in areas likle Brazil. There were some beautiful macaws, a photogenic and attention loving tiger-stingray, a scary anaconda, a sleepy two-toed sloth and the terrifying pirrahnas. *shudders*

It was by then time to watch the Dolphin talk/training session so we headed out to the Wild Coast section and listened to the talk on the Pacific White-Sided Dolphins – a male named Spinikar, and two females, Hannah and Helen. They were dolphins who had been caught in fishing nets, rescued, rehabilitated and moved to the Aquarium. We watched their Dolphin show from the viewing platform under the aquarium later in the day, completely facinating. You could still see the scars the fishing nets left on the dolphins – one of the females barely had any flippers left. Very sad.

After the first dolphin talk we took a glimpse at the beluga whales before heading back inside to check out the shark tank. They only had little sharks, no great whites like we do. They did have a tank with an octopus in it. Oh my lord! I’d never seen one before, well, other than in the supermarket deli or crumbed as calamari. The Octopus was jammed in the corner of the tank though so the reflection didn’t make for a great photo. Then it was in to see the Jellies. They had moon jellies and blue bottles and about 7 others. Its animals like that that keep me out of the ocean. Well… that and an unusual allery to salt water.

Done with the Jellyfish, it was over to the Beluga enclosure for feeding time. They have 5 belugas in total but two of them are BABIES! They are so ugly they’re adorable and gorgeous! Baby belugas are born grey in colour and as they age, they shed their skin and become a lighter colour until they turn white. So strange. But they were just delightful to watch. Sam got some wonderful photos of them while I got some video action!

We got some hot chips after the beluga show to heat us up and then headed into the new Canada Arctic display with information on belugas, polar bears, orcas and more. It also had the viewing platform for the belugas. The divers had just cleaned the tanks, so it was a little cloudy with algae but we got some awesome photos and video.

The exit from the Canada Arctic display came out at the sea otters enclosure and OH MY GOD. A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E! They were just brilliant! One was sleeping on his back with a maple leaf just being held on his belly by his paws. The other was having fun playing with a rock. The videos are AMAZING and came out so much better than the photos because of the raindrops on the glass.

It was then down to the frog display which we bypassed and the viewing platform for the dolphins before we wandered through the gift shop and then out the door.

We had lunch brought from home in the park before we headed out in search of 3 more Supernatural filming locations. We got a little lost trying to find Cleveland Dam – turns out we didn’t go far enough north so we’ll head over there again tomorrow. We did however find The Corner Cafe, where Sam and Dean grabbed a bite to eat in season 4, episode 15, “Death Takes A Holiday”. We bought two large coffees for a total of $3.75. They were awesome too. Got some photos of Sam with the table they sat at in the background, because these two other girls, who were also there because of Supernatural, were already sitting there.

Anyway we got some photos, including the autographed thank you from Jensen and Jared and headed out again. A few minutes east was St Paul’s Indian Catholic Church. It’s a beautiful building in reality. Thankfully the rain held off while we got photos of the building.

Tonight we got the internet working so we’ve been catching up on the world and Sam’s now going to do some work for Clintonius Maximus while I watch Supernatural!!!! On TV while it airs for the first time – I’m ECSTATIC!

It’s been a great day – again!

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!