Vancouver, and Australian summer!

Well we made it into Vancouver, and then quite a bit further a few days later – all the way back to Australia, in fact! Vancouver when we got there was snow-less, as expected, but we got a lovely surprise when we woke up one morning and there was a decently thick coating of snow all over the ground! This was of course the morning we were going to transfer the registration of our van over to its new owner, involving driving down the hilly roads which were yet to see a snow plow, with lots of drivers around who weren’t used to the snow. Lucky we were J

Pretty snow in Vancouver!

Everything outlined in white

Last time brushing snow off the van, before we sold it...

Snow on the streets in Burnaby, Vancouver

So that evening we joined a lot of happy little families and went to the park down the road from Ben and Anna’s place where we were staying (while they were away on holidays – thanks again guys!!), and threw some fresh wet snowballs at each other, and made a big happy snowman J Although we’d seen so much snow over the last couple of months, we sure weren’t sick of it yet!! The snow in Vancouver was totally different to the snow in Alberta, in that it was very wet and packed well (great for snowballs!), rather than dry and ultra powdery. Also different in that people are actually excited by a tiny bit of snow, rather than seeing it as the start of a very long cold winter! Much more like snow in the Southern Hemisphere really, I guess…

Squirrel on a bin in Central Park, Burnaby...

Excited Vancouverites playing in the snow - so we joined them :)

Rolling up snow to make a snowman in the park!

Lawrie with our very happy snowman :)

We didn’t do a whole lot in Vancouver, other than sleeping, a whole lot of relaxing, and playing in the snow, then we had a very loooong but thankfully uneventful flight back to Sydney, via Texas (we just saw the inside of part of the airport) and Brisbane (SO hot, even at 6am!).

Christmas lights in the snow

Back home we caught up with Lawrie’s Mum and Dad and sister Kate in Emu Plains, then headed south with a car full of more of our stuff (moving back in is a long slow process!), back to our little home in Wollongong! It all felt disturbingly normal, going back to the same furniture in the same house, on the same street… We did go to Canada, right??!

Since then we’ve enjoyed lots of things about being back home – being with our families, convention, a little bit of proper Aussie summer!! (hot sunny weather, beautiful white sandy beaches with lovely temperature water and nice waves, roasting in the sun, and delicious summer fruits like MANGOES, nectarines, grapes, and watermelon!). We dearly miss bits about the Canadian winter we were having, but it is sure nice to be in summer again!! J

Ahh, summer! Back at the beach in Wollongong

With family before Christmas - Justin & Megan

Jo & Glen with Trixie & Dexter

Lawrie & I

3 out of 4 sisters - Nicole, Joanne, Megan. & Trixie :)

Lawrie on a slack line at the beach :)

Lawrie on his surfboard in the morning sun - photo courtesy of Glen

Well… that’s all folks! Summer and its loveliness will continue, but our trip is over… We dearly hope to be going back again one day, and see all our wonderful friends there again, but in the meantime… Bye!