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We experienced a most excellent trip to Vancouver this past weekend which involved everything from James Bond to the Rolling Stones and plenty of things in between.

Thursday

We were up early to catch our morning flight to Vancouver. However, during the nite a snowstorm descended upon Calgary which make for a slow drive to the airport in morning rush hour traffic and snow. We left in plenty of time and arrived well before our flight was to depart. Our flight left on time and we were in Vancouver by 11:00am.

After a quick lunch at Harvey’s in the airport, we ventured out into the rain to take the bus to Sean and Julie’s place. This took just over an hour and we reunited with the Sullivan’s who we hadn’t seen since their wedding in July.

For supper, we all went out to a Cuban/Mexican-style restaurant on the Drive and our nite entertainment came in the form of going to the new James Bond movie. It was showing in a old movie theatre just down the street and we watched it from the balcony which is something that neither Caitlin nor I had ever done before.

Friday

On Friday morning, Caitlin and I headed out to Granville Island and visited some of the small shops, the market, and had a great lunch at Sammy J. Peppers.

After lunch, we headed across the Lion’s Gate Bridge to West Vancouver for a walk on the Sea Wall and to visit Caitlin’s grandfather. Then we headed back to downtown Vancouver in the evening rush hour to catch the SkyTrain back to Sean and Julie’s place. For supper, we headed to Memphis Blues BBQ which is now a traditional supper spot to celebrate my new jobs (I’ll explain more in my next post…). After eating our fill of meat, we headed back to play some Halo before calling it a night.

Saturday

After breakfast on Saturday morning, we all headed out to Science World for the Body Worlds exhibit which was both fascinating and a bit gruesome at the same time. The exhibit involved over 200 real body specimens which displayed how muscles, nerves, organs, etc all work together. It was definitely an eye-opener and quite interesting. It was a bit unnerving to realize that you were actually looking at a skeleton of a real person and not something made out of plastic.

After taking the Body Worlds tour, we headed further downtown for a late lunch at Milestones. By this time, it was already starting to snow with a few flurries and we headed back to the house to wait for the concert!

Shortly after 6:00pm, we headed down to BC Place for the Rolling Stones concert. It was just a short ride on the SkyTrain but there were huge lines waiting to get in as security was a bit tight. We finally got into the stadium at around 7:30 and could hear Bonnie Rait finishing up her opening set as we ventured to our seats.

We finally got to our 5th row seats just after 8:00 and had a bit of a wait for the Stones to come on. As time ticked by, the seats kept filling up and by 8:50 the place was packed with 51,000 fans. At 8:50, the lights went out and the Stones intro video started on the massive screen. With a blast of fireworks and bright lights, Keith appeared on stage and started right into Jumpin’ Jack Flash. The following two hours consisted on a high-intense show as the Stones wrapped up their Bigger Bang Tour in Vancouver (also the highest grossing tour in history!). Mick was full of energy as were Keith, Ron, and Charlie as they went through their 20 song set. The setlist, along with some pictures can be found at IORR and more pictures taken by other fans can be found at flickr.

After the concert, we made our way back through the slushy snow and huge lineups to meet Sean and Julie at the SkyTrain station and then had some pizza.

Sunday

We woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground which is quite rare for Vancouver. As it continued to snow outside, we stayed in and had a pancake breakfast and played some Halo as we stayed close to the fireplace. For lunch, we ventured out to a Thai restaurant and had some very tasty curry.

Shortly after 2:00pm, we said our ‘goodbyes’ to the Sullivans and headed downtown where we would be staying at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for the night. We trudged along with our suitcases in the wet, slushy snow and finally made it to the hotel.

During our check-in, the woman checking us in said that she was also from New Brunswick and that she wanted to treat us well. She upgraded our room from a basic room to a deluxe suite which came with a kitchen, huge living room, huge bathroom, and king-size bed. After marveling at our nice room, we ordered room service since it was still quite nasty outside and we wanted to enjoy the room to it’s full potential.

Monday

We were up early to catch the bus back to the airport for our early afternoon flight back to Calgary. Most of the Air Canada flights were cancelled, but our WestJet flight was only delayed by an hour. We arrived back into Calgary where it was -39 with the windchill… quite a change from the warmer Vancouver weather. Surprisingly, our car started fine and we arrived back home just before 8:00pm, after a terrific trip to Vancouver!

Leaving for the Stones concert:

Walking the SeaWall:

The Rolling Stones concert that was scheduled for last weekend in Vancouver was postponed until Nov 25 due to Mick Jagger’s throat problems. It actually works out alot better since we can now spend almost 5 full days in Vancouver instead of just a short weekend which should be a good vacation since both Caitlin and I will be temporarily unemployed.

The 8 month wait ended this past Friday nite when Caitlin and I went to see Gordon Lightfoot. I had purchased the tickets back in February which left us with an 8 month wait for the concert… which was well worth it.

While waiting for the concert to begin, we were surveying the crowd and realized that we were one of the youngest couples there. The majority of the audience were 40+ and some even brought their young children to the show.

It was quite a tame concert and Gord played most of his classics including Sundown, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, and If You Could Read My Mind. He ended with the encore of Early Morning Rain and mentioned how Elvis Presley had covered it but changed some of the lyrics around.

Less than 4 weeks til we see the other old rockers in Vancouver!

Last nite Caitlin and I went to see the Calgary Flames‘ last pre-season home game against the San Jose Sharks. We were given the tickets from a friend who got them for free, so it was a cheap nite of entertainment.

Going into the game, we had a feeling that the Flames would lose since almost every sporting event we’ve seen in the past year, Calgary has lost. That’s right… we’ve seen the Hitmen, Stampeders, and Vipers lose. The only time we ever saw a team win was during our second Hitman game. And as of last nite we can chalk up as seeing the Flames lose. That’s right… we’ve gone to 5 sporting events and have only seen Calgary win once! So, we think that teams should pay us not to come since they only have a 20% chance of winning when we are in the stands.

Anyways, it was still a good game last nite. Since it was a pre-season game, you could tell the guys weren’t playing at 100% but there were still some highlights including a breakaway goal by Jarome Iginla and some tussles in the corner between Regehr and Bernier.

Next Friday we’ll be going to see Gordon Lightfoot which is exciting. Since there aren’t any win/lose records in music entertainment, it should be fine.

It was Monday morning and I was at work… working. It was around 10:45am and I just remembered that Rolling Stones tickets were going on sale today for their concert in Vancouver on November 3. While conversing with Julie, the clock struck 11:00am and the search for tickets was on.

My first search took 6 minutes and returned extreme nosebleed seats for $99/each in the upper section near the back. I tossed them back and tried again. After a few more searches it became evident that all of the good seats were gone and I wouldn’t bother buying any of the mediocre tickets.

Later that afternoon at around 4:00pm (5 hours after the tickets went on sale), I did a few more searches and found floor seats in the very back of BC Place. Not bad, but not good enough. I tried one more search and to my amazement it listed 2 floor tickets in row 5 in front of the stage. I took a double-take since I couldn’t believe these tickets were only $99/each, the same price as the nosebleeds. So, without any hesitation, I ordered them right away.

Last year when I saw the Stones in Moncton I thought I was close… now I’m going to be only a few feet away! And the best part is that Sean and Julie were also able to get 4th floor seats… for $99 too. Deal of the Century?!

So, that’s my big news. Not as big as what some of you (Andrew and Erin) were thinking, but still exciting nonetheless. It was also tempting to sell the tickets on eBay where similar seats are selling for $1200 a pair. But we already have our flights booked, so there’s no turning back now!

This past Friday my parents flew in from Moncton so we decided to take them on a tour of the mountains during the weekend.

The day started out at the Calgary Farmer’s Market where we bought some fresh food for having a picnic lunch. Then we started our voyage to the west towards Banff. We drove past Banff and went to Radium Hot Springs, BC for our lunch and a quick dip in the springs which was quite nice and refreshing. Afterwards, we drove back to Banff and checked in to the Rundlestone Lodge and then had supper at Wild Bill’s before taking a walk around the downtown area.

On Sunday we went to Phil’s for breakfast (our Banff tradition) and then headed up to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel to take a quick tour around it before leaving Banff. Our next stop was Lake Louise where we also took a tour through the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. On our way back to the city, we stopped in Canmore for a quick lunch/supper and we were back into Calgary by 5:00pm. Overall it was a great weekend and time in the mountains!

Below is a picture of all of us (the Dawes) at Lake Louise:

As always, more pictures can be found in the gallery.

PS: Stay tuned for some other big news which I’ll post about in the next couple days…

It’s been a super-packed July for us but I haven’t taken much time to blog about all of the happenings, so hopefully this post will get you all up to speed on what’s been going on.

A few Fridays ago, we went to the Phantom of the Opera at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium here in Calgary. Overall it was a good play and had alot of great visual effects. Our next visit to the Jubilee will be in early October to see Gordon Lightfoot.

The following day we headed to the Calgary Stampede and took in the festivities along with the rodeo in the afternoon. It was interesting to watch the rodeo in person since watching it on television doesn’t nearly give the true size of it all. Pictures can be found in the gallery.

The following Friday we went to watch the Calgary Stampeders take on the B.C. Lions at McMahon Stadium. Our seats were in the very last row of the stadium, but it was great since we had a wall to rest our backs on. It was interesting to see a CFL game in person, even though the Stamps lost 43-20.

That brings us to this past weekend where we headed up to Lacombe for a couple days. Caitlin went to Edmonton for a garden show while I stayed around with the other guys and played some golf.

You are now caught up!

This past weekend Caitlin and I headed off to Parson, BC for Sean and Julie’s wedding. We left on Friday morning and had a very picturesque drive through the mountains. The majority of the weekend was spent at the Timber Inn where about 20 of us (family and friends) spent a fabulous few days.

The activities for the weekend included eating delicious German cuisine, sitting around a hot tub, jumping around on a trampoline, white water rafting, swimming at Mitten Lake, meeting new people, a Maritime jam session, and to top it all off… a wedding! It was a completely relaxing wedding weekend and was great to be there for Sean and Julie’s special day.

Last night we met up with Sean, Julie, and Julie’s parents in downtown Calgary for supper before sending them off on their honeymoon to Victoria.

Pictures from this weekend can be found in the gallery. I have also added pictures from our visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum on June 10. Enjoy!