Lynn Canyon

I finally had a weekend where I wasn't doing homework all Saturday
and Sunday there was conference! So I had extra time and I went on an adventure!

 The other day I was helping out a friend out with his demo reel and we went up here to Lynn Canyon, we didn't have a lot of time because I had class early. So I decided to come back later to explore and it was totally worth it!

 I started out at the suspension bridge, the view and experience was awesome, mainly because I just stopped in the center of the bridge and let it swing up and down and basically being in the way of everyone trying to pass :) hehe

 This was not really a hike more of a walk through the forest...

 The path was really straight forward and easy and most of it was on boards like this. Nice little jaunt for a Sunday afternoon.

 

they even had parts where there were seat literally cut into the wood on the path :)

 Then at the end of the trail was a place called twin falls, not really impressive compared to other falls I've seen but it was still pretty and the area was really peaceful.

 I don't know how many more weekends I've got like this one but it was really nice to get out and enjoy nature. It was only a half hour away from where I live; I had a problem with my gps but my phone found the place just fine so yeah for wifi and google maps :)

Adventure is out there!

Vancouver-Banf and crazy stuff

So I realize I haven't written in a while and even though I have updated my art blog; it isn't the same as my adventuring blog. So here goes...

 Welcome to Vancouver, It is a beautiful city. That rains a lot, like the fist few weeks I was here... non stop rain. But it was green and after those few weeks of rain, spring came and I was pleasantly surprised with the major Cherry Blossom population that surrounded me. My whole block was lined with these amazing trees:

wow, Cherry Blossoms galore!!!

 

 Then the rain came again but I'm getting used to it and it actually is quite fun to use my umbrella. That and the other day I was walking down the street and came upon this sight:

 It was raining, of course, and all these pigeons claimed this bench, all clumped together and huddled against the elements. It was very cool!

Then the sun came out, after a couple of months, and for once I didn't have a disgustingly large amount of homework that I normally have. So I went to explore a bit of Vancouver, Stanley park to be more specific. I had the whole week off and I was gearing up for adventure and sun!

This was along the path to the indian rock we were checking out. There was this guy who would balance these rocks without glue or anything. It was super impressive. My roommates and I went to Siwash Rock, a famous rock that is suppose to symbolize a fallen warrior or something. Eh, it was a rock along the beach and we got to watch the tide go out and there were tide pools. We saw startfish and fish and crabs. It was so fun and I hadn't had a chance to get away from the computer for a while so it was much needed.

 The next day, I had a plan to go to a suspension bridge, fairly famous in Vancouver and I would get to ride on the SeaBus. Then I got a call from my mom. Turns out that my parents were going to be in Canada for the next four days and wanted me to join them. Dad was having a foot-doctor's seminar in Banf, and that meant beautiful hotel and star quality fun. So how could I say no, that and I love my parents and I had a car.

It was only a ten hour drive to Banf, and through the most dangerous high way in Canada, I didn't know that at the time but I agreed and grabbed my Roommate Jenifer and dropped all other plans to head to Banf.

 The road there was gorgeous, the weather was agreeable and quite pleasant, and the scenery was amazing. We were surrounded by mountains and every few miles there was a cascade of waterfalls.

Then we got to Banf, it was 60 degrees and beautiful, we miraculously found my parents (their phones turned off on them) and had a pleasant evening. Then the next day, I was given a surprise:

 

It snowed all weekend, And it was mounds of snow, I didn't have snow tires and all I could think is if the roads would allow me to get back to Vancouver.

Besides the weather, the weekend was very pleasant, the hotel was built after a Scottish Castle and we had a pleasant time going to shops that we had no possible way of affording even on Bear Skinned coat. It was very pleasant.

On the way back, we passed a recent avalanche, there were trees sticking out and the snow was right up next to the road with road crews still shoveling out areas. Crazy, and that wasn't the last avalanche area we passed. Practically the whole way was avalanche zone. But we made it back alive and was greeted to Vancouver with torrents of rain.

So now I am super busy with school, my basic day starts with me leaving home by 7:45am and not returning till 10 or 11pm. That is quite normal right now, but I love the work and I couldn't be happier.

I will try to post new entries each week but we'll see how it turns out.

Adventure is Out there !!!

Last Post:Day 10-12

Free day in Shanghai, and also last full day of fun. Our guide today was Tasha, my awesome sister!
And it was a full day of amazing stuff!

 Jade Buddha

So our first stop on the agenda was a Buddha completely made out of Jade. Very pretty, well they didn't let us get close to it or even take pictures.... well we didn't get close. There were also a lot of the avatar statues all around, and that was fun but really I think the most fun we had there was going to the koi pond was watching them get fed:

It was awesome!

The weather wasn't exactly agreeing with us today, we were really lucky most of the time it was beautiful and cold weather but today it caught up to us and yeah normally I would be 'whatever' but our next activity was the Pearl TV tower.

 That tower has two ball like platforms, the top is in clouds.

 The top ball is also the cheapest one to go to so, we thought it might be above the cloud cover...

 Yep, the top platform was in cloud cover... all the way around it.

 They did have some pretty cool observation decks

 Also, after walking around looking at a wall of white we talked the elevator guys to be nice and let us go down a floor. Thankfully they did and we were able to see some of the city.

At the base of the tower was a cool museum of the old Shanghai, full of wax people and some pretty interesting exhibits:

There were a ton more exhibits but thats a lot of picures and all of them were this detailed.

We were excited for our next activity, which was described to us as a tourist's tunnel under the channel ending up in the Bond. What we thought that meant was a tunnel we walked down with some kind of cool display about the city.... nope. It was an unmanned trolley that took you through a tunnel that did go under the channel but also giving you a show of lights and strange noises with the occasional balloon person popping out to say hi. The thing reminded me of Willie Wonka's tunnel of horror on the old movie. I freaked when those balloon people popped out. 

creepy, right?

Our next destination was the Yu gardens. This was another traditional chinese garden. And we got lost a couple time trying to get to it but we did finally get to it and it has to be my favorite of the two garden we went to. It turns out the gardens were right next to the bazaar we went to yesterday and the unique thing about this one is the top of the wall is a dragon. Oh yeah, that awesome.

 All the doors were shaped like pots!

 See Dragon! Also some of the other parts of the wall were wavy like it was flying!!

This was the daring group under the leadership of Tasha!

 After the garden we went back to the Bazar and ate the most delicious dumplings!

They were filled with crab soup and they were amazing!

 We went around shopping, getting the last minute gifts and souvenirs that we had been holding off for the trip and that was fun. I didn't get anything but Mom found a great deal on a China Doll and Dad found himself another chess set and Tasha was able to find some dolls to be her china Nativity. Everyone was very happy and got what they were looking for and for the deal they wanted.

So, by this time we were thoroughly wet (raining, all day) and tired but we had one more adventure on our list and that was the maglev bullet train.

 That's right we got tickets for a seven minute ride to the airport and another seven minute ride back just so we could go on it. It was nice to sit down and fun to watch the counter to move up to 300km per hour. Super fast!!!

We headed home after the train, and got in the hot tub to try to warm up a bit. Despite the cold it was a serious adventure today!

So, I am not going to post about the next two days because all we did was go to the supermarket, got candy, I had a bunch of chinese money left so I bought myself a purse and my very first pair of skinny jeans. Then we got on a plane and 15 hours later we were home.

It was an amazing trip, I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about it.

Adventure is still out there!!!

 

Day 9: 1st day in Shang Hai!!!

We were in Shanghai!!! We started off the day at the Shanghai museum. The building was four stories and each level had about two exhibits, there was Jade carvings, seals, calligraphy, sculpture, pottery, ink paintings, furniture, and clothing from the different regions of China. I wasn't impressed with the ink paintings than I thought I would but the other exhibits were interesting. I found the traditional clothing the most interesting, there was even one suit made out of salmon skin. Also, the furniture was extremely ornate, like one piece would have taken half a lifetime to carve. Craziness!

 

 Sadly, I've seen better. but still cool

I have no idea how they did this but this has salmon skin all over it!

We left the museum to head to one of the trips sponsors and here is a good story for all of you. So our ttrip was extremely cheap and part of that reason was because of the sponsers and that is exactly what our guide explained to us as we went to this Jade factory. Yes, we already been to a jade factory but again they are a sponsor. Also our guide wasn't allowed to come up with us. yeah, already sketchy.

It started out innocent enough, in the lobby they had a big statue of a baby dragon called a pichu. If you put your money in its mouth it will protect it and give you good fortune.

That was fun, and we all had the chance to do it. Then they brought us upstairs and they had another jade presentation talking about the quality of jade and such then they started selling to us. They were not nice about it though, kinda stuck up to some of us and the others in our group they were very pushy. I offhandedly glanced at a bangle and a salesgirl saw that and tried to get me interested in them more. She did this by trying to get one on my arm, well I have larger hands than their used to but that didn't deter the girl one bit. She slathered my hand in lotion and tried to force it on, multiple times. Well, it started to hurt so I told her no. She kept coming back and trying again and I kept telling her no, but she wouldn't listen. Finally, my sister got angry and yelled at her to stop. I gratefully escaped after that and went out to the bus. It turned out okay though cause they had a good bathroom :)

The next area we went to was the Bund. This was the area where the foreigners took over for their buiness, before they all moved to HongKong. All the buildings are very European style and the whole strip was filled with very expensive shops. But a very fun area and you could see the center island that had all the skyscrapers that had been built over the past ten years.

 This was fun, mainly cause people would stop us and take pictures of us.

None of those skyscrapers existed about ten years ago.

We then went to the Bazaar, and it was cool. It felt very traditional Chinese; the shops were all in these big beautiful buildings and there were shops everywhere!

It was also super fun just to go shopping! We could bargain here and it was fun just to see how low you could get them to go, even though it was basically cheap junk. But there were a few treasures we found and the experience was worth it all. We had dinner here too, dumplings filled with soup that was sooo delicious!

We had to get to our last activity so we didn't get that much time at the Bazaar, but during our free day tomorrow we are coming back so no worries.

The last major activity we did was go to Era. It is an acrobatic show much like cirque de Soliel. It was amazing to see. There were multiple acts and many I am not sure how they did what they did. There was hoop jumping, porcelain bowl juggling, contortionists and other amazing acts. The contortionists were four girls and I don't think they had spines cause they bent double on top of each other. They would make pyramids while bending in half! Then the finally was a gigantic metal ball, where they drove eight motorcycles inside it without dying.
We weren't allowed to take pictures, but my Dad doesn't listen to rules like that:

They stuck eight moving motorcycles in that ball behind the performers!

Oh it was crazy, but crazy good, I'm really happy we got to see it, we were a little late getting there and I wasn't sure if we were going to make it in. No worries though.

That's all for today, till next time.