Gad about town

I was picked up by Terry and his wife Andrea. He is president of the British Columbia Exchange Teachers' Association which is partly funded by the BC College of Teachers. They had already picked up a couple from Canberra - Paula and Kate. They are both teachers but Paul is on exchange and Kate is looking for work.

We took a drive along the Trans Canada Highway #1 to Horseshoe Bay which is where the ferries go to get to the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island and the Channel Islands. Nice views along the coast and some pretty expensive real estate.

We then turned back towards Vancouver and went up to the Lynn Valley Canyon which has a free suspension bridge that you can walk over for amazing views of the river and nature walks. There is another suspension bridge that crosses the Capilano River, which is about 2 km from home, but is costs to enter the park and cross the bridge.

We then drove towards Simon Fraser University which sits atop Mt. Burnaby. There are great vies of the Indian Arm inlet and of the entire port and Downtown and North Vancouver as well as the coastal mountains. The University is like a city within a city.

We then went to their apartment in New Westminster. It has views over the port area and you can see tugs pulling booms of logs down the river, as well as freighters navigating the river to load, or unload their cargo.

After a couple of drinks we went in to town to an Italian restaurant to meet the other exchange teachers and members of the BCETA. It wss good food and reasonably priced. Pasta meals for about $15 - $20 and beers for around $5 each. One thing that you do have to remeber over here is that you have add on a tip of around 15%.

I also wish that when they listed prices in shops that they would show the price that you will pay at the register rather than the price before they add on the GST. Something that is shown as $10 becomes $12.50 at the register.

After dinner we went to an amazing icecream shop. 218 flavours and music to browse with. You are able to taste any of the concoctions before purchasing. Some amazing flavours - garlic, curry, some with fruit and jalapeno, wasabi. You name a flavour and they probably have it. I stayed safe with a white chocolate and strawberry. Very nice.