Weekend in Whistler

With all of our travel this year we ended up with a free hotel night through Hotels.com. It's a pretty good deal. For every 10 nights you get an additional night free based on the prices you paid. Coupled with free cancellations for most hotels, it's easy to become loyal to one company. We had a credit of about $400 and I think it expires so we decided to head to Whistler for a weekend. It was the in-between season with mountain biking ending and skiing not yet starting so we got a very good deal on a condo. It had two separate bedrooms plus another room with the couch bed and a full kitchen. The place had a hallway it was so big. You could probably sleep 20 during ski season.

We did typical Whistler things including a hike on the trails near the village and dinner. We were out early for a hike on the Sunday and almost ran into a bear. There was a couple walking ahead of us that were probably within 50 feet of it. We were a few hundred feet behind and were headed right to the trail where it ran down. We didn't really feel like being bear wary so we took a turn back towards the village. The weather was nice for the time of year and we avoided traffic in both directions so overall a great weekend. 
 

Raptors Game n Vancouver

In early October the Raptor's had an exhibition game against the Sacramento Kings. Vancouver once had its own team, The Grizzlies, but they only lasted a few years. I was listening to some people talk about them and they made a good point, that their timing for Vancouver wasn't very good. I think if a team was added today they would probably do okay with a lot of corporate sponsorship available and a different demographic. It would also help that the Seattle Sonics have since left so there is not team in the upper  west.

Funny story about getting the tickets. They went on sale at 10:00a and I was initially in the queue. After about 5 minutes I got let in and there were not very many blue dots left. I selected some tickets in the front row and purchased assuming they were available because someone else had dropped them. We arrived at the arena and it turns out the tickets were in the handicapped section. Nothing during the purchase indicated this was the case and we weren't the only people to make the mistake. The seats were very nice though. They had chairs for us and there was plenty of room with no one immediately behind us. 

The game itself was okay. 125 to 104 for the Kings so not the outcome we would have hoped for. I watched basketball more in the 90's where it wasn't typical to see such high scores. Lots of three pointers and not much defence. There were quite a few empty seats until about half time. Not sure why you would buy tickets to a game like this and not show up on time. The half time show was the cheerleaders and a giant blow up Raptor costume. Overall it was a good experience. Carter got another jersey and I think we would probably go regularly if the tickets were reasonable and we get a team again. 

Carter's Birthday

Looking back at the year's blogs I've noticed a trend that I seem to stop blogging for the year right around Carter's birthday which is September 17th. I then spend my Christmas break catching up on blogs from September through December. I don't usually do New Year's resolutions but perhaps this year I'll try to get blog posts out closer to when they actually happen. As an example, I couldn't figure out why I seemed to have two sets of dinner pictures for Carter's Birthday and then I remembered it was a birthday weekend. On the Saturday he had a party with his friends at our house with basketball and video games and then we went to D-Spot Dessert Cafe in Delta. It had a very large selection of tasty options.

After his friend festivities on the Saturday, his real birthday was on the Sunday. We started with Fly Over Canada which used to seem expensive but now that Disneyland has gone crazy with prices, the cost per ride is probably more than what we pay for this ride. It's in an old IMax theatre and takes you over top of the screen, suspended in your seat. They mix it up a bit each year so that it's worth going more than once. This year was Fly Over Iceland. Iceland isn't high on my places to travel to but it does look interesting. Lots of lava fields and volcanoes.

We finished the day off with a trip to the Cactus Club at Canada Place. It really is quite a spectacular location for a restaurant and Cactus Club is one of our favourites. I think Carter had been talking about this particular item for his birthday for several months. Food was excellent as usual and he got a piece of cake for free. The only issue was that the coke glass he got had.a crack in it. Not enough to not drink from it but enough that I let them know about it so they didn't send it through the wash again. I think we got comped the drink which was not really what we were trying to do but always welcome. 

One more year and it's time for Carter to learn to drive.

Ed Sheeran in Vancouver

Many months ago we purchased tickets for Ed Sheeran in Vancouver. It was a stressful event but at least we got tickets, unlike the Taylor Swift concert. Carter isn't a fan so it was Kerry, Callie, Myself, Melissa and Kathy attending. Callie had made us friendship bracelets before I left on my Denver trip. It's not really an Ed thing but she was still making hem for Taylor for the upcoming movie and wanted some for Ed. I CNC'd a wood portion with the five mathematics symbols. Last minute she also decided we should have matching t-shirts. She had a divid t-shirt from his last concert so we all got similar ones with the remaining symbols.

The concert was amazing. Last time was at GM Place and I had to go alone because Kerry couldn't make it and no one else know who he was. This one was in BC Place. I think Ed is purposely looking to get the record for every stadium he plany because he made his stage circular. This ensures every seat can be filled plus the floor. BC Place hit 65,000+. The other major difference was that he brought a band. He could do it without but there are a few songs that benefit. His band mates were off the stage in front of each of the pillars and were only on for a few songs. I felt the sound in Seattle was better but the lighting here was great. We also got to listen to Ed and Khalid do 'Beautiful People', one of my favourite songs.

 

A Work Trip to Denver

At the end of August I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Denver. As per usual I went down a day early so that I could take in some of the tourist spots. The flight there was uneventful and I got to my hotel around 1:00p. Unfortunately, most of the things I wanted to go to closed at 4:00p so I had to wait until the next day to go to the zoo. It's not a bad zoo as zoo's go. The habitats were all quite natural though I found them a bit small. It was also a little sad to hear all the kids talking about which animals had recently died. Not sure if it's above average but it was definitely on their mind.

My next destination was the Museum of Nature and Science. On the science side it was much like Science World with interactive exhibits on various topics including the human body, rocks and minerals and global warming. Was a pleasant surprise to find a US city like Colorado reporting on the science side of things instead of selling us on the 'we need oil for a while' message. On the nature side of the house there were hundred's of stuffed animals in vignettes of their natural habitat. It was very well done though I wonder how they got a hold of so many animals to stuff including polar bears, buffalo and eagles.

My favourite destination was the Denver Botanical Gardens. You can tell a lot of donation money went into this place. There were ponds, atriums and art galleries throughout the property. It would be a lovely location for a wedding though I think they cater to mostly larger groups. There was a permanent tent that was about 500 feet long with pinpoint lights throughout. The atrium was made of concrete which must of been fun to engineer. I finally got to see a Chihuly statue in person. It was an enormous sculpture in yellows and oranges. I'm surprised it manages to make it through the winter. It looks so delicate.

After my day on my own I headed to my other hotel to start the conference. It was being held on a golf course / retirement property where one of the founders of the company hosting the event lives. The whole area was very nice but definitely car centric. You would need to take a car just to get to the closest corner store. The conference was a bit of a different experience for me because there were only about 200 attendees. Most conferences I attend have thousands of participants so it's easy to hide and concentrate on the sessions. With so few people there was always someone that wanted to talk directly to you. Still fun though with some great food.

As a team we managed to break away from the conference for a team building event. The Atlanta Braves were in town to play the Colorado Rockies. It was effectively one of the top teams in the league against one of the worst teams in the league though it wasn't exactly a blowout. A few runs every couple innings and no major mistakes. The weather was perfect in the high twenties with sunny skies. The game goes quickly with the new pitch clock. I didn't bother getting any food but we did go out for wings afterwards. The whole trip was a lot of fun. I wouldn't recommend Denver as a destination but if you need to go there it's a very nice city. 

Callie's Final Dance Recital

It was a bitter sweet final dance recital for Callie this year. She's aged out of her dance school that she's been attending since she was a tiny sugar cube in kindergarten. As she's gotten older she's had to take classes at the nearby studio as well as the Ridge studio. This means she ends up having dances in multiple shows. Plus they have a special dance just for the graduates that gets performed at every show. I attended two of the shows including the one on Saturday that we would typically attend plus her final final dance. Kerry attended all four. It was also an honour for Callie to be asked to do the artwork for the show. The theme was "She's So Fierce". Each dance was themed around powerful woman and the studio owner picked a subset of them and asked for art work of here faces. The four chosen were Rosa Parks, Princess Diana, Michelle Obama and Celine Dion. The artwork came out great and it ended up on the programs plus a set of t-shirts for graduates and staff and for purchase.

Callie did great on all her dances. I still remember some of the earlier recitals where we were introduced to the idea of the 'Quick Change'. This was when a girl had only a song or two in-between to get dressed for the next song. We were very worried that it would be her turn and something would happen and she wouldn't come out. It took a few years before we realized how great dancing has been for her. The structure of regular classes helped her a lot and she never missed a quick change. To be honest I'm always amazed how none of the girls miss quick change. We might not miss the trips to take her to the Ridge but we will miss this annual recital. 

 

Callie's Grad Year

Callie is graduating from high school this year. <Insert comment about how time flies.> Grade 11 was not a lot of fun with Chemistry and PE but grade 12 seemed like a breeze in comparison. She did excellent in all of her classes with a highlight of weight training where she got 100%. It sounds like if you showed up to that one you were doing well compared to the rest of the kids. I'm proud to say she was excepted to SFU to pursue a career in teaching. For SFU you submit your expected grades for grade 12 and they judge you on that. I was mildly worried about English as it was tracking lower but she significantly increased her mid-term grade and hit her goal with eze.

I had expected it to be a costly year but I was still amazed at the number of things that came up. There was a number of fund raisers we contributed to, a grad dress, a winter formal dress, tickets to various things, grad clothes, limos, hair, makeup, dress fittings and more. I suspect that some kids didn't show up to things just because they couldn't afford it which is a shame. Kerry was on the grad committee and they raised money for their dry grad but a lot of the other items were left up to parents to cover. Carter will be slightly cheaper just because he's a boy but still won't be cheap. Score another one for the female tax. I'm not even going to try to guess at the actual cost. I suppose it was worth it because she did really seem to enjoy all the events. 

One of the unexpected events for me was the 'Winter Formal'. When I went to high school there seemed to be at least a few dances every year. Callie's high school only seemed to focus on dances for the graduation year and I'm sure covid impacted some things as well. The Winter Formal happened before Christmas and Callie said she went easy on us for the dress and didn't have anyone do her hair and makeup. Feeling blessed.

Full on grad activities got rolling with the grad dinner in June. There was an option for parents to come which was kind of useless. The kids came on their own via limo and we drove to the golf course on our own. We sat around until they were ready to sit down for dinner at which point we listened to a few speeches from the back of the room and then left. Cost was $5 per parent. I t think things would have been better if they let us focus on getting pictures of everyone. We got a few but everyone sat down for dinner before we had a chance to get any with her friends. I did get a watered down lemonade. 

After grad dinner the kids got bussed back to the school for their dry grad. Attendance was up from previous years which worked out well for the fund raising committee. They fund raised based on a certain number of kids so every kid above that was extra money to spend. They ended up giving the kids all a gift card. The grad was casino themed and Kerry volunteered for the event. She only really had to take tickets but ended up staying until 5:00 in the morning with the kids. Luckily it was a professional development day the next day which is good for the kids but Kerry still had to go to school. She managed to make it in to work. 

We had a family bbq after grad dinner weekend, prompted by Melissa who had arranged something similarly elaborate for her son and niece. She sent down the candy bar signs so we definitely had to do the same for Callie. Attendance was family and close friends including Kennedy who had technically finished school in December but had come back from university to attend the grad ceremonies.

We finished the year off at the Bell Centre with the graduation ceremony. I was very glad they had it there as they have nicer seats. I could not have sanded sitting through 300+ kids walking across the stage if we had to be on hard bleachers. The ceremony was a few speeches by administration, the valedictorian and then each kid had a short paragraph read as they walked across the state. They encouraged minimal cheating but didn't hold back their diploma if we did cheer. The main reason was to avoid overlap with cheering and the next kids description. 

Great work Callie!

 Grad Pictures

Spring Formal

Dress Shopping

Grad Dinner

Dry Grad

Grad Ceremony