Canada

Edwin and I have wanted to leave the country for awhile but in 2004 INS had taken his passport (Long story) and they finally returned it over the summer. We were so excited we could finally get out of here, we decided to start small and go to Canada. Vancouver is about 6 hour drive and there seemed to be a lot of things to do. We wanted to make it our anniversary trip as well as our first family vacation!


Our first impression of Canada (sorry to say) was not the best. Canadians drive CRAZY!!! Crazy Canadian drivers and my Crazy African driver do not mix well. The first day we almost got in an accident. BUT I was very thankful for my Crazy African driver, he was able to adapt to their driving and get us around the city.

I have never been out of the U.S. so it was a great experience to see something new.
Some of the differences that stood out-
*currency - On our first exchange we exchanged 200 american dollars for 205 canadian dollars. So our dollar is not that powerful there.
* Everything is VERY expensive- I don't know if it was because we were in a tourist town or if that is the norm. For example a pop in a machine was 3.00 compared to our 1.50. Also a burger was 12.75 (This was at the aquarium) . Everywhere we went or wanted to go(Aquarium, amusement park, suspension bridge) tickets were 30 to 60 dollars each
* When I went into Safeway a lot of the food packages were in french.
* Their driving
* The Road signs - They are confusing at times
* They call eggs benedict "Benny's" and their scrambles eggs are yolks only
* The signs for their buildings were plain- ours have logo's and bright colors. theirs were white background and black font with plain text.
* The buildings there were beautiful
* The neighborhoods were interesting. On one side of the street their were mansions that were some of the prettiest houses I have ever seen. Then directly across the street there would be broken down homes with trash in the yards and something you would see in a really bad neighborhood.

*The people were not as friendly as they are here. I noticed that people didn't want to make eye contact and the friendly "courtesy" waves you get here were not to be found there.
*Diverse- There were people from every culture and background. I heard languages I have never heard before. Edwin kept laughing at me. He said I acted like I was in a 3rd world country because everything seemed new to me. I guess I need to get out more. LOL

Traveling with an infant is definately a task. I made sure to pack for every type of weather imaginable. What I didn't think about was the moods of a traveling, exhausted baby. We left around 4 AM so the car ride would be easier and she did great! When we got there around 9:30 we checked into our hotel and got ready for the day. The hotel we stayed in was a surprise to us. Edwin had accidentaly booked a room with 2 double beds. (great anniversary =) hehe ) The room didn't have any room for Malaika to get down and crawl which started off the day with a little crabbiness. She needed to stretch! The hotel was in Surrey which was 30 to 45 minutes away from Vancouver. We soon learned this was to far of a drive with traffic included. We decided to look for a different hotel in the city. (but we had to stay the first night in surrey)
When we went to Vancouver there was NO way we could find our way around without a GPS unit. We tried the map thing and it was not working. Our phone has GPS but Verizon charges 2.00 a minute for usage over there. SOOOO we went to staples and bought a GPS. IT WAS AN ANGEL!We were finally able to find our way around. Here is what we did while we were there;

1st day-
*We found the IMAX theater which was something I was really excited about. They had a 3D movie playing about Deep Sea fish. This was our first encounter of traveling with a baby. Malaika did fine at first. They gave her 3D glasses and she was trying to touch the little fish that were swimming around. BUT then a big fish came and ate the little fish and that was the end of our IMAX experience. We decided to let the other people enjoy the movie and we left. The manager was really nice though and refunded our money.

The theater was located on the waterfront and we had amazing veiws of the city line as well as the ships that were coming in. We walked on the promenade for awhile and took some pictures.
Then we decided to go to the mall. The mall was HUGE Their were over 500 stores and they were all high-end stores. We quickly decided we would window shop and enjoy the view. After that we went to safeway to get some food for dinner and breakfast in the morning and went back to the hotel and slept.


2nd day-
(We found a new hotel in Richmond and Malaika has a TON of room to roam. )


We went to Stanley park which is a huge tourist attraction. You could easily spend a week going through the hiking trails and different attractions just in this one park. It is basically an island filled with things to do. We went to the aquarium and spent most of the day there. There was a dolphin show, Beluga whales, and a shark tunnel. Malaika really enjoyed this (except for the dolphin show) It is fun to watch her develop and see things for the first time.








After the Aquarium we wandered around stanley park and walked along the beach for a little while. The views were AMAZING! This was my favorite day, it was so relaxing and enjoyable.




3rd day
We had two choices- 1) The Amusement park or 2) the Suspension bridge in whistler
We decided to go to the amusement park and ride some rides. The suspension bridge had a lot of staris to climb and we did not have a backpack for Malaika. We didn't think it would be that enjoyable with a 23 pounder on our hip. lol
The amusement park was the best decision. They actually had rides that parents could ride on with their kids. Malaika really enjoyed the choo choo train and the helicopter ride. Edwin went on his first roller coaster and felt like he conquered the world LOL . By the end of the day we were all exhausted and ready for bed.








The last day was pretty much dedicated to sleeping in, packing, and customs. Getting back over the border took over an hour. (Thank God for portable DVD players and DORA! )


We would love to visit canada again. Next time we would like to go to Victoria and ride the Ferry and see the gardens. It was a great Family/Anniversary Vacation.