East Vancouver

Hilary and I went to visit Ben & Kelly, old friends of my MSF time. At the moment they live in East Vancouver where their oldest daughter Savannah also resides. Later this month they will move to North Vancouver, not far from the condo of Hilary & Shayd. They took us (and Poncho) for a walk in the area including the Queen Elizabeth Park, situated on a hill with great views over the city.

First time I saw some outside "pickle ball" courts (well used) in this park. For the rest of the weekend both Hilary and Shayd were working on their UBC and CBIT courses, while in Fonthill they had a nice Thanksgiving dinner in the house of Sue & Ralph...

Walks with Poncho

Yesterday I went to a park in the north side of North Vancouver with beautiful old forest. I let Poncho walk free and he was good, until - on the way back - he took off on me. A brief moment of panic with the thought of losing the puppy, but he just went to say hello to other people....

Poncho did not like the hanging bridge much, but the view over the canyon and waterfall was great.

Hilary and Shayd cooked a wonderful meal; not bad hanging out here!....

Old friends

Last night dinner was with Ben and Chris, old friends from the days we started MSF Canada. Ben was the first official employee of MSF Canada, worked later in my HR team in MSF Holland (Amsterdam) and went on field project work in the French speaking East Africa regions. He managed MSF Denmark for a while and came back to MSF Canada before doing his MBA and going into the CSR/Sustainability field with several mining companies in Madagascar, Vietnam, Uganda and at the moment in Burkina Faso. Two years ago they settled in Canada in Vancouver. Chris lived most of his life in Vancouver where he worked in a legal firm; Chris was the legal expert on the Board of MSF Canada for many years and has always been an enthusiastic world traveler. It was great to see them again after so many years. Chris and family live in North Vancouver (where Hilary and Shayd now live) and Ben & family will move there soon as well. Before dinner I went for a long walk in the area and passed the hospital where Hilary works in the ER...

The rest of the day I did some writing, reading and hanging out with Poncho.....

West Vancouver

Hilary drove us to West Vancouver today where we had a nice walk in the Lighthouse Park. Poncho acted as if he was a mountain goat climbing up all the rocks....

The old trees are beautiful and some host other flora species. The views over the ocean along the many walking trails are spectacular....

From downtown waterfront West Vancouver one has a beautiful view over Stanley Park and the bridge. And the views in the other directions are equally nice (especially on a sunny day).

We had a good lunch and had dinner packed for Shayd (a terrible cop out from me because I had promised to cook supper tonight). Ah well, another day I'll do that.... (nose growing)...

Poncho

Poncho - the by now 4 month old puppy - loves hanging out with people. He was all over me this afternoon while I was reading my book....

After taking Poncho for a long walk during which he did all his business, I made the 20 minutes walk to an area in North Vancouver called the Quay. From there one can have a good view over downtown Vancouver on the other side of the bay, as well as Stanley Park (in the distance)....

North Vancouver

Yesterday I arrived in North Vancouver at the condo of Hilary and Shayd. The last two days I could feel that my (older) body was getting fatigued of the 12 days living in the car. Shayd made a nice Dal soup for dinner and I retreated in the guest unit of the condo building. I slept for more than 10 hours. Today will be a quiet day to recover a bit of the long drive. Long, but very interesting....

Kelowna

 

Started the day in Revelstoke with a nice breakfast (tip from Mark & Carly). Then on the road again with destination Kelowna. Along the way again several nice small lakes...

In Kelowna checking in the Delta hotel would have been an option when I was still travelling for work, but on this trip the choice was a budget hostel....

I had some time during the afternoon, so I made a nice long walk along the lake. Lots of water activity here during the summer by the looks of it. There was a group of enthusiasts with mini sail boats racing with distance steering.

The mini regatta was in front of luxury condos where some owners have their boat moored in front.

Closing off the day with a Mexican dinner. Tomorrow the last four hours to Vancouver North...