Matt Holland is here!!!!!

We have another visitor...Matt Holland has come to visit us...and for a holiday i think!!!! Mark and Matt have spent most time together, out to venues to see some music, looking round the city and hiring bikes to cycle around Stanley Park and the sea walls - aparently it was very windy!!!! Sunday night we met for drinks and food at the Backstage Lounge and Bridges Restaurant, and managed to catch some music too! Tuesday i was off work, so we headed over to West Vancouver...this is somewhere we've never been before either! After faffing around for a bit we finally got ourselves sorted and on the bus! We stopped briefly for sandwiches by the sea, then carried on to Horseshoe Bay. Absolutely gorgeous, huge mountains reaching the sea, much like they do in New Zealand! We went for a long walk all the way to Whitecliff Park, which held amazing views...we even climbed a rock out to sea and Mark and Matt saw a wild seal! Then there was just time to revive ourselves with frozen yogurt and ice cream, before heading back on the bus to Lighthouse Park. A gorgeous forest that contains some of the oldest trees in Canada.....some that were hear even before the country was discovered, and stand over 60meters tall. We walked through the forest out to the waters edge, to an amazing view back over the city. It never ceases to amaze me how you only have to travel for a short time out of the city and the landscape around you can completely change....be it mountains or forest or shoreline....i don't think there is anywhere else like it in the world! The view was made even more spectacular by the ever imposing Mount Baker visible behind the city. Mount Baker is actually in Washington State, USA....but on a clear day you can see it easily. What was spectacular on tuesday was its size....Douglas Copeland compares the Volcano of Mount Baker to America itself when it comes to Vancouver and Canada......the city lives constantly on its borders, always threatened by destruction if the mountain ever chose to erupt; just as Canada sits on American borders, always resisting being overwelmed by an American way of life. What we saw could not have made this more real.....the mountain looked bigger than ever...completely dwarfing the whole city skyline, dispite its distance. I hope you can make it out from the picture, (the 5th one down), its peak looks just like a pointy cloud! Lighthouse Park was even more special for me as I finally pieced an old memory together! I have a picture of Rachel and Cesca sitting on a rock, with the forest behind them and looking out to see, and memories of being in the forest from when we were here over 10 years ago visiting Aaron....and i felt that the forest was so familiar it had to be where we were! I was right! It is amazing how good our subconscious memory can be!!!! After looking out over the city for a while, we turned to see a Canadian Goose had appeared behind us.....it was nice, and a bit scary to be sooooo close! By the time we got back on the bus we were shattered! We headed home, freshened up and then settled in for Yopo take out at ours...Matt had to try as we had written about the 'and then' lady on our blog...and so had another friend of his!!!!! Then it was Mylo! An excellent day! Matt is off to Vancouver Island at the moment, but back tomorrow, and then we are all off to Whistler for the weekend - a final attempt at skiing!!!!! It seems so normal having him here!! xxxx