Cants do Christmas in Canada

Christmas Eve in Canada. The world outside was white. The dream of a white Christmas was here. We had hung some decorations on the tree that we had collected from our travels. We went to mass with Steph and her family and then to Heather and Todd's place for supper (dinner). The boys were dared by Todd to do a snow dip and then plunge into the hot tub on the back deck. No real need for a dare, in true Aussie style they stripped down to their undies and jumped into the snow before one could say Croc Dundee. Lots of laughs and a worried mum!

The Video is a bit dark, but you can get the idea and feel the moment.

The aftermath...

Elaine had made us all special Santa stockings so we hope they are full of pressies come Christmas day.
Waking up on Christmas morning was a weird feeling. This is my first Christmas without my Dad and I was missing him terribly. But with a mix of emotions I was excited for the boys when Santa arrived with ice hockey memorabilia and other Canadian bits and pieces. They were not sad at all, just impressed that Santa had found them and given them what they had asked for along with some extra stuff.

Christmas Day was so much fun. Once the turkey was in the oven it was time to play in the snow. We grabbed some sleds and walked through the snow to a hill where we could zoom down and sled. SO SO much fun. Greg and I felt like kids all over again and the boys had a blast. Sledding has definitely become a major favourite past time to tackle the Canadian winter. Such a great day! Great company, food and fun.

Frank and the bird

Merry Christmas with Steph

When do we eat? with Jaden and Calan

Sledding

Cants hit Canada

The day has finally arrived and now we fly from San Francisco to Calgary, AB Canada. We are all feeling a bit nervous, excited and just wanting to get there so we can stop living out of a suitcase and have a home away from home. Flying over the Rockies we saw snow everywhere and landing in Calgary there was snow settled on the ground. Steph and her mum and dad, Frank and Elaine, greeted us at the airport - they too were very excited to see us and it was just like greeting family with lots of hugs and kisses all round. Finally the living part of the adventure in Canada begins.

Views from the plane (over Canada)

Christmas lights in Sylvan Lake

Our first look at our house in Sylvan Lake :)

San Francisco

After a long time living out of a suitcase we were looking forward to a relaxing few days in San Francisco. But we didn't stop. When we arrived we decided to go an jump on a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour on an open topped double decker bus. The only tour we could do that afternoon was across the Golden Gate bridge. My first impressions of San Francisco was that I wanted to move there. The buildings are beautiful, the weather cool but sunny and the atmosphere of the place was great.

Boys being boys we sat right at top and back of the bus. No suspension and the wind blowing through our hair. We have never laughed so much. We were all cold but kept warm from the blankets on the bus and shaking from laughing! What a view across the bridge though. The boys looked so hard that they swore they could see Australia across the Pacific. Even with glasses on I can't see that well!



Windswept



After a good night's sleep we boarded the bus once again and took in some more sights of San Francisco.

A trip to San Francisco isn't complete without a visit to Alcatraz. A prison is an amazing place. Interesting and eerie all in the same breath. How cold and awful it must have been for those that were convicted to serve their time there.

The Grand Canyon

All places in Las Vegas should read BUYER BEWARE. Having not prebooked a tour to the Grand Canyon before we arrived in the US we thought it would be easy to get helicopter flights from Las Vegas. It was - nearly every place was offering tours, free tickets to places but there was always a catch. What we thought we were getting was explained to us from a street vendor to be the best deal on earth. All sounded great and we were really excited to be doing a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. It was definately a fantastic flight, however not the same as was explained to us. Luckily we had kept all details and carried it with us and in true American style expressed our dissatisfaction which scored us a DVD of the whole flight for free (saving us $50). Better than nothing!

The Grand Canyon is truly beautiful. Definately a place we would like to spend more time in and exploring. Mother nature shows so many wonderful things and it's not until you are standing in the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the US that you can appreciate it. I know that we will develop more of an appreciation for Mother Nature when we see parts of Canada too.

Ready to fly...

Hoover Dam

The Grand Canyon

In The Grand Canyon



Enjoying? the cacti

Next stop: San Francisco

Las Vegas Baby!

From San Diego across the desert to Vegas. Many have traveled to claim their fortunes. This wasn't us. The drive was beautiful. No huge cactus but lots of Joshua trees and even some snow. The suburban made it even more comfortable with the heated leather seats and kids far enough behind us that they were not a worry for a 6 hour drive.

Finally arriving in Vegas was very exciting. So much to see...



New York, New York

  Inside of all of the casino's is truly amazing! Christmas gone crazy in most. All were so beautiful, all with a different theme, all over the top and all worth looking at.


Winter wonderland in the Bellagio




Water fountains at the front of the Bellagio



The Flamingo casino (complete with the real ones inside)

 We looked in every single casino and eventually the boys had had enough of looking. Joey wanted to win big, unfortunately he has a few more years to wait. We also caught a dinner show at Excalibur with Knights on horse back duelling each other and The Lion King on stage which was brilliant.

My favourite thing of course was the shopping. So cheap at the Premium Outlets - wish I had had longer, a bigger suitcase allowance and no kids or husband.  Greg and the boys yet again scored well with lots of Quiksilver gear. Even the "normal"stores were so much cheaper. Would definately hit Vegas again with an empty suitcase and loads of cash. Perhaps I can win big next time.

Next stop: San Francisco

San Diego

We picked up what we thought was a car (or at least a small SUV like a Rav 4) in LA. What we got was a large Suburban - felt like a real American :). We drove on a 6 lanes each way freeway from LA to San Diego stopping to go to Legoland. the boys were really excited. Unfortunately due to the rain Legoland was closed. OH&S and public liability kills everything! So we were offered free passes to the Legoland aquarium which was great. The kids particularly liked the giant octopus. the boys misfortune was our gain as we then discovered an outlet mall nearby. I think the boys (mostly Greg) had a ball. 8 pairs of shoes later and some cheap makeup for me and we headed to our hotel in San Diego.

Our next adventure was to visit Seaworld - the home of Shamu (the killer whale) - think Free Willy the movie. It was a rainy day so we donned our plastic $2 raincoats and braved the park. Thankfully the rain kept everyone away. We were able to get on the rides easy and have our pick of seats in the stadiums.

The rain did not dampen our spirits. The next day in San Diego we boarded a trolley tour and visited some of the tourist destinations including the old town, Coronado island (and the Hotel Coronado) and the USS Midway - a naval boat with loads of jet fighters. The boys (particularly Paddy) loved it. Paddy thinks he wants to be a jet fighter piolet when he grows up.

Next stop: Las Vegas Baby!

Universal Studios

Even though we were exhausted we boarded a bus to head to Universal Studios for the day. Our driver was chirppier than was normal and sounded exactly like Elmo off Sesame Street. It took us about an hour and a half to get there from the time we boarded the bus to the gates of Universal Studios which is good going for traffic in LA.

It was very quiet for a tourist hotspot which meant that we were able to get on rides super fast - absolutely no wait time, even though we had a front of line pass which meant that we could jump to the front of the line and avoid any queues - this was used heaps later in the day.

The rides were a bit scarier than what we had experienced at Disneyland and it wasn't as happy. Perhaps because we were so tired but also perhaps that it caters for the movie market (and teens) and not little kids. They had a theme of "How the Grinch stole Christmas" which the boys found a bit intimidating.

The tour of the backlot was great. We saw where Western movies were made, where the Desperate Housewives live and JAWS. The shows were also excellent. We had a chance to get up close and personal with some animal actors and Waterworld was brilliant.

A late afternoon and back to our hotel in LA. We kept some Americans from Portland, Oregan entertained with our Aussie accents.

Next stop: San Diego