Canada 2015- Part 06

The next day we took a little daytrip.

I love that I already did the downtown Vancouver tourist attractions. It meant I got to spend a lot more time doing the kinds of things my friends like to do and getting to see places they've been and see more of the nature side of BC than just the city.

We piled into Tara's jeep early and headed for Merritt. Nykky knows how much I love country music, so she and Ashley had suggested this small town since there was a lot of country music attractions here. The drive over was gorgeous and the weather was pretty perfect.

When we got to Merritt, it turns out the Country Music Hall of Fame was closed. No big deal. We got to enjoy all sorts of awesome murals and do the Country Music Walk of Fame. There were some awesome stars along the way so we got to see some pretty cool spots. 

We also made a stop for bannock. I love native frybread from Arizona and the bannock here was pretty awesome. Even better- they cafe played lots of Johnny Cash. 

On our way out, I sampled some contraband in the form of Kinder Surprise.

Canada 2015- Part 05

This post is mostly photos.

There's not a lot to say about the Richmond Night Market. 

It was all kinds of awesome and terrible at the same time. I hate crowds. It was an eclectic combination of a street market, night fair, and Asian food fest rolled into one. While the food offerings (boba tea, mango slushes, squid balls) all appeal to my super Asianness, I didn't really eat anything. I managed to snag a couple of fun goodies (a Stitch blanket and a shark costume for Roger). All in all, we were all just a little bit miserable with the heat and the crowds. 

Fun experience though.

The best part was Ashley brought her daughter Jayda who is a riot.

After the market, we were hungry and I got to indulge in some late night poutine.

Canada 2015- Part 04

Fort Langley was a great time. 

Especially because we brought children and watching them was half the fun.

The Fort is a major historic place in Canada and has a cute little village inside. My friends told me that they'd come here for school field trips when they were younger and seriously, I would have loved to have a field trip somewhere like this. 

 We did have a momentary freak out when me and Nykky heard goats and Tara thought we were going nuts. Turns out, there are goats. 

There is also gold panning.

And fun costumes that we maybe weren't supposed to put on and wear...

All in all, a fun educational outing for us non Canadians and Canadians alike.

Canada 2015- Part 03

My second day in Canada was pretty chill.
After grabbing Tim Horton (I geeked out over that Stanley Cup donut), we wandered a bit. My friend took me over to the Kents farm from Smallville and since it's been so long since I saw the show, I committed a major feux pas- I took a pic of the wrong farm. Yeah. I did that.

After this awkwardness, we grabbed lunch at the Cactus Club with my friend Erica. I was warned ahead of time that they had the coolest bathrooms. No joke, they really did.
The food was pretty great too.

We ventured out in the heat (seriously, it was pretty hot) to see the Storybrooke town hall in Fort Langley and then made our way to the actual fort to visit with more of the girls.

At the risk of overloading this post with pics... TBC...

Canada 2015- Part 02

So after the big Mexican restaurant confusion, we met up with Tara.

Trying to find something to do on a random Thursday night was hard. Despite Tara's husbands half serious suggestions, we did not in fact go to a park and smoke a joint. Instead, we went for ice cream because I needed sugar and had yet to eat dessert.

After ice cream, we were still at a loss. Finally, Nykky came up with a wonderful (and super creepy) idea- we would go see the Bates Motel set since the series is filmed not too far from where most of the girls live. Sounded like a plan.

My friend Jac lives down the road from here and had told me later on how one day she left for work and the field was empty and when she came home that night, suddenly there was a rundown motel and a creepy house on a hill. So freaky. 

After looking up the address, we drove down a back road with no lights and started to look for trailers or anything indicating a film set. We weren't sure if the set would be up since filming was on a break but suddenly the trees cleared and there it was. 

The actual motel itself would be creepy enough on a normal day but since filming was off, the building was wrapped in plastic that was eerily blowing in the wind. The actual Bates mansion was high up on a hill looking creepy and ominous. To make it worse, the interior seemed to glow a bit and there was a shadow of a person (a fake one) standing in the window. Super weird.

We got out of the car to take pictures and everything seemed relatively normal until Tara heard a noise. Keeping our ears open for serial killers, we all tried to stay quiet and hurry along. Finally we heard something. A goat. A really loud annoyed goat. Suffice to say, we wrapped up quickly and left.

Fun first night in Langley!