CCCRT – Victoria – I Did It!!!

The day finally came that I can say I completed my Colossal Cross-Canada Road Trip and am now at home in Victoria, BC!  Thank you to Halifax, NS and everywhere in between for making my adventure so incredible.  

• 8 provinces
• 5 sleepovers
• 4 hotels
• 12 days
• 6,530 kilometres
• 14 gas stops
• 20+ pee stops
• 1500 digital photos
• 12 iced coffees
• and one fantastic furry companion

I DID IT!!!!

After returning from my work convention on Wednesday I headed straight back to Nicole’s and actually had to really put my nose down and get some work done. 

I did, however, get the much anticipated email from my lawyer saying my funding was complete…meaning my condo was mine!!  Shortly after that I got the call from my realtor that I could have my keys any time.  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! 

So he popped on over and I finally got to see my place!! 

I had hoped Tiffaney could be there since she did so much in helping me pick this place but alas she had a prior engagement.  My realtor, Jens, was understandably quite excited to finally show me the place too…we hugged and laughed and damn near jumped up and down when I walked in the door. 

I made him let Nicole take our picture.  :)

I can haz keys?!

Plug:  Victorians:  If you ever need a realtor, call Jens.  Any of you that have followed my condo hunting process know that he went above and beyond to help me out.  I looked at TWENTY units when I came out here in May…and didn’t buy anything.  This was lucky number 21…and upon viewing he knew it was the place for me.  I’m a lucky girl.  :)

Jens left me a thoughtful housewarming gift of yummy Summerhill sparkling wine and a gift certificate for Stage Small Plates Wine Bar that I can’t wait to use (oh ya, he’s a foodie too so we were kind of a match made in heaven…haha).

Funny enough, I basically just had a quick look around then locked the place up and headed back to Nicole’s.  I still had work to do, my furniture wasn’t here yet, and I was exhausted from all of my gallivanting around.

Thursday, I decided I needed to hit up the final photo op for CCCRT and headed on down to ‘Mile 0’ for views of the Pacific Ocean and the quintessential Victoria tourist shot.

I met some Ontario visitors that kindly took my photo and listened to me ramble for a few moments about my trip.  :)  I may have been slightly giddy!

I ate my lunch in the park, drove the seawall and into downtown, and loved every minute of the sun in my home city.

 

I spent the afternoon working at Nicole’s, but come evening it was time to head back to my place (MY place!!!) and do some cleaning and prep for the arrival of my movers the next day.  As I walked down the hall I could see a lovely surprise sitting at my door…

A gorgeous arrangement from Miss Ali!  What a doll that girl is!

The evening entailed enjoying my balcony (evening sun!), scrubbing the bathroom (boys are gross), and visiting with Tiffaney over our first Strongbows in my new home.

Friday morning my movers arrived and I was reunited with my worldly possessions.  Box city…

For lunch I took a trip to the supermarket and did my first real grocery shop for my new pad…

Local produce!!  Crack hummus!  Lookie…Squirrelly BAGELS!  My life is almost back to normal.  Healthy lunch that I made.  Yay!

Another surprise knocked at my door…more beautiful flowers!!

I should buy a condo more often.  I freaking LOVE getting flowers!!!

After working for the rest of the day I came HOME to start unpacking, do a little more cleaning (on the surface it looks clean, but the kitchen is pretty gross…lame-o!), and spent the evening sitting around on MY furniture in MY living room with fabulous friends.  Is it bad that my fridge only contains hummus, fruit and three kinds of beer?

HOME SWEET FREAKING HOME PEOPLE!!!

Thank you to everyone that kept reading, supporting and putting up with me during this incredible journey.  It was really a personal feat and a fabulous time, but knowing that so many people were reading and actually interested in little ol’ me totally helped make it even more worthwhile.  I hope that you will all stick around now while I try to get back to life as per usual.  Bigass salads and talk about exercising my bum shall resume tomorrow!  *giggles*

CCCRT – Business & Blogging

So for obvious professional reasons I don’t usually tell anyone involved with work about my blog.  A few of my co-workers know about it and I suspect my bosses know but don’t discuss it (it has come up in conversation because we do social media for work) but I never tell clients.  It’s not a secret or anything…I just feel like it’s more personal life as opposed to professional life.

This time the convention and cocktail parties had such great food that it was killing me not to be running around playing paparazzi…especially after a couple of weeks out of my usual blogging routine.

There were perfect little quiches for breakfast, and creative hors d'oeuvres for the the cocktail hours in the exhibit hall.  We went to multiple private cocktail parties and two of those had AMAZING food spreads.  What I wouldn’t give to have taken pics of the sushi poolside!! 

One of the parties had “around the world'” food stations…I wasn’t starving but I did partake in dim-sum and it was lovely.  They also had a wine station, whisky station, and a girl hand rolling cigars!

Oh and I almost forget about the Opening Reception at the Vancouver Aquarium.  There were many passed snacks and hot food tables but it was very hot inside so most of us were milling around outside watching the beluga whales and enjoying the beautiful weather.  At one point I went inside and discovered…wait for it…THE MASHED POTATO BAR!

I thought it was a taco bar, but no…instead it was a glorious bowl of smashed baby red potatoes that you could top with cheese, bacon, green onions and sour cream.  Heaven.  Especially since I’d barely eaten and it was an open bar.  :)  Hard to look hot eating potatoes but I think I pulled it off.  haha.

I love this awesome picture of the jellyfish tank I got on our way into the Aquarium…

On the final night things were winding down and we didn’t have any obligatory cocktail hours so we took the opportunity to relax and pick out a nice spot for dinner with one of our clients (hi John!!).  John had been recommended Blue Water Cafe but none of us felt like getting more dressed up yet again so we decided on Joe Forte’s Seafood and Chophouse instead.

Michelle is a Louisiana girl (by way of California and Colorado) and John is a Boston boy so I wanted them to get some great West Coast seafood.  Not to mention I just got back here so it seemed fitting!  (Pleasant surprise for me to have two dinner companions that actually like seafood too!!)

Here is where I wish I had mentioned my blog to John sooner.  The whole dinner experience at Joe Forte’s was fabulous.  It helps that all three of us love food!!  Part of the reason we wanted to try one of the higher end seafood places is because we were looking for a raw bar…specifically local oysters.  We found them!

We ordered a dozen which included four different types.  It’s been forever since I had fresh oysters, and while I thought I only liked the little Japanese style variety, Kushi…turns out I was a big fan of the largest variety we ordered, Sawmill Bay!

John also ordered us the shrimp cocktail, which was actually Poached Jumbo Tiger Prawns the size of my fist.  Nom!!

We were all so enamoured with the food that at this point I finally said something about my blog.  We weren’t working right then and I could tell that no one was going to look at me like I had two heads because clearly all three of us have a passion for food.  So when the dinner platter arrived I did get a photo.  Sadly, one grainy photo… this meal deserves so much more. 

Our server, Jamie, was a large part of the enjoyment of the meal for me.  He was so friendly and gave us fantastic suggestions.  We even exchanged restaurant recommendations for Victoria.  :)

John and Michelle almost ordered the same meal, but Jamie suggested that if we were all friends here that maybe they would like to order something different and share.  They agreed so when it came my turn I said I’d better order something else too because I wanted in on the sharing action! 

Jamie helped us choose and then suggested he would have the chef put everything on a platter family style for us.  Perfect.

We opted for Queen Charlotte Halibut (it’s in season!), Miso Marinated Sablefish, and Halibut Cheeks (we were all intrigued and these were Jamie’s choice for us).  Everything was a winner.  I swear we didn’t talk for 10 minutes except to mumble “nom nom nom, this is sooooo good” once the food came.  The Halibut Cheeks were my favourite for sure…and I was pretty much in love with the yummy edamame hash that came with the Sablefish.

To top this all off we had the.best.side.dish.ever.

When we sat down at the bar to wait for our table we saw/smelled a dish go by that we totally needed to investigate.  It was a still steaming individual cast iron skillet so I scoured the side dishes on the menu and deduced that it must be the Mac & Cheese.  Jamie confirmed it so we added that to our already large order.  Can’t pass on the gourmet Mac & Cheese!

Um, heaven in a hot little pan. 

Let’s just say that we were all full and didn’t finish our whole platter, but the Mac pan was cleaned out!

Conveniently I now live just across the water so maybe I’ll go back just for a pan of the Mac on my own.  :)  Sadly, John and Michelle live way far away so I guess our next culinary adventure will be at whatever the next convention is…let’s hope it’s in foodie friendly territory!  (gasp, I think it’s Vegas…maybe I’ll finally get to eat at one of the schmancy restaurants instead of just running for pizza in the Caesar’s food court…LOL).

If we didn’t have a cocktail/dessert party to wander off to I would have been hounding my dining companions to order dessert because they had Crème Brule on the menu, and anyone who knows me knows that I HAVE to try the Crème Brule wherever I go.  Yet another reason to go back I suppose.  :)

Now go check out Joe Forte’s website and drool over their pictures.  Do it.

CCCRT – Work and Play

During the day the booth isn’t usually too busy because a) the lawyers don’t necessarily love coming to the exhibit hall and b) they are attending continuing education classes, lectures, and seminars. 

On Sunday the hall was a ghost town for a few hours because everyone had run off to find a TV to watch the final World Cup game.  The hall did actually have two TVs with the game on and one of the exhibitors even sponsored free beer and pretzels!

About a hundred people milled around the TVs…I sat at the booth, caught up on work, and blogged.  haha.

When the game was over I grabbed good friend and former coworker Kristoff (he was there on his own business) to keep me company while I got a quick lunch from Subway…then dragged him around the new convention centre so I could play tourist.

Lots of fun art up around the centre…

Beautiful view from the walkway which connects to the seawall…

On the second day I realized that if I used the other door to the hall I could see the Olympic torch!

My favourite piece is the “Lego” Orca Whale…so cool.

It’s not blurry…it’s pixelated!  :)

Cruise ship at Canada Place (somehow I never actually got a picture of Canada Place and it’s sails!)

That was about the extent of my tourist time.  I’m sure you could tell by my lack of blogging that I must have been busy.  I was!!

Just for fun here’s a super brief synopsis of how things went:

Saturday:  booth from 1-4:30, then cocktail party in exhibit hall until 6pm, change into cute dress and head for opening reception held at the Vancouver Aquarium, plan to go to after party with other exhibitors but find ourselves out for cocktails at the new Fairmont Pacific Rim with fun clients until 1am.

Sunday:  booth from 8 – 4:30, cocktail party in exhibit hall until 6pm, change clothes and meet bosses at random cocktail party at the outdoor pool at our hotel, head to way fun party at brand new three-story club, stop for drink along the way, meet fun lawyers and stay later than bosses.  Sleep around 2am.

Monday:  booth from 8 – 4:30, eat proper sit down lunch finally, cocktail party in exhibit hall until 6pm, stop at small cocktail party on our way to hotel, learn about and attend bigger more fabulous cocktail party in our hotel, get changed and head out for way fun private party at local brew pub, stay out way too late with lawyers that are looking for fancy tequila.  Sleep sometime around 4am. 

Tuesday: inadvertently decide to sleep an extra hour, booth from 9-1 (exhibit hall closing – phew), lunch with client and Michelle, glorious nap and lounging around for a few hours, beer with client, dinner with client and Michelle, 2 more small cocktail parties, and one final farewell drink with clients before yet another 1am bedtime.

(I was supposed to actually leave Tuesday, but Michelle needed to stay for a business meeting and since we shared a room I could stay too!)

Wednesday:  head for home…I have a condo to close!  Finally tackle actual work that has been neglected for days, then fall asleep on Nicole’s couch at 8pm.  Wake up at 11pm, go to bed, sleep for another 9 hours.  Tired much?

What an amazing end to my super fabulous crazy few weeks, eh?  Too much fun.  And the best part is that we did some good business too.  Sometimes I heart my job.  Um, a lot.

CCCRT – Working Girl

Since I had to turn around and return to Vancouver the morning after completing my Colossal Cross-Canada Road Trip I didn’t really feel like I’d actually finished yet. 

I still had to get up early, repack a suitcase, organize my laptop and work bag, and ride the ferry bleary eyed.  Hmmm…sounds similar to much of my previous two weeks.  :)  Except at least I didn’t have to tackle any driving!

Nicole kindly drove me out to the ferry to save me some time and money.  First thing I did when I got on board was hit the snack bar for an easy breakfast…

The Victoria-Vancouver ferry route now offers free wi-fi so I was able to check a few things online.  I ran into my friend Meredith with her daughter and some family so we visited and caught up a weeee bit about my trip and her impending baby.  :)  Hi Mere!!!  Liane also found me because during our tweeting/BBMing we realized she was taking the same ferry for her move to Vancouver. Wish Liane luck with her new job and life in the big city!

I’ve made this trip many, many times but the scenery never ceases to amaze me.  Sometimes the ferry ride feels like a chore when you just want to get where you are going but for me this was an extension of my road trip and I was happy to continue playing tourist.

From the ferry I rode into the city on Pacific Coach Lines (Greyhound style coach/bus).  Saved me having to drive and/or deal with parking for the weekend.  The view of Vancouver when you come in over the bridge is pretty spectacular.  The familiar shapes of the distinct buildings mixed now with the amazingly tall skyscrapers and memorable trip over the bridge are always a welcome sight.

(the windows on the bus are all tinted for anti-glare so it’s damn near impossible to take photos…ah well)

I hopped off the bus near the Art Gallery and walked the few blocks to my hotel.  Was excited to find the Olympic clock since I haven’t been to the city since the Olympic hoopla.

Because this was for work I was sharing a hotel room with my co-worker Michelle.  We don’t always do that but because of my trip we weren’t sure I’d make it so we opted to book only one room just in case. 

View from our room…

 

I quickly got changed and did my hair and make-up so I could head to the convention center to join Michelle and get to work.  This is where the blogging and photo taking pretty much stopped because work had to come first. 

For those of you that have asked…I don’t like to talk specifically about my job for obvious reasons but I can say that I work for an online marketing company that is specifically for attorneys.  So when I go to conventions it’s always lawyer conventions. 

We spend our days in the booth selling our wares but our evenings are open to fun cocktail parties, drinks with other vendors, shmoozing with our clients (and potential clients) and just all round good times.  Sleep is highly sought after but rarely occurs.  :)

CCCRT – Day Thirteen – the Final Leg!

Oh lordy people!  What a whirlwind I’ve been on!!  The convention was a success and a total blast.  Sort of a perfect end to my Colossal Cross-Canada Road Trip what with all of the fun parties and such. :)  Sorry to have abandoned you all but unfortunately work pays the bills and it had to be done.  But I’m back and I have the keys to my condo in hand so things shall return to normal shortly!

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Eleventh leg:  Nanaimo, BC to Victoria, BC (the end!!)

This was almost a week ago already!

Mileage:  105 km

Time:  1.5 hours

Pee breaks:  zero

Gas stops:  none

Comfort Level:  'Twas a breeze.  What pain? :)

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After some girl chat with my Mom I had a good sleep and then had to take care of some condo buying business.  I’m telling you people, I just have bad luck with mortgage peeps…LOL.  Good thing I stopped in Nanaimo because I needed to get my final payout in the form of a bank draft and drop it off because (as I’d mentioned to them multiple times) I was going to be out of town for work on the day it was due.  Of course, they failed to mention that particular due date until I just happened to shoot an email from Kamloops to check on things.  Good thing I did!

Anyway, after taking care of that and enjoying a Starbucks bevvie with my Mom I was on the road again.

A few lovely photos of the Pacific Ocean for you all…

World’s Largest Hockey Stick & Puck.  I’ve driven by these a zillion times!  Located in Duncan, BC these were moved over after Expo ‘86 which was in Vancouver.

Made a quick pit stop at one of my favourite farm markets along the way for lunch.  Pasta salad and two kinds of fresh BC cherries!

 

I arrived at my friend Nicole’s late afternoon and just couldn’t believe I’d finally made it!  She helped me cart all of my plants into the building (they were really starting to cook in all of this BC Summer heat, but they made it!) and we loaded up Stoopy to make a home for a few days.  Nicole actually lives in the building I’m going to be living in…how convenient!

We chatted and enjoyed a Strongbow (hmmm…that’s three people that had Strongbow waiting for me…I guess I’m that predictable!) while I relaxed.  I then went for a much needed mani/pedi…soooo not showing up for a work convention looking like a road trip hobo!  and to the mall to buy new undies.  haha.  I kinda ran out during my trip.  :)

We ended our evening with drinks and food at a local pub where I visited with new friends and good friends.  Having to turn around for work the next day put a bit of a damper on any welcome back festivities…but hey you know what? I live here now!!  We can visit any time we want!!  :)