The beautiful fall colors are quickly fading and before long everything will be brown and mucky. Before everything gets too depressing, I thought I would post some happy fall pictures from Canada. I never knew fall until I saw a Canadian fall. Wow, I mean wow. I don’t think these pictures even capture the vast beauty of it all. Everywhere you look there is another stunning, vibrant color. It truly was amazing.

I am ready to go back!

On our totally awesome (have I said that enough?) vacation in Vancouver, B and I were upgraded to a one bedroom suit with an amazing view.  The area of Vancouver we stayed in is filed with high-rise buildings, our hotel being one of them.  Our room was on the 31st floor, out of 35 floors total.  We were up there.  And I loved it! 

For some reason, high-rise buildings entertain me.  I don’t really love heights, but when I am up high, I love it. I love having the ability to overlook everything, which is why I spent most of our time in the hotel room sitting in front of the window.  I even moved a chair over so I could just sit there and look out.  (We had a balcony too, but at 31 stories high it’s a little cold and windy.  Plus, the chair wouldn’t fit outside.)

Today’s Vancouver Fact:  We stayed in the West End district of Vancouver, which is the most populated area in all of Canada.  You could walk from one end of the small island to the other in about 20 minutes, but yet 40,000+ people live in the area.  High-rise living is a must!

So besides staring out the window every chance I got, I also felt the need to take pictures of our view every chance I got.  I think I took a picture every morning and evening, probably every time we got back to the room as well.  Now you get to relive my obsession.  Lucky you!

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We didn’t know what kind of view we had the first few days.  During my conference the weather was rainy and foggy every day.

Luck for us though, the weather cleared up just in time for our vacation to start!  Talking about timing.

Everyday was a little bit more clear than the day before.  We didn’t want to leave!  It was hard when everyday was a little nicer than the day before.

Sunset was awesome as well!  We couldn’t really see the sun setting from our room, but we could see the beautiful pink and orange hues cast on the buildings.

Night time was awesome as well.  I love my quiet house in Oklahoma, but there is something about a busy city that is so exciting.  Every siren or loud car had me running to the window to see what was going on.  In another lifetime, this could be me.  I think I could really get use to big city living!

By the way, fall in Vancouver tops any fall I have ever seen before.  The colors were amazing!  We really lucked out on the weather too, it was suppose to rain every day, but it has been wonderful since the day my conference ended.  Perfect timing!  You are lucky I am coming home at all!  Sorry Zoey and Servo, we almost sent you to live with grandma and grandpa forever.

Now, you all know that Megan is currently visiting your Northern neighbors, in the gentle land of Canadia. Specifically, Vancouver. Many of you may not have been to Canada, and being that I am Canadian, I feel it my natural duty to ed-jum-a-cate you on the ways of the Canadian … and on the new and exciting things that Megan is currently learning/trying/seeing.

And so, I thought I would share a few choice (ahem, my favorites and perhaps slightly modified) “You know you’re Canadian when” snippets.

You know you’re Canadian when:

1. You’ve frozen your tongue to something metal and lived to tell about it.
2. You’re not offended by the term “Homo Milk”.
3. You drink pop, not soda.
4. You understand the sentence “Could you please pass me a serviette, I spilled my poutine.”
5. You know that a mickey and a 2-4 means “Bush party in snow pants, eh!”
6. You can talk about the weather with anyone. Even creepy homeless people.
7. You dismiss all beers under 6% as “for children or the elderly”.
8. You know that Casey and Finnegan aren’t a Celtic music group.
9. You participated in “Participaction”.
10. You are excited whenever an American TV show mentions Canada.
11. You wear socks with sandals.
12. You know all the words to “If I had a million dollars” by The Barenaked Ladies, including the inter-stanza banter between Steven and Ed.
13. You wonder why there isn’t a 5 dollar coin.
14. You can sing “Oh Canada” in French and actually know what the words mean!
15. Your backpack has more than one Canadian flag iron-on.
16. You know the French equivalents of “free”, “prize” and “no sugar added” thanks to your extensive education in bilingual cereal packaging.
17. You had a crush on Joey Jeremiah from Degrassi Junior High.
18. You think -10 C (14 F) is mild weather.
19. You’re proud that Captain Kirk came from Montreal.
20. You think it’s HILARIOUS when you hear of people believing Canadians live in igloos.

Now, be honest, did you know all of those things about Canadians?

And now, I will leave you with a photo that Megan emailed me earlier today. She’s having such a great time in Canada with her new camera, and she’s been taking lots of pics. This is her standing in front of her Vancouver hotel, fresh and exhilarated after a long day of sight-seeing and snow-shoeing:

See? Doesn’t that look like simply palatial lodgings? I bet you’re jealous now!

Safe travels, Megan! Can’t wait to see more pictures when you’re back home!