My Candian Holdiay Highlights (in no particular order)

Day One: The Flight

• Checking in at LAX for our connecting flight with Alaska Airlines and the woman behind the counter disappears for five minutes WITH OUR PASSPORTS!


• LAX security checks. Passport checked every two steps practically. There were somewhere in the vacinity of ten security checks between the international terminal (tom bradley) and the Alaska terminal (terminal 3).


• Leaving Brisbane almost an hour late.


• Being told at LAX after boarding our connecting flight that we had new pilots who needed to perform a safety check on the plane because the old pilots had died or something. Delayed a further twenty minutes!


• Patrick short changing the cute gayboy american flight atttendant on Alaska Airlines for a beer.


• Drinking beer for breakfast (australian time)


• Arriving in Vancouver (finally!)

Day Two: Going Downtown

• Dinner at the revolving restaurant


• The very warm greeting from our Canadian friend (whom I'd only met a couple of months earlier)


• Candian Maple Cream beer


• Walking from the University of British Columbia to downtown Vancouver in docs (a three hour trip!). Needless to say, me feet weren't exactly in very good condition afterwards.

Day Three: Rest and Relaxation

• The television turning itself on, garbling at me for five minutes and turning itself off.


• Walking in the rain


• Going to Vancouvers only clothing optional beach (but no one was there)


• Drinks with Mark, Patrick and the conference people at Jeremiahs.


• Checking out of the room only to have to check back in because of a mix up.

Day Three: Shopping!

• Checking into a nicer hotel with a tenth floor view of downtown Vancouver


• Drinks with Mark and his wife at their eleventh floor apartment overlooking the bay.


• Seeing a green light travelling in a prescribed pattern over the clouds trying to figure out what it was, finally realising it was coming from the observatorty over the river.


• Buying a new pair of shoes that didn't feel like they were having a fatal argument with my feet.


• Buying the Canadian flag I'd been trying to get my hands on for years


• Looking around one of the buildings used for filming in the X Files and for some new movie coming out.


• Asking for a flat white at a coffee shop, being greeted with a blank stare, explaining how it was made and recieving a latte.


• Trying to use the washer dryer in the hotel suite without instructions. thinking i'm drying the washed clothes only to discover that I'm not.

Day Four: Road Trip!

• Awaking at 5:30am to pack and checkout for a road trip.


• Driving through several mountain ranges including the Coastal and Cascade ranges on our way to the Rockies!


• Spotting a Black Bear attacking a tree on the side of the highway as we drive through the Canadian Rockies to Banff


• Playing in snow wearing a t-shirt


• Arriving in Banff


• Mark negotiating cheap hotel rooms


• Cheap hotel room with a JACUZZI, KING SIZE BED and MOUNTAIN VIEWS!!!!


• Dinner and drinks at an Irish pub.

Day Five: Banff

• Awoke just before 7am to meet Mark to go animal spotting. Saw several deer, a chipmunk (tho too quick to photograph), a squirrel, a coyote, a gopher and some big horned sheep. Patrick and Mark's wife slept in, VERY silly.


• Is Marks birthday, so go out to celebrate. Starter drinks at the Irish pub, dinner and a shooter at Wild Bill's Saloon, a quick browse through the Rose and Crown and back to the Irish pub for more beer and shooters.


• Finding a bottleshop open to continue drinking in our hotel room (mine and Patricks)


• Consuming half a bottle of rye between mostly Mark and myself.


• Making a mini documentary on the guys and girls toilets.


• Taking a trip on a the Sulphur Mountain Gondola to the top of Sulphur mountain and seeing a mountain goat.


• Coffee at the Banff Springs Hotel (i think that's what it's called). Looks like a castle and is incredibly posh.


• Going for a picnic only to discover we forgot the food but remembered the drinks


• Having my hand hugged by a gopher.


• JACUZZI!!!!

Day Six: Drumheller, Alberta, Canada (a short road trip)

• Driving through the Albertan prairies and thinking how similar they are to the NSW outback


• Horseshoe Canyon


• The Tyrell Museum.


• Finding a bone that looks suspiciously like a spine from a Dimetrodon.


• JACUZZI and Champagne.


• Picnicking in Dinosaur Valley

Day Seven: Back to Vancouver

• MOOSE!!!! Running through the river on the side of the road. A female moose, but a moose none the less.


• ELK!!!! Sleeping on the side of the road.


• Canadian Geese at Korowna


• Checking back into the Sandman Suites for an 18th floor view of Stanley Park, the Bay, North Vancouver and the other side of downtown.


• Thai food and TV


• Learning how to use the washer/dryer and getting the clothes to actually dry!

DAY Eight: Leaving for home

• One last trip around downtown.


• Buying a pair of pants REAL CHEAP!


• Huge all you can eat sushi lunch with Mark and his wife


• Half hour delay with flight


• Sprinting around LAX to find departure terminal for international connection


• Sleeping on the plane

Day Ten

• Taking excellent photos of the sunrise over New Zealand as we leave Auckland Airport.


• Discovering Patrick's misplaced his wallet


• Arriving Brisbane to discover our luggage had not.


• Breaking into the house because the house key was in the misplaced luggage

til next....
~Kits~ (pictures later, too tired)

lugging it around

dear asshat baggage handlers at LAX

once upon a time there was a girl returning from a holiday in Canada, and as a result of her Candadian adventure she had been forced to check one of her carry on bags into cargo.

her return trip took her from Vancouver (a beautiful city with mountain views and fresh sea air) to Los Angeles (with smoggy views and smoggy air) and on to her home city.

she watched in a subdued sushi filled haze as her bag was unceremoniously dumped onto the baggage carousel and thrown into the cargo hold of her plane at Vancouver airport.

she was forced to run, bloated to the gills on japanese food, from one terminal to the next, with no signage and no one to help. most questions were answered with responses that only fueled the confusion that is LAX.

upon arrival in her home city she was greeted with a very obvious lack of baggage.

"where could they be?" she asked herself.

oh, they're still in LA, along with several other passengers belongings from the same flight, for LA had not seen them and so could not pack them into cargo, fabulous!

perhaps a review needs to be made of the baggage transfer system from domestic to international flights?

insincerely yours
Bagless