This past weekend my sisters, Gladys and Maria, with my niece Amanda flew in from Toronto to spend the weekend in Vancouver helping me celebrate my 41st birthday. It’s hard to believe that all of us haven’t been together for one of our birthdays in over 8 years.
This was Maria and Amanda’s first time really visiting Vancouver (Amanda has been here before, but has only spent time in the airport on her way to Hawaii usually). It was fun to show them the city that I’ve called home for over 8 years. Showing them the true beauty that the west coast has to offer. It was sad they couldn’t be here during the Olympics, but they still were able to see some of the Olympic venues and get a glimpse of what it was like during the wonderful 18 days of the Olympics.
They got to finally visit Ponchos, where we had our birthday dinner and I was treated to a yummy birthday treat from the owners.
We had brunch on Saturday morning at Provence at the Yaletown marina and ventured up to Whistler for the day, stopping throughout the many observation platforms on the Sea-to-Sky highway. Being there only a couple of weeks before, it was interesting to see how Whistler has changed from an Olympic city to a Paralympic city. Noticeable changes were the Olympic rings changed to the Paralympic symbol, city banners changed to the paralympic logos, and the Whistler cauldron not lite up.
On Sunday they did get to experience the typical Vancouver winter day when the rains rolled in. It was funny to see them bundle up and complain about the cold (yes shocking especially coming from Toronto).
All in all they had a great time and I miss them already. I’m glad that my sister Gladys, who works for Air Canada, is able to fly and visit when she can and it’s always fun when she can bring a member of the family along with her.
Thank you for making my 41st birthday so memorable!
