Sarah + Mike: First days in Vancouver

Getting over to Canada was so much easier than last time (where we flew from Sydney to Fiji, hung out for 4 hours at Nadi airport, then flew to Hawaii and hung out for another few hours before finally limping in to Vancouver two days later). I was a bit nervous about getting on my standby flight - especially as I arrived at the airport less than an hour before departure time - but it was no problem and all the staff got on, I even got an emergency exit row which I felt a little guilty about since I'm sure there were a lot of tall people crushed in regular seats while I stretched my little legs out as far as they could go...

Did the flight drug-free and managed very little sleep, but arrived at San Francisco airport happy enough and made my connection to Seattle no problem. Then a quick change to a tiny propellor plane for the 35 minute flight to Vancouver and it was done. I arrived at Emma's apartment about 7.30pm and with her boyfriend Justin we went straight to Kelly's incredible pad behind Science World with a view right over False Creek. Kelly had thrown together an incredible meal of all you can eat crab caught fresh that day (she has a friend who does fishing tours and gives her all the crab he catches because he's so sick of eating it all the time - good connection!) and we had some Canadian beers (Sleemans Honey Brown Ale, mmmm) and a really fun night. I couldn't believe that I'd been in the country for two hours and I was already having the best time ever!

Next morning (Saturday) Sarah arrived from her flight - direct 14 hours from Sydney to Vancouver, no stops. She was a bit tired so had a nap while I went for a run around Stanley Park. Later on Rae and Emma came over and then we all went for dinner at the restaurant owned and run by Kelly's boyfriend Ivo, called "The New Bohemian"

It was a beautiful place, he'd totally renovated it and the design was really funky, plus the menu was great. "Global comfort food" the theme. And Kelly rustled up some bottles of wine from a tiny boutique vineyard in BC run by ex-restauranteurs which was one of the best drops I've ever had. Damn good time.

Kelly, Emma, Raegan and Sarah