The US Open is probably my favourite tennis grand slam event so I was pretty excited this morning to be heading to the opening day of the tournament. I had a grounds ticket for the day session which meant I could come and go as I pleased around any of the courts except for the Arthur Ashe Stadium. (read more…)

A tradition every summer in Vancouver is the ‘Celebration of Light‘, a fireworks display competition held over four different nights in English Bay. Last night was the Canadian entry and many, many thousands of people crowded the beaches and streets of the West End and Kitsilano to catch the show. (read more…)

We had a nice sunny day here today so I did a lot of walking around and took a few snaps. (read more…)

(1) This is the planet Earth, a mostly harmless rocky body of gloop and stuff which formed about 4.54 billion years ago in the Milky Way galaxy. On its face you can see the continent of North America. (read more…)

We all know the old saying - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! So obviously I can’t reveal too much about the last few days which I spent there. We stayed in the Planet Hollywood which was quite nice. A discreet $20 tip to the check-in clerk got us a room upgrade. Sleeping was kept to a minimum each day and only occurred a couple of hours each side of noon. (read more…)

We’ve had lots of varying weather here in the last couple of months. Some days are just below freezing and we get dumpings of snow. Other days are what I’d call “Irish” - miserably dull, cloudy, windy and rainy. Then others still are gorgeously clear and sunny. (read more…)

The first snow of the winter hit the Vancouver mainland as temperatures stayed under freezing all day. It was a pretty cool sight although the snow was quite light and is only expected to last until the morning when temperatures will rise again and we’ll get some lovely rain to turn the ground into slush. (read more…)

Did some boring stuff this morning like opening a bank account and getting a cellphone. Helped out a couple of tourists looking for directions even though I’ve only been here three days myself. Then I got a bus to Kitsilano for the afternoon. It’s a lovely area just outside the downtown core. (read more…)

My legs were in much, much pain after yesterday’s hours of walking so I decided to remedy that by walking even more today and turning that pain into a blinding numbness. Off I trekked to Stanley Park, a 1,000 acre parkland covering the north-west area of the downtown peninsula. (read more…)

I spent quite a few hours today wandering around the downtown area of Vancouver, getting to know the place. Nice weather for wandering too. After walking up and down most of the main streets, I just started taking some random turns and found myself on the pier at Coal Harbour where I took a few snaps. (read more…)