Sorry guys, most exotic thing I saw (through all the rain) was an eagle.
anyway... the 3 pics i took! hehe. be warned, they're big, i am too lazy to edit them down at all
The area I was staying in was the a couple of hours south of Vancouver. It's beautiful down there, basically surrounded by mountains, snow and forestry with a huge river running right through the middle of it, which you follow if you take the Western Express train.
The town I stayed in was a relatively small town but very spread out. As the name suggests, it was founded as a place to 'enlighten' the natives there. Those pictures are a park called Heritage park, which is 40 acres of forestry right in Mission itself (well just at the edge) and its gorgeous. I had a good explore around there! The place is surrounded by forested mountains topped with huge banks of snow. The town itself is beautiful, and nearly every house is different. I spent most of the holiday walking around Mission actually, due to the rain. I visited the EB Games there (and in Abbotsford and Vancouver too... can't keep me away from game stores lol) and also went to the cinema 3 times, not to mention trying out countless different takeaways including 3 chinese places, kfc, mcdonalds and many others.
Where I went riding was . There should be some pics up of me there soon, according to the wife anyway. I'll keep an eye and let you know if any make it up. Was a 2 hour trail ride which was improvised a bit, as the previous week of non-stop rain meant we couldn't go across the river on their usual path. Even so we went down one flooded bit where the water was literally up to the horses belly! It was western-style riding too, so that took me a few mins to get used to, and after my arm was aching from holding the reins in one hand in the centre instead of with both arms at my sides.
I have a printed out picture that I can scan and add at some point. I rode Lakota, who was fairly calm but had a small wild streak. Like jumping a puddle and a log when I wasn't expecting it, and trying to canter off down a little sandy bit. I always get the idiots
The instructor was riding a gorgeous Arab x Morgan (for those who don't know, these are beautiful breeds, particularly the Arab) who was very skittish and wanted to prance everywhere. We also had their fat dog, Tyson, join us. He was enjoying himself until the deep water, when the poor guy got half-drowned on the way out, so when we came back he disappeared for 10 mins and found his own, drier route back to meet us.
Also popped into Vancouver for a day and visited Canada's second biggest shopping mall apparently. Spent a good 5 hours there, its great for shopping and has everything! Had a goth shop which I wanted to get a table from (glass top with dragon under it snarling for $750 and a black sword like the Recundis one in Sacred with gold trimmings for $500) Also visited the EB Games there and 2 chocolate shops #cough#
Saw some more of on my travelling days too and its a beautiful city. Didn't see much on the way out there as it was dark by the time I got in, but on the way back it was mid-afternoon and the cherry blossoms were out! It's a huge city, but there's no street without a couple of trees and it is absolutely gorgeous. The most amazing thing about it is that you look around and see the usual shops and skyscrapers, but then you realise in the background are hundreds of mountains with a ton of snow on them and forestry at the bottom. Absolutely beautiful.
I also visited the neighbouring town of which is a little larger than Mission. There I got to visit a Futureshop (yes I know, tsk tsk but I can't resist the darn pc related shops!) and also got more chocolate... oops. Only stayed there an hour or so however, before returning to Mission to find a fair had been set up... where I accidentally ended up in one of those ferris wheel type things that goes upside down. I don't do upside down rides, and you had to brace yourself continuously on this one or you'd lose all your teeth (no I'm not exaggerating) so I wasn't too happy when I got off.
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