After a perfect wedding and a wonderful honeymoon, I’m now back in Vancouver and trying not to lose that serene feeling that I had just days ago when I was totally, utterly relaxed, sitting with a beer on the deck outside a cottage 30 minutes drive from Bella Coola staring at the face of Thunder Mountain, listening to the roar of the Bella Coola River and the gentle hiss of rain that somehow made that night more magical.

Our long drive home from Chilcotin country started at 9 a.m. at Riske Creek and ended at 6 p.m. in Vancouver and we only stopped twice - in 70 Mile House and Lillooet - for 10 minutes each time. I convinced G to go the long, scenic route home - highway 99, otherwise known as Sea-to-Sky - which was gorgeous but very difficult and tiring for him. From Pemberton down to Vancouver on the Sea-to-Sky Highway there was heavy rain and heavy traffic, and we were extremely fortunate to get home when we did because 6 hours afterwards there was a horrific rockslide onto the highway just outside of Porteau Cove.

No one was hurt but the highway has been closed since and is likely to remain closed for another 4 days. People are having to re-route around Lytton and Lillooet to get to Whistler and Squamish at the moment - that’s something like a 250Km detour.

We visited so many beautiful places, did so many great things and met so many lovely people on honeymoon and I will blog about them all in the weeks to come. In a couple of weeks I should have some photos ready to go along with them too. For me highlights of the trip included chilling out on Savary Island, swimming in Unwin Lake at Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park, the floatplane trip over the remote coastal villages and logging camps of western Vancouver Island to Kyuquot and back, finding there was more to Gold River than first meets the eye, meeting our favourite Canuck Willie Mitchell at Telegraph Cove, kayaking Johnstone Strait with Dall’s porpoises, being taken to the House of Smayusta by a Nuxalk hereditary chief, and exploring the Tallheo Cannery at Bella Coola.

For my husband the highlight of the trip was fulfilling his desire to jump off of a dock into a lake. We found the perfect snow-fed mountain lake in Gold River - Star Lake. The area was completely deserted and the lake was really quite warm so he stripped off and took the plunge. I did the photographing honours and this photo sums up the spirit of our trip!

The day has finally arrived; I’m getting married this evening! I feel very happy and remarkably calm, although just had a panic moment when I discovered that I was locked into my room at my parents’ house this morning. I thought they were trying to tell me something, but it turned out just to be that the door is old and the handle/lock gets stuck - they were one side of the door furiously trying to get the doorknob to turn, and I was the other side practically pulling it off in desperation! I got out in the end though, and hope that there will be no more problems today.

I’ll be going on honeymoon for about 3 weeks from tomorrow, so will be taking a hiatus from blog-writing. I’m sure I will have plenty to write about when I get back regarding my travels in BC - we’ve been looking forward to this road trip for so long and will be visiting some beautiful places that have been on our “to visit” list for a long time.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of Vancouver’s seawall in city life. My parents are visiting at the moment and they spend their days walking a different section of the seawall and seeing the city from different viewpoints. It serves as a fabulous commute for me and my fellow Vancouverites - a walk or cycle along the seawall to work really lifts your spirits and gets you ready for the day ahead. It’s so calm and peaceful, and you get gorgeous views of the ocean, and mountains and the city skyscrapers. It also acts as a beautiful gym - why stay indoors on a treadmill or in the weights room when you can get out in the sun and walk, cycle, run, or rollerblade around the seawall? On my way to work I often see people doing yoga and tai chi, and on the way back there is always at least one group of people doing a group circuit or weights session by Science World.

Every time I’m down there I just feel so alive and happy and fortunate to be living in Vancouver.

Tuesday was Canada Day, a welcome day off in the middle of the week to celebrate Canada’s 141st birthday. I like Canada Day as everyone is in a really celebratory mood and it makes me proud to be a part of this beautiful country.

There were lots of things going on with the main hubs being Canada Place and Granville Island. Canada Place had bands, competitions, displays by the Canadian Forces and Port of Vancouver and a traditional citizenship ceremony (it would be really special to become a Canadian citizen on Canada Day at Canada Place - that’s what I’m aiming for in 2 years time). Granville Island had a parade and a ceremony along with lots of live jazz.

I took advantage of the emptier than normal shops to go shoe shopping. It’s a week until my wedding and I still hadn’t found the perfect pair! I’m pleased to report that I now have almost what I wanted, only more comfortable and less strappy. I can certainly live with that! Robson Street had a stage set up with bands playing as well, so that added something extra to the experience.

We spent the afternoon on Granville Island listening to the jazz and dining/drinking at the Dockside pub on the patio at the Granville Island Hotel - it really is one of my favourite places to hang out in Vancouver. Unfortunately, it was heaving and our servers were really stressed - they said that they normally have 200 people in an afternoon, but had served 1200. They’d run out of quite a few drinks.

We ended the day with a fireworks display set off from a barge in Burrard Inlet. The crowds were amazing, the fireworks not so. I think they are saving their fireworks money for BC Day (it’s BC’s 150th birthday on August 4th - yes, BC is older than Canada) and the International Fireworks Festival at the end of July/beginning of August (this year Canada will be competing with China and the US for supremacy).