I have to admit, I’d always dismissed Neil Young as a fast-fading, pseudo-rocker with a funny voice who sings pretty miserable songs. I’d never really listened to many of his songs, so when Monkey’s plan of buying tickets to the concert and selling them on for a profit backfired and we had to go to the concert or lose money, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to going. Monkey likes him though, and the folks at work all said they loved Neil Young because he was “pure Canadiana” and now I’m Canadian I should love him too (having said that I did turn down free Celine Dion tickets for the night before - I couldn’t subject myself to that, however Canadian I am).

When we got to the stadium the first warm-up band had just finished so we had to wait for about 20 minutes for Death Cab For Cutie to arrive on stage. I was really looking forward to hearing them play but I found them pretty disappointing overall. Apart from their biggest hits, all the songs were a bit boring. The music was pretty good but we didn’t like the singer much (he reminded me of a weird mix of Placebo singer Brian Molko, whom I like, and the Pet Shop Boys‘ Neil Tennant, whom I hate), and the acoustics weren’t great as the microphone wasn’t loud enough so you could barely hear the lyrics.

After that disappointment we waited for the main show, and wow! Neil Young can really rock! He started off with his heavier, electric guitar stuff, then went acoustic for the main portion of the gig, then back to his guitar-hero stuff for the last few songs. I loved all of it, except for a four-song stint towards the end. His voice is still pretty strange, but in an imperfectly beautiful way. I don’t know, perhaps your hearing changes as you get older much like your taste buds change?

He finished off with Rockin’ In The Free World, which was amazing and sent the proper fans in the building totally nuts, then he encored with the Beatles song A Day In The Life, which was a bit of a strange choice but very well done and allowed him to slowly dismantle his guitar.

All in all it was a great gig and to my surprise I knew more than a couple of the songs. His guitar work was absolutely magnificent throughout so I can now see why he is known as one of the greats, and he has definitely turned me into a fan.

We have spent the last couple of weekends hiking half of the 48 Km Baden-Powell Trail on Vancouver’s North Shore. The trail runs from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Deep Cove in North Vancouver.

The week before last we hiked from the bottom of Grouse Mountain east to Lynn Canyon Park (about 7.5Km), and last weekend we hiked the 12.2 Km from Deep Cove west to Lynn Canyon Park. Both hikes were great; the shorter hike was the more demanding of the two and had less foot traffic on the trail but the longer hike also had plenty of ups and downs and a few rough patches which made it fairly challenging over the longer distance.

Both hikes had a fantastic Canadian feel because of the rainforest scenery and air but I think the longer one was the more interesting overall - half an hour in you reach a cliff top (Quarry Rock Lookout) with an amazing view over Indian Arm inlet, Deep Cove and Belcarra.

The hike takes you by plenty of pretty little creeks and waterfalls, then eventually you walk alongside two big rivers (Seymour and Lynn Creek), crossing the very stable bridge over Seymour Canyon and ending it all with a little wobble over the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. It’s definitely the hike I’d like to take my fitter visitors on.

We plan to do the remainder of the Baden Powell Trail but perhaps next year when we own a car, as part of the trail through Cypress mountain is not accessible by public transport which makes it difficult to do day hikes.

Before winter sets in we will probably head back to our favourite parks which lie next to  Lynn Canyon Park - Lynn Headwaters Regional Park and Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. Is it any wonder that we are planning to leave our condo in the city and move to a house in the Lynn Valley early next year?!

Thursday night was a pretty amazing night. Hockey season began for the Canucks with a game against the Calgary Flames, their biggest rivals. The atmosphere on opening night is great enough anyway, but with it being a game against the Flames as well I knew it would be electric. Added to this, in the pre-game ceremony the team were going to pay an emotional tribute to Luc Bourdon, our defenceman who died at the end of May when a gust of wind blew his motorcycle into the path of an oncoming truck. As that event had hit me so hard, I truly didn’t want to miss this game. We paid more than we wanted to for tickets up in the second to last row, but it was a night I’ll never forget so it was well worth it.

When we arrived at the stadium we were all given a commemorative cap and a round silver pin with the initials LB etched on (the logo that all the Canucks will wear on their helmets throughout the season to honour Luc Bourdon). The pre-game Luc Bourdon tribute was so wonderfully done and extremely emotional. His mother and girlfriend went onto the ice to be presented with Luc’s last game-worn jersey (which had been given to a fan on the night and very honorably returned by the fan to Luc’s family). Then Tom Cochrane came onto the ice to sing Big League as a video tribute was shown. My god it was emotional, and there wasn’t  a dry eye in the house. The lyrics to Big League are so apt to Luc’s life cut so short, it could have been written specifically for him:

When he was a kid, he’d be up at five
Take shots till eight, make the thing drive
Out after school, back on ice
That was his life, he was gonna play in the Big League

Not many ways out of this cold northern town
You work in the mill and get laid in the ground
If you’re gonna jump it will be with the game
Real fast and tough is the only clear lane to the Big League

My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna turn some heads
My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna knock ‘em dead
The Big League

All the right moves when he turned eighteen
Scholarship and school on a big U.S. team
Out with his girl near Lake McClean
Hit a truck doing seventy in the wrong lane
To the Big League

My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna turn some heads
My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna knock ‘em dead

Never can tell what might come down
Never can tell how much you get
Just don’t know, no you never can tell

Sometimes at night I can hear the ice crack
It sounds like thunder and it rips through my back
Sometimes in the morning I still hear the sound
Ice meets metal…
“Can’t you drive me down to the Big League?”

My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna turn some heads
My boy’s gonna play in the Big League
My boy’s gonna knock ‘em dead

Never can tell what might come down
Never can tell when you might check out
Just don’t know, no you never can tell
So do right to others like you do to yourself
In the Big League

You can watch the ceremony in its entirity here - kudos to the Canucks organisation, they did it so right. I had chills running down my spine all throughout, although also had a smile on my face as I remembered him. By the way, if you’re watching the video and aren’t a Canucks fan you’ll notice what sounds like a lot of boos from the crowd but they are really “Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu“’s for our goaltender Luongo, and “Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc“s for Luc - Canucks fans have never been particularly creative with their chants! You’ll notice the same Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc chant in this video - one of my favourite plays from Bourdon when he almost single-handedly stopped Ovechkin, one of the league’s top offensive threats, from scoring a goal.

The game itself was about a perfect a game as any fan can ask for. The Canucks were a bit nervy in the first period, trying to get their heads together after the tribute, but it was plenty physical and we managed to come out of it with a 1-0 lead. In the second period we scored 2 goals in the first 4 minutes and then we were away. There were hits and fights and harsh words spoken but the Flames couldn’t faze us and we went on to win 6-0 with our new captain, Luongo, getting a shutout and Alex Burrows, Luc’s closest friend on the team and by far the most emotional at the ceremony, scoring 2 goals. He dedicated the second goal to Luc by imitating Luc’s custom goal-scoring move - shooting an imaginary arrow to the heavens. Burrows actually had dinner with Luc’s mum and girlfriend the night before and they had asked him to score a goal for Luc - and he managed to score one for both of them. No one has a clue if Luc was watching over Alex and the team that night but it certainly felt like it, and the team did him proud.

I think any game I ever go to again is going to be a bit of a disappointment compared to that one - it was all just too perfect.

Our day sea-kayaking Johnstone Strait was similar to our day spent kayaking on Okeover Inlet, but a lot more enjoyable because the company was better (all about our age rather than a family with young kids), the weather was beautiful and we got to see a load of Dall’s porpoises right up close, which was a fantastic experience.

We set out from Telegraph Cove, where we saw Starbuck from Battlestar Gallatica, and mosied along the coast and back. It was on the way to our lunch beach that we saw the porpoises: we noticed that the little fish that had been jumping out of the water were getting a little manic and jumping out more and more, then we heard the distinctive blow-hole sounds of marine mammals, and suddenly we were surrounded by these porpoises, swimming alongside us! It was a really special moment, and we definitely would like to go back and do this trip again. Maybe we will do a longer trip as we will then have more of a chance of seeing the killer whales that also populate this area.