Traveling by your self can be a peaceful and relaxing experience, but traveling with others offers new meaning to the words aberrant entertainment. We all had not traveled together before and did not know what to expect. Boy, were we in for a surprise! When traveling in such close proximity for such an extended period of time peculiar behaviours are bound to surface. We all know and expect everyone to have their own little idiosyncrasies that help define who they are but some were just odd; a fact we took full advantage of, no word of a lie. The tone of the trip was set early when one of the members of the group recounted a prediction that “he is going to make someone cry by the end of this trip”. It was open season in Vancouver and everyone got teased with nicknames that stuck with them the whole trip (Speedy, One-hour-shower-boy, and Cuddles). Besides all the snoring, which everyone did but no one would admit to, the early risings and late nights kept us away from both our small shoe box hotel room and each others throats.

Everyday was an adventure because it took us to and from places like Chinatown to Gastown to Yale Town, where we tasted the night life and thought we saw a few movie stars. We went to a couple of Buddhist temples, scaled Grouse Mountain, and took a ferry to and from Vancouver Island where we visited the Pacific Rim National Park, Tufino, and Victoria. In Whistler, we zip-lined through the tops of rainforests, which is something everyone needs to try once, and after much walking finally found lost lake. We also braved, and to our surprise survived, the wild trails in Whistler where black bears were known to frequent. Speedy, by fearless choice, was bouncing up and down the trail like a gazelle, whilst one hour shower boy and cuddles abandoned their own safety to protect Mike from a surprise bear attack. We were hoping we would hear the gazelle call out in pain so we would know to run the other way, but all is well that ends well.

We were privileged to meet and have dinner with Lee Pai twice. He had many insights and stories that fascinated us for hours. We enjoyed two workouts: the first was in one of the ancient rainforests that Vancouver Island had to offer and the other at the base of Bridal falls near Chiliwack. Overall, the food was great, the company even better, and the view of Vancouver and the surrounding area sublime. Some valuable lessons we took with us from the trip were 1) never poke a sleeping bear, 2) you are never too old to cuddle with a pillow, 3) its just weird not to include people in your pictures when you are on vacation with them and 4) a 20 minute shower is long enough to make people wonder what you are doing in there, let alone having a one hour shower.