Critters

For some reason, it seemed like the animal kingdom was doing it's best to stop the wedding (or at least ruin the photo's). After my encounter with Zooey, my sister-in-laws possessed cat, upon landing in Maui I was set upon by mosquitoes. At first I was bit in the hand, then on the side of my forehead. By day three the little b*s had caused me ear to swell double its size (visible on some of the Luau photo's).

Here's a comparison ear-to-ear:

 

As if my ego  wasn't bruised enough, Donna made me wear some sort of plastic face mask the night before the big day which made me look like an android from the movie A.I.:

 Jude Wes

Must Do Checklist: The Luau

It's one of those extremely expensive tourist things that has to be done, so here we are queuing on the beach, near twilight waiting to get our hands on those free complimentary Mai Tai's.

To be fair, it was a free bar and all you can eat, what else could you ask for?

Here's the pig going into the ground. For those that don't know, a Luau is where they cook a whole pig in the ground before serving it up.

View photo's of the Luau

Basil Tomatoes

So we finally settled in and on the first night we decided to all go out together and sample some of the local cuisine. Mike recommended Basil Tomatoes just down the road from Ka'anapali. I have a video of the event but I haven't got round to editing yet.

Some of the highlights include being served by the militant waitress we nicknamed 'butch' (wait till you see the video) and being served purified 'clear' milk (also in the video).

Mike had already finished his drink at this point. I guess no one has mentioned to him that you toast first and then drink.

Since we paid for the meal on my card, we ended up with a fistful of dollars. I didn't get to play with it long, as Donna was already comfortably getting ready to be in wife-mode.

View the photo's

Maui

After arriving overnight, driving in the dark along the coast to find the Ka'anapali Villas where we would be staying we finally got to glimpse the beauty of the island of Maui. Far left is Donna overlooking a place where whales can be spotted. Unfortunately we were too early in the season to see them.

Left is a lava rock beach close to Makena Cove, south of the island where we were 3 days from sealing the deal.

Below, some trees behind Makena Beach where I was ambushed by a Mosquito and Donna standing on Makena Beach.

See these photo's on Facebook

Coffee Anyone?

How do you like the new blog? I decided to disenfranchise the blog from AAF website and we originally experimented with Wordpress.

Although Wordpress has great customizable features, it's a bit restricted so we've gone for the old Blogspot domain.

We’ll continue to post images from the Maui trip and the Wedding of course, but this is going to allow us to move beyond and merge it with our current activities at a later stage.

We're Moving!

No, not physically, but our 'Maui Wedding' blog discontinues at this address from here on!

Some people have voiced concern that they are unable to access at this server, so to make it more easy (especially for those a little more technically challenged) we have moved to a new domain and created a new blog:

Saturday Morning Coffee

All the posts here have been transferred over to SMC and the photo journey will continue whilst we bring the blog screaming into the present.

This Maui Wedding blog will remain here for the meantime. But update your shortcuts lest one day you find this blog disappears!

Flying Cattle

We finally set out from Vancouver airport on 24th October, Gina is pictured above, at the check-in. I guess we were all so excited about going that we didn't think that the taxi ride to the airport would get us there so punctually. As you can see in the picture the place looked a bit empty. At first we thought it was going to be a quiet flight....until we realised that we were about an hour too early. We were there before the check-in desks were even open. Now that's excited.

Anyway once we were finally on the flight we realised that this holiday chartering business was not as comfy as one would like. The 5 hours on the flight with WestJet felt longer than the 8 hours from Heathrow to Calgary with Air Canada. WestJet were cheap, so cheap that they even felt they could charge us extra for in-flight video entertainment. The only problem is if you didn't want to pay you still had to face the video screen that had been installed on the back of every chair, blinking away an advertisement that bragged the advantages of buying the rights to view more then the advertisement itself. In the end the dumb video was out of order anyway and no one would get a chance to sample the fine array of movies they would've had to offer. Gina found a better use for the back of the chair in front of her and simply fell asleep. Nice one.

View the photo's

The Evil One

I am at soon to be sister-in-laws apartment in Vancouver (or Hongcouver as it's popularly known).

Why am I wearing rubber gloves whilst checking my email? That would be said sister-in-laws cat, Zooey, or, as I liked to call... Sauron.

Sauron is a man-hating cat. As soon as I entered the apartment he made his feelings heard with constant hissing. I didn't get any photos of Sauron, he skulked around the apartment and kept his distance.

Little did I realise he was plotting and biding his time before he pounced. The next day when, Gina left to go shopping, he saw his chance to strike, whilst I was lying on the couch I suddenly felt a claw scratch the back of my head- and there he was- hiiiisssss.

Attempts to shoo the little critter, and grab the scruff of his neck resulted in the first of many injuries inflicted by critters during this holiday. Eventually I was left no choice but to arm myself with broom, rubber gloves and boots. I didn't manage to get him out on the balcony where I could hang him, so instead I got him into the bedroom.

He tried messing with me again only once, but it was short lived.

Till we meet again psycho devil cat.

Photo's on Facebook

Sasquatch!

First the grizzly and now this guy! Someone must have radioed ahead and told Snow White I was coming to Canada for the first time... because Snow White then got on the blower to the bluebirds, and the bluebirds spread the word to the rest of the forest to be on the lookout for me.

This one didn't talk much, but he was used to having his picture taken and offered to pose like he was just caught sneeking out to the liquor store.

Actually I think we actually had caught him sneeking out to the liquor store. Mrs Foot was not pleased.

Here's a nice view of some valley at sunset which is quite beautiful. This was just before we entered the (teehee) desert. Yes folks apparently Canada has a desert...

Photo's on Facebook

Uncle Bob and Aunt Dora

Here's a picture of Donna's Aunt and Uncle. Bob even managed to smile for the camera, which I'm glad about, because he truly is a funny guy to be around.

Bob has a dry humour which the Canadians tend to have difficulty with. The truth is there are probably a lot of Brits that would get offended by Bob, but all I could do was laugh.

Aunt Dora is a born again believer, but Bob isn't a Christian, he's kind of anti in a way. So please pray for him everyone.

I've given it a lot of prayer, I'm going to come back one day and bring a missionary team to Trail to stay with Bob and Dora and try to win Bob for Christ.

I know he'll appreciate it once we get him saved... Jesus loves you Bob!

Trail, home of 'Fluff n Stuff' and The Colander!

Here is Donna with Aunt Dora outside her church, the Family Worship Centre, Trail, BC. Below is a picture of the street the church is on. You can just make out on the photo (if you zoom in) that the church is right across the street from Fluff n Stuff: Adult Boutique!

It brings to mind the childrens hymn we sang at first school:

"Cross over the road my friend, ask the Lord his help to lend..."

Indeed. Your own jokes in the comments please...

We stopped here overnight to visit with Bob and Dora, Donna's aunt and uncle and we ate, ate, ate. It started at the infamous Colander. Here they just serve you spaghetti, meatballs, chicken and potatoes till you can't reach the table because your gut has pushed it further away during expansion. I have to admit though, it's great food!

Comments Anyone?

I'm taking off the private message function at the bottom of the page.

Instead, at the end of each post there is a link which is unhelpfully titled "0 comments" which then incrementally increases with each comment left.

Just click on the link and leave your message in the box, for all to see, including Wes and Donna. This way, it's just easier to respond to specific posts (and correct me for being an ignorant Brit).

Happy commenting!

Cranbrook to Trail

A turn-of-the-century mill grain elevator in Creston, which is pretty cool. I wonder if Canada has laws like England that list protected buildings? A country as large as Canada would probably be able to do it and still look good, in contrast to England, with lots of small crappy buildings and crappy streets which have trouble accommodating 21st century transport and housing development.

Below is a stream that runs parallel to Highway 3. I have no idea where it was we stopped. But I just had to get a shot. Raw, natural beauty.

Wild mountain goats we ran into on the Skyway between Creston and Trail. I think the largest free roaming animal we have in England is a badger or a fox (we do have boar apparently but they are rarely spotted). You would never see goats mountain sheep, moose or bears roaming wild around the English countryside, so to see it is breathtaking.

And they just don't care, they don't run away, they just ignore you as you drive on up, pull out your camera and start taking shots. I actually have these guys on video so when I work out how to edit it on the puter, I'll upload for all to see.

Edit (16/5/07): Doh! Elsie wrote to correct me:
"Sorry Wes More editing ! Donna is not doing her job. The buildings in Creston are not mills, but grain elevators. The pictured animals are not goats but Rocky mountain sheep. We do often see goats on that route, but those were sheep."

Editorial Correction

Mike Moskal from Cranbrook writes...

Hi Wes, hey one super important thingy that you have to fix on the website.

Erik is with a K not a C. <- that was from Erik.

Cya

Mike and Erik

Wes says...

But does he want it to be a C? that's the question, because, here's a chance to be known as Eric with a 'C' ! Just think about it... that's all I ask...

My apologies to Erik- the site has been updated but really.. you should be blaming my editor- your Aunt! I mean, I've been in this family, what, like 4 months, she's been there all along and she didn't even think to correct me?!

What kind of a family have I married into?? Where you like to play tricks on people so they get your name wrong huh?

Seriously though, sorry Erik!

Bringing Us To You

Ok, I know some of you just want to see photo's of the wedding. I know because you've been emailing for them. They are coming, so relax and enjoy the journey.

We have experienced a bunch of setbacks since we got married. We spent the first 2 months of married life apart because of British Immigration refused to let Donna into the country. After that we found we couldn't celebrate in England as we planned, because most of our money has gone on the costs of moving to England, paying London prices for a one bedroom flat and settling. We haven't seen friends in Bedworth for 4 months. We hear from Canada more than England.

So we still want to do our celebration/reception in England. If we can finally get settled in the church we have begun to attend, and find cheaper accommodation, we plan to do a reception for the English people for our 1 year anniversary. Invitations will be sent out.

Check this: To make it easier to keep up with this blog, find this icon on the sidebar and click on it to subscribe to the Atom feed:

If you use a feedreader you can then see any updates as they come instead of loading the webpage. If you've never heard of Atom or feeds, there is a great video tutorial from The Wrong Advices: An Introduction to RSS In Plain English.

Pumpkins

We stopped off in this small town called Creston(?) on the way to Vancouver. Elsie was having a meltdown because the car was having trouble starting. She'd just spent $1000 (£~500) on a new transmission on her van. Turns out they had left the battery cables loose is all.

This is the biggest pumpkin I have ever seen. I think there was a competition to guess the weight and you could win it. I think the competition should have been eat it in one sitting and you don't have to pay for it.

Ha, check out that witch, Canadians have a terrific sense of humour.

Photo's on Facebook

Saying Goodbye To The Nephews

From the left: Ryan, Kyle and Erik.

Ryan and Kyle weren't smiling, I think they we're sad to see us leave, they were holding back the tears. I must have had such an affect on them. It's ok guys, you'll see us again soon.

More Hidden Cranbrook History

Here's Donna standing on the wrong side of the bridge that leads from Cranbrook to Kimberley.

Donnas Dad helped build this bridge, she showed me his initials (AM) in the cement overlooking the beautiful valley.

Photo's on Facebook

Crows Nest Pass

A large crow guards the entrance to Crows Nest Pass.

On the right, a picture of us standing outside the smallest chapel in the world(?). I had the camera on a flash with slow shutter since it was getting dark but we moved before it had finished capturing. Looks kind of spooky.

Tony (Anton) Moskal Ranch

Donna writes:

I brought Wes to this place on one of our last nights in Cranbrook. No trip to this area was complete without seeing the farm that my Dad built and which was the last place where he had lived. I felt it was a way that I could introduce Wes to my Father because it still bears witness to the perfectionist that he was as well as showing Wes a little of how I grew up on "the farm".

Unfortunately we didn't get to see the house that he built but we viewed it from a distance as we drove onto the property turning around at the lower barn area. We sat down at the old out buildings for a bit while I rattled on about the place and all the memories it held.

As we were leaving I asked Wes to stop and take a picture of me at the gates to the property. I was overcome with sadness standing there. The gates were still unfinished and looked exactly as they looked so many years ago. I felt they represented my father in a way. He too was taken from us far too young and left us... unfinished.

I don't know if the present owners ever intend to finish these gates but part of me doesn't want to know. For me they will always remain like this, waiting to be finished, wondering what they would've looked like if they had the chance... just like my Dad.

Gravity Hill

So we're back, after a long hiatus, back on the journey towards the the wedding on the beach. We know you've all been faithful and patient as we waited for our broadband to come on and to sort through things.

This image is of Gravity Hill. That's the unofficial name. It looks like we are standing at the top doesn't it? Well, Donna took me to the 'bottom' which is like, the third telegraph pole down and asked me to stop when I thought we had reached the lowest point. Then she put the car into neutral.

The car rolled back to where we are now and the photo was taken from. Weird huh?

So that's the story of Gravity Hill.

Stand by for more posts, I am now abandoning the back-dating system and simply posting with current dating.

On The Road: Calgary to Cranbrook

Some random photo's on the road to various places.

Views of Highway 22X "The Shortcut" Cranbrook to Calgary. Canadians are a friendly people, it's almost as if they purposefully put all these landmarks and interesting things out for your enjoyment and amusement as you travel. Above is a fence with a baseball cap on every post, and one even had it's own bra.

This is possibly the most photographed tree in the world. It's located on a highway near Crows Nest and is regularly used for magazines and publications, recognise it?

Pizza Time!

Far left: from the left: Mike and wife Shannon, son Erik and me. Near left: Donna's mum Elsie, Mike and Erik.

MIA: Kyle & Ryan Moskal

There are 4(?) computers in their house (next door to Elsie). My brother-in-law, Mike has even built his own games arcade (below). Mike if you build a fruit machine we could be on to a winner.

Jetlagged

We finally made it to Elsie's (Donna's Mum) house Cranbrook, so far I survived jetlag from a 9 hour flight, then a 4 hour car trip and it shows. No sooner had I arrived I got to meet new inlaws
as they came round to interrogate welcome me.

Canadian Hedgehog

Canadians don't have hedgehogs (small animal with spikes, usually roadkill), so this is the next nearest thing. Except if your car runs into this guy you are in trouble.

He was meandering across the road oblivious the small amount of cars that were now queing up
on the road to get a look. I wound my window down and bravely stuck my camera out to get pictures. He got right up about 12 feet from the car, then stopped to sniff the air. I think he must have smelt the A&W wrappers, then he went into the forest behind a tree. Donna says they have poor eyesight and he didn't see us, but personally I think he was scared off by the high-pitch squeals coming from our car "Wes! It's a bear, it's a GRIZZLY, LOOK IT'S A GRIZZLY!"

A & W

My first A&W, and my first experience of the Mozzaburger and the beginning of a beautiful relationship. After this, going back to McDonald's was just never the same.

This photo was taken in Canmore, just outside of Banff. We had 4 more hours to go before Cranrook (6 hours with the tourist, aka Wes).

I didn't take any pictures of Banff, it looks like every ski resort/mountain village in Switzerland and I already have tons of pictures of Switzerland.

What I Learned About Calgary, Alberta

Calgary, where you only pay one set of taxes, thanks to the local conservative government.

Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Pancakes and Ice-Cream

A good place to start, my first breakfast on my first morning in Canada. I flew into Calgary the night before to meet Donna before we head to her friends house. I'm told the Ice-cream is not Canadian, but just their own house speciality.

It's a strange combination to have for breakfast, but amazingly it works, and tastes delicious.

I find this is also ironically symbolic of our relationship. An Englishman who met a Canadian in Switzerland, who up till recently lived in Germany, and getting married in the US. Add our age-gap into the mix and pretty soon you have something like bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes and ice-cream. A combination you may not think would work, but it does. It's fun, it feels good, made with the ingredients we love and when you taste those combinations and flavours, you realise, it actually make sense.

Our Maui Wedding starts here, I've backdated the post to the date the photo was taken. The date now is 26th November, I am in the UK and Donna is in Germany in the process of applying for her marriage visa- don't ask. We have recently moved into a flat in Ealing and have no Internet connection, so this blog will not be updated regularly till nearer Christmas. Please check back for more posts and and wedding photo's (subject to approval by the Mrs). Since our married life is currently on hiatus pending said visa, the reception/celebration for UK friends and family is unfortunately suspended till the New Year. We'll keep you posted.