BESTEST LONGEST DAY EVER!!!

Today was a LONG day...thusly necessitating a LONG blog entry!

Slept late last night, <4 hrs sleep, woke up at 8:30am-ish, showered, etc, then Nancy picked my sister and myself up at sometime past nine to meet up with everyone at Science World.

Met everyone at Science World at 10am, so it was me, Charissa, Nancy, David, Alan, Mark, and P-Dog (I think, didn't catch his real name...he decided not to stay w/ us anyways...only a small fraction of people invited were actually able to make it as well). So after some fiddling with parking, we went off to rollerblade on the seawall! Hurrah!

So we went all along the seawall, construction detours and all, for about an hour or so...David and Mark decided then to go back and wait for their friend Adam from Abbotsford (whom I've never met) so they blade back to science world...seeing that they're awesome bladers, they get back in no time, but Adam phones halfway through and says he's not going anymore! Haha! So they went back for no reason! Heheh...

Anyways, this is a good a time as any to talk about my rollerblading skills. Or rather, the lack thereof. I was definately the slowest one in the group (with the slight exception being my sister, maybe...); but basically, & most importantly, I don't know how to stop properly. However, I did manage to learn how to do the T-Stop, except for me it's more of a T-Slowdown...

So to continue, when David and Mark bladed back, the rest of us continued along the seawall. Oh yeah, everyone was blading except Nancy and Alan, 'cause they took bikes instead (I'm assuming 'cause they're not good, heheh...oh yeah, and Alan used my old SaltSpringIsland-Trip bike, lol...important for later). So anyways, the four of us continue onwards along the seawall, then we decided to take a break near the lookout part of a dock, near the aquabus to Granville Island. Well, I decided to wander there and everybody followed, hehe...anyways, the reason why I wandered there was because I saw sea kayakers. SEA KAYAKS ARE AWESOME!!! I swear, it's definately on my list of things to buy. So I gazed at those kayaks for a bit, then we all decided to continue on, still waiting for the guys to come back.

So we continue onwards, and onwards, and onwards, until we end up on english bay. Since I skipped breakfast, and seeing that it was nearly noon, I decided to buy a jumbo hotdog and a water. MMMMMM, that was good! And as I finished eating, David and Mark finally cought up with us. So we continue along until we hit stanley park, or to be more precise, the restaurant thing that's right there. Of course, as fate would have it, everyone decides to have lunch! Haha...but seeing that my hotdog was huge and only $2.75, and everything else was super expensive, I didn't mind. I ended up buying a popsicle. Of course, everone else decides to get one as well, hehe...

Anyways, by this time it was already almost 1, so we just hang around for a while, playing on the playground/gymnastic stuff near there..."David, do the T on the rings! C'mon, you can do it!" Heheh...well, by this time it was already past 1pm, and seeing that Nancy's parking was expired at 2:30, and that Charissa had to work at 4, Nancy and my sister decided to leave the group and blade back to science world. As it turns out, as I learned later, that they bladed back quite quickly and were at science world at 1:50, so they went to tinseltown and bought slurpees before heading home, lol...

So now the group is down to just David, Alan, Mark, and myself. So after some more gymnasticizings on the playground, we decide to head off to the rest of the seawall in stanley park. And man, was that ever something!

First off, Alan biking and pulling the bladers along is UBER AWESOME! Especially downhill, hahaha! ZZOOOOOOOOMM!!! However, seeing that I lack the necessary stopping skills, this was extremely exhilirating, but sometimes not in the most positive way, heh...

And speaking of hills, oh man were there ever a lot of 'em! Just plain rediculous! I slowed the group down quite a bit, but I'm glad they did wait around for me too! Heheh...So anyways, one hill of mention would be this emergency-vehicle super steep hill that I foolishly followed David up onto..I'm talking at least a 30% gradient here! (well, so it seemed...) But anyways, with everyone zooming down at breakneck speed, I of course wimp out and go down the grassy part slow as heck. Then, about halfway down, I thought I'd be able to handle the hill, but like 2 seconds later and 25km/hrs faster, I freak out and curve off to the grass, tumbling over in the process! Haha, that was quite awesome, especially when people just thought I tripped up on the grass! Oh, and of note, this was the only time I fell! Hurrah!

Anyways, along the edge of the seawall, with the large rockfaces, we decide to take a break near the beach part. This break turned into a good 20min rest, with David going off and sitting on his rock, haha...after a while, Alan decided to join in the rock fun-ness, harassing David in the process...Mark and I continue to rest on the bench...this is of mention because the outdoorsiness of it all was too beautiful not to mention...

So now, a few hours and nearly 20km later, it was 4pm. Since Krystle got off work at this time, we decided (or she decided) to phone, and after quite a while of wondering and more than a few spatterings of "I don't know"s, we decided to just throw the disc around for a bit...therefore, we went back to english bay and threw the disc around on the beach there...oh, it was quite nice, up until David threw the disc right onto some female sunbather's ass! Haha, it was hilarious, perfectly landing square on the buttox! Haha...well, since nobody owned up to it, I apologized to her greatly, and she "suggested" that we play elsewhere...not wanting to argue with this uncommonly rude stranger, we decided to go throw the disc around in the middle of the wet sandy part, where the water flowed around this dune-like mass of wet sand (looked cool at the time). However, after about 15mins of chucking the disc around, we realized that there was just way too much muck and sand and junk sticking to the disc, thus throwing mud etc on us whenever we caught the disc. Therefore we left again, without fully knowing what to do...

After more thought and deliberations, including talks w/ Krystle on the phone, we decided to go to Granville Island. However, this was easier said than done...Do we take the aquabus thing? Nah, too easy...Do we go all the way around back to Science World then Granville Island? Nah, too boring...So what do we decide to do? BLADE OVER THE BURRARD BRIDGE, OF COURSE!!!

Let me remind you all once again, I lack any of the proper stopping skills, and I'm not the fastest blader around. In fact, since we just did the entire stanley park seawall, I was pretty much pooped. The bridge was one giant uphill, followed by one giant downhill. Needless to say, I was quite hesitant...but that level-headedness quickly faded, and thusly I complied with the group...I shall go over the bridge!

So the uphill was quite the challenge. In fact, everyone of course had to wait at the peak for me there. I must say, blading unconfidently hundreds of feet in the air next to 80 km/h traffic was quite the nerve-shaker. However, uphill wasn't so bad 'cause I was so slow and all...then there was the downhill, oh man! Everyone else zoomed down in an instant! I of course was afraid for my life, so I tried everything in my power to slow the heck down! It was then that I realized that I kinda knew how to do the drag break thingy, which was quite useful I must say...however, since I was terribly frightened, my speed was right at snails pace, making it quite tedious to get down the bridge. Basically, I was scared as hell and bored as well, hahah...

So now it's about 5pm. We take the planetarium route to Granville island, cutting through these townhome continuations of the seawall and what not. When we got there, we thusly found the first sitting spot and removed our blades for the comfort of our shoes. It was the first time in 7 hours that we took off our blades! It was only then that I realized a crapload of time has just went by...7 hours of blading, man...

Oh, and also, my ankles were BURNING! I think I wore the wrong socks or something, because they made a huge imprint that stayed on for hours on my ankles and they were all red as heck. Oh wait, I did remove my blades at that resting spot on the seawall, it was red then too, haha...anyways, enough of my sufferings, onto the foodings!

We phone up Krystle once again, seeing what we all wanted to do, and we decided that we're just gonna eat w/ Krystle later on...therefore, ice cream time! Well, Alan and Mark decided to get ice cream, and David decided to just "stroke his $20 bill", lol! Anyways, I decided to have myself a $5 smoothy...and oh man, was it ever worth it! It was a cranberry-strawberry with orange juice smoothy, and wow did it ever hit the spot! It was so sour-but-sweetly delicious, and was exactly what I was wanting...definately worth $5!

Anyways, after this deliciousness we all went to the toy place (kid's wonderland? don't remember...), well, cause I wanted to play the arcades, haha! Man, did I ever have fun! Everyone else could've been bored, I wouldn't have known, it was just too much fun! Quarter games for tickets, hahaha...it was nearly closing, so I didn't get too many tickets, I think 12 in all, and that cute attendant person at the counter let me choose a 15 ticket toy! Sweetness! I ended up decided to get a bug ring, a cool one of a red dragonfly with green wings...it's so awesome! Well, it's kinda dinky, but to me it was a reminder of the awesome day I was having...

Well, since it was 6, Mark had to get going, so he broke off from the group and went home...the rest of us decided that it was enough activity for now and to meet up w/ krystle, therefore needing to go to David's place to get the car. Therefore, we caught the bus to waterfront station, taking the skytrain to near his place. Oh, if it were only that simple...

We took bus #50 Waterfront Station, but we realized that it also stopped at Granville station, so we decided to get off there...unfortnately for us, we were still lugging around my bike that Alan was using, and even more unfortunately for us, there's no bikes allowed on that station! BaZING! So we walked back up to the street and deliberated just walking to waterfront station. Seeing that we didn't know how far it was, nor the exact route to get there, (as well as David's "it's 3 skytrain stations away!" argument), we decided to just catch the next bus going to Waterfront Station, which so happened to be the same bus we were on...well, there were others, but they lacked a bike rack, thus having us to wait 20mins for the same bus, heh...needless to say, it was only a 3min busride down to waterfront, realizing that we could've just walked there easily, haha...oh well...

So anyways, we get to waterfront station, and take the skytrain back to his place...me taking the skytrain is like someone checking me out, i.e. rare as heck. As with my previous analogy, I enjoyed this rarity quite profusely. Oh, and also of note, these people there were talking, and they said it was already 7pm...I mean from 10am to 7pm, it's already quite the long day! Then I realized something...wow, 7pm and it was still uber sunny...man, I love summer, even if it's not technically! Hurrah!

Well we get off at nanaimo station, take a bus to near David's place, then walk there...again, all this while lugging around my bike, heheh...we don't stay for long, leaving before 7:30 to pick up Krystle (and thus ditching the bike at Davids, finally!). After we pick Krystle up, we try to decide on where to eat...the previous suggestion (stemming from Alan's sarcastically ludacris "instant noodles" suggestion) was to have Pho. Mmmmm, pho...but nobody seemed to like my suggestion, so no pho. However, the next most obvious choice would be good ol' White Spot, that never fails for eatery, haha...so David gets a Turkey dinner, and Krystle gets a burger, while I decide to get my good ol' Monty Mushroom burger with mashed potatoes, mmmmm, and of course Alan just had to get the same thing, haha...my choice of food selection is so good that someone else always gets the same thing, right Krystle? Haha! Well, Alan having a humongeous plate of fries for lunch MIGHT have something to do with it as well, haha...Anyways, food was good, but from glancing outside from 8-9pm, it got progressively darker...but we still wanted to activitize some more, a la hockey style, so we headed out into the twilight...

So Krystle, Alan, David, and myself were driving around for a place to play some hockey. Krystle had the suggestion that we go to Fraser River Park on SW marine dr, but since, when we got there, it was already past 9pm and quite dark, there was no hockey playing at the park...however, we did walk along the boardwalk/floating-walkways/docks, which was quite a site to see in the twilight...

Anyways, we still wanted to play hockey before it was too late (since it was already 9:30), so we settled for going to the School near Krystle's place like last time. Heh, roller hockey be fun, but me lacking blading skills once again...anyways, it wasn't really hockey being played, more like shooting the balls into these railings for about 45mins, which I must say was quite fun...even the part where krystle slashed me up good didn't even phase me! Haha, she was lining up for her shot, then WHAM right on my hand! Everyone said it was a really hard slash, but it really didn't hurt at all...it more felt weird than anything else, not painful per se...well, now my finger is a little red and starting to swell slightly, but still isn't painful (hence the long typing non-botheredness, haha...)

Anyways, at 10:30 we drove krystle home, and the rest of us went to David's place. Well, at this time my sister got off at work and was coming to pick me up. When she got there, she kinda didn't really wanna go home just yet, so we go back into David's place and all 4 of us end up watching Beauty and the Beast, hahaha...although that movie is quite good, it didn't seem to be as invigoratingly spectacular as when viewed a decade ago...oh well, it was still awesome! Anyways, after the movie, we stuck the bike into the trunk (which was quite the hassle, putting down the backseats and whatnot) and I drove home. By the time we get home, it's practically already 1:30am...so from about 9am to 1:30am, my day has been jam packed with funfilled awesomeness...HURRAH! This is beginning to be the start of quite an amazing summer...alls I need now is a job, my health, and a girlfriend and there ya go! Heheh...

Man, I just spent the past 2 hrs documenting this awesome day...bah, reliving it all is nearly as great as actually doing it...well, almost, I guess...uh, maybe not, but bah it's my excuse for wasting 2 hours, haha!

Oh yes, pictures to come! Unless I get lazy, which is probably the case...heheh...in any case, today has got to be the BESTEST LONGEST DAY EVER!!! Hurrah!