A week ago Wednesday husband's nieces came for a visit from Finland. We gave them our apartment to stay at during their visit and we stayed with our former neighbours. I think that the nieces (40 and 41 years old) had a great visit to Vancouver and we certainly took them to a variety of places. Their visit started poorly as their flight from San Francisco was six hours late but once they arrived we had 7 busy days.

The first day, we went to Yaletown an historic area in Vancouver, we walked along False Creek, and then through Chinatown. We rode on one of the little False Creek Ferries and had our lunch outside on Granville Island (a great tourist attraction). Husband's sister invited us all for dinner and her husband made home-made pizza. After dinner he got out his guitar and played and sang a few songs. The nieces thought this was great and used their cameras to film him playing.

On the same day our little dog went for his annual check up and teeth-cleaning and the vet also operated on three large lumps. The dog stayed at the vet's overnight and when we picked him up the next day, he was wrapped in gauze and had a cone around his head. Poor guy. We had planned to go to Whistler on Day 2 but thought it might be too much for the dog, so we spent the day touring around Vancouver. We went to Coal Harbour, Stanley Park, Kits beach, and then out to Richmond to see the Olympic Oval which has been built for speed skating during the 2010 Olympics. We also visited an Asian shopping centre and then walked around Steveston. The nieces especially enjoyed the fish and prawn sellers on the Steveston docks. In the evening we had dinner at a lively Greek/Italian restaurant.

On Day 3, we drove up to Whistler. Unfortunately that was the poorest day (weather-wise) of the nieces visit and the clouds wouldn't lift to reveal the mountain tops. We stopped at the waterfall (Shannon Falls) and at Britannia Beach mine. Of course, they were impressed by the BIG truck. The road work to Whistler is almost all completed, so it makes for a good drive. We took the dog with us and he got lots of stares from people when we walked around the Whistler town centre. I think that most people thought we'd dressed him up deliberately, although I did explain to a few people that he was recovering from surgery. The nieces enjoyed Whistler and did a little shopping to buy things for their children. There was a huge car show of British sports cars (MGs, Triumphs, Aston Martens, etc.), so the husband enjoyed himself as well. When we drove back down to Vancouver, the weather was clearing, so we went up the road to Cypress Mountain, so the nieces could see the panoramic view.

On Day 4, we drove out to the Fraser Valley so the nieces could visit with more family. Husband's nephew and wife hosted a family barbeque at their house. Another family member brought some sushi and we even convinced the nieces to give it a try. Surprisingly (to them), they enjoyed it.

On Day 5 we came over to the island. The nieces were quite keen to see where we lived. While they were here, we took them to Hope Bay and Port Washington, hiked up to Oak Bluffs, walked around Brooks Point and had lunch at Poets Cove. They were suitably impressed with it all and one niece said that her husband would love the islands. We also had a barbeque and a sauna during their visit. A large deer that has taken up residence at the top of our stairs to the beach was there during their stay, so lots of photos were taken of him. We took the ferry back to Vancouver on Day 6.

On Day 7, I took them for some last minute shopping in the morning. Then we all had lunch in Gastown before heading out to the airport. Their flight was at 4:20 p.m. and this time the airline wasn't on strike. (It was when they had tried to start their trip two weeks earlier and were stuck in Dusseldorf, Germany for two days waiting for a flight.) After their visit I thought they had been great guests and very easy to spend time with.