Chapter 7 – Langley and the Cloakes
We finally arrived in Langley after our exciting journey from Kelowna and were very excited to see Carl, Jan and Dan after so many years. Apart from the setting and house and Chester, everything I could remember about the Cloakes was still very similar. Since we had experienced true Canadian winter on our drive we relaxed and slept preparing for our next adventure in Vancouver. Dan is a pretty good tour guide, though we are ones who like to explore a little slower than he is accustomed to. For example, on our drive into downtown Vancouver, we managed to miss the turn off to the photo gallery he needed to visit. We also somehow managed to visit the dodgy street in town with prostitutes and drugs – clearly visible – and glimpsed the Gay street all at the speed of light before waving goodbye to the tower and downtown all together and heading into Stanley Park. Having looked at a map of Vancouver a million times, we still managed to be lost once Dan guided us through downtown and into Stanley Park. But what a sight! This huge Park with millions of trees and tons of wildlife right on the shore line of the harbor as many of our photos can depict better. It really did take your breathe away and make you feel in awe of the greatness of our God and the mystery of his creation all over again.
Of course this didn’t last too long as Dan decided we really needed to go and experience the Aquarium which was only a short walk away. WOW!!! I haven’t really been to many aquariums and I don’t ever recall being overly awed by the few I have seen but this was an incredibly enjoyable experience. There were interactive toys for us boys and creepy looking underworld creatures and loads of fish and jelly fish and dolphins and whales and and and and and….. It is really hard to explain how cool it was so I will let some photos do the talking this time. This was also the day that the whole western coast of Canada moved an hour forward signifying the time change preparing for spring. We had forgotten and so thought that we had more time playing and exploring and were wondering why we felt so hungry. Eventually we overheard that this time change had happened and realized it was 4pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch. To top off this incredible experience, while we sat down for lunch at the highest point of Stanley park, it began to snow outside and painted everything white and so beautiful. As this was our first experience of Vancouver, we now knew that things could only get better for us in future explorations.
Since there was so much around us to explore and loads of variety for the Cloakes to show us, Dan decided we needed to see the beach one day and took us for a luxurious drive to White rock beach. You will never guess what they have at White rock, well yes a big painted rock. Crazy!!! It was so beautiful and for us a real treat to be at the beach after a very long time. Of course, we couldn’t really swim as we would become ice sculptures to be presented in one of their galleries but just the smell of the ocean in the air reminded us both of Durban and Cape Town. Dan had some photo home work to complete and unfortunately it wasn’t the greatest weather for us to be walking around at the beach with the wind howling around us, but we managed to make the most of it. We left after a short visit and headed in land to a small town very close to Dan’s house in Fort Langley where Jan wanted to take us inside the Fort and explore the heritage of this small place in BC.
We had explored most of Fort Langley on previous occasions going in to the smaller shops and managing to find an Alpaca clothing shop. Soft delicate fur clothes that made you feel all warm inside. Anyway, Jan took us up to the fort where we were able to discover the history of the fort as well as British Columbia on the whole. Fort Langley was the first place constructed by the British company called Hudson Bay which came up the Fraser River to find and deal in the fur trade. We got to play with some of the dead animal’s fur in one of the buildings where they used to strip the fur off and stretch it out before making a top hat or coat out of it. What made the fort particularly interesting was the interactive gold digging and iron making activities we could try. Unfortunately though, we arrived too late and were unable to do any of the cool activities.
One of our real treats coming to Langley was being able to spend time with not only Danny boy but was seeing Pierre and Robbie De Flourio. It has been so many years since I had last seen these two after spending many youth and holiday clubs interacting and playing the fool with them. We had so much fun meeting and seeing everything that they were getting up to and their girlfriends – Laura and Betty. We spent a few evenings watching some big screen movies on their flat screen in the basement. Another treat I didn’t mention was our visit to Nic – their sister – in Kelowna. It was a crazy time trying to coordinate our relaxed life with Nic and her husband Stevens. Eventually we were able to come through and visit her on a weekday morning for tea but we then didn’t get to meet Steven. It was so cool to see how well they were doing and especially to see Nic nearly 8 months pregnant and excited for their new bundle of joy. We also got to meet their addition to the family, a golden Labrador called Sofie. It is gonna be very sad to say farewell to all these guys again but has been such an awesome privilege to spend time with them all.
And so ends another exciting experience, until more news keep on living.
We finally arrived in Langley after our exciting journey from Kelowna and were very excited to see Carl, Jan and Dan after so many years. Apart from the setting and house and Chester, everything I could remember about the Cloakes was still very similar. Since we had experienced true Canadian winter on our drive we relaxed and slept preparing for our next adventure in Vancouver. Dan is a pretty good tour guide, though we are ones who like to explore a little slower than he is accustomed to. For example, on our drive into downtown Vancouver, we managed to miss the turn off to the photo gallery he needed to visit. We also somehow managed to visit the dodgy street in town with prostitutes and drugs – clearly visible – and glimpsed the Gay street all at the speed of light before waving goodbye to the tower and downtown all together and heading into Stanley Park. Having looked at a map of Vancouver a million times, we still managed to be lost once Dan guided us through downtown and into Stanley Park. But what a sight! This huge Park with millions of trees and tons of wildlife right on the shore line of the harbor as many of our photos can depict better. It really did take your breathe away and make you feel in awe of the greatness of our God and the mystery of his creation all over again.
Of course this didn’t last too long as Dan decided we really needed to go and experience the Aquarium which was only a short walk away. WOW!!! I haven’t really been to many aquariums and I don’t ever recall being overly awed by the few I have seen but this was an incredibly enjoyable experience. There were interactive toys for us boys and creepy looking underworld creatures and loads of fish and jelly fish and dolphins and whales and and and and and….. It is really hard to explain how cool it was so I will let some photos do the talking this time. This was also the day that the whole western coast of Canada moved an hour forward signifying the time change preparing for spring. We had forgotten and so thought that we had more time playing and exploring and were wondering why we felt so hungry. Eventually we overheard that this time change had happened and realized it was 4pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch. To top off this incredible experience, while we sat down for lunch at the highest point of Stanley park, it began to snow outside and painted everything white and so beautiful. As this was our first experience of Vancouver, we now knew that things could only get better for us in future explorations.
Since there was so much around us to explore and loads of variety for the Cloakes to show us, Dan decided we needed to see the beach one day and took us for a luxurious drive to White rock beach. You will never guess what they have at White rock, well yes a big painted rock. Crazy!!! It was so beautiful and for us a real treat to be at the beach after a very long time. Of course, we couldn’t really swim as we would become ice sculptures to be presented in one of their galleries but just the smell of the ocean in the air reminded us both of Durban and Cape Town. Dan had some photo home work to complete and unfortunately it wasn’t the greatest weather for us to be walking around at the beach with the wind howling around us, but we managed to make the most of it. We left after a short visit and headed in land to a small town very close to Dan’s house in Fort Langley where Jan wanted to take us inside the Fort and explore the heritage of this small place in BC.
We had explored most of Fort Langley on previous occasions going in to the smaller shops and managing to find an Alpaca clothing shop. Soft delicate fur clothes that made you feel all warm inside. Anyway, Jan took us up to the fort where we were able to discover the history of the fort as well as British Columbia on the whole. Fort Langley was the first place constructed by the British company called Hudson Bay which came up the Fraser River to find and deal in the fur trade. We got to play with some of the dead animal’s fur in one of the buildings where they used to strip the fur off and stretch it out before making a top hat or coat out of it. What made the fort particularly interesting was the interactive gold digging and iron making activities we could try. Unfortunately though, we arrived too late and were unable to do any of the cool activities.
One of our real treats coming to Langley was being able to spend time with not only Danny boy but was seeing Pierre and Robbie De Flourio. It has been so many years since I had last seen these two after spending many youth and holiday clubs interacting and playing the fool with them. We had so much fun meeting and seeing everything that they were getting up to and their girlfriends – Laura and Betty. We spent a few evenings watching some big screen movies on their flat screen in the basement. Another treat I didn’t mention was our visit to Nic – their sister – in Kelowna. It was a crazy time trying to coordinate our relaxed life with Nic and her husband Stevens. Eventually we were able to come through and visit her on a weekday morning for tea but we then didn’t get to meet Steven. It was so cool to see how well they were doing and especially to see Nic nearly 8 months pregnant and excited for their new bundle of joy. We also got to meet their addition to the family, a golden Labrador called Sofie. It is gonna be very sad to say farewell to all these guys again but has been such an awesome privilege to spend time with them all.
And so ends another exciting experience, until more news keep on living.
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