Part 1

Kate: Did you go to anywhere over the holidays, like the aquarium, or any of the parks, or any of the Christmas displays?

Jill: You know, I didn't this year, which is too bad, because I love all the light displays, and I wanted to go to Van Dusen Gardens, and I often go on the Christmas train at Stanley Park, and I just didn't get out much this Christmas season, for some reason. I don't know if I was really busy, or I didn't know what the problem was, but I didn't get out to any of the places that I usually enjoy going to. How about yourself?

Kate: You know, I've never been on the Christmas train at Stanley Park. I know that's a Vancouver tradition, but I've never been there. There are Christmas tree displays around near our office here, and I live close by, so we went for a few evening walks and checked those out. That's really, really pretty. Another Vancouver tradition is the carol ships, the boats that go out and people sing Christmas carols, and you can sort of hear the songs wafting across the water. That's really-that would be fun. I'd like to do that one year. But since we had family visiting, that was the most important, or the biggest focus we had. So we took the kids places like the aquarium and science center, other things for kids, but we didn't really go to Christmas things. I think they went to see Santa. I was informed that if you go to see Santa, you get a free ride ticket on one of the, you know, riding animals. Usually they cost fifty cents or a dollar, you know, you ride them. They're horses or alligators or something. So that was very important, the kids loved that. Plus, of course, candy cane. So there's definitely bonuses to going to see Santa. Jill: That's right, and just going back to the carol ships, I actually did do that last year, last Christmas. A bunch of family members and some friends of the family went on a carol ship, and I had never done it before, and I was very excited and looking forward to it because I've always watched them sailing and thought they looked so beautiful and really wanted to be on one. Unfortunately, we ended up on a not-so-nice boat. It was pretty rundown, not really very well taken care of, and we were sort of shoved into the corner. The seating wasn't arranged very well, and then they also had-I don't know what it was, but a lot of very young people on it. Sort of like, eighteen-, nineteen-year-olds, almost like it was a party. That's fine, it's a public thing to do, I mean, anyone can do it. But they were just very loud and obnoxious, and they sort of ruined it for everybody else who was there to, you know, drink and have fun and be festive, but not be overboard-not go overboard. So I didn't have a great experience with it, but I'd like to do it again through a different company, and just see how different the experience would be, because I think there are some great carol ships to go on, and I think we just happened to end up on a bad one. Kate: Well, that's too bad. You should have had them walk the plank. When you say "go overboard," I'm starting to think, "Yeah, they could go overboard." That will sober them up, a little bit of swimming. Our water's not that cold, but it's cold enough.