Vancouver – Happy 60th Birthday Fred

Last Friday we drove to Vancouver to attend a 60th Brithday Party for Fred S. A little more on how we met Fred and Barb later in this post.

To make a bit of a getaway weekend out of the trip we stayed on Friday night at the Blue Horizon Hotel. It’s our most favorite place to stay on Robson Street, close to shopping, restaurants, walking areas, etc. but the best part is the view from the rooms. We usually request an 07 room, it’s on the back side of the hotel so it does get a little less noise, but it still has fantastic views of English Bay, part of Stanley Park and a little tiny bit of Coal Harbour. We have been staying at this hotel for over 15 years and at one time the view of Coal Harbour was unobstructed and at Christmas time you could see the Carol Ships at night. We took along Gramma and Grampa so they could have a bit of a weekend away also. They got some Christmas shopping in, a walk down to the ocean and really enjoyed themselves. We left them at the hotel on Saturday night, we stayed with Fred and Barb then picked them up Sunday morning for the drive home.

So, here’s how we met Fred, Barb and their boys Ryan and Marshall. 1986 was the first year we, as a family, attended French Summer Camp at Kalamalka Lake. We were delayed one day because our vehicle broke down, however we arrived on Sunday, got set up and Jeff was off to his daily camp activities. I was running a fair bit at that time so I put up a notice to seeing if there was anyone interested in a morning jog. Fred showed up and off we went with another fellow. Now for those who know Fred, the word “JOG” is not in his vocabulary. I figured I was a pretty fair runner at that time, I was just around a 6:30 min/mile pace, just at the elusive 40 minute 10K time. Anyway after we had jogged about 5 km out and a were on our way back (we had lost the other guy by this time, he turned back long ago) Fred politely said “I think I’m going to stretch it out the last couple kilomters”. Well all I saw after that was very fast feet, speedy legs and Fred’s dust………. I think Fred had time to run back to the starting point and jog back to make sure I was still alive. It turns out Fred best 10K time was I believe under 35 minutes. We also discoverd that Ryan was in Jeff’s camp group so a family friendship was born. Near the end of the week Fred and Barb kindly offered their home as a base so we could attend Expo 86, we took them up on the offer and have been visiting each other on a somewhat regular basis. A great family and great friends.