I'm 27 and My Cousin's in town!

It was the night of my Birthday and it was also the night that my cousins Yin, David and their parents were flying down from Toronto. They were here to visit family on their mum’s side as well as me for the next 4 days. After having birthday dinner with some friends at a Chinese restaurant I met up with Yin and David for dessert and also met their cousins Betsy and Debbie. It’s been a bit over a year and a half since I last saw Yin and David when they were traveling threw Australia on their backpacking trip. It was so great to chat and see them again.

Then on the Saturday, Yin had already made plans for the evening so I hung out with David who was going out with his cousin Tony(Betsy and Debbie’s elder brother) for a friends birthday dinner. The birthday dinner party was held at Raw Bar in Hotel Arts, there were probably about 30 people in total. Once we arrived we met some of Tony’s friends and it was long before Tony ordered 10 shots of Tequila between 4 people and a whole bunch of other drinks. This was before dinner was being ordered. Throughout the night, drinks were being fed to Dave and I like water. Every time there was a drink order being put in, the waitress would at least come back with a whole tray full of shots. It was madness. Once the bill came, it was over $2000 bucks. From what I know, Dave is not a big drinker, but he damn well set a new benchmark this day. I’m sure proud of you Dave! Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t drink. From what I saw, there’s potential and lots of it. HAHAHA.

The next day we(David, Yin, Betsy, Debbie, Wendy(Yin’s friend), Cindy(Debbie’s friend) and I) organized a hike. The hike we did was Sentinel Pass once again, we drove two cars down to Moraine Lake and for some reason it seemed like everyone had the same idea of hiking or checking out Moraine Lake. Upon driving to the Moraine Lake parking lot, we see the last kilometer stretch of road banked up with parked cars on the side and people getting out to walk towards the lake. It was chaos. “It couldn’t be that full I thought.” Then as we got to the parking lot, every space was occupied but eventually patience paid off and we found a parking space.

We then started our hike and from the first 10 steps of the hike the group had already segregated into two groups, David, Betsy, Debbie and Cindy in one group and Yin, Wendy and I in the other group. I kept up with Yin and Wendy for duration of the first leg, but slowly I began to fall away further and further back as we hiked on. I think Yin is one competitively tough cookie to beat. Remembering from a little race we had while she was down in Melbourne, I can still shamefully say “She still kicks my arse.” So Yin, I got a message for you. “All this hardcore competitiveness is going to slow you down one day and I’ll be there to beat you then. HAHA. As for Wendy, she is one hardcore hiker too. But anyhow moving along, with Debbie, Betsy and Cindy who have never hiked before, I have to say they were doing a pretty good job. Maybe it was because Dave was pushing them along slowly. Good work Dave. As we got to the last leg of the hike with the steep switchbacks to follow, Yin and Wendy hiked the last leg together because Wendy had to get back to Calgary because of work commitments. While I waited until the Dave’s group catched on. We then started on the last leg and after hiking up the first 20 metres covered in scree, Cindy wanted to bail on the hike. With less than 1km to go and after hiking for 2 hours, there was no way Dave or I was going to let her get out of it that easily. For the duration of the rest of the hike, Cindy was trying to find ways to turn back because it was too steep and slippery. So at times I said “Okay just make it to the next big rock and you can turn back.” Then she would walk to the next big rock, STOP and say “Okay I’m going back down now.” But I didn’t hold my end of the bargain. We would sit and rest for a bit, while everyone tried to motivate her to change her mind to keep pushing on. But yet again, I then said “Another 10 steps, and you could go down.” This lasted all the way to the top, by then Cindy had already figured out my plan but it was too late because it was to the point where the hike was shorter to hike up the rest of the way then to go all the way down. In the end we all made it to the top of Sentinel Pass.

The next time I’ll see Yin and Dave would be in Toronto in a little over a month’s time. Also I’m proud to say, I added to the family tree with Betsy, Debbie and Tony. Even though technically we’re not cousins, you have become my cousins now. Yay!