Off to Vancouver for a wedding... please let there be no rain...

Three more sleeps to go before I'll be on a 7 am (yes, 7 am... ouch) flight to Vancouver for wedding # 2 (my friend's) of this year. Hey, last year there were three weddings (all cousins)...

I learned about wedding # 2 while attending wedding # 1 (my cousin's) out in New Brunswick back in mid August.

My family extended the trip out East to a two week road trip and visited PEI and Nova Scotia also while we were out there. Lovely wedding, fantastic weather, super friendly folks, walked the ocean floor at Hopewell Rocks. camping in Cavendish, kayaking at the Bay of Fundy, pub crawl in Halifax, driving the beautiful Cabot Trail, blue skies and ocean, oh and the delicious mouth watering seafood! Wow, what a fun and wonderful trip!

On August 13, the night before my cousin's wedding, I received an email from my friend in Vancouver telling me I should be receiving a wedding invitation in a week or two, she's getting married! The wedding will be at the Rock Water Secret Cove, on the Sunshine Coast, on Wednesday, October 20th.

Huh? Why that date? Why not spring or summer when it's beautiful and at a wilderness resort, oh summer would have been perfect, stay in my own wood framed tent suite in the forest, take the wooden planked forest boardwalk to the main lodge for breakfast in the morning as the sunlight beams through the branches of the old growth arbutus forest with birds chirping.

After breakfast I would take a short walk down to the beach to go for a kayak lesson or maybe a short hike before having an outdoor massage in their "spa without walls"...ah... and then get ready for the wedding and reception just as the sunsets on a beautiful west coast setting.

But heck NO! I'm not going in the summer, if I was, I'd be less apprehensive and puzzled ... because as I, like anybody that's lived for an extended period of time in Vancouver and area (aka Lower Mainland) knows, late October is iffy weather time out there.

Sure, Vancouver can be a pretty mesmerizing place that seduces you with its mountains and sea, fluffy pink cherry blossoms in the spring, blue skies and great beaches in the summer, but come autumn ... soon instead of blue skies with happy yellow sun, clouds will begin to appear, dark, gray ominous ones that soon give way to rain, those cloud don't budge and that rain can keep going for weeks or even months at a time.

With the sun MIA for extended periods, it's can get pretty gloomy and miserable out there... wet, cold and gray... Vancouver winter can really suck!

I do love Vancouver though, I lived out there for a few years in the '90s, it's got a special place in my heart. And I really want to attend my friend's wedding, and it's been two years since my last visit and I had been itching to go back. So when I got the news of her wedding, I was excited until I read the date, October 20!

And this potential depression inducing weather typically begins late October or early November.

October 20 is close enough for me... so I wanted to know why ... why that date, then that's when I looked at the date closer, October 20, 2010 ... 10 - 20 - 2010, as in 10/20/10! .... OH MY GOSH! It's because of the date isn't it, they were looking for a "cool" date for their wedding?!

But with an OK from work to take a few days off and the desire to attend the wedding and be in Vancouver again, I made up my mind and refused to let any potential monsoon get the better of me and booked my plane ticket.

I have been monitoring the weather out there for the past couple of weeks, it's been overcast and rainy... but forecast of sun for the day of the wedding! yippee!

Let's hope the weather network is right for a change (fingers crossed).

So as I draw up my list of items to pack, you better believe right up there with dress and heels, will be umbrella, galoshes and gore-tex rain jacket... just in case...