DAY SAIL, NIGHT RUN

This post is a day earlier than usual because of an early morning event tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Vancouver continues to dazzle, especially along the waterfront. BC Ferries sail up and down the coast and it's hard to resist going everywhere. The shortest route is over to Bowen Island, formerly a weekend getaway but now a growing permanent community. Many scenic hikes and priceless sea views. No wonder the property prices are higher than the Rockies. Pat was enthralled by the ferns and forests. I'd live in that houseboat --- complete with greenhouse! So many boats, so little time left...

Back at the condo, a window washer swung back and forth like a tatooed robot on two thin ropes. All the better to see traffic backing up near the Lions Gate Bridge? This weekend's "supermoon" has created the lowest tides possible. In Stanley Park raccoons have found a razor but I bet they keep the whiskers. If only the iconic totem poles could speak; they've seen it all pass by.

For example, the annual Night Run in the park. Vancouver has so many of these fun, active, family outdoor events. At sundown, the kids from 3 years and up stretch before their 1 km run. Amazing to see them so eager and fast. Then the 10km runners stampede through the Start Line. Did you notice that everyone has a headlamp? (White to see forward, red for the party after.) The 5km "runners" go last --- surprising that many of them just walk: we could have joined in and got the swag bag! The park's paths swarmed with human headlights, like diamonds spilling on velvet. What a city.

FOX, FROGS, AND FRIENDS

Today marks the 35th Annual Terry Fox Run against cancer and we hope to be out there walking this afternoon if the rain lets up a bit. (Terry's saga and event is hugely popular in Cuba too --- they identify with  his struggle and Canada's health care system...) Earlier this week we walked the route in Terry's home town of Coquitlam. This odd duck and these very green frogs really enjoy the rain!

The Vancouver walks are a daily habit now, with the shore at Kitsilano on the list.  Two eye-catching sculptures on display --- a stump-chair and a '67 Monaco. No contest, right??

Vancouver continues to impress with hundreds of wheels visible from the apartment. Cycling is  hugely popular --- traffic is stopped almost daily for another race or club. But these classic cars are literally stumped! Get that Firebird down from the top: it looks driveable right now!!

One of our group of 4 friends returned to Australia this week after a farewell get-together in the kitchen. Another surprise reunion to remember. On the walk home, the night lights looked like a crown and a globe...Now, out we go for Terry!

4 HOURS LATER

The rain kept coming but Terry's Run for a cancer cure went on schedule. This was Vancouver's only run site so thousands of people (+kids+pets+?) swarmed around us. A very woodsy trail around Lost Lagoon made it scenic, and a lavish finish line brunch catered by the posh Four Seasons Hotel warmed the wetness. The most welcoming setup in our 30 years of participating. But ultimately we're glad to be able to honour loved ones affected by cancer, and help find the cures...Go Terry!

SQUAMISH, NOT SQUEAMISH (2nd post of 2 this week)

This entire area of southwestern British Columbia has been traditional Squamish Nation land for thousands of years . BC does a way better job than most in acknowledging the reality, with signs in Squamish language and lot of respect of customs and legends. For instance, riding the 1-year-old Sea-To-Sky gondola brings you to a lookout over a massive rock face called The Chief. Awesome scenery of glaciers and sea inlets, solid but creative structures. The 500' suspension bridge arcs over a 500' drop but it's a walk in the park. The wooden bridge-to-nowhere lets you feel an eagle-eye view of Howe Sound. Magnificent!

That gondola was purpose-built built to carry sight-seeing tourists, while up the highway the gondolas at famed Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resorts were built to carry skiers and bikers. At the Olympics in 2010 I drove to this spot dozens of times, a place known for year-round skiing. Now the peaks are bare and everyone knows man-made climate change is the culprit. The lifts have been adapted to carry mountain bikes, and hundreds of kamikaze riders risk face-plants all the way down. On the highway nearby, formerly eternal ice-capped mountains now also show bare gravel and green. Very sad, very ominous.

The next morning back in Vancouver, police lights flashed and drivers cursed at 5a.m. outside our window. A huge cycling event, The Gran Fondo, closed main streets and bridges. Five or six thousand trim cyclists raced the same route we took yesterday --- to Squamish and Whistler! Uphill! 79 miles on a skinny bike in the late summer heat and sun. The pictures are blurry because even the camera hadn't woken up yet...

But since the day had started early, an uncrowded time to drive over to Kitsilano and a foggy view from the south. Past the U of BC and down 200 steep steps to Wreck Beach, Canada's first and most notorious nude ("clothing optional") beach. By afternoon the sands will be cheek-to-cheek (not pretty!) with sunbathers and vendors. The "notorious" part is that some of them vend beer-in-a-bag, or dried green weeds.

We made sure we obeyed this sign and skipped easily uphill. After the Grouse Grind mountain climb 3 days ago we were Squamish, not squeamish.

! THE GRIND ! (1st of 2 posts this week...)

Vancouver has so many active things to do that there are multiple posts and many pictures this week...

Miles and miles of waterfront to walk around, from rocky beaches to downtown condo canyons. On a sunny day this place is jaw-dropping. Flourishes of colour and fun, too, like these painted silos with matching cement trucks. Or birds so big we look like we're in the nest!

A surprise birthday party with friends, but you won't be surprised it came with 5 different cakes! So much-too much that we had to walk it off for a couple of hours in the rain forests and lookout points. That also turned out to be a piece of cake compared to the next day...!!

Grouse Mountain's notorious Grouse Grind is one of the world's athletic challenges of nature.  It's a mountain trail 1.8 miles/2.9 km straight up so steep that you rise 2800 feet on the way. Magnificent silence in ancient cedars but your heart pounds like Haida drums and your legs burn like hot steel. Worn rocks and slippery planks show the way but just keep lifting one foot after the other...

Dozens of other climbers along the way, from wizened old guys to giddy young girls --- even women carrying babies on their back! But we became absolutely knackered in each stretch, sweat-soaked and grim-faced. Finishing at the peak brought grateful exuberance but a surprisingly quick recovery. One of us made it on stubbornness, the other on ancestry. Whose idea was this, anyway??

What is there to do on a ski mountain when there's no snow yet? Surprisingly, Grouse is full of daytrippers (they came up the wimpy way on gondola!). GG used to stand for "Garden Girl" but she's now "Grouse Grinder" yet still taken by the pollinator plants. Monarchs are our spirit animal. The Lumberjack Show was a bit corny but still fun --- up on the pole that guy is doing a headstand! Meanwhile the rescued grizzly bears are napping. And beneath the chairlift is a deer-in-the-foglights!

Grinders take the gondola down but are awestruck by how steep the trail is, just below them. At the apartment, we can see the Grind clearly --- it fits on one hand! Easily the hardest physical workout ever for us. Only once, though --- your turn!