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!
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...!!
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!
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