Advertisement
Published: February 16th 2012
Edit Blog Post
The sardine can gondola
And I was roughly in the middle!! Friday the 3rd February. Easily the most exciting day I've had over here. I woke up and head to the Beaver for breakfast. I noticed that the weather was incredible: 9 degrees, clear skies with a view of the mountains and sunshine!! Hence, it was a no-brainer that Adam, Mike and myself decided to head up to Grouse Mountain and check out the snow/view. Erin had a job interview so she couldn't join us. Grouse Mountain is less than 45 minutes away (via public transport) in the North Vancouver district and the bus would drop us off right at the entrance of the mountain. It was going to cost us abot $40 each to get in, and that's without skiing/snowboarding. Luckily an English woman overheard Mike and got chatting and offered to get us in as her guests as she is a season member. Half price baby yeahhh!! The gondola up to the peak was absolutely packed. I thought it was a bit ridiculous but I guess it is the most efficient way doing things.
Stepping off the gondola, for me, was the biggest rush I can recall having for a long time. Everything was covered in snow!! Obviously that
was to be expected but it was just such a novelty for me. Straight away I stuck my bare hand into the powdery-ist snow within reach and made my first snowball. I resisted the urge to piff it at someone and just threw it at the ground instead. We were all a little peckish so we headed into the cafeteria for lunch. It was a little expensive, as expected, but the food was pretty good. Well at least one of the local birds thought so (when we were eating, this cheeky bird actually took food from Mike's hand. And when I was trying to take a photo it actually jumped onto my plate and had a go at my panini!) One of the guys managed to get us a spot on the balcony. Mighty glad he did because the view is unlike anything I have ever seen before. The day was so clear that, for one, you needed sunglasses, and two, you could see as far as the horizon. Vancouver Island was visible and on the other side of the peak (although not from the cafe) we could see Mt Baker in Washington dominating the landscape. We could see West
Vancouver at the foot of the mountain and all of English Bay (with the tankers visible), Burrard Inlet (the harbour between Vancouver and North Vancouver), Stanley Park, Downtown and all of the suburbs. We just could not have picked a better day if we tried.
Overall I didn't take many photos as I was too excited with the idea of being at the snow. Mike did, however, and I've stolen them so it's not all doom and gloom there. We looked into hiring some snow shoes but it was a little expensive. It turns out a few of the paths were closed anyway so it was probably a good choice. I was like a little kid around there. Making snowballs, a snowman, a snow angel and even just jumping into the snow for the hell of it. Jumping into the snow wasn't the greatest idea as I didn't have any waterproof clothing but I didn't care. Good thing it was sunny. I also kept running and sliding across the packed snow as if I was wearing thick socks on wooden floorboards. I also ran across their tiny ice rink but it didn't really work as it was a little
grippy. We also took a ride on the sleigh that took us to the point that you could see Washington from and I made sure I asked a couple of questions because the driver was real hotty!! After going for a walk and seeing as much as we could without adequate gear we headed back to the cafe to make sure we took just a few more photos.
It was a shame we went as early as we did because we didn't end up waiting for the sunset and seeing the Vancouver lights from up there. I'll do it some other time if I get the chance. We did, however, catch the sunset from Lonsdale Quay in North Van(couver). It was still quite pretty to see the silhouettes of all the buildings in Downtown and trees in Stanley Park against the orange sky. Even just seeing the lights from the seabus was nice. There is some really nice scenery in this city, it's just a shame about all the homeless people on the street. Sometimes it is really upsetting because there are so many of them. They all come here because it is the warmest place in winter by
The cheeky bird
Mike's photo of it on his hand a long way and they won't freeze. I mean that quite literally too, because in Edmonton (where I plan to be in summer) for example it can get to -30 degrees at the moment. But on a much nicer note, we came back to the hostel to a beautiful pasta meal cooked by Erin. She had got the job that she was going for so it was really good to hear that job-hunting was going well for someone!! Hope at last!
Til next time!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.138s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0982s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kathy Knee
non-member comment
good photos
I jason, Like your photos, are you enjoying the snow. Luv Aunty Kathy