West Coast Weekend

I don't have a lot of holidays planned this summer, and I can hardly believe that it is already mid-July. It seems like the winter and spring flew by, and suddenly the summer is half gone already too!

My first mini-trip of the summer was to Vancouver for Tom's grandma's joint birthday party. Tom's grandma, Ethel, is turning 94 in August. Her older sister, Auntie V is turning 97. Her youngest sister, Marg, will be 82, and Uncle Walter is turning an undetermined age in September (somewhere between 82 and 94). Yes-- this family has some amazing longevity.

Auntie V, Ethel and Uncle Walter.

We celebrated their birthdays at the River Rock Casino by stuffing ours to the point of uncomfortableness at the buffet brunch. There was everything you could imagine. Omelet, corn dogs, cabbage rolls, steamed pork buns, perogies, soft serve ice cream... You name it, they had it. I feel bloated just thinking about it.

And just when we couldn't possibly imagine eating any more food... We cut the cake!

Birthday cake. Blerg.

Following the ritual birthday stuffing, Andrew, Ashley, Tom and I decided we would attempt the Grouse Grind on Grouse Mountain. The Grouse Grind is a 2.9km trail up the face of Grouse Mountain that covers approximately 2800ft of elevation gain. This is the equivalent of about 2830 stairs, and takes the average hiker between 1.5-2 hours to complete.

It was smokin' hot in Vancouver on the weekend. And as we changed out of our fancy birthday clothes in the parking lot, the asphalt felt steamy, and waves of heat could be seen coming off it. But thankfully, the trail itself was not too bad. It was under tree cover and was relatively cool-- at least compared to the soaring temperatures in the parking lot.

Grouse Grind Trail (basically, straight up).

Considering our full bellies, we made pretty good time-- arriving at the top in under an hour and a half. I couldn't believe how busy the trail was!

I also couldn't believe how unprepared some people were for the trail. Dresses, jeans, open toes shoes! I cringe to think of it!

The Greig's at the top of the Grind.

Much to my surprise, the view from the top of Grouse Mountain is beautiful! It seems silly to be surprised, but the last time I was up Grouse Mountain it was wet and rainy, and there was fog and clouds as far as the eye could see. During that first visit, I didn't even realize what a view of the city we could have had. 

View from the top of Grouse Mountain.

 Downhill travel on the Grouse Grind is prohibited, so we forked up our $10 a piece to take the gondola back to the base.

Then we headed to Tom and Andrew's cousin's house so we could stuff ourselves with chicken wings and homemade lasagna. As you can tell, the theme of this weekend was eating.

On our last day in Vancouver, Monday, we decided to enjoy the sun by heading out to Lynn Canyon for some swimming.

Having experienced the joys of squat toilets in China, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this sign in the Lynn Canyon washroom:

No squatting on the flush toilets!

While squat toilets were bizarre for me in Asia, flush toilets are apparently equally confounding to foreign tourists visiting Canada. I guess there are so many tourists who try to use flush toilets as squat toilets (how does that even work!?), they had to post signs!

 If any of you have been to Lynn Canyon before, then you know that the water is cold. COLD. C-O-L-D.

I've never been good at swimming in cold water. My mom used to make me wear a t-shirt over my swimsuit when I was in swimming lessons because my lips would turn purple from the cold water. It probably took me 15-20 minutes to ease myself into the water in Lynn Canyon. And even then, the water was so intensely cold, it made my wrists throb and ache-- like what I imagine carpal tunnel syndrome feels like!

Boulders in Lynn Canyon.

Waders in Lynn Canyon.

Andrew, Ashley and Tom were brave enough to swim up the canyon to check out the waterfall, but I stayed behind and watched some of the cliff jumpers working up the nerve to jump into the plunge pools.

The Greig's at Lynn Canyon.

In the late afternoon, we headed to the airport so we could catch our flights home. Overall, Vancouver and Richmond treated us well.

Mount Baker.

As we left Vancouver, we had a great view of Mount Baker from the airplane. We will be hiking in the North Cascades National Park in mid-August, and I fully expect that there will be more exceptional view of Mount Baker before the summer is done.