Grouse Grind – Sunday, August 30 (early morning)

So in a continued effort to experience Vancouver and BC in the midst of moving, unpacking, Rob starting work, etc...we traveled to Grouse Mountain just north of the city this past weekend and made our first attempt at climbing Grouse Grind.

Grouse Grind is a trail the runs right up Grouse Mountain - it is about 3 km long and the ascent is around 800 metres vertical. We had heard lots of fun stories about the trail and about the Vancouver outdoors enthusiasts who are there every week working on improving their time. The official record is around 26 mins!!!

On our weekend adventure, we woke up at 6 am, left home by 7, took 3 buses, and arrived at Grouse before 9 am. We had each brought a warm shirt since Vancouver mornings can be chilly, that day was around 14 degrees. We were well-prepared: hiking shoes, energy bars, Gatorade, and water. When we started up the mountain, there were several other hikers, but it wasn't overcrowded.

About 1 minute into the hike, Rob was huffing and puffing...but so were most of the people around us. Guess all that exercise has done me a little bit of good, after all!! Since this was our first try, we just kept our slow, measured pace going and tried to remember to breathe.

We had read some "tips and tricks" about the Grind before going. The first 1/4 was supposed to be the flattest and longest (since quarters are measured in vertical distance), but every quarter is marked so you know how much progress you've made. And the last quarter is supposed to be the steepest.

So after taking about 3 or 4 short water/re-fuelling breaks, we figured we HAD to be close to the 1/4 mark. We knew it was long, but this was taking far longer than we expected. So when we saw the 1/2 way mark we were relieved. We weren't doing so badly after all! We took a nice long break there (also a tip from our online reading). We took the time for a photo op, enjoyed the tall, straight trees all around us, ate some snacks and caught our breath.

From there on, I think we only stopped once or twice. We both got into a bit of a groove and you just focus on the next step and stop worrying about the distance you still have to go. Getting to the top was pretty exciting - the trees finally clear out and you can see that you're in the clouds and looking out over the whole city. Amazing view! Our time was 94 minutes, just over the 90 minutes our online reading had told us to expect on our first climb. So we were pretty satisfied. Still room for improvement next time, though!!

There is a beautiful lodge at the top where we sat and ate some snacks, drank water, took in the view, and got ready for the trip home. Since you're not supposed to walk down the trail, we paid the $10 for the both of us to enjoy the gondola ride down. I'm sure it would have been another great view/experience if we weren't right in the middle of the gondola with about 40 people surrounding us, with the clear smell of sweat from all those who had braved the hike up.

Then another 3 buses home (including the Sea Bus!), and we were both pretty beat. We just got some things done around the house before finding the energy to play frisbee on our beach (read: Kitsilano Beach) for the first time. All in all, a great, active day, enjoying the outdoors around our new home.

-Sara

Stanley Park - Friday, August 28 (~noon)

In a word, beautiful. If I had a second word, fun. Sara and I spent the afternoon cycling around the perimeter of Stanley Park with our friend Kim Ong and two of her friends James and Maria (the three of them are in the same lab at University of Alberta and were visiting Vancouver for the weekend).

Sara and I caught up with the three of them around noon on Friday just outside Stanley Park. In search of bike rentals, we saw a large shop just across the street. Kim suggested we look for a smaller shop to support, James agreed, and I added that we should get organic bikes (Vancouverites are obsessed with supporting small local businesses and buying organic). The small shop we found didn’t have organic bikes, but they had the next best thing – tandem bicycles! Sara and I took a tandem, and so did Kim and James. Maria seemed very happy to have her own bike.

The five of us rode into Stanley Park, a large protected park adjacent to downtown Vancouver. While Kim and Sara took a bathroom break, I charted our route with the help of an info booth lady. The five of us set out on the 9 km bike trail that encircles the park. One side of the trail is the forest and the other is the water. It is beautiful!

We made several stops along the trail. First, we stopped and took some time interpreting totem poles (they were replicas). Kim quizzed the group on what animal the various carvings represented (collectively, we did terrible).

We continued biking and passed some cool statues, including “Girl in a Wet Suit” which is a statue surrounded by water, several metres from shore. After stopping to eat some subpar park food (Maria’s cheese burger was drowned in cheese whiz), we rode past a whole army of inuksuk lining the rocky shore. We decided to try our own hands at inuksuk-building. Turns out it’s pretty challenging to get the rocks to balance. Sara and I made a pretty good one.

Our last stop was the Tea House. I don’t know what I was expecting (maybe an ancient Japanese hut lying just above the clouds), but the “Tea House @ Sequoia Grill” fell short. They didn’t even have tea on the menu ! Nonetheless, it was a nice break to sit on the patio and talk before we completed the last leg of the trail.

We returned the bikes. Sara and my tandem bike cost $26 for the 3 – 4 hours we rented it. We parted ways with James, Maria, and Kim and headed home to do some more unpacking. Overall, a great adventure in Stanley Park! I can’t wait to go back and explore the interior of the park and see the aquarium.

-Rob

Blackberries

Even though Rob's done this before, I'm new to this whole blogging thing, so I'll try to remember to post some quick updates now and then when we do something worth sharing.

Today we took a day trip out to a little town called Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. Deborah's mom, Barbara, lives out there in a beautiful little A-frame house with an amazing view of the ocean and Vancouver Island in the distance. Deb bought the house about 20 years ago as an investment and her mom's been living there for the last 10 and has a great community there.

We went over to Gibsons on a 40 minutes ferry ride (beautiful views!) with Deb, Anna (Deb's daughter), and Anna's friend. Rob and I had no idea what to expect of our day's adventure but luckily came prepared with good shoes and sunscreen.

We spent the morning chatting and relaxing on Secret Beach, covered with nice, smooth stones and scattered driftwood. Then after some delicious home cooked food at Barbara's house, we all headed out with buckets in hand for the day's big event - BLACKBERRY PICKING!

Now, Rob said he's done this before, but I hadn't...blueberries - yes, but blackberries - never. I didn't even think I really liked blackberries. But the ones I ate while we were out there were delicious! We went to two of Barbara's favourite spots, the first of which was quite treacherous. Blackberry plants are really thorny!!!!! Who knew?! It made the first place more of a challenge though, and helped me just get into 'the zone'. I phased everything else out and just confronted each new plant without any thoughts or stress and just went after the berries. It was actually very meditative somehow.

MANY buckets later (and after a quick stop at the second picking location), we went back to Barbara's to get cleaned up, relax, read, and get our energy back up. It was really sunny and getting those fresh berries was hard work! Then came another delicious home cooked meal for dinner and a quick dash to catch the ferry home with Deb's brother, Mark (Rob enjoyed his quick wit in the short time we spent with him). We took in some more views on the ferry and then came back to our lovely home with Deb.

We're all ready to take on some unpacking and furniture building in our apartment tomorrow...and hopefully our first night in our new place!! Wish us luck!

~Sara

Adventures Ahead

Hello World!

It seems like everybody is blogging adventures these days. Since Sara and I have decided to move to Vancouver for a year, we want to be cool too and share our adventures with the internet.

We flew into Vancouver on August 15, a week ago today. We found a place to live [the green building at the intersection] that is very close to Kits Beach and we're hoping to move in over the next couple of days. In the meantime we're staying with Deborah, a friend of my dad's from his fisherman days. [Factoid: Deborah and I were both born in Prince Rupert!]



Today was quite...well...impressive. Our mission was to start furnishing our apartment, and furnish we did. We rented a U-Haul cargo van and drove to all sorts of Craigslist pickups, Ikea, and Walmart. In the end, we acquired:

• Large couch (sofa bed - visitors welcome!), 2 footstools
• Coffee table, 2 side tables
• Solid wood bedframe (to go with the mattress and springboard we ordered yesterday)
  
• Dining room table and 4 chairs
• Bookcase
  
• Office chair
• 2 floor lamps
• TV stand

Despite some injuries in the process, we're both happy to have moved all this furniture into our new apartment.

-Rob