My Days in Beautiful British Columbia (Vancouver BC)

Pouring down rain welcomed me into Vancouver, no surprise there. On the drive from the airport, Mat commented that this was the worst weather in a while. Lucky me, I’ll drink some coffee. But that’s the last I saw of that… every other day was perfectly sunny and not too hot and not too cold. Perfect for wandering around downtown right on the waterfront with snow-capped mountains as a backdrop, and enjoying some fish n chips and some local brew on nearby Granville Island. How lovely! On top of it all, I happily played around with my newly purchased, long awaited 17-35mm/2.8 lens. Sorry, that probably means nothing to most of you, just know it’s a really good thing!

I had just been saying that I hadn’t been to a show in a long time– and my first full day in Vancouver we spent at an outdoor music festival. A VIP pass provided Mat with unlimited free Red Bull. A few cans in, he was dancing on the grass. The label says not to drink more than two per day. Hmmm, no wonder. The day ended with some rocking out to The Killers and Mr. Brightside, reminiscent of Cameron Diaz in The Holiday, hurrah! Loved it.

One afternoon after a big breakfast for fuel, Mat and I trekked an hour quite literally almost straight up the Grouse Grind trail (a 2600 foot climb over 1.8 miles) through countless evergreens (only one of which was marked protected as a wildlife sanctuary- we weren’t quite sure what made that one so special) to the top of the “peak of Vancouver”.

Good-bye North America, on to Asia. With the problems I always have with my ticket, we’ll see how far I get. Oh, and you can check out a few more photos by clicking on the links on the right.