Arieh here. We are now in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, after spending 5 beautiful sunny days in Vancouver and another day on northern Vancouver Island. Our hosts, Phil and Corinne Yacht (my maternal cousins), could run a great B & B if they wanted to do so.
All these stories about rain in Vancouver—no evidence this trip (except for the night we arrived). Every day was progressively warmer and more pleasant. Val and I walked the beaches and seawall of Stanley park (pictures above), the different neighbourhoods that have changed so much since we lived there, visited friends and family and checked up on e-mails (although we did not respond to many of them). One of our young transplanted Toronto friends (AM) was sooooo enthusiastic every time she saw the mountain view. Her comments were humorous, but accurate.
In addition to the great walks in the city, Corinne and I went on a real hike at the tip of Grouse Mountain (named after the bird shot there by the “namer” of the mountain).
We skipped the Grouse Grind and took the gondola to the top. The “crazies” do the GG—many run it. Essentially, straight up stairs for one to 1 ½ hours with no view until you reach the top! Go figure Vancouverites. On the other hand, the gondola gets you to the top with not much effort and then we enjoyed our 4-hour return hike to the top of Goat Mountain (also named after an unfortunate victim). At the top of Goat Mountain we had a spectacular view of the other Coast mountains and a nice picnic lunch. (pictures above) The quiet of the hike and lunch was stunning—a Monday morning in late September doesn’t produce a lot of hikers and there is nothing else there but birds and small wildlife. No bears (or scat) on our trip, although there were cautionary postings. At the end of the hike, we had lattes with our feet up overlooking the view one gets from the top of Grouse Mountain. This sort of weather makes you want to move here…until you get to Victoria.
No comments:
Post a Comment