Climb Grouse Mountain They Said...

Day 2 in Vancouver. We had heard that Granville Island and Grouse Mountain were two neat things to do in the area. Granville is a neighborhood that has a lot of fun shops, restaurants, a brewery, and a huge public market. We checked that out first thing in the morning. Though a lot of things were still closed, 8am was actually a good time to be there since all the displays in the public market were all still stocked. There were fresh fruits and vegetables, pastries, nuts, and artisan crafts. We tried a few things for breakfast while walking around.

After a little while we headed off to Grouse Mountain. It's a hike Dad had found. None of us really had any idea what we were getting into. Apparently a lot. It was an uphill climb for almost 2 hours. We had talked to one man before going up and he said he did it about three times a week and took him around an hour. So we thought we could do it. He told us there were markers showing when you got 1/4, 1/2, etc. We started and immediately you start climbing. Up and up and up. One of the people who passed us said this was the "flat" part. Oh boy... We made it to the quarter and weren't sure Dad was going to make it. But he said he would keep going. I think it was partly that there were signs saying you couldn't hike down and partly the two little boys who had just gone traipsing past. Either way we kept going. By the half it was looking a bit more iffy but it was really too late to go back.

Up

And Up

And Up

 We definitely weren't the fastest ones hiking, but we weren't the slowest either. One couple really looked like they were never going to finish. Completely inappropriate footwear and the woman was in a skirt. We went from inappropriate footwear to no footwear! One guy was actually climbing, quite quickly, barefoot! No idea how he managed with all of the rocks. Then came the woman who was doing about the same pace as us, a little slower maybe. She was joking that she had done the hike years before and had finally been convinced to do it again. She was questioning what she was thinking lol. The absolute best though came in the last quarter. We hear a girl coming up behind us and when she gets close we hear her muttering "Do Grouse Mountain they said. It'll be fun they said." Turns out she had someone convince her to do it but then they had taken off. At that moment the barefoot guy was coming back down (with shoes now.) Turns out he was the one who had convinced her to do it. Dad asked him wasn't he the one barefoot before. The girl said he was and had a few smart remarks along with it. She did make it up though as did we. Mom loved it and now wants to hike all the time.

The top had a lot more than I expected. There was a lodge, zip line, amphitheater, and even a lumberjack show! We walked around and saw some great, enormous wood carvings. To get down you take a gondola. Not my favorite part but mom and dad liked it.

After we managed to keep walking and checked out one of the parks. It was neat to see the totem poles and there was a great walkway along the water. I thought the cruise liners were going to be Dad's favorite part. That was before the waterplanes though. They took off and landed pretty close to us and Dad loved it. When deciding what to do next we were debating when we should go back to the hotel and shower. When Mom asked me how gross I felt, my immediate response was "Well I'm not covered in poop." She like that one. Guess your standards change when you're on a goat farm.

Despite that comment we did go back and clean up. Then off to dinner. We went back to Granville. Before dinner we tried a few beers at the brewery. They were pretty good. Had an awesome ginger beer. The funniest part was the Japanese camera crew. Apparently they were filming a promo for Canada to show back in Japan. I tried to sneak out before they started filming since we were sitting at the bar. Oh no, they wanted people there. So we stayed. Haha we'll have to look for it. After that we had a good dinner at a small, casual seafood place. Another good meal for the trip.