After our trip in Alaska, our cruise finished in Vancouver. It felt silly to fly off right away (and flights were expensive anyway), so we spent a day there to hit a few attractions that I had been to, but Jennifer hadn't (except for one, but a long time ago).
After getting our rental car, we drove to Grouse Mountain and elected to work off all the food and fat we got on the cruise by hiking up "the grind" instead of taking the gondola up. I had done it in 2011 in just over 1H, but this time with my not so light backpack, being way out of shape, and still carrying the food we had eaten on the cruiseship all week, I definitely had a harder time and it took me close to 1h09, which is pretty poor time compared to my last 1h flat in 2011. I wasn't with Jennifer when she got to the top, but apparently she got there just under 1H. Well done.
I got there a bit later than Jennifer but just in time for their scheduled nature hike. It wasn't much of a hike, but an interesting walk/chat with the volunteer guide:
Next was a short nature hike, we saw the presentation on the two grizzly bears they ended up raising when they were found abandonned and dying:
the blue jay happily eats the bear's crap to get undigested berries in it
The chair to the top peak was slow as hell, and there was no view, but we took it since we were there:
we hiked it down which wasn't pleasant, steep and gravelly/slippery
After that, we had a quick presentation of their barn owl that used to be part of the bird show (which sadly was already over for the season):
Last was the lumberjack show. Unsurprisingly, it was somewhat simliar, albeit not identical, to the one we had seen in Ketchikan a few days earlier:
After we were done, we took the gondola down (you aren't allowed to hike the down "the grind" as it is generally not safe and would really get in the way of people hiking up):
5mn down the road was Capilano Park. By then, we only really had 1H to visit, which is a bit rushed, especially with all the people who were there and clocking up the bridges and platforms, but we did the main attractions within that timeframe:
the bridge was crowded
it was empty last time I went early morning, but packed that saturday afternoon
Getting out of Capilano not too late allowed me to drive to Bloedel Conservatory, with its lovely little birds. It's a small place, but still easy to spend 45-60mn while watching them:
get a haircut, buddy
Last for the day was Grandville Market with nice surrounding views:
After that was a quick dinner, some sleep, and our morning flight home the next morning, with a nice upgrade to first class in an Air Canada plane (thanks to united gold)
