Today Lisa, David and I went hiking on Bowen Island. This was not the easy, relaxing little hike I was expecting. Infact, the picture above may be somewhat deceiving. The picture above was from our walk TO the mountain. The walk TO the mountain was flat and stable. The mountain... not so much.
FIRST we started off at Horseshoe Bay where we caught a ferry to Bowen Island.
Got to Bowen Island :)
The Public Library
So we began our hike up Mt. Gardner, first to the North Summit. It was quite the hike. In total we hiked approximately 15km in trail length, with a total of 1800 ft in elevation gain. It was a really challenging hike, both up and down the mountain. We did it in about 3.5 hours. There were stretches that lasted about 15 minutes of nothing but steep, uphill climbing. It was a good workout though!!
Here's Lisa and I about halfway up to the top.
This is the view at THE TOP that we eventually made it to - this is the North Summit.
And then we hiked for another 10 minutes and found the South Summit.
South Summit at the top of Mt. Gardner.
On our way back from the mountain, we had about a 20 minute walk back to the ferry dock. A bus drove by and Lisa waved her hands in the air in desperation and moaned "Oh bus, if only you could give us a ride" AND SURE ENOUGH it stopped. We RAN to it like starving children running to turkey dinner. The bus driver said he saw our desperate wave and stopped for us. That 4 minute bus ride felt so good. My quads, calves, knees... just about every muscle in my lower body was aching.
Once we got back to Horseshoe Bay, we got some (well deserved) Baskin Robins ice cream :)
T'was a long day, and I'm pooped.
Tomorrow the Canucks play for the Stanley Cup! If they win tomorrow night, the Stanley Cup belongs to Vancouver!! My friends and I are planning to watch the game downtown, outside on the big screens. Should be fun!!
This week has been a very long and stressful week. I received some very scary news last weekend; my roommate in Vancouver had a heart attack late last Saturday night when I was in Kelowna. After 7 days in the hospital (3 days in intensive care) and surgery to have a pacemaker put in, she is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery. She's hoping to be home in the next couple of days.
I spent many nights in the hospital this week with my roommate and her family, and wasn't in a mood to keep up with the blog. But now that she's doing well, I can breathe a sigh of relief and update my blog.
Last weekend I went to Kelowna to watch some of my (former) gymnastics teammates (and best friends) compete at a gym meet, the Ogopogo Invitational. Kelowna is about a 5 hour drive East of Vancouver, however I didn't drive. I had the option of taking the 13.5 hour, overnight greyhound bus ride up but since it didn't sound very appealing, I opted to fly :)
*Click on the picture to view larger image*
It was SO nice seeing some of my former gym coaches and all the people I called my family when I did gym (and still call them my family today). We were able to catch the last bit of the hockey game back at the hotel before heading out to dinner. After the 3rd period the score was tied 2-2 and we made it back to the hotel right before overtime started. We watched 11 seconds of the game - the 11 seconds of overtime. Canucks didn't wait long before scoring. It was super exciting!
These are all the girls and coaches from my gym club in Toronto. The picture was taken outside of The Keg, where we went to eat dinner after the competition.
And of course the coaches covered us in silly string after our group picture :P
Here's Michelle, Sarah, Alison, Me and Marlee at The Keg :)
Kelowna was a lot of fun. It's very small - there's like one major road down the entire city. It's kinda funny. And it was HOT that weekend!!!
The Canucks had a pretty brutal game 3 and 4 in Boston. I don't even want to mention the score of each of those games. I actually didn't see either game - both nights I was at the hospital with my roommate. However, I watched game 5 with some friends on Friday night, and it ended much better. VANCOUVER WON 1-0. We're now up 3-2 in the series. One more win for the Stanley Cup!! It'll be tough though - next game is in Boston. However we have two chances to win, and if it goes to game 7 it'll be back in Vancouver.
The city went absolutely bonkers when they won on Friday. I was at a friend's house watching the game and on my way downtown people were cheering and honking their horns. Even hours after the game finished, people were celebrating and going nuts as though they had JUST won! Everyone broke out into singing the national anthem on the skytrain... and crowds were chanting "we want the cup" and "go canucks go"
This is at Granville Skytrain station
Granville Street (downtown Vancouver) was PACKED with people for about 12 blocks, at least. This is near Granville Street and Robson Street (right downtown).
Everybody was as happy as ever. I must have gotten 50 high 5's from a bunch of random strangers.
The pressure's on. The next game is Monday night, and will be played in Boston. It's a big one. It could be THE one. It might be the last one, I hope it is. Canucks have a chance of bringing home the Stanley Cup on Monday. They've gotta play at their best though. I'll be downtown cheering as hard as I can.
Today (Saturday) I spent the day at the beach with Edwina, David, Matt and Lisa.
We went to Jericho Spanish Banks and played volleyball for a good long while, as well as worked on our tans :P I'm so white - I could really use some more sun! The water was FREEZING cold, so after volleyball we dipped out feet in the water and ate pineapple and apples while sitting on the rocks.
It's been a long week, but things are much better now than they were at the beginning of the week. My roommate's doing well and should be home soon which will be great.
Canucks spirit it everywhere. You can't get escape it! There are many signs around Vancouver supporting the canucks.
Nice sign (on a newspaper stand downtown)
Violent sign (on the seabus)
At lunch today at work a bunch of us organized a game of dominion - it's a card game (with a special deck of cards) where you use action cards and money cards to buy things, and ultimately gain as much estate as possible. It takes a while to explain how it all works, but in short, it's super fun!
Tonight after work, Emily, Edwina and I headed to North Van and ate dinner at a German restaurant. I had a schnitzel with swiss cheese. It was yummy!!! Here's Emily and Edwina on our seabus ride back to downtown Vancouver.
Tomorrow is movie night with people from work :) And then EARLY EARLY Saturday morning (I'm talking EARLY) I fly out to Kelowna to watch my two very good friends compete in a gymnastics meet. SO excited to see them!!
Tomorrow I am filling in for someone at our toastmasters meeting. A client meeting came up, and I'm taking over the position of the "word of the day" person. So I have to think up a word of the day to go with tomorrow's theme of "let your senses guide you" and prepare a 2 minute presentation to introduce the word I choose. I should go work on that now...
Canucks game was good today. Not that I saw all of it, but we won and therefore I feel good saying it went well :) Haha After work about 7 of my friends and I met at Lisa's place to watch the game.
Here's something I saw on my walk to Lisa's from the skytrain station:
I made it there about halfway through the 1st period. Not much happened. Lots of fighting though, especially right after the 1st period ended (disappointed in that but hey, there's a lot at stake here - emotions are running high). Not much happened in the game. I had to leave halfway through the second period. You really only had to catch the last minute, or literally the last 30 seconds to see the one and only goal of the entire game. Luckily, it was for the canucks, scored with 19 seconds left in the third period. I was on my way to the gym (I skipped out early to go to gymnastics - I was wearing my canucks shirt though!) and I was madly texting my friends to see how the game was going. 1-0 for the Canucks in game 1 of the stanley cup finals. I heard on the radio today that 83% of the time in games past, the team that won game #1 in the finals has gone on to win the cup. I'm not predicting anything here, but it's a fact. Vancouver's hoping for good things!!
Coming home from the gym I take the skytrain back to Vancouver, and there had been a fight at Granville station. Lots of police and paramedics. I saw one guy bleeding from what looked like his eye. It was pretty bad. Mostly likely people had too much to drink, and got over excited about the hockey finals. Outside there were people singing and blowing horns.
Here's there's people yelling We want the cup and Go Canucks Go! The game ended around 8pm Pacific Time, and this video was taken around 10:45pm. People were still excited.
Game #2 is on Saturday - I will be in Kelowna and mostly likely won't be able to watch it. I'm bummed about that, which is why I'm not missing Monday's game :) Let's go Vancouver - "We are all Canucks"
Oh that reminds me, on my way to gym, the skytrain passed the Rogers Arena (where the Canucks played tonight) and the entire exterior of the arena is all decked out in signs, and banners and lamppost flags, of course supporting the canucks. It gave me chills. Definitely some serious canucks spirit in Vancouver!!
Stanley Cup Finals begin tomorrow. I think I might end up being an awful Canucks fan and opt to go to the gym over watching the game. It's terrible I know. It's my current dilemma. Of course I want to watch the game downtown with my friends, but I really miss doing gym and it means a lot for me to be able to be back training again.
I found these on yahoo.ca from Game #5 in the Western Conference Final (the game when the Canucks advanced to the Stanley Cup Final) It's fun to watch the moment where the city erupts.
Vancouver's reaction when Kesler scored with 14 seconds left to put the game into overtime (see 0:30 - 1:10)
Vancouver's reaction when Bieksa scored to put the Canucks into the Stanley Cup Finals (see 0:00 - 0:30):
This past Sunday I wandered up to the 8th floor of my apartment building and discovered the ROOFTOP PATIO!! It's awesome. There are tables and lounge chairs up there. I can definitely see myself spending time, eating dinner, relaxing up here this summer!
This is looking North from the roof. The major street on the left is Granville and I take the bus North along Granville to get to work :)
This is looking South at Granville St.
This morning Subway was giving out free breakfast from 7-10am. At about 9:45am someone from my office asked if we had gotten out free breakfast. Caitlin, from my office, looked straight at me and we both bolted out of the office, ran down West Georgia in our heels and made it to Subway in time for our free egg muffin melt and coffee. WHOO - the things people do for free food. It's nuts.
Tomorrow is the first day of JUNE!!! Where the heck did May go? Anyway, whether or not I watch the game at a pub downtown, I'll be rooting for the Canucks tomorrow night, wearing my canucks t-shirt and all!!!
Hiked around Lighthouse Park this afternoon on the very North West part of Vancouver. It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful by the water. It reminded me of being in Muskoka, Ontario :)
Here's Emily after she spotted me taking creepy stalker shots of her when she wasn't looking :P
We literally sat on the rocks for a good hour. It was supposed to rain this afternoon. Did it rain? NOPE!
So calming.
Yeap, we climbed down those rocks. Haha felt like a hiking pro after this :)
Emily brought pineapple and Matt cut it on the rocks. No cutting board? No problem!
There's David, our trusty guide. If I had been guiding us, we would have no doubt been lost by this point.
Here we all are in front of the Lighthouse. (L-R: Matt, Pratik, Daniel, Moi, Edwina, David, Emily)
Side note: I'm wearing my new Canucks t-shirt (one of two shirts I bought yesterday)
Of course what's a hike without finding a washroom sign with headless people?!
Had dinner downtown at... oh I forget the name. Haha that's twice in a row now I can't remember the name of the restaurant. It was a vegetarian place, and though I'm not vegetarian it was a nice restaurant, with a live musician.
Vancouver is warm. Vancouver is beautiful. I think I'll stay for a while.
That video made me smile. When they say "Don't you know the whole city is all in a buzz..." they're not kidding. I've been sucked in. I bought a Canucks shirt today. In fact, I got a little excited and bought 2. Come on... I need something to wear to watch the Stanley Cup FINALS!!!
Edwina and I went to... I forget the name of the restaurant. Somewhere downtown. It was on Robson St. The food was really really good! I had chicken penne. Edwina had... I forget. LOL I'm tired. I'm having trouble remembering details.
After dinner (and our sherbet) we went to Chapters. Edwina found a book that we read in ICO CLASS!!!
I'm crashing early tonight. Friday night. I know. But I've been out late all this week. I can't believe I've been here almost a month. Time has gone by so so fast (too fast in fact). Summer, slow down!!!
