Vancouver

When we were driving through Canada, we passed the cutest neighborhoods with tall hedges around the houses. I am kicking myself now because I didn’t take any pictures of them. It felt like a complete movie scene—with rain and all. This is a huge city that is right by the ocean and mountains. It is so beautiful. When my family goes on a vacation, we make the best of our walking abilities. Seriously though, back in Seattle I had to buy a better pair of walking shoes. My dad and Cort are usually fifteen miles ahead of my mom, Tay, and I, which sometimes causes a little contention. Cort and my dad would rather cover more ground and Tay, my mom and I would rather check less things out a little more thoroughly. But, we all get to see what we want to see so it evens itself out.We liked Canada’s walking guy way better than the one at home. Doesn’t he just look happier? We thought he was a little more upbeat and could picture him whistling while he went to work, instead of  slouched over like our guy. However, the roads in Vancouver were awful. There was not a buffer/turn lane between the opposite flow of traffic. It made it almost impossible to turn left. So grateful for turn lanes in America.Welcome to Grouse Mountain. Awe man, we did not know what we were getting ourselves into when we took that picture. My dad had read online about hikes in Vancouver and was deciding between this one—a harder one—and one that was easier. We voted for this one because we are always up for a challenge. And it definitely challenged us. It was only two miles, but it did not feel like that whatsoever. It was practically a two mile steeeeeep staircase and, of course, my family did not take it slow. We made it to the top under the average time. The hike is called the Grouse Grind for obvious reasons. It’s fun that I have a fit family that I can do things like this with.  Cort was always waiting on us. His buns of steel could have done it faster.After the hike we went to Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was built in the late 1800’s and surprisingly isn’t that scary to walk across. My Dad has always had a fascination with big, old trees and could probably look at them for days. I agree with him though— they are super cool. Some of these trees were almost a thousand years old and so tall I couldn’t see the top of them.  July 1st is Canada’s Independence Day and we didn’t even know we scheduled our vacation over their holiday. We rented bikes and rode through the town, which was festive with Canadian flags everywhere. We rode our bikes to Stanley Park, but stopped along the way to take some pictures of course. My dad saw this tree on our bike ride and had to check it out. This thing was huge!!  These are always some of my favorite family memories. I am thankful my parents take me and my brothers cool places.