Under the Weather

Yet again it has gotten to Friday night and we have forgotten to make a tour video of our new apartment! It’s too dark and we’re too sleepy now…

Last weekend we went on our first night out in as long as we can remember. We went to three bars, and had more than three beers, ending with some arcade games and a dart tournament! This wasn’t totally a bad idea, as the weather was rubbish anyway. Saturday was spent with a hangover. We did make it out for a short walk around our new neighbourhood, but then the sun came out from behind the clouds and made our heads hurt so we went home again.

These pictures are from a previous morning’s walk around Vancouver’s sea wall, you’ll have to imagine it with clouds for an accurate depiction of last Saturday.

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We redeemed ourselves on Sunday with a pretty epic walk to Crown Mountain. As pictured from our new apartment:

It was still raining, but we went anyway. The access is via Grouse Mountain, where we went to play in the snow in April. You can either walk up (850m up over about 3km) or you can pay $60 each to take the gondola. The latter is cheating and would have cost about £70 between us, so we walked up.

After having a little break, there was then some down and lots more up to the top of Crown Mountain (return trip to the top of the gondola is another 9km involving 900m of up). There were some very steep parts that were easier to tackle by sitting and lowering yourself down, so we got pretty muddy. Lots of fun though! The summit involves minor rock climbing and is apparently very exposed (we couldn’t tell because we were in a cloud).

On the way back, we stopped for a beer and fries (not chips) in the chalet at the top of the gondola. We did cheat a little after that, as the one way ticket down is much cheaper.

The wildfire smoke left us for most of the week, but is now back with a vengeance. We’re also experiencing another heatwave – it was around 35° today. This hellish combination is testing our relationship. Ollie hates the smoke and wants to shut the windows. Rosie isn’t bothered by the smoke, but is very hot and grumpy and needs a breeze before she melts into a sweaty puddle. Ollie thinks he is winning, but Rosie keeps having a sneaky open of the windows when he isn’t looking.

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According to the smoke forecasting model, the worst of it should have blown away by tomorrow (Saturday) morning. This is good as we are planning to go camping near Whistler with some friends. The heat and the mosquitos aren’t likely to have blown away though… so we are braced for some more grumpiness.