North Shore Monday

Last night was family dinner night at my parents' place (like most Sundays)... My neice and nephew were over and I had the camera out so I got a few pics...


This is my nephew Curtis eating some Jello...


And this is my niece Audrey waiting for some food... she didn't have to wait long...


Curtis and his crazy uncle (me) taking a self pic... seriously... that look in my eye... if that's not pure wild-eyed craziness I don't know what is... but in my defense, Curtis was determined that there would be no self pics yesterday, so I had to do it real fast before he figured out what was happening...

So Roby and I ended up staying at my parents' place last night and we took the train home this morning. And when I say this morning, I mean early this morning. We got up, packed our stuff, and got to the train station in Mission by 7:15am. That's pretty much still the middle of the night. And to make matters worse, I didn't get to sleep until about 2am. And to make matters even worse than that, the smoke alarm where I was sleeping in my parents' basement decided at about 4am that its batteries were dying so it started to chirp about once every 2 minutes. I would have taken it off the wall, but it was only loud enough to bring me into that half awake/half asleep state where everything is confused and instead of actually doing something about the problem I just dream over and over that I'm doing something about the problem... So I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

But getting up early was worth it because we got the rental car picked up by 9 and after doing some other stuff we were ready to start North Shore Monday... And there are plenty of pics. But in the interest of not boring anyone too much I'll only post a few.


First stop was at the West Vancouver Museum, where I worked last summer and the summer before. After that we came here to Whytecliff Park, which is on some cliffs and gives an awesome view of Howe Sound.


There are a lot of little islands off the BC coast and a lot of them have ferry service. This ferry has just left the mainland and it's headed to Bowen Island (I think)... at times like this I wish my camera had a panoramic function.


If there's one thing we have a lot of in Southern (coastal) BC, it's water. So ferries are everywhere, crossing rivers, sounds, inlets, ocean, etc. Horseshoe Bay in West Van is a major departure point so we headed out there to have a look. And for some reason the only picture I took was of this motel sign. It's a nice sign but I probably should have taken a picture of the ferries. I guess I forgot to do that in my excitement about the sign...


Next stop was the lookout point on the way up Cypress Mountain. Cypress is a North Shore ski hill and it's the one I usually go to... decent, cheap, and close to home. You can see forever from up there, but it's hard to take a picture of forever... so I settled for downtown, Stanley Park, the Lion's Gate Bridge, and a little bit of West Vancouver on the North side of the water.


After Cypress we headed to the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver. That bridge is messed up. And I'm not just talking about the 20 dollar entrance fee. It is seriously about 3 million feet above the Capilano River, and it sways when people walk on it. Roby had no problem with that as you can tell by that big happy smile he's wearing in this pic.


This, on the other hand, is not a big happy smile. It's one of those smiles you get right before you cry or pass out. I hate heights and I hate the fact that the bridge actually moved when people walked or when the wind blew. Seriously if you were to lean over the side the bridge would actually shift with your body weight. Not that I did that, but it would shift when I got too close to one side. Notice I'm holding on with both hands.


The original bridge was built in 1889 but this one was built in 1956. This picture is what Roby saw when I made him look over the side... and it's hard to do it justice with a still pic....

So I got this video. By the time we came back accross (after the treetop adventure... check the website for more on that) I was getting brave enough to hold the camera over the sides. The video only needed to be about 10 seconds long but I started it too early so it's about a minute long. But... if you want to have a look, it gives a better idea of what it's like to look over the sides (watch it to the end to see both sides). You can also check out the website for better pics than the ones I took. Actually I just watched the video again and it really does suck in terms of quality. But here it is...



Ok well after that, we went out to Deep Cove, which is a great little place at the east end of the Burrard Inlet. It's only about 15 minutes from the city (when traffic is good) but it's really quiet... like being in the middle of nowhere. And when you live in a big city, sometimes the middle of nowhere sounds pretty good.


It's got one main drag (if you can even call it that) with little restaurants and other assorted shops... a park... some residential areas... and a marina. This would be the marina...


And these are some kayakers heading in after... um... kayaking I guess. I took this picture from the end of the wharf.


Some homes on the hill... and they don't come cheap. Deep Cove and West Van are expensive places to live.... probably because you can live there and be close to the city without having to be in the city.

I took a picture of the main street too but it's not that great so I'm not going to post it. Just imagine a little street with a lot of shops and a park with water at one end.

Ok well that's it... I need to sleep... tomorrow is Whistler Tuesday.