BC Adventuring: Part I - Mountains!

BC was totally incredible. I love, love mountains. Love.

Day 1:
We flew in to BC early in the morning. Because of the time difference, we arrived with a whole day ahead of us. I sat next to the window, itching to see the mountains the whole way. I've done my fair share of traveling, but I've never seen "real" mountains, rocky ones with snow at the top. More than anything else, I was excited to see that. Unfortunately, it was cloudy the whole way over. I saw snaps of Ontario (lake) and Saskatchewan (fields) but missed out completely on snowy peaks. When we finally descended, I could see the mountains around Vancouver slipping into the clouds and I got very, very excited.

We picked up our rental car (hello deal on Mustang convertible!) and we drove to our hotel. Too tired for much activity, we decided to drive on highway 1 up to Horseshoe Bay. Driving along, watching the mountains and lush green fly past, I was drawn in completely. I took a hundred pictures and all of them failed to accurately capture what I was seeing and feeling, so part way through, I gave up.

On the way back, we drove over the Lionsgate Bridge and through Stanley Park to downtown. After the lush forest, the shiny, hard, stark downtown was more than I could handle. I'm used to stone buildings, a little bit of history... downtown Vancouver is all glass. I immediately wanted to retreat back to the mountains and breath in the cedar wood and salt air of the bay.

Sigh.

Day 2: We headed up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. I knew it was either going to be really awesome or really touristy, and it turned out to be the best of both. Incredible views (biiiiig trees) and high school students dressed in period costumes (1890s) with old timey music playing. We gaped and walked through the tree top bridges and took a nature tour (the coveted fish feeding tour, in fact). The tour was the best. Some of those trees are 1000 years old! That's incredible! They were big trees when Dante was writing the Divine Comedy.*

After our fill of touristy, we hit the road for Abbotsford to take care of some business (the whole reason for the trip out there in the first place). On the way, we stopped in New Westminster and ate at the Green Diner. It's not a diner at all, it's the local sandwich shop where sandwiches named after clients cover a whole chalkboard wall and they pack pic-nic lunches (basket and all!). We stuck around at closing time and chatted with the owner (who is originally from Cape Breton, no word of a lie), exactly the kind of person you'd want to know. She loves to make sandwiches, but nothing too crazy, "people don't want to eat that every day!" Her shop doesn't want to be anything more than your regular stop. I highly recommend it, and I recommend the chicken corn chowder, her new recipe -- she gave us a cupful to try.

Well, two days is a lot to read (and write). I'm still a little jet-lagged and need to fix my sleep schedule. Part II to come!


*FYP strikes again. It was actually the first comparison that popped to mind.