Forests and Fireworks!

So last weekend was a three day one due to Canada Day, and boy did we make the most of it. The weather has recently blossomed into a gorgeous summer and I'm loving the constant sunshine, but not the heat of our bedroom, I swear its a sun trap.

Friday night we frequented the pub that we have fallen in love with, and somehow spent quite a lot. The food there was nice but not amazing (apart from the Yorkshire puddings which were great!) so we're going to stick to just drinking there. Saturday we had a chilled day, we had a chilled out morning with a jugo juice protein shake and short walk and later in the day I precooked our picnic for the next day. Sunday was our cool planned day out at Lynn Canyon Park so I wanted to make the most of it. Sunday morning and we were up bright and early, we took the Skytrain down to the waterfront, and then made our way to the Seabus (I was slightly apprehensive about the boat thing as last time I was at sea I was on a a catamaran for 8 hours and seasick for a large majority of the journey, however on the 12 minute crossing I was absolutely fine.) The seabus is pretty darn cool, you get amazing views of downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park as you cross the harbour. From there we took the #228 bus, (you can take the #228 or #229 to get there) the journey takes about 20 minutes, driving through North Vancouver, which I would say is very pretty, but much more suburban than downtown. It's more kids and families orientated than any other part of Vancouver I've seen so far.

On our way in we spotted a bear warning sign, which both excited and intimidated me equally. I have yet to see any bears, though I am tempted to soon go and see the ones at Grouse mountain, it's on my to do list!

Anyway, onwards we went and came to the canyon and suspension bridge. We choose Lynn Canyon as a day out mostly because it costs nothying. There is another, the Capilano Suspension bridge which is also in North Vancouver and is supposed to be amazing, but costs $25 to get in while Lynn Canyon is completely free. That being said, it was not disappointing. The bridge is quite big, and the drop is substantial. The damn thing moves and the more people who walk on it the more it sways. It might be safe as houses but when it wobbled I did not feel it. I'm a bit of a wimp sometimes, so I clung to the sides. Our first trip over the bridge wasn't too bad, as it was still relatively quiet, but later in the day when it was considerably busier, I was quite apprehensive at crossing.

Crossing it is very much worth it though. On the other side is the 30ft pool, a stunningly beautiful water pool where you can swim and play or in our case, as we hadn't bought any swimwear with us just dipped our feet in. On the plus side it was so hot outside your feet dry off very quickly, and the coldness of the water was very refreshing. We walked more around the area, checking out the Twin Fall waterfalls further down stream and walked through the gorgeous Park, which is classed as a temperate rainforest. We snacked on our amazing picnic of homemade salsa (Mango, cucumber, red onion and lime juice) and cold pizza and crisps, and finished the day with ice cream from the cafe. (They love their peanut butter flavours out here! T'was delicious!) And finally on our way home I managed to take some cool shots of Downtown from the front of the Seabus!

The following day was Canada Day, so we got up with the aim of wandering down to Canada Place to check out the festivities. But on our way we were waylaid by the Busking Festival going on along Granville Street and we spent most of the morning there instead. Some of the artists were so talented, there was the artist who drew a Pit of Terrifying Doom on the ground (see right) Bendy Em, a contortionist who fit her body into a small box, Reuben Dot Dot Dot, a strength and gymnast type act who performed feats of strength on a pole (It's more impressive than it sounds) and many more to take in.

In the evening we headed to the Canada Day parade, where we enjoyed seeing floats and exhibitions from different communities of Vancouver. The emergency services and army, (we saw mounties!) UBC, people from so many different ethnic communities it's impossible to name them all, Chinese, Japanese, Saudi Arabian, Philippinno, Thai and Latinos are just a handful. There were also representatives for Gay pride, dance troups, Vancouver Canucks, BC Lions, the list goes on and on. From there we had a cheeky dinner, then hit up Canada Place again for the fireworks. We got a pretty good spot just behind the Olympic Cauldron, and though my firework photography was awful, I got some pretty good videos. Below is some pictures of the parade, and then the firework finale for your enjoyment. And then we trekked home and collapsed into bed, ready for another week!

Mounties!

 

 

 

And the video: