A Day on Grouse Mountain

For years now I've been looking from bus and train windows up at the mountains and picking out the lights of the ski resorts and vowing to be up there some time soon. Yesterday Sarah and I finally went.

After busing downtown, we took the SeaBus over to North Vancouver. Here's Grouse Mountain from the water. The cleft in the trees is where the gondolas go. The white clearing above that is one of the bigger ski runs.


The day was much busier than we expected. We queued for about half an hour just to get into the gondola. Here's us clearing the parking lot.


We raced the neighbouring gondola. It won.


This is that ski run I mentioned earlier. Sorry about the view in the background; I know it's not much to look at.


We also queued another half hour to rent ski equipment. As we neared the head of the queue we were informed that they'd run out of ski poles. We're both beginners so a day without poles seemed unwise, and I have no experience with snowboards, so we bailed. It was really disappointing but we did walk around and play in the snow.

This is another run above us. The wind generator is new; there's an observation deck on it also.


Hi, Sarah. What are those? Gifts? For me? Oh, how nice! Thank you so - hey!

Some Birthday and Christmas Photos

Sarah at her Christmas Concert

 Dining on pancakes at her slumber party

 Opening Birthday Presents (here, her new Harry Potter Lego set from Poppy)

The Birthday Cake

 Making a Wish

 Margo, all dressed up for a night out at a Christmas Party

 Sarah was VERY excited at the size of her Christmas stocking

 Mike, making some essential coffee for the parents.

 Sarah enjoying some hot cocoa before opening presents

 Mike's contribution to Sarah's stocking

 

 Checking out her book of optical illusions from Granny and Grandpa

 Mike got a bottle of wine

 Dad watches Sarah tear open her gifts

 Mike opening a set of cufflinks from Margo

 Mom got to wear all of the ribbons as the presents were unwrapped

 Sarah has been begging for these particular candies EVERY time we go to the store, for the past year

 Happy child on Christmas morning

Dad had a nice Christmas too!

Cinematic Moment

This afternoon I saw Tron: Legacy downtown at the Scotiabank Theatre. I loved the movie, but that's not what I'm writing about. Right after, I stopped and looked out the nearest window. The sun was out, for the first time in over a week - it wasn't when the movie started - and right there was the Shangri-La tower, which served as Encom's headquarters in the movie. I could even see the crane at the top that Sam Flynn was standing on minutes before.

Walking around downtown, seeing the sun glinting off all the glass, the snowy mountains in the background, it was intoxicating. Yes, we whine and moan about the insane real estate prices, the lack of community, the weather, but my god, this place can be beautiful.

A few more photos from the Christmas Market

Christmas Market

Last night we visited the Vancouver Christmas Market, a new event inspired by the open air Christmas markets of Germany. However, since Vancouver doesn't have a town square, it was held in a fenced-off pavilion in front of a theatre.

Being a weekend, and not raining, the lines were quite long, and we had to wait about half an hour just to get in. Inside, there were still lines for most anything of interest.



Bavarian sausages, pretzels, and other Continental foods were available. For drink, there was hot Gluwhein (spiced red wine), hot spiced apple cider, and taps of Paulaner beer - Weissbier, Dunkel, and the famous Salvator Doppelbock. Goods such as Christmas ornaments could also be had.

A packed performance roster of musicians kept things lively also.



A collection of kids' activities was available. Sarah chose one where she got to decorate her own chocolate lollipop.



But we didn't linger. After long waits for overpriced food, we were eager to go home. On the way back through downtown we did stop and check out the Christmas tree in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery.



Back home, Margo heated some Merlot with brandy, sugar, spices and fresh orange to make a hot mulled wine way tastier than the $8 half-cup we'd had earlier. I put on Christmas tunes while Sarah and Margo decorated our tree.

Glitter Is Evil

Millennia frrom now, archaeologists digging through our remains will puzzle at the mysterious golden dust, and when they find they can't get it out of their clothes and carpets either they will curse it as I do.