After the intial excitment of being in a new city with exciting new prospects we finally have started to get into a routine of work, tourist activities and outdoor activities.
Marty finally got a job after much searching and he is working in a Bike store which has locations on both sides of the False Creek Seawall doing rentals to tourists as well as some sales. He was very excited the other day when he received his first tip (although bike store attendents don't normally get tipped). Erin's work is going well, there was a staff appreciation day the other week where they supplied lunch, cake and had a draw for several prizes throughout the day, including ipad's and e-readers.
In regards to tourist activities in the past four weeks we have done rollerblading around the Seawall in Stanley Park (Marty was not a big fan of this), playing Pitch and Putt, visiting the Fisherman's village in Steveston and also going to the Richmond Night Market.
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| Pitch and Putt Pro |
Sport and outdoor activities have been plentiful with Marty (being unemployed at the time) doing many trail runs around the north shore as well as many bike rides around vancouver and through Stanley Park. Erin has done a lot of walking when she can fit it in and ism starting to get on the bike, getting used to the road rules. We've have also signed up to do a Marathon and Half-Marathon respectively at Bellingham Bay, Washington in late September, so we will have to get into the training for that. Erin has also joined a basketball team and a softball team, with two catches in her first game.
Hike wise we have done a 13km hike from Lynn Canyon to Deep Cove, which had incredible views from a rock above Deep Cove and included another very high Suspension Bridge (luckily for Erin, we only went over this bridge once).
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| Lynn Canyon from the Suspension Bridge |
The next week we did a 16km hike up Mount Gardner which is on Bowen Island (a 20 minute ferry ride just off west vancouver). It provided spectacular views of vancouver and you could see all the way to Mount Baker in Washington State, 140km away. This has been Erin's favourite hike so far, the only downside being that she twisted her ankle on the way down and struggled for the next week or so.
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| View from Mount Gardner on Bowen Island, with the snow capped Mount Baker in the background |
On a very wet and cold day we decided to hike around Buntzen Lake in Port Moody and we did a trail called Diez Vista (18km long) which had 10 view points, but as it was such a rainy day we could not see very far and this is on the list to do again for another (sunnier) day.
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| From the misty mountians of Port Moody |
Last of all, on another rainy day we decided to do the Grouse Grind, which is a tough 3km hike that is basically a set of stairs to (almost) the top of Grouse Mountain and covers 900m in elevation. Alot of people try to run it and try and beat their time, this is Marty's goal (and to a lesser extent, Erin's) over time. When we got to the top Erin had her first glimpse of snow since arriving in Vancouver and we got to see some Grizzly Bears at a refuge that is set up on Grouse Mountain.
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| After conquering the Grouse Grind |
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| Vancouver Grizzlies! |
So that's about it for now. We thought the weather was beginning to turn for the best, but it has gone back to been wet and cold for the time being. We are hoping for a nice long summer.
Best wishes to you all.
Erin and Marty
