Yay! Fireworks!

I really like that these long weekend things happen pretty much every month! When you work a standard Monday-to-Friday-9-to-5 (well, I actually do 8:30 am to 4:30 pm) job, long weekends are the coolest thing ever!

I kept myself busy and spent tons of time outside because we almost had some Ontario-like weather temperature-wise. What I really liked was that this didn't translate to Ontario-like weather humidity-wise. Much easier for a person with cystic fibrosis!

Friday, the boyfriend and I had poutine pizza . . . our new favourite thing that we probably shouldn't have ever consumed more than once. It's actually so good though!

On Saturday, I decided we were definitely going to the beach. If I was home in Ontario I would be, so I was definitely going to be doing it here! Being by the water also made the temperature so much more bearable. There was a strong breeze (which was also good because there was no way I was staying in the water that long!) that kept us cool and we did try the water out once. I was also a big dork and had my hat, sunglasses and layers of sunscreen on. It wasn't fruitless though, I didn't get burnt at all! The boyfriend was not so lucky.

On Sunday, we decided to head over to UBC and wander around. We saw the flagpole plaza. It's such a pretty spot because the campus opens right up to the mountains and it's just like "Bam! Canada!" How appropriate for the Canada Day long weekend! There were also these super cool squishy seat things (also notice how they are white, so the glaring sun doesn't heat them up much and they can be sat on . . . science, friends). We also headed down to the rose garden where I decided to have a photo shoot since I matched the roses so well. I could even kind of smell them (like I'm pretending to do), unusual for me!

Here's the only bad part of the weekend . . . really, the only bad thing since I've been out here. You've probably guessed it . . . the crows. Yes, I am bringing them up again. This time, we were walking through UBC (not anywhere near where I live) and I saw one sitting up on one of the banners around the campus. I am legitimately scared of these things from my past encounters and the boyfriend was making fun of me and saying how it was going to get me. Obviously we didn't think it actually would, but just as we had walked past it (together!) it swooped down behind me and it's wing hit my back! Just like the other time! Except this time, I didn't have a jacket and was wearing a tank top. So, I started to cry. There's pictures. Yep, awesome. I'm convinced it was aiming for me because there's no way that it would have just happen to hit me instead of him! I'm also convinced that it likes my hair. It must be the same colour as some crow predator or something. Or maybe it looks like nest material. I don't know, but I've had just about enough! Fledgling season was supposed to be over! I'm also probably going to be known at work as "Crazy Crow Girl" or something.

On to happier things. Monday. The day I had been waiting for. Fireworks! Now, obviously you can't see fireworks during the day, so we had to do something. We went for a walk in Pacific Spirit Park! Most of it was okay, except for hills. I hate hills. We've also decided that the boyfriend must scare people off because every single person we passed said hello to us, but that never, ever happens when he's alone. It also happened at the grocery store before. Weirdo.

After cooling down from the walk, we headed towards the beach because we had a plan to be able to watch BOTH sets of fireworks . . . and also not get stuck downtown until 3:00 am. From the beach, you could see the high fireworks above the buildings and hear them too. Across the water, in West Vancouver, you could see the whole show because they were out on a barge in the inlet. Good plan too because transit was crazy that day! As we were getting to the beach, the bus stopped to let people off and then made a funny noise and shut down. We figured we might as well walk from where we were since we didn't know what was going on, but just as we stepped out, this river of green slime started pouring out of the bottom of the bus and running along the curb. That couldn't have been healthy. Also, for my environmental engineering friends, you might want to look into how great that is going into the storm sewers.

All in all, a great weekend! Yay! Fireworks!

Deep Cove

I never really thought I would literally climb a mountain, but that's exactly what I did yesterday! Although I do enjoy spending time outside, hiking up a mountain was never really on my list of outdoor activities. Now, this might be due to the lack of mountains back at home, but it also might be because I typically stick to swimming and beaching, with the odd attempt at a run.

I went with a few friends from school that are also working out here and we took the Baden Powell trail in Deep Cove, which was exciting for the 17 years of Girl Guide in me! After wandering around the nearby park for a few minutes, the climb started off going straight up. Not even joking, so many stairs and then no stairs, just walking up . . . a mountain . . . I was definitely the straggler of the group. Luckily, the others were quite considerate of my lack of leg strength and made sure I didn't get too far behind. We passed lots of little waterfalls along the way and what we thought was a waterfall, until we saw the sign that said it was actually treated sewage outflow.

 We also saw some really gross-looking, giant slugs on the way. There might have also been some screaming (not from me!) when someone almost stepped on one. Ew. Our first goal was to find the look-out point. It turned out that it was about 2.5k along the trail. Of course, I wanted a sporty-looking shot, along the lines of, "Bam! I tackled you mountain!" I think it worked out quite well! We could also see all of the little kayaks floating around the bay down below and even all the way to downtown Vancouver!

We hiked a bit further up until we decided that we might as well turn around because this trail was NOT looping back around any time soon and headed to the park once we got down for some snacks. From the park, you could see the look-out that we climbed up to and all of the little people up on it. We also wandered around the "downtown" and into a cool, little craft and gift shop. Before we headed back to the car, we came across some funny signs that the parks department had put up near the park.

This was quite the adventurous day for me and I think I am going to not enjoy moving for the rest of today . . . maybe the beach is in order?!