A dirty job....

For some reason I have to get my sister a gift because I'm on holiday? I never ask for anything other than her having a good time, No Doubt (Mmm, Gwen) it'll be something that'll just sit in her room unwanted. Anyway whilst downtown carrying out said rubbish job i found the Donair Hut, so how could i refuse eh? 1 Chicken Donair wrap coming up "hot sauce?" he asked "yeah", "One line or two", "Two", "Three?", "Yeah go on then". It was good, washed down with there home made lemonade 9/10! no picture tho (sorry Steve), it didn't last that long so directions will have to do!

We got out for final ride on the shore b4 leaving did CBC, and Team Pangor. Took the Video camera so if i get chance later I'll post some footage...

Random Picture for todayNoticed this guy whilst coming come down an escalator he so looks like my Dad from the back?!

Holy Kebab Batman...

It took some doing but i finally managed to get a kebab in Vancouver, i appears in North Van at least that the places only open during the day. Its got to be said it was rather nice just not as large as the boys at 3 Chefs maybe that's why its hard to shed the weight eh?

Fixed up my bike again new bearings in the front wheel and lower shock bush replaced too! Feels OK again lets hope nothing else goes wrong!!

Fishers!!

Vancouver Aquarium well worth a look round, even if is just to watch Sea Otters swimming about...

Stupid Picture for today

"This, my friend, is a pint." "They come in pints?"

Red Robin Day

Spent all most of the Day Slogging it up Mt Fromme Did Seventh Secret a couple of other runs, to the bottom and then rode right back up to Expresso. Did some skinny stuff on there and surprised myself by not falling off.

Despair- I'd only ridden half way to Mt Fromme on the Road, then you still have to go up it!

Mt Fromme Expresso - Some of the easy Shore riding

Headed back to meet doug and count the seabus to downtown to meet Karen for Dinner went to Red Robins, yes I know another burger but what a burger easily best so far 9/10 9.5 if the meat was a little warmer!

Trying to have a conversation with Karen around the starter was a bit of a problem.

Beer & Burger and it looks like the picture on the Burgerizer!

Doug giving his Bleu Ribbon Burger the thumbs up!

View from the Seabus - Northshore at night.

View from Doug and Karens roof deck of the First Night of the Celebration Of Light.
We were about 2 miles away so it musta been Big!

Do Nothing Day

Didn't take a single photo today, when Doug Got home we went up Mt Fromme and blasted down Pipeline and another (?). Was good.

Here's first attempt at night skyline photo from the roof from last night, should of waited till it was darker maybe?

Lynn Canyon

Went over to Lynn Canyon today, the ride over was mainly up but at least it was drier than yesterday. With Doug's Detour completed I was into the forest once more and again I found the roar of the river very peaceful.
Didn't take a great deal of photos on the suspension bridge as it was only just big enough to fit my bike down it. At this point I hooked up with a Swiss guy called Casper and yes he was friendly. We traversed over to Mt Seymour and eventually found the bottom of the Ned's trial and pushed up (not advised it was a funking long way). We were soon back down, I can see why they shuttle here....

The view upstream on Lynn Suspension Bridge.

I finally got back at a little after 17:30hrs I was met by Doug loading the Car up for the Thursday Night NSRIDE club ride. We set off up Mt Fromme at 18:30 after a short drive to it and i started peddling again, I think I did quite well seeing that I had been in the saddle since 11:00hrs. We met up in Seymours pub after and I had 3 (not quite) pints of some Honey Lager which was quite good although the waitress was the most grumpiest ever, and your supposed to tip em? F@ckin Smile!

Stanley Park

Decided it was time to get out on the bike again so I headed down Marine Drive to the Lions Gate Bridge to get into Stanley Park. Some of the coat ride/walk was shut due to damage from the Winter, trees over etcFound a great big dead tree with an other growing out of it, that seems to happen quite a lot here.
Between the beaches on the south side of the headland spotted a big bird, this time not from Sesame St. Possibly a Sea Eagle? Tried to get a better pic and it cheesed it then got mobbed by seagulls but it was happy about that...Once my tour of the headland was completed and I'd seen all the usual touristy type of things like the totems, I headed back to North Van I turned up Capilano Rd and ended up eventually at the Cleveland Dam. Man was it high, just look at the little folks on the left and they ain't anywhere near the bottom.
Decided I wanted more pictures so I rode down the footpath (naughty, naughty) wasn't to many people about, just folks letting their dogs crap all over the trial, nice...
There were quite a few look out points which were really well placed, the one below had a large rock ledge sticking out over the river with a plunge pool under it, fancied giving it a try, but i know my luck. NEWSFLASH "Today a man dropped the 30' into the Capilano River and struck his head on a huge rock watched his bike get stolen then died" well maybe not....

Oh, did i mention it was raining? All day. None Stop.
No? Well it was.

The strange thing it wasn't cold shorts and a T was all I required, on the local news they were having a block party and the weather didn't seem to bother them??

The height of the valley was pretty amazing, and the cloud was in the trees.

My Favorite Photo of the day has to be this one of a Giant Fir in the forest, it came out almost black and white not sure how but I Like it.

Downtown in the Rain

I went downtown with Karen on her way to work, we parted company after we got outside the sea bus station. It hadn't stopped raining all morning i walked the width of the headland no shops were open and although I'd past about 500 Starbucks on the way i wasn't going to go in one. I wander back down Seymour and took a few turns to find the library, I really need to get outta the rain... I eventually found refuge in a Native art gallery called Hills it was warm dry and very interesting looking at the artwork in there. Spotted some images a quite liked, and some of the sculptures were good like this killer whale couldn't quite afford the selling price tho...
As the rain was slowing cruised around a bit more in Gastown, wandered onto West Hastings and found that most of the people round there either were F#cked up drugs of smelt like pi$$ as i passed then, cheesed it outta there and went back to main drag and Canada Place. It looks crap, but i did manage to get a good shot of brontosaurus feeding by the coast...Was passing the Steam Clock at Noon when i sounded off was a L.O.B. Visited two more galleries the better was Inuit Gallery, Vancouver, BC but man was it expensive one piece of wood work was amazing called Eagle and Salmon Mask. Then I went back to Hills and purchased a print of Confessions of the Moon which I was very impressed with earlier. They took the seabus back to the Northshore, then used the same ticket to catch the bus even closer to home. cost $3.25 compared to £1.40 one way to town in Derby? Pattern developing here i think?

Burger Time
After swooping some shorts at Cove bike shop went to Wendy's, I was greeted with the usual
"What can I get you sir?"
"I'll have the Baconater " sniggered Phatboy

Gotta admit it was good, square but good. Its just managed to scrap in with a 7/10, the fries sucked but that's just the same as everywhere else.

Did the Grouse Grind after D&K got back from work did it in 47Min's which wasn't to bad by all accounts. Got to see the bears but didn't stay to long as the bugs were biting!!

The view from the top of Grouse mountain looking North East ish.

One of the fear inducing Grizzly Bears of Grouse Mountain

(OK so I edited out the electric fence everybody was hiding behind.)

Wandering North Vancouver

Crossing the road in the UK is taking your life into your hands here its weird and unnerving people in cars just stop for you!! They actually expect you to walkout in front of them between those two parallel lines. Most pedestrians here don't even bother to look if anythings coming, just weird.... Wandered through the Native area of town was a bit of a dump by comparison to the rest of North Vancouver. Ended up in a few shops found the shorts I bought on Saturday at half price so now i have two pairs, D'oh! and I wonder why i have no cash. Wandered around a few typical supermarkets comic and surf shops seem reasonably priced, unlike the bike shops the spares are about 40% more expensive they need a CRC here!


Burger time again, one because it was the only place around I went to Mc D's, much cheaper than the UK but the burger was in an anemic bun and wasn't that tasty either can only give it a 3/10. And just like the film said, the drinks are massive this a medium aka large in the UK, am so glad i asked to see the cup first I never would have lifted a large off the counter...

Mc Donald's "Am Lovin it" ? maybe not...

Mt Seymour CBC trail

Doug and mark took me up to CBC trail on Mt Seymour today after i had spent far to much money in the Cove Bike shop. Was pretty amazing, Glover will be kicking him self that he went to Morzine over this place he would be in his element. I gave the shore stuff a try its a bit "1 Pee 2 Pee" to did quite a bit of it but some was well out of my league. I was amazed by the speed that some of the locals were doing the high level stuff, I was in awe... carful don't wanna add a "some" to that word just yet

On my mission to search out strange new burgers I can say that A&W were poor, a mere 5/10 and thats only because I was starving, the root beer was good tho.

The Contrast in Weather...

As to be expected my journey to the airport was very wet as it has been in the UK for weeks! All the extra security checks were fun too, got a really grilling off the passport control lady at Vancouver Airport all because we can via Glasgow maybe? :(

The view of Greenland was pretty amazing, if only i had a sledge?

The view of Vancouver from the plane window as it taxied from the runway. The sun beating down on the North Shore mountains in the background can help thinking that I should have brought more shorts, suppose that's what you get when your nesh sister to help you pack ;)

Doug picked me up and we were soon in a bar was struggling to stay awake