Canada day 3

As we only have two days in Vancouver it has been go, go , go. This morning we are off to Grouse Mountain.

We walked down to Canada Place and caught the complimentary shuttle up the mountain.

We went to get on to the cable car and our tickets wouldn’t scan so we had to go over the booth and explain that we had bought them the day before and that we hadn’t already been up the Mountain. After the attendant made a quick call he issued us new tickets and we were off.

I actually got on the cable car this time. I faced backwards so I could’t see if there were any large drops as we went up. I think I was also lucky that it wasn’t too windy today.

When we got up the top there was a fun run on (the Grouse Grind) which was timing people running up the mountain. I asked if we could walk down (I wanted to see if I had the option of not getting back in the cable car) and was told that you can only go up the mountain, you can’t walk down it.

We arrived just before the lumberjack show so our timing was pretty good. We went to see the bears Grinder and Coola who were rescued as cubs. Their mothers were both killed when they were about 4 months old so they will never be able to be released back in the wild. They are 24. They were beautful and when you see their claws you can imagine how much damage they would do to you if they attacked you.

The lumberjack show was quite funny – there was a plant in the audience, however the plant was the guy from the brochure which gave away that he was a plant. The lumberjack’s deomonstrated a couple of skills including tree climbing before they went to do the log rolling. Of course while they were rolling the logs, the plant climbed the pole and pretended to be stuck up there – I won’t give away the ending.

After the lumberjack show Linsey, Molly and Stu went on the peak chairlift to the peak of the mountain. That was one step too far for me so I stayed and tried a Beaver Tail which is a deep fried pastry. Just as the show finished the clouds rolled in and the mountain was covered in a very thick fog. I don’t think they saw anything from the peak.

We had lunch at the top of the moutain I got to try Poutine. I’m not sure how genuine it was but I thought it was delicious, I will probably try it again in the future. After we got down the Mountain we went to Roots and bought a shirt and some maple mints that Stu had been looking for. We then went back to the motel for a rest before we headed out to our concert.

Stu’s birthday present was tickets to the Marina concert that happened to coincide with out visit to Vancouver. We grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant near the Orpheum Theatre and had a few delicious Cocktails – Stu of course had a couple of Margaritas.

The support act was Coco & Clair Clair this was very interesting. The performance was shambolic almost like they weren’t sure what they were actually doing there and were obviously drunk and stoned on somthing hard. At one point they sang without backing and lets just say using the word sang is a kindness. Clair Clair said it sounds so different without auto tune – so I guess when they were signing before it was through an auto tune.

Marina however was excellent and did a great 90 minute set -and despite a cold her voice was amazing. All in all it was a great concert.

We have an early morning tomorrow – off to Vancouver Island.