Rain, Rain Go Away!

On Friday George and I decided to go and connect with nature, which is ridiculously easy to do here, the closest trails are only about 10 minutes walk away. It was pretty cloudy, but I think that kind of weather suits here, it adds an ethereal edge. It makes everything look a bit greener, a bit lusher. 

We headed to Lynn Valley Canyon which is full of plenty of easy trails, and consequentially lots of Chinese tourists. Which means lots of SLRs, posey photos in the middle of the path and no squatting on the toilet signs.

The big draw here is the suspension bridge, which stretches across the canyon, and is definitely ... bouncy. I may or may not have had a slight moment in the middle, and irrationally asked George if it would tip if everyone stood on one side. He found this hilarious, I thought it was perfectly rational as a question. Luckily we made it to the other side.

As we carried on past the bridge it quieted a fair amount, allowing us to take in our surroundings a bit more. The forest is full of ferns and mosses, and the needle bed is so thick. The trees are incredibly tall even though they're still quite young. Some of the giant stumps remain, however you'd need three or four people holding hands to ring around them they're that big.

We followed the canyon down to the river bed which is full of rounded rocks ( I almost expected them to turn into singing dwarf things ;) ), and whiled away the time skimming stones into the fast flowing current.the water was beautifully clear and as cold as the English Channel. Apparently in the summer there's a natural pool further up where you can go swimming. The course of the river is full of waterfalls some little, and some. Not so little that go down through the darkness of the rocks before re-emerging. 

Next we came across something rather unexpected, considering the cleanliness of the forest around us. There is genuinely no litter anywhere, they do a really good job of making sure everyone uses the bins. Which are bear proofed with a lock on the door. 

Who doesn't love a lazy boy recliner.

Then we headed up for lunch to the local cafe/ general store, called 'The End of the Line'. I think it's a spectacular name for a cafe round here. I assume it's because that used to be the last but of infrastructure before the loggers headed up into the mountains. Anyway the food there was lovely. 

Then we headed up to Rice Lake, which was a lot quieter mainly just fisherman. In fact a wife/girlfriend overtook us on the way round with supplies for their partner, how cute!

That night we watched the Stanley Cup final, which decides the winners of the NHL, it was the LA Kings vs the New York Rangers. I never realised how few teeth they all have, and apparently they all grow their beards out and don't shave until someone's won the cup. It's the best of 7  matches between the two teams. It is insanely quick, real end to end stuff, so it was lucky that I was watching it with two Canadians to explain the few rules that exist. SPOILER ALERT: the kings won at the end of the second set of overtime. 

Saturday brought the footie, we met up with some of George's friends from Norwich. We had to pay entry which was the first time I've ever paid to watch footie. It was worth it though for the atmosphere, the pub/sports bar (not sure which it was) was full of English peeps and the Canadians supporting England. There may have been a couple of Italians, if so they were lost in the sea of white shirts. I don't really need to go on about the match, but the experience was fun. Then we headed to this really cool café called Acme, which we'd been told had great pie. It does, the slices are insanely giant, and tasty!

Giant Lemon Meringue!

Unfortunately as it had been so long since we'd left the house the weather had changed somewhat, it was absolutely chucking it down. Buckets upon buckets, upon the fact that we didn't know where to get the bus from so after walking with squelchy shoes for about half an hour we gave in and got a taxi, much to George's chagrin.

Sunday proved we hadn't learnt our lesson as we went for a quick stroll between showers, which turned into a nice 2 hour impromptu hike. The last half an hour of which was more of a swim...

Nice and dry.

More drowned rat esque.

Luckily we had Nanaimo bars to inject a bit of energy back into us. They're super tasty chocolate, then custard, finished a chocolatey nutty biscuit thing. Scrumptious. 

That night we had a lovely last meal with the family before we headed off to the farm, there were some great giant prawns. Yum! Think I might be able to get used the veggie thing.