Hiking Eagle Bluff

 My friend Laszlo was in town for a few weeks for work and I managed to monopolize a fair portion of his free time to visit, watch fireworks, and have a drink or two. Amongst that, we also managed to get well out of the downtown core and go hiking on Cypress Mountain out to a point called "Eagle Bluff." The hike was around 4 hours and the worst part was a bit of steep scrabbly gravel right at the beginning, after which it was a very pleasant hike through the forest.

 I shot some panoramas at the top, but they are all so wide (since the lookout had a pretty amazing 270-degree view or so) that I don't think they'd work too well in the narrow confines of this blog. Instead, I have included a "you can see my house from up here" photo of the west end and Stanley Park as seen from the peak.

 There were several nice points to get a bit above the trees and have a nice view, and this peak into Howe Sound was a pretty striking spot as well. There were lots of nice small lakes up there as well, along with very bold grey jays and chipmunks that will literally eat out of your hand given the chance. All in all a fantastic hike I would certainly recommend to everyone, although it is a bit steep in places and should be considered an intermediate challenge for those in doubt.

Happy Canada Day!!

 We have a longstanding pattern of enjoying Canada Day together very much, and were both quite pleased to have enough of the day off to enjoy out and about together. We started off on Granville Island, since I'd never spent Canada Day there and wanted to see what it was like. Near the shipyards they had some chalk out for people to decorate a maple leaf, so we got our picture taken doing just that.

 Granville Island was a pretty fun place to spend a few hours. We had some nice Indian food, listened to a little music here and there (though most everyone seemed to be perpetually doing sound checks) and ran into some fun entertainers like the two shown below. Costumes on stilts seems to either be a big thing in Vancouver, or just has become a big thing since we moved here, but its a very neat way of making visible and fantastical costumes.

 Afterwards, we went downtown to the Olympic Cauldron and a  few other spots, but it was SOOO crowded down there that we beat a pretty hasty retreat out of the area, and opted for a walk along the seawall. There was a VERY large Canada flag on display in Stanley Park and we spent a little time sitting in the shade and watching a cricket match as I hazily tried to remember what I ever knew of the rules.

Met up with some very nice friends in the evening to watch the fireworks from the Vancouver Rowing Club and have a great chat. All in all an excellent time and a proud day for our country on its 150th (though obviously as an archaeologist, Kathryn considers it closer to Canada's 10,150th)