The Bell Family

As the title says, whilst in Canada, I had an exciting day where I managed to see snow for the first time!

I woke up fairly early in the morning, and headed for one of the “refec” locations on SFU campus to grab some breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they served cooked breakfasts and decided to have some bacon and eggs. However, the lady who was cooking simply opened what looked like a milk carton and poured a portion onto a hot plate, which is how my scrambled eggs were cooked.

Anyway, after breakfast, I headed back to my room and checked on my email. I was feeling a little out of whack and seriously considered not doing much for the day…. especially after the interesting experience I had the day before. But around 9:30, I decided what the heck and settled on a visit to “Grouse Mountain”. This meant that I had to get a bus into the city, a sea bus (ferry) from South to North Vancouver, then another bus to the base of “Grouse Mountain”. The total time taken was over an hour and a half, but it was interesting to see the various sites.

View of South Vancouver whilst on the Sea Bus

Once at the base of the mountain, there were two choices on how to get to the top… a very, very, very, long vertical hike, or a trip on the Cable Car. Obviously I took the Cable Car, though it was quite expensive something close to $40, but it was totally worth it. The top of “Grouse Mountain” is very high and the cable car travels up a very steep vertical incline. The day was overcast, so the cable car actually passed through a layer of the clouds before it reached the top and it was a lot higher than I expected. Once up there, the view of Vancouver City was quite limited because of the weather, but to my huge surprise there was still snow up on the mountain and I was very excited!

Picture of Cable Car

View from the Top of Grouse Mountain

As you can imagine, the first thing I did once off the cable car was to go to the nearest area and touch some snow. Now I realize that the snow wasn’t the usual “fluffy” snow, as it was nearly summer and most of it had melted a fair bit or was clear of snow altogether, however there was still quite a bit of snow left and, to me, it felt like the stuff you use in snow cones! Naturally I made a few snow balls and threw them!

Picture of the top of Grouse Mountain, with snow

After the initial excitement, I went and grabbed some lunch at the Cabin. I then decided to walk along some of the trails. When walking around, there was this group walking in the opposite direction who at one stage were throwing snow balls. One accidentally hit me and one of the guys apologized, but personally I thought it was pretty funny and if I knew them, I would have been throwing snow as well!!!

Main Cabin where I had lunch

Whilst walking around, there was a section in which people were standing, running and playing in the snow. Of course I had to get involved and after my first few steps on the snow, I almost slipped over. It took me a little to get the hang of walking on the snow and I felt like a little kid!

Proof, that it’s real snow

Open area within Grouse Mountain

Different View

After that, I continued walking and saw some real live grizzly bears, which are native to Grouse Mountain. The two bears are in captivity as part of a rehabilitation project and I had timed my visit to perfection, as the following day they were scheduled to open up a section of the fenced area to allow them over 5 acres of area to roam and explore.

Picture of the Grizzly Bears

Walking Track

There was also a bird show (with eagles and things) due to start, but I decided to skip the show and head back to SFU, as I didn’t want to miss the bus and would rather be back earlier than later.

So I managed to get back to SFU after an hour and half or so and was quite impressed with having managed to see snow. When I got back, a number of my AG (Access Grid) colleagues started to rock up and six or seven of us decided to head out and grab some dinner.

It is funny, but during the night’s conversation and also during the conference, many of my AG colleagues could not believe or understand that I had never seen snow. As for some of them, they have to live with it 6-9 months of the year!

So that was my exciting day, unexpected, but well worthwhile.

Cheers,
Jason