Saturday June 13th

9:15pm

Mathew spent the first hour of this morning trying to contact his Credit Card company. It turns out that he had “maxed” his card, bit he had a very low limit which he had been told previously, would be raised. He was NOT told that he would get another Credit Card in the post. In any case, it didn’t get to us before we left for Toronto.....

But fortunately, we tried a regular ATM in the nearest supermarket and he managed to get cash out with the Debit Card. He was told he could pay off the Credit Card bill over the phone, but guess what? Not at weekends he couldn’t, because they were closed! He had to wait until Monday to do it, and even then we would have to do it real early as we were now 8 hours behind England. When he paid it off, he’d have to wait 2 days for it to clear, so he couldn’t use his Credit Card until Wednesday...we thought...!

Anyway, we managed to get cash out with Debit Cards and we headed off to Capilano Suspension Bridge. We walked on the forest floor and up in the trees as well – that was quite fun! People who worked there were dressed in “period costume” and there was even a small random “band” playing jazz music next to the shop. The suspension bridge itself was VERY long and it swayed and bounced very easily. VERY easily...now I knew it was safe, as apparently the bridge could withstand the weight of 2 Boeing 747s, but I did not like it. I didn’t think it would bother me, but it wasn’t the height which was the problem, so much as the rocking and bouncing which was going on. I REALLY did not like it at all, and I had to go over it twice!

While we were there, we had 5 “stamps” to collect at different points along the way, and when we’d collected them all, we got an “I made it!” certificate, which was very cute. It said that you had walked the bridge and through the rain forest, and gave you “bragging rights” for two years..!! We ate lunch and we were finished. We didn’t have anything else planned for the day, but we thought we might as well go to Grouse Mountain as it wasn’t far away.

Up the cable-car we went and on the mountain it was STILL very warm – around 24 – 26 degrees C. Very nice for me and bordering on too hot for Mathew. And honestly – there wasn’t much to see or do up Grouse Mountain! It was odd really. I had been on the website which raved on about their Wolves and said very little about the Grizzly refuge. We actually didn’t see ANY Wolves or signs for them, and the Grizzly refuge only had two bears in it. Fair enough, they had said in the info they had two orphaned cubs but I thought this “refuge” was going to be a lot bigger and have more bears in it!

Still, we weren’t too disappointed with that before we left as they became more active at around 4:00pm and we watched them for a good hour or so. The other thing we watched was the Lumberjack Show – very entertaining and funny, but we were wondering....on top of a mountain....WHY? Well, whatever the reason it was well worth watching!

The last thing we did before watching the Bears was the chairlift to the top. It was pretty much a ski lift and I am NOT a fan of these chairs which just a bar laying across your lap. We decided to go on it purely because we thought we’d kinda wasted our money otherwise. So we went on and I was fine at first but I really and NOT good at going up, and better at coming down. I don’t like the openness of those chairlifts, and I was seriously clinging on to that bar till we got to the very top. I wouldn’t have minded it so much if it wasn’t for the random stopping and starting which in addition BOUNCED the chair quite a lot and I did actually freak out while I was on the chair. Poor Mathew had to try and comfort me whilst trying not to bounce the chair any further!

I made it to the top where we had quite a good view of Vancouver and I thought I could see Vancouver Island in the distance. It was very VERY hazy with the sunshine, and we walked along a little to see a bit of a building site and a zip line for those who wished to cross one...they had these lower down the mountain too. I wouldn’t be seen dead on one, I hate the chairlifts enough, never mind the zip lines!!

Anyway, apart from one ice-cream stand and being able to watch paragliders taking off....there was nothing else there with the exception of the falconry which we decided not to watch in favour of the bears. So we made our way back to the chairlift, which wasn’t too bad (as I had predicted), and we watched the bears for a good long while before going into the gift shops. Overall, I have to say that Grouse Mountain is only really worth going to if you REALLY like one or more of the following:

Grizzly bears
Falconry
Spending lots of money on crazy activities like zip lining, paragliding and skiing in the winter
Random Lumberjack shows

Admittedly, I was looking forward to seeing a lot more bears but there were only two, still worth seeing when they are more active. Still, why call it a refuge when it’s an enclosure? The Lumberjacks were so random we had to watch the show, and we only went up the chairlift because there was nothing else we wanted to do! Grouse Mountain is definitely not worth the money unless you actually have a reason to go there.

Anyhoo, we left and thought it a good idea to go eat. Mathew was really quite tired so we thought we’d go back to the “Cheshire Cheese” as we did yesterday. On the way, we passed Capilano Suspension Bridge and remembered a restaurant across the road from it. So we stopped off to have a look and.....

It was closed.

At 6:oopm on a Saturday evening.

A restaurant.

Closed.

In the evening.

WHAT?!?!?!

I’m sorry but....when does a restaurant close in the evening??

Well anyway we were off on our way back to the B&B when we saw a different place to eat but missed the car park turn off. “I’ll just go round the block” he said, turning right onto the main road towards Vancouver....! There was no block!! So, we drove through Stanley Park, along part of the coast of Vancouver and eventually ended up having a meal at “The White Spot” which was actually very nice! So we ate there by accident. I think we were just on the coast of North Vancouver...not quite sure, but the food was fine!

Eventually we made it home. Phew!! What a crazy day!!