The rest of the story

This time last week we were recovering from a rush hour ride on Route 99 back from Squamish.  What should have been 40 minutes was nearly two hours.  I know if I lived in Vancouver I'd be taking the public transportation.

Our day began early and we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  I highly recommend this place.  It's very pretty and the bridge itself gives a little thrill without being scary.  We walked around the trails for some time and were super glad we had gotten there at 9 AM when they opened because it was crowded by 11.  The funny thing is, for all that we were in nature, I didn't hear that many birds.  I hear more in my own city yard.  I didn't see a single wild animal, not even one squirrel.  Weird!

 
Speaking of birds, we did see an eagle while on the harbour cruise.  It was sitting on a buoy while a sea gull tried to pester it to leave.  Of course eagle said no, but that didn't stop the seagull.  So pesky birds were pretty much it for the three days.

I took this while standing on the bridge.  I think its 100 metres high.

This is the cliffwalk.  It looks scarier in pictures than in person, but it still gave Barb a little fright.

Sandi and Barb

That's what you see as you step on the bridge and begin to sway.

This is one of many paths through the trees.

After the bridge we went up the road to the Cleveland Dam.  That's when you could really start seeing the snow capped mountains in the distance.

There goes the dam water.

Gorgeous isn't it?  The colors instantly made me think of the Canucks hockey jersey!  LOL!

Across the reservoir above the dam.

This little park was pretty.  Seeing snow in July is always something special.  The drive up 99, the "Sea to Sky" highway was also spectacular.  The water edges the highway for miles.  It's a beautiful turquoise shade of blue.  Again, you'd expect to see boats there, but there weren't.  There weren't boats until we neared Squamish, a small town/village/city half way to Whistler.

Cleveland Ave. Squamish

Small place, but they still had quite a few shops and such.

That's Shannon Falls in the distance!

Squamish just served as a terminus for our journey north.  One episode of Supernatural had been filmed there in 2008.  The episode took place in "Washington"  so I can see why Squamish was chosen to fake it.  While in Squamish we saw a sign for filming.  It was an orange arrow that said "reunion".  We followed it and it ended up down on the river where it looked like filming of something with old military vehicles.  With all the filming that happens in BC, who knows.  Before leaving Squamish we had lunch at  The parkside restaurant where they had these really good Tuscan chicken wraps and salad that was totally fresh, but the best part was they served the salad with one cape gooseberry.  I've only had that fruit in 2003 in Finland.  Right after coming to NY I found some at Hannaford and bought them, but I have never seen them since!  You can imagine how excited I was over this rare find.

After Squamish we stopped at Shannon Falls!  I'd say Wednesday was our nature day.  That park was close to the parking lot, but if you wanted to there were many hiking trails of various levels.

We returned "home" to drink wine and swim in the heated pool!  :)