A byootaful Life

It’s a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon and I’m curled up on the sofa in our new apartment with a lovely warm cup of tea, watching Australian Masterchef. That’s right, after viewing probably close to fifty apartments, Phill and I finally found the right one. We viewed it on a Saturday and moved in the next day, so it was all pretty fast. It’s a great apartment – a large one bedroom with two balconies, one of which is massive (actually, it’s the same size as some of the apartment we’d seen!) Although we’d originally planned to get a two bedroom place, we walked into this one and instantly threw that idea out the window – the view is amazing! We’re on a higher floor now and with constant warm, sunny weather *just* around the corner, the balcony will be great for entertaining and just lazing around in the sun on the weekends.

Mum is visiting us for a little holiday, so it’s been great having her around. We hired a car last weekend and did the touristy thing, going to Lynn Canyon and Deep Cove on Sunday, then heading to Whistler on Monday. Whistler was great, but unfortunately the Peak to Peak was closed for maintenance, which was really disappointing. We were looking forward to taking Mum on it because the view is amazing. Last time we rode it with a bunch of our friends, we saw four bears (including a cub!) and even though it’s not the right time of year to see bears now, we were hoping there would be one stumbling around somewhere… or at least it would have been fun to try to spot one! Always the optimists…

We had lunch at Whistler, then drove further up north to Nairn falls which was really lovely. Be warned, it’s a bit of a hike to get to the waterfalls though, from memory about 1.5kms, but it was well worth it. At the end of the hike you’ve got to walk up a slippery rocks that are quite steep in areas – even with some helpful railings around it was challenging in parts. An easier waterfall to get to is Shannon Falls, which we stopped to see on the way back to Vancouver – it’s just a short walk to the waterfall. I thought Shannon Falls was actually more impressive than Nairn falls, but maybe that was just because I hadn’t had to walk so far to see it (haha). We also stopped off at the Cypress Bowl lookout since we’d stopped there a couple days before while the weather was wet, cold and miserable which obstructed the view for Mum. This time around, it was much clearer and nicer (but colder!) and we were able to take in the view of downtown and Stanley Park without the fog and clouds.

Mum’s here for two weeks in total and we’ve managed to get a little bit of time off while she’s here – a couple four day weekends which is a good amount of time to hire a car and do some sightseeing. We went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge this morning (more about that later) and then Granville Island and now we’re home, exhausted and ready for a relaxing evening.

So much to do, so little time!