Day 2: Capilano, Cleavland Dam, Grouse Mt, and Lighthose Park *whew!*

This morning Tonya and I joined the rest of North Vancouver in the kitchenette of the hotel and fought over boxed cereal and toast.



Our first stop was Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is located inside a small park along with a maze of tree-top walkways. The bridge is famous for its size: the length of two 747s standing wingtip to wingtip, and as high off the ground as the Statue of Liberty is tall. Standing on the middle of the bridge provided a beautiful view of the river below, and the lush mountainsides on either side. As long as I didn't look straight down, it wasn't too frightening--even with the brats bouncing up and down.



The tree-top walk was a combination of wooden platforms and shorter bridges spanning the enormous trees. The whole walk took about 45 minutes and it was not very crowded. The scenery didn't change much, though. But it was a great experience.



Next we stopped at Cleavland Dam, because Tonya said it was a world-famous landmark and I had to see it just so I can say I've been there. (Plus, many things have been filmed there, including the 'Blind Man's Bluff' episode of The Sentinel.) Lots of people were there with their dogs, so I assume there were walking trails beyond the dam. I got a few pictures and tried to capture the enormity of it. And from the dam, we could see our next destination...

Grouse Mountain. A rickety little gondola carted us up the side of the very steep mountain, releasing us at the top where it was considerable colder and foggy (or cloudy??). Tonya and I found a seat for the lumberjack show (I know, right?) and while she was getting us some hot chocolate, the fog lifted for a moment and I could see the bears up at the sanctuary fence. We hurried over and got some pictures before the fog settled again and the bears wandered off. So we returned to the lumberjack show and suffered--SAT through half an hour before deciding to look for the bears again.



The 'sanctuary' is incredibly small but full of trees and hills and a 'bear den', a giant barn-type structure where they can have shelter. After not finding the bears, we decided to get on the ski lift and ride to the VERY top of the mountain, where they've recently installed one of those wind-powered generator thingies. I've never been in a ski lift before, but it wasn't much different than a Ferris wheel--except that we were suspended 10 to 20 feet above the rocky ground for a very slow five minutes, every second getting colder and windier until Tonya and I were huddled together and breathing fog. We made it to the top and then found out that there was a charge to go up in the wind-mill thing, so we snapped a picture and hurried back to the ski lift to get down. The ride down was agonizingly slow and I cried the whole way. Until we went over the bear sanctuary and saw one of them posing on a rock for his picture. ;)





After another cup of hot chocolate, we watched the birds of prey show which was like every other birds of prey show I've seen, but I managed to get some good shots:




Having exhausted all of the activities on Grouse Mountain, we headed back down in the gondola and drove a short distance to Lighthouse Park. The park is a sprawling mess of trails weaving in and out of the woods and out to rocky beaches that look out over the water and beyond to the city of Vancouver. There were quite a few people out and about, and a few happy dogs. Tonya and I walked and enjoyed the view for a couple hours, until it started getting dark and we were worried about finding our way back to the car. Obviously, we made it.





After a long day of walking, we grabbed dinner and went to bed!