From a spam email I received recently (it sounded poetic so I'm bringing it here to your attention):

"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. Your in hot water. Welcome to my garden. Want my place in the sun. Schools out for summer. Sweating blood. The silly season. A stepping stone to. Sweet as honey. She's a nut. Read the tea leaves. Spring forward fall back."

On Sunday, three friends and I decided to tackle the hike affectionately known as the "Grouse Grind" up Grouse Mountain (summit is 4100 feet above Vancouver). This basically involved climbing up steep stairs and rocks for about 1h20mins. Why would anyone do this? Because it's there.

Here are some pictures:

The mountain we were about to tame


The treacherous climb up - an average portion of the climb


Four very tired climbers (Mike, Jessica, Kyle, me)


The view from on-top showing West Vancouver (and at the tip of the peninsula is the UBC campus)



Semi-obstructed view from the top


There were quite a few bear sightings in the area -- this was the only one we saw.


A bird of prey demonstration with a Harris Hawk...


and a Great-Horned Owl.


A lumberjack exhibition (this picture showing the axe-throwing portion of the competition)


Apparently there was more hiking to be done, so we dragged our weary legs up another few hundred feet.


But the views were well worth it!








At the very top of the summit!

Came across this cartoon on one of my favourite websites, metafilter. Thought it was awfully cute and it put a smile on my face. Also, there's a live-action version!

Hey, so my first week in Vancouver is slowly winding down and it has been an absolute blast so far. The first couple of days were spend running around doing the mindless chores that need to be done before you can tackle any real work (keys, forms, etc..). I was staying for the first two days at Gab's place close to the airport. Luckily I was able to move in to my place at Marine Drive a few days early. The view from my apartment is amazing. Here are a couple of pictures (they don't even really do it justice).