Deer Lake Park and West Vancouver
We started Saturday by having brunch at the iHop located in Brentwood Mall. I probably had too much coffee after having 3 cups there on top of the 2 I'd had before I left the apartment, at least I knew I wouldn't be falling asleep in the afternoon! After having brunch we had a quick look around the mall during which we stumbled upon a lot of people dressed up as Santa which was quite surreal. There were literally hundreds of people walking / dancing around wishing merry christmas to everyone whilst in costume. I presume it was a 'flash mob' organized over the internet but I never did find out for sure, the kids in the mall loved it regardless!
In the afternoon we headed across to Deer Lake Park which is still within Burnaby, about 5 miles east of where we live. It's a really nice spot, though it was super cold (-2 with a chilly wind). It was even colder there than anywhere else we'd been that day and there was a lot of frost on the ground. Recently Lou was given an old (but good) SLR by a colleague she works with. They'd had a conversation during which she mentioned we were both becoming interested in photography and it came about from there. It had been so long since I used a traditional camera I didn't even know how to put a film in it and wind it on, luckily Lou did. I took my compact camera with me too and whilst one of us was practicing with the SLR the other took snaps on the digital. It was a nice area but we didn't stay out for hours as our feet were starting to become numb, we'll definitely be returning when it's warmer though. We think we got some good photos on the old camera but as they are on film we wont be able to share the results with you!
We made our way home just was it was getting dark and I started to settle in for the evening once we got back. However, around 7pm after much persuasion by Lou and predictions of chaos by myself I eventually gave in and we went to Walmart to get a christmas tree. Walmart is ok and cheap but because of the savings (I presume) it also attracts a lot of weirdos (for proof check out "people of walmart", a whole blog devoted to them!). I knew it was going to be horrendous but Lou insisted it would be dead once we got there, so I kept my mouth closed and waited for reality to prove me right! Low and behold when we got there it was busy, busy, busy. For any Canadians reading this - I felt like that guy from the Scotiabank advert on TV, I just wish I'd had that t-shirt! To top it off they had ran out of christmas trees too, well all except for the humungous ones. We did buy some other things we needed but then had to wait for 20 minutes to get through the checkout. It was a less than delightful Saturday-night-experience and one we won't be repeating anytime soon. Once we returned home though it was all good, we just tried to wipe out the last two hours from our minds and relax again!
On Sunday we headed out to Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. We had to drive through North Vancouver to get there and the drive was really cool, probably the most scenic drive that we've done so far. The houses in West Vancouver are stunning too, it looks like a excellent place to live - if you've got a spare few million dollars! It took us about 45 minutes to get there because of some heaby traffic but it was well worth it. The drive was really good, for me especially I guess because I wasn't driving this time so I could look out the windows and look back at the city from above, the views were fantastic.
Lighthouse Park is covered with virgin rainforest and at the most southern tip of the peninsula there is a lighthouse known as Point Atkinson. If I remember right it was built and named under the instruction of George Vancouver in 1792. I'd read in books that the park is home to many different species of trees you don't see in the rest of Vancouver. Admittedly though I'm not clued up enough on trees to be able to make any insightful comment about them! It only took us about 15 minutes to walk from the car park to the lighthouse then we spent some time taking photo's and admiring the view once we were there. We headed back during sunset which wasn't ideal for driving in but it did offer some more good scenery on the way. The fresh air must have got into our systems as we both felt really relaxed in the evening, we just spent the rest of the night watching TV and little else, it was a nice ending to the weekend.
Filed under //
Burnaby
West Vancouver
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