Vancouver

We landed in Horseshoe Bay in northern Vancouver across the river and biked along the scenic Marine drive to get to Stanley Park. Marine drive is a little road that goes along the coast through a beautiful coastal neighbourhood until you get to Lions Gate bridge. Lions gate bridge has was a good ride to get across and all with an amazing view. We then got into Stanley Park where we met up with Pat Mason, Mike's friend from Ottawa. Turns out he has the exact same bike as me. After we helped him patch a flat we did an easy tour of the Park. It's an amazing place for biking, essentially a National Park in the middle of the city.

After that we headed off to Jeff, John and Jaimie's place in downtown Vancouver. They have a sweet little pad right no the outskirts of the Hastings ghetto and beside the Cirque de Soleil setup in Vancouver at the time. That night we went to a Japanese restaurant close to Robson and Denman st with Jeff and some friends of Pat's. We order a bunch of skewers with different types of meat along with some Japanese salads. Very tastey, some of the crazier stuff included cow tounge and a strange marsmelowy tofu. My appetite has grown a lot with all
the biking, especially considering that we don't have much time to really fill up while biking, just enough to keep us going. On rest days I really feel it catch up and pretty much eat a horse. After the Japanese food we had some dairy queen and then realized we were still hungry, so Mike and I split a sub from Subway.

Next day was our only real day in Vancouver, and even that turned out to be very little. Our plan for that night was to stay with Mike's uncle in Surrey so we only had until 4pm to do any touring. First part of hte morning was devoted to a sendoff with the charity that Pat had hooked this trip up with - Rooftops Canada. It's an organization that provides housing overseas in areas with poverty, mainly Africa. They gave us some gatorade and power bars and asked a lot of questions. I was a little confused because I knew nothing about the organization or what the plan was at the time. It's fairly low key, the goal is to spread awareness and talk to local media to spread word, nothing elaborate.

After that we went to MEC to stock up on some gear. I am beginning to get fed up with MEC, we've been there so much lately and I am realizing that it's turning into a cult. People buy MEC gear almost obsesively and to excess. Next stop Granville Island! A little market island right in the middle of Vancouver filled with all sorts of goodies and the wondeful Granville Island brewery. Since I had tried this beer on Gabriola island I was eager to get a tour, but they were all booked out. Instead me and Pat split a taster round of their current draft beers. All around some good stuff there, although a bit of a pricey market. Soon it was 4 and we started biking to Surrey. Our plan was to take the sky train, but it is off limits to bikers during rush hour so we biked the long 40 km (more than 3 hours! with stops and all). Surrey is a shithole but it was interesting urban ride. This included the most brutal hill I have every climbed. The gradient must have been close to 25%, definitely more than 20. I was more stubborn, and killed my legs all the way to the top just so I can say i climbed it. Eventually we got to Surrey and stayed with Mike's uncle. He's quite the character and dabbles in all sorts of things including innovations and screenplay writing.

More on the journey to Kamloops to come.