Recap: Finishing up Vancouver

The first day from the airport was only the first day of the actual. We decided to spend some time in Vancouver before heading out. It was a mere 30 more miles but there was lots of confusion with the direction.

We got lost in the northern end of Vancouver and I was glad that we did. The parks were so amazing, and bike routes were built in. The parks surrounded the bay so we stopped at the docks and looked at the boats.

The thing with biking is that I couldn't stop anywhere I wanted to take pictures. Most of the great view were from uphill but thats the thing, I had to get up that hill. My average MPH is about 4 going up hill and I'll using every ounce of my energy to do it. I'm not really thinking about pictures at the moment.

We took a ferry that went around the islands, quite a different view from our waters. Here everywhere there is another island to look at. Every island is filled to the brim with trees with a few houses strung out.

Now here's the bad part. I mentioned earlier that George's crank got stripped. He had to buy a new crank, bottom bracket, and new chainrings, totalling up to $140. We had to wait for about 2 hours so we got into our campsite fairly late. Not a good idea since none of us really were campers.

Camping was fun! and apparently I snore :( But everything went well. The campsite was ok, water, outhouses, nothing great but it did enough for us. We were exhausted with all the confusion.

Where to now?

An early morning start, 4:00AM. We landed in Vancouver around 9:30AM and ran outside to put our bikes together. Mine went as smooth as Michael Jackson but Heidi's and especially George's were shaky. Poor George had to take a taxi and miss out on the first day's ride because the person who packed his bike forgot his quick release, meaning he couldn't attach his front wheel. We met up with him at the hostel.

The ride from the airport had many lows and highs. The highway we were on had me holding my breath the whole with the cars coming inches from us. But the view from UBC and the seashore trail made up for it all. The hostel is nice too, built in an old military base and everyone seems very nice. There is someone down in the cafe right now playing some great Paul Desmond while being accompanied by a bongo.

Getting into Canada feels just like driving into the next town over. No one here really speaks French and English is the primary mode of communication. It is fun walking into Safeway and seeing French under English instead of Spanish though. We had lunch at this small pizzaria and I made note of the public transportation. There was not two minutes that went by without a bus stopping at the bus stop. Great infrastructure for public transportation.

My thoughts of Vancouver are definitely biased because UBC, University of British Columbia, is so beautiful. It overlooks that one bay, river whatever it is--George and Heidi are taking care of the directions :)--and it is absolutely gorgeous. I now understand why Heidi seriously considered transferring here.

Tomorrow will be a bit tough because we have to ride quick to catch a ferry. Also it'll be the first time any of us have gone camping! Wooooo! That'll be fun. But we got a ton of food, SPAM and pasta. I'll try to find a nice place to sit down tomorrow and update a few.