We took a brief trip to Vancouver in November of 2007, and even in the rain and gray skies we loved it. So it was an easy choice to come back for the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.
We decided to rent an apartment instead of doing the hotel or bed and breakfast thing, because that way we could cook with food from the Granville Island Farmer’s Market (basically Vancouver’s Pike Place Market). We wanted to stay in the neighborhood of Kitsilano, which we visited briefly last time around and knew right away it would be the perfect place for a low-key, non-touristy vacation. We found an apartment on a site called AirBnB, which is kind of like couchsurfing but instead of crashing on someone’s couch, people rent out their entire rooms or apartments. Our rental is 2 blocks from the beach and 3 blocks from one of Kits’ main drags of shopping and restaurants. That, combined with 70-degree days, has made this mini-break an excellent decision all the way around.
Our trip is not, of course, all eating and sunbathing (though we’re doing our share of that as well.) Saturday morning we tackled the infamous Grouse Grind, a grueling trek up Grouse Mountain that the locals call “Nature’s Stairmaster”. It’s about 3 km through the woods on an incredibly steep switchback.
It starts out somewhat genteel, and then lactic-acid hell sets in around the 10-minute mark. Both of us are in good shape, and our hearts felt like leaping out of our chests and calling it quits. What makes it even worse is that we see Vancouverites breezing up the mountain, including one dude wearing a weighted vest. The hard-core trekkers are members of a mountain club, and they use a computer chip to record their times. We managed to finish in a little under 90 minutes, passing several people along the way. We felt good about ourselves, until we learned that the fastest time of the day was 33 minutes! The record is an absurd 24 minutes, accomplished by a Kiwi in 2005. How? Why? Ugh!
No trip to Vancouver, though, is complete without an attempt at the Grouse Grind. It’s a killer climb, but the views at the top (a vista of Vancouver and lower B.C.) are SO worth it. So is the feeling of satisfaction.
We rewarded ourselves with a few hours of relaxing on Kits Beach, kind of like the Canadian Santa Monica, with bikini-clad women and muscle-clad men frolicking in the sand in front of a spectacular vista of the water and mountains.
Then we strolled along the water to the larger and a little less sceney Jericho Beach for drinks at the Jericho Beach Sailing Centre, with more amazing views and microbrews.
Lisa
Jeremy
