Shannon Falls, Toasted Tomato Sandwiches and Shepherds Pie

We had a great outing last Thursday, when a family friend took us out for the day.  We explored Stanley Park a bit first - a tourist must-see, with its totem poles, sea wall walk, aquarium and tea rooms. And Beaver Lake, pictured.  The park is on the edge of the city, a huge area, bigger than Central Park in NY possibly.   It is a lovely place.

After that we headed over the Lions Gate Bridge to West Vancouver, where we stopped at a really good cafe (will have to get its name).  I tried a toasted tomato sandwich, for my first time really - I normally have it with cheese.  This was delicious - the cafe was also a bakery, so their bread clearly had something to do with that.  It was a multigrain of some sort, with tomato, lettuce greens (mostly rocket/aragula) and a beautiful mayonnaise.  I think I've become a mayo devotee on this trip - I've had many more different kinds than I knew existed, and it seems to be quite a staple.  I've also become much more physically active (once again, which I'll maintain)  and this should help counteract the mayo devotion.

Shannon Falls was about an hour up the Sea to Sky Highway, about half way to Whistler Ski Resort.  It is a very, very high waterfall of melted snow and ice from up high in the coastal mountains.  The short walk to a falls vantage point was very steep and while Angus and Dan managed it very quickly (Dan is a walker) I struggled along and had to stop for breath at the top.  Hmm - a bit more physical activity required I think!

Dan showed us "the Chief" - a huge mountain bluff with an almost sheer cliff face that people come from all over to climb.  He's hiked up it the back way but his sister in law has climbed the face.  (Later, on another trip past it, with another friend, we heard stories of others who've climbed it - it's quite a feat).

On the way there and back we had amazing views of the beautiful Howe Sound.   This is sea, filled with islands, between the mainland and Vancouver Island.  We'll be sailing through there later this week on a ferry.

There are some views, particularly natural ones, that are so intensely beautiful that they bring tears to your eyes and empty your mind of anything else.  Howe Sound is like that - not the highest on the intensity scale, that would probably be in the Rocky Mountains, in my opinion (and going from memory) - but certainly up there with them.  British Columbia is not known as 'Beautiful British Columbia' for nothing.  Howe Sound looks like fjord country, and would have been fjord thousands of years ago.  My photos really don't do it justice.

We went back to Dan and Karen's place in Kitsilano for dinner, a really lovely vegetarian Shepherd's Pie for which I'll be requesting a recipe.  While there Angus recognised a logo on a flag in their bathroom (a black fleur-de-lis on gold background) and came out saying loudly "WHO DAT!"  to everyone's surprise.  It was a New Orleans Saints flag - Dan is a huge football fan, and a Saints fan.  So we talked NFL finals a bit, and shared some travel stories - and saw pictures from their recent Alaskan cruise, which looks very beautiful.  I had wondered whether so much white, day in and day out, would be boring - but it doesn't look boring at all.

Karen baked some oatmeal - choc chip cookies, which we took home with us.  They were delish.

A lovely day.