So much to see, so little time...: I love this city

When I'm away for a while I forget just how much I love the city I grew up in. Vancouver is amazing and I just LOVE where my parents live within Vancouver. I grew up in the area called "Mackenzie Heights" which is squashed between Shaunnesy and Kerrisdale. Fabulous area. Growing up I took the view for granted....as I do when I've been away. Then I come back and look out our windows....and see this. This is the view from the 3rd floor balcony off my bedroom. That's downtown in the back, and on the slopes of the mountains are both North and West Vancouver. The morning clouds make it so you can't see the tops.

Looking to the left from my porch you can see the harbour and the cruise ships and freighters coming in. That's West Vancouver behind the harbour. To get to Whistler you do through downtown and head past West Vancouver and follow the coast up.

See, the sun was coming out. That's my high school, which sits about 2 blocks below my house. Prince of Wales High School.

And this is our WILD backyard. Granted, my parents have been away and so the grass is really long...but it's usually pretty wild anyway! :) There are apple trees, figs, raspberries, rhubarb, tomatoes, plums...and a ton of flowers. It's pretty crazy, but it's beautiful. Our house is on a steep-ish hill, so the backyard slopes down. My parent's built a carport instead of using the garage in the house (which was turned into another room), to avoid those slippery icy hills.

So, my first morning I decided to get out there and go for a bike ride. I'd brought both my bikes, but I wanted to road ride. There's a great route out to the University and along the really wide bike lanes all along that peninsula. So I get my bike out, and notice that the tires are very slightly soft. Oh man, I should have just left it!!! :) I grab my floor pump that I brought and try to pump it up. Well....the hose on my pump has several cracks in it which I've tried to tape shut with electrician's tape. Still leaks though. So after many struggles I let out more air than I'm putting in! Twice the tire goes almost flat and I have to work like crap to get it filled again. It's just NOT working, so I try the hand pump...which you ALL know is a lot harder than a floor pump!!!!! But eventually it's filled enough. I go to pull the pump off...and THE FERGIN MERGIN STUPID @!#@&$*^!%!$&^&*@!# TWISTY SCREWY THING FALLS OFF!!!! Sigh. You can't put it back on.

So, I decided to mt bike. I don't know the trails here, but I went online and found a map for the trails in the UBC Endowment Lands. These aren't North Shore biking. They're not even to the level of Phil's. There's really NO hills in there. Well, I shouldn't say that. There are a couple really intense ones that go down to the beach/water on the far end of the university. But in the Endowment Lands... this is a "hill."

But I still had a great time. On my way home I snapped a picture of the sky to show y'all that it DOESN'T rain all the time! :) What a beautiful day.

This is the street I came down to enter the trail. I love these kinds of Vancouver streets. The street I grew up on and where my parents still live is not like this one, it's open. I love these streets though.

And I also love the monkey trees you find all over Vancouver. This one is a couple houses down from my parents. I don't know why I love them so much...maybe 'cause they look nothing like other trees. They're hard spiky leaves...it's kinda like a huge...not cactus, but... well, look at the closeup and you'll see.