An Attempt to Hike Norvan Falls (But a Failure)

It was an ugly, rainy day, but we had all booked time off to do a hike, so we still went ahead with it. We decided to do Norvan Falls, a hike in the Lynn Valley area, because we wanted to do something relatively flat due to the rain. First we realized we had parked an extra hour away from where we were supposed to start....

Then we realized that we had done the harder of the two parallel trails heading to Norvan Falls. It took us double the time it should have! Regretfully we had to turn around at the halfway mark, because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get back to the car before dark. We decided to mark the barrel as our final destination.

It ended up being about a 12 km hike, which took us about 6 hours. By the end of the day we were all soaking wet. I had brought two extra pairs of socks with me, but when I took them out after the hike, I found that they were also very wet. Jenny resorted to changing socks and putting plastic bags over her dry socks because her shoes were soaked through.

It felt pretty cool in the beginning, because it felt like I was going on a real adventure. By the last hour I was wishing I was in a warm and dry room though.

Beef Stew

Chicken, arugula, brie, and avocado salad

Beef Stew

With wine of course. I'm going to turn into a wino.

Florence and the Machine @ Deer Lake Park

Model Time

My hairdresser has been asking me for the past year if I would participate in a photoshoot for him, so we finally did it. This is what I looked like after two hours of hair and makeup.  I ended up not having enough time to take the makeup off before going rock climbing, so I showed up at the climbing gym with this face, fake eyelashes and everything. Everyone stared. My friends said it looked like I was in a movie about rock climbing!

I don't think it looks like me at all!

Picnic

I'm lucky that Noel lives so close to me (about three blocks away), because we always end up having impromptu meetups and dinners together. We were planning on watching the outdoor showing of Spaceballs at Stanley Park, but we ended up deciding to walk over to Kits beach and having a picnic instead. I brought scrabble and he brought the paella salad and sangria. The sangria was so good because it tasted like juice. Oh man, it was not a good day at work the next day....

Cooking from my 5-ingredient cookbook

I was supposed to hike the Chief today, but the rain ruined all my plans and I decided to do some cooking instead. First my lunch: chicken with tomatoes, basil, and feta.

Then for dinner, Allen and Noel came over and I made chicken tagine on couscous, plus a beet, arugula, avocado, and boconcini salad. ALL BY MYSELF!

Grouse Grind

Rav is my crazy coworker who is so beast that she does the Grouse Grind multiple times a week. I went with her and told her to go on ahead of me. She said, "Really? You don't mind?" and I nodded. "OK!" she said, and started RUNNING off ahead of me as I watched in disbelief. I texted her multiple times on my way up telling her how I was dying, but I did finally make it to the top. I hate the Grind every time I go, but it feels so good once you're done!

Stanley Park

Went to watch an outdoor showing of Zoolander at Stanley Park. I took this picture as we walked along Stanley Park to get to the movie. Vancouver is so beautiful! I can't get enough of it in the summer.

Vanier Park

Woke up at 6am for an early morning run, before a 10 hour shift at work. Am I crazy? Not when this is what I see :)

Learning how to BBQ!

Grilled steak, grilled chicken, grilled zucchini and eggplant, quinoa salad, sauteed mushrooms with butter and onions, garlic bread, red wine.