It was an exhausting weekend.
It started on Saturday with my company’s summer party. We were given tickets to a nearby amusement park and given free reign to have fun. I also got to bring Catalina. I went alone last year, but it was better with someone else. I did force her to go on one adult ride; you should try to do things that scare you. And she did a lot of screaming on the wooden rollercoaster, but there was a big smile on her face afterwards as the adrenaline kicked in. Having got her to do that, I didn’t make any other demands for rides.
Her favourite rides though were the little kid ones. We went on the merry-go-round way too often. I don’t even want to talk about the train ride.
There was a barbecue too, but unfortunately our company has gotten too big. There was a long line to get your food. I think we were waiting in it for an hour. If you are waiting that long, you don’t want to wait again, so you pile up your plates with as much food as you can carry. Needless to say, I did not need a dinner that night.
I will complain about the miniature golf course. It is built on a slope, so the first few holes are at such a bad angle, that it is very easy for your ball to roll right back to the tee.
The next day, Catalina and I drove out to Pitt Lake. Friends from Edmonton were in town and we decided to go on a canoe journey with them to Widgeon falls. It was different from when we did the trip last year. There were no forest fires going on so we actually had clear weather and could see the surrounding mountains. And since we were using multiple canoes, I could be in some of the distance-shot pictures.
The hike to the falls seemed to go faster too. Probably because I wasn’t as obsessed with taking as many pictures. I think we got to the falls before the crowds, but more and more people started showing up after we arrived. We ate a pleasant lunch and then swam around in the water. It was very cold though.
There is a place on the trail that we call the D&D grove; it’s where, last year, we encounter someone reading a D&D manual while hanging out in a hammock. It is also a nice place to swim without crowds. Unfortunately, it is still early in the season, so the water was very cold. And the day wasn’t hot enough to make it worth staying in for too long.
On Monday, I had taken the day off so we could give our friends a walking tour of Vancouver. This journey took us from the library, to Thierry, along Coal Harbour, into Stanley Park forest trails, to Cacoa 70 on Denman, walking along the seawall. We then took a ferry to Granville island where we investigated the Public Market and then bought some hats. The ferry took us back to Yaletown where we walked home and then had a movie night.
And on every day, I got up early to do my morning run.