I am long overdue on an update for everyone – it’s been over a month! There’s been lots going on, which is the main reason I haven’t done a post recent. There’s fun stuff, with lots of different outings and events going on. This post and the next will be a whole series of short updates from the past month or so.

Post Reno Blues

We’ll start with a not as fun one. Despite having just done a reno, we’re back into needing to have some work done on the hatch to the roof! I was going up to check on the roof, only to have one of the struts rip itself out of the wall! I guess the last time they installed them, they did a poor job. Now we’re trying to find a someone to fix it properly.

Lion’s Bay Hike with Bill (July 25)

Switching gears to something much more fun, on Saturday morning (July 25th), I had a nice early start and my friend Bill and I got out on a hike. As we didn’t really have any time pressures, we picked something new to both of us, and tried the Tunnel Bluffs/Mountain trail out of Lion’s Bay.

This was the objective of the hike, some pretty amazing views out over Howe Sound.

Starting from Lions Bay’s Sunset Trailhead, the hike to Tunnel Bluffs (also called Tunnel Mountain) features a steep initial climb along old logging roads before leveling into a lush forested path. Spanning roughly 11.5 kilometres round-trip, it rewarded us with breathtaking, panoramic cliffside views over Howe Sound and Bowen Island.

As the short description indicated, the initial part of the hike was a bit of a slog - mostly straight up along old logging roads. The good news was that you got most of the not-so-fun part of the trail (and all the elevation gain) out of the way first. After that, the trail meandered, fairly levely, along the top of the ridge as it made its way back out towards the sound and the views we were promised.

This was pretty typical of the start of the trail - an old logging road taking you straight up.

To add some fun, there were 2-3 old log bridges that you had to cross over. Carefully.

Once at the top, it was a nice, wide soft trail that meandered along.

We knew we were on the right trail…

As we got towards the turn around point, there were a couple of scrambles over some sketchy terrain.

Eventually we got to the turnaround point, and the amazing views out over Howe Sound. The weather was not the best (we even got a slight shower) and you could see very menacing clouds hanging over the water. We had a short stop to admire the view and have a snack and something to drink, before it was time to turn around and head back the way that we had come.

This was the payoff for the hike - it was a pretty great view!

Although, it was looking a bit stormy out over the sound.

From the edge of the cliff face, it was a long way down…

You can see the Sea to Sky highway snaking along the edge of the sound.

The trip back was much shorter, but the downhill was kind of painful. Especially on my knees. After getting back to the truck, we changed and jumped on the highway up to Britannia Beach to grab some lunch. After Justine and I had stopped there on our Sea to Sky Gondola day, I was interested in checking out the pub, and it seemed a perfect spot for a late lunch. The food was good, the beer was better and we had more time to catch up and enjoy the afternoon.

Random photo - Science World in it’s World Cup colors.

A Day Out with Ethan and Addison (July 26th)

We finally managed to find a day to spend with our niece and nephew, Addison and Ethan! While living relatively close to us, our schedules never seem to align for us to be able to spend time with them. We were super excited to find a weekend where their incredibly busy sports scheduled allowed us to hang out with them. It had been a while, and we were long overdue!

As they come from the North Shore, we met them at the Seabus terminal downtown. As we were close by, we headed over to Steamworks for lunch while we decided on what to do with the day. The original plan had been to go and play pitch and putt, at one of the local golf courses. But sadly the weather did not cooperate. We’ve had a very dry summer so far, and of course the one day it does rain we were planning to do something outside! So we had to find something else to do. With them being 13 and 15, it’s starting to get a bit tough to find things of interest.

The last time we hung out, we had gone go carting and it has been a big hit. In researching for today, we discovered that the place we went last time had gone out of business. So, we decided on Central City Fun Park in Surrey – apparently, it’s “BC's Largest Indoor Amusement Park”, with go karts, an arcade, roller skating, minigolf, bowling, laser tag, photo booths and a range of other activities. Everyone seemed excited.

The drive over wasn’t too bad and the rain kept up the whole time. It was good that we did not go golfing – we would have been soaked! The place was huge and busy, but it looked like it would be fun. We started with go karting, which had a bit of a line up but wasn’t too bad. The go karts were electric, and the track a little shorter than we’d have liked, but it was still fun. Ethan was in the first cart and drove off away from us (he was by far the fastest of us). Addison was a bit of a bottle neck – she did a great job making it hard to pass her and had a knack for cutting you off when you tried! It was a lot of fun.

After our first race we headed into the arcade area. We all played a variety of games and had a fun time. At one point we found these photo booths they had set-up and Addison especially seemed to enjoy hamming it up. It was fun. We played mini golf and pool before heading back to the go kart track for round two. Ethan was once again fastest, but we stuck him behind us on the track to try and slow him down a bit, but he showed off his skills and got some passes done.

After wrapping up the afternoon and letting the kids pick their “prizes”, we headed out to find some dinner. There was an Old Spaghetti House not too far away in New Westminster, so we headed there and had a fun dinner. After that, it was a surprisingly quick drive back to North Van to drop them off at home. We hung out with Stu and Tammy on their new back deck (they had just completed some renos and it looked amazing!) for a little bit before calling it a day and heading home.

I know that we had a fun day out. I hope the kids did as well!

Broadway Subway Update (July 28th)

For those of you not in Vancouver, you may not be aware that the area we live in has been under major construction for about the past 5 years, as they have been building the Broadway Subway Project. It is designed to extend the existing Millennium Line SkyTrain 5.7-kilometre west from VCC–Clark Station to Arbutus Street, across Boadway (and right near our place).

This set of images are all of the Cambie and Broadway area - or “City Hall” as the station is known. It’s one area where two lines will connect, and they have closed Broadway completely for two blocks for about 6 months while they backfill and rebuild the roads. It’s pretty amazing.

Looking down from street level you can see the top of the station box and the subway line a good 6-8 feet below street level. That’s what they have to backfill, and they create the road on top of.

In the previous pic, you could see how open it was - they had removed most of the steel beams (like these ones) that were holding up the temporary road decking.

On a Youtube video, they called the round ones “spreaders” - I think they were there to hold up the walls on either side of the excavation.

They were cutting out the spreaders and the huge beams and putting them on trucks to take away for recycling.

It was very interesting to watch as the crane dropped these massive beams onto the trucks.

The people give you a good sense as to how big the beams were.

Earlier this summer, the project has entered a major new phase, with tunnelling and track installation mostly complete. They are now starting to backfill around the new stations and open sections of the Broadway that have been closed off-and-on. SkyTrain testing is also now underway on completed sections of the line. Construction crews are simultaneously completing the stations, and the project remains on track for fall 2027.

This set is at the Oak Street (or VGH) Station. This is probably the closest to our house - 3-4 blocks away.

You get a much better view of the back filling. In this case they are cutting away ½ of the road deck supports, leaving the other half in place.

The station entrance - it’s getting very close to completion - they just need to drop the big windows in.

A better view - you can see how close to grade they are. They just need to resurface the road and rebuild the sidewalks.

At each station, there’s about a 2 block stretch that they open cut. The rest of the 5.5 km was tunneled with a TBM (tunnel boring machine).

There’s still a lot of work to do, but they are making good progress. At these stations you can see how next fall is achievable, but at some of the others, not so much.

We had done some walks around some of the new stations and so I thought I’d share a few photos of some of the work in progress. If you want some interesting videos, check out YouTube as there is some great drone footage out there with regular updates.

Vancouver Canadians Baseball Game (July 29th)

We like to get out to the baseball games a couple of times a year. They are a lot of fun and are reasonably priced. And this year was the 75th anniversary – I am very surprised that minor league baseball has been in Vancouver for that long!

Justine had snagged us great seats – 2nd row – along the third base side. The only negative is the sun shining in your eyes for the first few innings. After that, it’s amazing. Great sightlines and more importantly, the ability to order food to your seats. We had a great day, the Canadians won and all was good.

A great night out at the ballpark!

The sun finally went down far enough that it wasn’t blazing in our faces!

Great seats - right at field level!

They had just finished this new additional to the ballpark earlier in the year. At ground level it’s a new training facility, with group seating up above. Can’t wait to try it out.