First, Vancouver is just about the prettiest place I've ever lived, and I couldn't help but show off this photo, which is the best one I've taken while here. It's not Vancouver, but the town of Squamish (about 30 miles more north). Squamish is like a climber's haven. You can't tell it from this photo, but there's all kinds of granite rocks to boulder and climb on.
Vancouver is also very bicycle friendly. Everyone here bikes practically. Which is a good thing, considering that the busses aren't running for the summer. There's all kinds of parks around, enough to keep anyone occupied for quite some time! People here seems to be more health conscious that Indiana in general, I've barely seen anyone that's overweight or smoking. If you've ever visited the midwest, you ought to know how odd that is. And there are all kinds of accents and languages floating around. Nothing is just in English. Also, I'm getting a real kick outta watching the news here. The top stories are like "There are bears in North Vancouver" or "Police staked out a house in which there seemed to be a loud argument going on. Nothing serious seems to be going on there, but police are prepared". They apparently had their third shooting of the year while I was around, compared to most of the cities in the states, which have thier third shooting of the year before noon on January 1st.
Outdoor activities are incredibly popular here, not surprising when you consider the surroundings. If there's something you want to do outside, you can do it either in the city or less than an hour from it. There's also a huge outdoor outfitting store in town called Mountain Equipment Co-op. You get a five dollar (can) lifetime membership, and they have just about any clothing or equipment you'd need for any outdoor sport or adventure, and the prices are great!! Danielle and I got rain gear and backpacks there, the prices are great, and the quality of wonderful. I think I'll be doing some catalog shopping whenever I suddenly get the urge to load up on useful outdoor stuff. Hey, you never know....
Now, cuz I'm not sure exactly where this fits in, I have a photograph of the absolute coolest dessert I've ever eaten. It's from a restaurant called Death By Chocolate and the dessert is an "Ice Burger". It's two chocolate ice cream "patties" on a sponge cake "bun" with tomatoes (strawberrie), pickles (kiwi), ketchup (raspberry syrup), mayo (whipped cream), and french fried (pineapple sticks). Mmmmm......