Don’t look directly at the grouse

For starters, here is a link to Cas’ photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MyfqUt8bbqJLQinD8

Enjoy.

Anyhow, Cas and I went to Grouse Mountain today.  I have been led to believe that a grouse is a bird. Beyond that, I have learned something about the grouse today.  It’s their mating season at this time, and there is a particularly territorial male grouse whose prime spot to scope out the ladies was in our tourist-path today.  It was the best sign I have seen in a while: 

When Cas and I woke up this morning, we had the breakfast that was promised in our bed and breakfast booking.  After we both sat down with fruit and eggs of some kind, it occurred to us that we missed the opportunity to order something that required real Canadian maple syrup.  Drat!  Tomorrow...  We eat all the syrup tomorrow.  

After our delicious but un-Canadian breakfast, we headed to Grouse Mountain.  I desperately wanted to see their lumberjack show, and it did not disappoint.  It was athletic, silly, corny and highly entertaining.  I needed to see it, though, because this is the sort of thing that simply does not happen in Dallas: 

After that show, we took a stroll past a pair of grizzly bears in a habitat at the top of the mountain.  Apparently, both bears were rescued from certain death somehow, and this place was their home.  They went into the tourism business.  Here’s one of them taking a bath: 

We took a chairlift to the tippy top of the mountain after we saw the bears, then we had a leisurely lunch.  Maybe we should have eaten faster or slower, because when we left the table, the line for the gondola back down the mountain was extremely long.  

Instead of waiting in the line, we elected to catch the first part of the bird show.  We saw Hercules, the bald eagle and a pair of hawks named Slightly and Lulu and a turkey vulture named Judge Dredd.  

It was a very entertaining show, and it wrapped up our mountain top time nicely.  When we got back down, we took the complimentary shuttle downtown and nearly fell asleep on the way.  There was plenty of sun at the top of Grouse Mountain, and the bus driver had to contend with plenty of rush hour traffic.  We were happy to sit and wait while all of that happened.  

We got off the bus downtown, and Cas had plans for a garden stroll and dinner.  I am pretty tired, now, so I will tell you al about the Chinese Garden and the really good dumplings when I get up in the morning.  It’s been a very long but wonderful day in Vancouver, and I may just nod off while typing if I stay up much longer.  

Until the morning, then!