Whales, and wolves, and bears! Oh, my! And then to see an elephant fly! - Day 4

Ware Bears · Aug 27, 2014

Sunday August 4th 2013
Awoke to lovely sunshine, watched another HAL ship come in, went for breakfast at Tim Hortons then took the complimentary shuttle bus to Grouse Mountain.

We all took the cable car to the top, it is possible to walk up (called the Grouse Grind) but we took the easy route! Bryan wanted to go on the chair lift to the Eye of the Wind (a wind turbine you can go to the top of), no one else did (I really hate chair lifts) so he did this alone and ended up sharing his seat with a local couple who had been to Alaska with DCL in 2011 and said they were so envious of what we had to come. Whilst he was doing this we went to watch the lumber jack show - cheesy but actually very enjoyable!

darthtatty · Aug 27, 2014

lovely pictures, I will have to look for the other bits of your trip report.
cant wait to read more.

Ware Bears · Aug 27, 2014

There are two orphaned bears who live at the top of Grouse Mountain called Grinder and Coola

and we were lucky and saw Alpha, one of the timber wolves who live on the mountain. There was also a black female but she was much shyer and doesn't show up in the photos, she was camouflaged by the bushes.

We really enjoyed Grouse Mountain, we went in the cafe for a drink and some fries and also watched a birds of prey show. Definitely a must-to-visit if you're in Vancouver ..... and I have to go back next year as I really liked these drink coasters that were in the shape of paw prints but didn't buy as they were quite heavy and I thought I might see something just as nice whilst in Alaska ..... which I didn't so next year I'll be hoping they'll still be there!

After catching the bus back to downtown we went up the lookout tower, it's the round building on the right in the photo below.

Great views and your ticket is good for all day so you can come back again at night.

This is the Eye of the Wind wind turbine that Bryan went up earlier in the day.

The girls wanted to spend their last evening catching up with loved ones as we wouldn't have any internet after today for a week so they had good old Mcdonalds in the room and Bryan and I went just across the way to an Irish pub called Mahoney's where I had a smoked salmon pizza (extremely delicious!) and he had a Thai curry and of course a couple of yummy cocktails.

Then we just managed to get the last lift of the day (10:10pm) to the top of the lookout tower, lovely to see it again but at night - unfortunately my camera doesn't do it justice so only the one photo.

Tomorrow ~ boarding the Wonder! :yay:

Ware Bears · Aug 27, 2014

darthtatty said:
lovely pictures, I will have to look for the other bits of your trip report.
cant wait to read more.

Ah thank you, Nicky, I am so bad at doing trip reports but am determined to finish this one! I will put the other links in the index at the top of the page.

dolphingirl47 · Aug 27, 2014

Grouse Mountain looks wonderful. If we ever make it back to Vancouver, this will go on the to do list.

Corinna

Chilly · Aug 27, 2014

Its strange seeing Grouse Mountain without snow. So pleased to see your carrying on with your TR.

wilma-bride · May 22, 2015

Elaine, any chance you might actually finish this :rolleyes1

I am looking to book an Alaska cruise next summer and would love to read about yours.

Chilly · May 22, 2015

wilma-bride said:
Elaine, any chance you might actually finish this I am looking to book an Alaska cruise next summer and would love to read about yours.

Are you? ! Very jealous

wilma-bride · May 22, 2015

Chilly said:
Are you? ! Very jealous

Not something I ever thought I would do (you know how much I hate the cold) but it just looks so amazing and I really got the cruising bug this last couple of weeks.

Chilly · May 22, 2015

wilma-bride said:
Not something I ever thought I would do (you know how much I hate the cold) but it just looks so amazing and I really got the cruising bug this last couple of weeks.

Overall it isn't that cold. Just some cold bits. I thought you had the DCL bug long ago.

wilma-bride · May 22, 2015

Chilly said:
Overall it isn't that cold. Just some cold bits. I thought you had the DCL bug long ago.

Oh yes, I always had the cruising bug but never thought I would prefer to cruise over going to the theme parks :faint:

stephensmum · May 22, 2015

I can only find page 4, where's day 1-3?

Chilly · May 22, 2015

wilma-bride said:
Oh yes, I always had the cruising bug but never thought I would prefer to cruise over going to the theme parks

I think I might be going that way as well.

stephensmum said:
I can only find page 4, where's day 1-3?

You probably need to change how far back the forum is set to look. I know on the old Dis it only went back a little bit unless you changed the settings to longer

dolphingirl47 · May 22, 2015

wilma-bride said:
Elaine, any chance you might actually finish this I am looking to book an Alaska cruise next summer and would love to read about yours.

When are you planning on going? We are looking into doing another Alaska cruise next year. It was absolutely amazing in 2013. I agree with Claire. It was not near as cold as I had feared and the stunning scenery more than made up for it.

Corinna

Ware Bears · May 23, 2015

wilma-bride said:
Elaine, any chance you might actually finish this I am looking to book an Alaska cruise next summer and would love to read about yours.

Ha ha, you're never going to believe this

but I've got the next week off work and was planning on trying to do some more!! My mum's had a nasty fall and had to go into a home so real life's been a bit fraught but I'll try my hardest - note I do say the words trying and try .....

dolphingirl47 said:
When are you planning on going? We are looking into doing another Alaska cruise next year. It was absolutely amazing in 2013. I agree with Claire. It was not near as cold as I had feared and the stunning scenery more than made up for it.

It was a heatwave whilst we were there and this may sound really stupid but we almost felt cheated! We'd taken hats, gloves, scarves and those hottie handwarmers and didn't need any of them! Although I'll probably regret saying this if it's freezing cold this time! And you could always go down to California for a few days afterwards to recover from any cold!

In fact, if I could have I'd have cancelled this year's cruise and postponed it to the last Alaskan next year then done the 4 night down to San Diego as I'd still have had time to get back before school started. However we'd already booked our flights so sadly it wasn't possible so we've booked a B2B in the med instead.

Ware Bears · May 23, 2015

stephensmum said:
I can only find page 4, where's day 1-3?

Sharon, there are links in the Trip Reports index at the top of the main page - scroll down page 7 and they're near the bottom.

stephensmum · May 23, 2015

Thanks I found it. Sounds brilliant, but I need more (just to add to the pressure).
How old are your daughters?

dolphingirl47 · May 23, 2015

Ware Bears said:
We'd taken hats, gloves, scarves and those hottie handwarmers and didn't need any of them!

I think we must have had a heatwave as well in this case. We did not even take those kinds of things nor did we need them. I got a windbreaker before the trip and layered this with sweatshirts and hoodies and I was great. I did invest in a fleece blanket with sleeves that I was wearing when chilling out on deck 4.

Ware Bears said:
In fact, if I could have I'd have cancelled this year's cruise and postponed it to the last Alaskan next year then done the 4 night down to San Diego as I'd still have had time to get back before school started.

I am tempted by this, but August is not good for me in terms of holidays. So will probably do one of the first two cruises.

Corinna

wilma-bride · May 23, 2015

Ware Bears said:
In fact, if I could have I'd have cancelled this year's cruise and postponed it to the last Alaskan next year then done the 4 night down to San Diego as I'd still have had time to get back before school started. However we'd already booked our flights so sadly it wasn't possible so we've booked a B2B in the med instead.

Those are the two we are looking at for next year. Sorry about your Mum, hope she is OK now. It is always hard when they lose the last of their independence. Sorry to put the pressure on you :guilty:

Ware Bears · May 26, 2015

Well, as they say, it never rains but it pours - now my mother-in-law has ended up in hospital

She has a long history of ill-health so although a surprise it's not totally unexpected and hopefully we'll know more by tonight.

I think it will help me stay positive if I continue this trippy so have spent the last half hour digging out photos and will hopefully get the next day up soon.

Whales, and wolves, and bears! Oh, my! And then to see an elephant fly! - Day 4

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