Surprise!!!

With Mothers Day coming up I decided to drive home to BC to surprise my mom with a visit last Friday. (My dad new of the visit so I knew they'd be home etc.) For some reason the drive felt a bit longer this time - it could be because all the summer construction has started on the highways. It took me just over 10 hours to get here but it was well worth it!

Mom was stoked to see me (always a good sign) and we had a nice sushi dinner out.

I just gotta say it....it's GORGEOUS out here! Why oh why do I live in Alberta when there is spring in BC??? On Saturday I went out for a run and it was absolute bliss. I ran to my favourite little trail (did I mention most of this area is a rain forest??) and was happy to see everything green green green. I even found a new path to run there! There was some skunk weed on that path though, so not as heavenly a smell as the cedar trees in my favourite path.

Had a great run too. Likely because I felt light as air through the trees. When in doubt, always go back to nature. I firmly believe we are part of nature and when you need a boost it's good to be surrounded by it.

Later that day I met up with friends and headed to Stanley Park. It was so awesome there! The flowers are out in full force and everyone was walking, riding, running, playing rugby, cricket or soccer there. Amazing!

Today, after attempting to make mom brekkie, she went to play in her garden and I went off on a bike ride. I haven't ridden out here before so it was a wee bit of an adventure. I had an idea of where I wanted to go from discussions with my parents and cousin. As it turned out the ride was incredible. It went through most of the blueberry fields around here and I managed to almost get to Pitt Lake. The only thing that stopped me was the road condition. Everything was all smooth and paved up to the Swan E Set Country Club, then past that was shite. It was pretty funny.

Oh, the other thing I love out here is that there are bike lanes on the roadways! How awesome is that?? People even moved over. So nice. As I was just about home I met up with a gal and we rode for a bit. It turns out she did Ironman Canada in 2006. You know, those little m-dot tattoos on the calf are handy - you can ride up to someone and ask them which race they were in! She told me of some longer routes around that I'll have to remember. Today I got in 55 km in 2 hours. My allergies flared up (I'm allergic to all things that are green and bloom), so I got some allergy stuff for later.

My buddy Lance and I are going to go for a longer ride either Monday or Tuesday...it's supposed to rain so lets hope it's also still warm!

Here are some pictures of my adventures so you get a little snippet of what the Greater Vancouver Regional District is like!

Peace out my brilliant friends!

Here are photos from my favourite trail run near the parental units...

Photos from Stanley Park...

Photos from the bike ride...

Look! A bike lane!

The country club...

The road after the country club...not so smooth anymore...