Breakfast with the Bears

Our friend Kandace loves bears. I mean LOOOOOOOOVES bears. It's a little bit weird how she loses all rational thought when the topic of bears come up. So when her birthday came around in August, it was easy to figure out how she would want to celebrate her birthday.

Grouse Mountain has been running a promotion all summer. Take a quick ride up the mountain, and the ranger gives you a good talk on the bears. Who were still snoring away in the forest. So we got to wake them up and feed them breakfast.

 Look at how smiley this bear is! I can't remember (Kandace will...) if it was Grinder or Coola who is the one with the mischievous personality. But he sure did like to beg for his breakfast.

After the bears had finished wowing us, we headed inside the yurt for our own buffet breakfast. IT WAS AMAZING!

Each of the kids got bear ears, and we grown ups got honey. Until we stole all the ears.

After breakfast we checked in on the bears again quick.

I can see why Kandace loves them so much.

David is just a little bear cub. We already knew that, didn't we?

My sweet little Lizzie-bear.

 And Poppa Bear - he's as big as a black bear!

 After a quick stroll, we checked out the lumberjack show. I've wanted to go to that show for years. It was pretty hilarious.

 And not at all what I expected. There's a script and a LOT of jokes, plus some daredevil stunts. David desperately wants to be a lumberjack when he grows up.

Lizzie wanted her picture taken with the lumberjacks, so we made the dads go with her to pose.

I've never done the Grouse Grind. It sounds very crowded and probably way out of my league (though Jade has done it and she's ten, so maybe there's hope for me!?) I think this is where you come out when you finish.

 We sat on the balcony of the lodge and people watched while we ate a picnic lunch. Sitting in the sun on that balcony, eating salami sandwiches, I always feel like I'm in Lenk. Or at least, I can pretend that's where I am.

 We wandered around the lodge and admired the view.

Well, some of us did.

And then it was time for a walk. We started off by following some of the trails we've done when the mountain is covered in snow.

I think I have a picture very like this from last winter.

And then we hiked up to the top of the mountain. Denis and I, along with David and Nate, had done this walk in the spring when there was still snow on the hill. We thought if we could do it then, it would be no big deal in the summer, right?

The views are spectacular.

You can see the entire valley - in fact, beyond the valley.

Look, there's Washington way off in the distance. 

And then we walked back down the hill.

Which is when I realised this sign was intended for people like us.

oops.

 So we distracted ourselves by watching the bears again.

 Don't you wish you had a pet bear?