Random wanderings of a scientist in the great white north: Vancouver 2

Today the plan was to ascend Grouse mountain but the weather had its own plans. First stop, breakfast at Scoozis! Amazing eggs benedict, and a less than healthy cinnamon bun drowned in syrup.

My food options here may be somewhat less than healthy

After breakfast I took a stroll to Canada place and, although it was still raining, decided to visit Capilano park. I caught the free shuttle and, after a short delay (caused by the Monsanto protests), we crossed the Lions Gate bridge and arrived at the park in North Vancouver. I spent a few hours in this beautiful park whose main attraction is a bridge crossing that is not for those afraid of heights.

Vancouver certainly has a great deal of natural beauty to it.

Yet no argument was proposed that I should not bite the squirrels to feed myself

There were some interesting plaques around describing the flora and fauna of this rainforest, and the authorities were especially keen to push a 'green' agenda stressing the importance of conserving water. I spent a few minutes listening to a falconer describing bird aerial combat techniques but eventually got tired and made my way back to downtown Vancouver.

I took a little time to read my travel book (Walzer's 'Just and Unjust Wars') with a coffee at a Blenz (Canada's answer to Starbucks) outside the library. The jet lag was still affecting me so I endeavoured to take the rest of the day slowly. When I visit a city for the first time I like to check out a local supermarket to see if the range of products tells me anything interesting about the people. I guess I was slightly disappointed to find that, on the whole, the products were largely recognisable and familiar. There did seem to be a particularly strong market for special health/nutrition products, which is interesting because so far its been pretty difficult to find restaurants selling healthy food (at least in downtown Vancouver), with names ranging from the unimaginative to the bizarre.