Baby Seal in North Vancouver

Oh Vancouver, how fickle you are with your weather!

My yesterday began with a lovely clear blue sky and the warmth of the summer sun while a friend and I walked along a beach in North Vancouver and spotted the cutest baby seal trying (unsuccessfully) to hide from onlookers among the rocks. “These are the moments that make Vancouver feel like the best place on earth” I thought.

As the day was coming to a close, I went to Spanish Banks to meet some friends for the last Celebration of Light fireworks of the summer. Quite suddenly, the skies turned grey, the fog rolled in to obstruct our view of English Bay, and we heard a threatening rumble. We understood the warning and began to pack up our beach belongings. Still, we weren’t fast enough to avoid the sharp attack of Vancouver rain.

The clouds spat large splotches of cold wet rain that patterned the beach like chickenpox. At first all I could think was “ow, ow, ow, ow geeezus OW!” as a scrambled to my car in highly inefficient flip flops. In the process of getting completely soaked, I remembered how different it was to walk through the rain in Montréal.

Two of my favourite things in Montreal: the rain, and BIXI bikes

Ahh, Montréal <3

I’ve always wanted to take a walk through pouring rain. You could blame it on movies like The Notebook, La Spectatrice or even The Princess and the Warrior or Spiderman. Most love stories include some form of rain.

The rain in Montréal was the kind you want to walk in. It was warm and complete, would drench you in a second, and it felt like you were being given the biggest hug by the whole sky. The great big dollops fell gently, and walking through it was more like wading through a pool; you would hardly even notice when you walked through a puddle. I couldn’t help but smile the whole way from the Mont Royal Metro to the little room I was renting on Rue St-Urbain. If only Vancouver’s skies could borrow its clouds from Montréal…

Trees Under Water

We’re in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee right now doing absolutely nothing. It’s been pouring all day and most of the activities around here require being outside (ex. go-karting, hiking, zorbing etc). So, we spent an extra day here hoping the weather would clear up for tomorrow and caught up on our trash / crap TV including an episode of Bible Man (seriously, wtf!? This is taking cheese and indoctrination to a whole new level), Dallas Divas and Daughters, Supernanny (not so bad), and The Dish. So this is what Topanga is doing nowadays eh?

I’ve still got a boatload of pictures to upload from our visit to New Orleans (pronounced “nawlins”). In the meantime, you can stare at the above picture that was taken from our car on the highway to New Orleans featuring some drowning trees. Flash flooding isn’t a joke around the Southern states — it’s real and it’s scary stuff.