A very busy Saturday, in every sense. This happens to be a long weekend (BC Day on Monday), and there's a fireworks show tonight, my sister has a visitor who brought a coworker, I brought a visitor. A late start. Driving along Sea To Sky highway by the Howe Sound is always a delight. First stop (~10:30):
Porteau Cove Provincial Park. It's very small, but right by the water, with some water front campsites. Quite a lot of scuba divers today. 2 sunken ships provide diving interest. I wasn't able to find a parking spot, so didn't linger long.
2nd stop:
Shannon Falls (11:15). It's such a disappointment, show the alarming dryness of this summer. This waterfall used to splash onto the viewing platform. Still lots of people. I parked dad's car on the opposite side of the highway. Had our snack / bathroom break.
3rd stop:
Squamish windsport spit (12:15). Super windy. This is my favorite, after discovering it a 3 years ago at a kiteboarding festival. There're quite a few players here. Colorful kites dotting the blue sky, snowcapped mountain as a backdrop. It's fun to watch. All my passengers have never seen something like this in action.
4th stop: highway view point for
Tantalus Range. We also stopped at the opposite side of the highway on the way back. Have to hike there someday.
5th stop:
Brandywine Falls (13:40). Rainbow. This is a short walk across a railroad, a nice covered bridge over Cheakamus creak. The water is very clear. After seeing the lovely waterfall, you can continue along the fence of Cheakamus Canyon to an overlook of
Daisy Lake and its drainage below. Can see
Black Tusk clearly from here and its nearby 2 microwave towers. 2Km further, there is a suspension bridge: Bungee Bridge over Cheakamus River. There're two trail north of the falls, Swim Lake (before the railroad) and Lava Lake (after the covered bridge, ~3Km). Not sure if they are worth going.
6th stop:
Rainbow Park at the shore of
Alta Lake (15-16:00). Had a siesta here. Parked along the road. A train went by. Lots of people. The view across the lake to the Whistler mountain range is unbeatable. Can see the Peak2Peak gondola. This year, the mountains are almost bare.
7th stop: Walk along
River of Golden Dreams to
Green Lake (16:30-17:30). Continued along the boardwalk to Nicklaus North neighborhood with beautiful craftsman houses, highly manicured lawn, golf course and a seaplane dock. Quiet and winding small creek, with many kayaks and canoes. Bikers on the section of Valley Trail that we walked on. I had walk back to the car, and pick my folks up at the golf course clubhouse.
8th stop:
Olympic Park (19:00). This is my least favorite of the day - not on my agenda, but dad insisted. The park is closed at 4:30pm. So we had to walk along the highway. Not much to see here.
Coming back to town along Sea To Sky highway at sunset is again a treat.
9th stop: fireworks (22:00).
Celebration of Light was sponsored by Honda this year. We drove along Lions Gate Bridge, by then almost 9pm, and it was smooth without traffic. I dropped my 3 passengers at Denman, so they can walk to the Beach Ave, where my brother-in-law would pick them up. I, instead, had to find a parking.
As I walked to English Bay, I could hear the explosion and see the higher shots and the brightly illuminated sky. Arrived 15 minutes into the 25 minute program, so many people on Beach Ave, David and Denman street that police has blocked the foot traffic. Beach is fenced off here. I watched the last 10 minutes of the pyrotechnic show standing on my tiptoes behind fences, people and trees. Not ideal. A huge police force tonight, who directed the foot traffic to one way. I returned to my car in ~35 minutes, then waited for 40 minutes for my sister to drive my guest and parents out. Again traffic all the way to Hwy-1. It's almost 1am when we reached home. Very tired.
CBC News reported about half a million showed up.
Notes on transportation. Friday 2pm bus from Portland to Seattle hits all the traffic possible. Since it's the same bus going to Canada, I wasn't worried, when it was late. Sunday morning, August 2nd, my Bolt bus of 11:30am from Vancouver to Seattle had some mechanical issue. As we went through the border, the driver called the back office to send a different bus. However, seems either no replacement bus or a very late one. Thanks to Quick Shuttle, most of us managed to get to Seattle only ~15 minutes late, despite of traffic. The driver took local roads at various places. Their drop off at 8th between Pine and Pike is about 30 minutes walk to Bolt Bus station. I was able to catch my 4:30pm bus to Portland, no traffic.
9 women gathered at Rooster Rock State Park, at my initiative, to see the meteor shower. OMSI is hosting a star watch party, with telescopes and talks tonight for the best chance of this year's Perseid. No moon. But the city light pollution is significant. Lots of cars coming and going, casting bright head beams. Beautiful setting by the river. But probably better in the less popular Stub Steward State Park. The very first tonight was at 9:37. It's the best. So bright that its tail was visible for a good minute. The sky wasn't even dark yet. You can see milky way after 10pm. We saw maybe a dozen shooting stars, during the 2+ hours there. Way below expectation. But the night breeze is nice, everyone brought food to share. A pleasant picnic under the stars. When we left around 11pm, a long line of cars were coming in: would be better after midnight. But I had to catch the last train (11:40) to go home. Got back home at 1am. 
A large turn out, a few had to stand. The main theme is 
