Winter holidays wouldn’t really be complete without Boxing Day shopping, dim sum, and a trip to the mountains. We did our shopping online at Air Canada (looking forward to travels in the new year!), taking advantage of the 15% deal (code GIFT2016), and we had our dim sum on Boxing Day with T, who was back from Edmonton, M, J&K, who were back from Calgary. We made it up to Cypress today, with M, who was back from Waterloo:

We made some new friends with the Grey Jay residents of Hollyburn:

After an hour on our rented snowshoes (much too short but we had other plans), we went to Boiling Point in Burnaby for lunch with M, M, and C. H and i will be back to snowshoe more. We will also be back to Boiling Point to try all the other soups (#goals2017?). Lunch is a better deal than dinner, you get a cold tea to go with the meal, and it’s $1 less.

More links to information on Hollyburn:

https://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/hollyburn-mountain/

http://vancouverhiatus.com/hiking/hollyburn-mountain.html

https://www.outdoorvancouver.ca/hollyburn-mountain-snowshoe-trail/

http://www.cypressmountain.com/snowshoetours/

Snowshoe rentals and ticket to access trails for 2 people were about $55. I now have heart burn because of too much food in the past 4 days, and not enough exercise. It's so nice to have everybody back in Vancouver. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, THANKS EVERYBODY FOR THE WONDERFUL MEMORIES AND PRESENTS THIS WEEKEND. LOOKING FORWARD TO CRAMMING MORE JOY AND LAUGHS INTO THE NEXT 4 DAYS BEFORE 2017.

Read more about how I spent Christmas this year:
http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/12/jolly.html
http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/12/magical.html

It was so crowded when we got to Cypress around 6PM. Poor J had to line up for an hour to get her rentals. We went for pho after, but I lost the picture. I think my phone has too many photos now and is no longer saving them properly.

Very strange to think that this winter wonderland is less than an hour’s drive away from my house. Will this snow last? I’m planning to enjoy it as much as possible before it’s gone forever.

Where the snow at? It was barely 0°C.

On the left, is Clearwater Springs Ranch, which is the fabulous luxury wilderness lodge/bed and breakfast we stayed at. It’s owned by Tanya and Kurt, who gave us advice on where to go around the park and really welcomed us into Clearwater. They offer a $45 gourmet dinner, which is totally worth the price. We had cranberry chicken with the most perfect fried potatoes:

More food pix & lodge pix:

Another view of the lodge:

Bonny, the resident watch dog, said goodbye to us as we left for Wells Gray Park:

But really, WHERE THE SNOW AT? The cone around the waterfall had collapsed a while ago, and the walls of the canyon were bare… I was slightly disappointed by this, but with all that’s been going on in my life, this didn’t faze me one bit. I’ll come back next year.

View from the back of Clearwater Springs Ranch:

View from the observation deck: