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

I just want to go back to this…

Might as well just eat.

Look at all that butter. @Happy Date Bakery & Restaurant. Maybe I don’t exercise enough to have this, but we’re all going to die one day, and I’d rather eat this and be happy than deprive myself of all that fluffy bread with butter.

Reasons why I cannot sleep:

1. SimCity BuildIt is keeping me awake.
2. I dread transiting to work, but how else am I going to save some money?
3. Too much coffee today to stay awake.
4. Just not ready to sleep yet.

Waking up at 6AM tomorrow to bus to work when I could be riding comfortably in my Veloster. (Maybe not that comfortably, I get pretty nervous when I’m driving these days, probably because of all the previous accidents). It’ll be my first time using the monthly pass on the Compass card. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Cypress on the 30th. This is where I crashed and slid straight down the slope. Stupid moguls. I need a helmet.
It’s now 12:21AM, and I’m sorting through my photos from last year. What a tremendous year of changes – new job, new car, new hobbies, new relationships, new injuries, new prime minister. This year, I traveled mostly by car around BC and Alberta (Clearwater, Banff, Sunshine Coast, Whistler… I guess Whistler doesn’t really count). Horoscopes this year seem quite unreliable, but who cares what the feng shui masters say? I’m going to make 2016 great and full of more new things. Here’s a list of things I plan on doing:

• Travel to Iceland (tickets are already booked!)
• Travel to San Francisco (I should be going for work anyways)
• Ski on Mt. Baker
• Go snowshoeing
• Camp at Tin Hat Mountain
• Donate some money to a good cause
• Read at least 12 books (1 a month sounds reasonable)
• Invest in property (have you heard about the Vancouver housing market?)
• Protect the environment by using 0 disposable cups (this is going to be hard)
• Eat a lot and not gain weight  
• Blog more…

Yesterday, I made an egg boat for breakfast.

And now it’s 1:20AM, and I’m only halfway through the Gareth Emery Music That Made 2015 podcast. Listen to it here:

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.

We were planning to get to the parking lot at Cypress by 7AM to hike 5hrs, 11km, to St. Mark’s Summit, which is a part of the Howe Sound Crest Trail, but we ended up leaving the McDonalds by Boundary and Lougheed at around 730AM. After a hearty meal of Sausage Egg McMuffin and hashbrowns, purchased using the coupons available on their mobile app, we were ready to hike.

The view from the top was spectacular, with a few low hanging clouds. This was from the 2nd farther viewpoint after reaching the summit (takes a bit of searching to find the correct path to get here… go around!). Snacks for this hike included a 6 plums from the tree in my backyard and a 90 calorie fibre1 chocolate chip cookie, split between the 4 of us…

Things to note if doing this trail next year at this time…

-It’s wet and muddy up there at this time and it was drizzling a bit this morning. Wear hiking boots, bring a jacket.
-There were no ravens this time.
-Go earlier as this trail is becoming more popular.

More info at Vancouver Trails: http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/st-mark's-summit/

What’s an intermediate hike with a view near Vancouver that isn’t congested?

My friend's Facebook status:

"god. jealousy in a relationship is unattractive"

It's also unattractive when they refuse to come out for food after a movie without a reason, or they act like a baby that I have to take care of. Am I too immature to be attracted to/attract somebody mature?

On a more positive note, Cypress was amazing as usual. V is becoming my snowboarding model for all my snow photos!

We went to Cypress this Sunday, and got lost not once, but twice, down the same run. There was no escaping the diamonds.

It’s always a good day when I get to go skiing, no matter how tired/stressed/angry/ANYTHING I am.  It’s like I’ve entered a whole new world (like Aladdin whisking Jasmine into the air on his magic carpet).  On the other hand, I’ve been sighing all day at work.  Make the phones stop ringing, and stop sending me emails!