Not at the Fair

While most of Whatcom county and half of the Canadians from the lower mainland can be found at the Lynden fair this week, you will not find find us there. We did the fair last year and I'm good for a while. Instead we headed north (and up) to Grouse Mountain. You might ask the same question as both border patrol agents asked us: "What's up at Grouse Mountain?" The mountain is known for it's winter skiing, but there is quite an entertainment up there in the summer. It starts with a beautiful gondola ride, and once up there, you can watch some lumberjacks show off their skills, you can admire some grizzlies, ride up the ski lifts for some great views, feel the wind of birds of prey wings flying over your head, and so on. We got treated to a few bonuses. Our lumberjacks needed some help, so they came to the audience to pick a good helper. Lucky fo them, they picked a nice strong partner. Ann nailed the competition and won the grand prize! A beaver tail. If you went to the fair you ate an elephant ear, we got a beaver tail , just about the same healthy ingredients on both. Great outfit Ann!Of course no lumberjack show is complete without the tree climbing competition. We headed to the birds of prey exhibition and were treated to another bonus. The wind was quite strong and on the previous show, their eagle had taken off and the trainers spent more than an hour going up down the side of the steep mountain trying to retrieve their bird. They were successful and did not take another chance. We were able to admire the beautiful bird, but he stayed teetered to the trainer. They felt a little safer with this Harris Hawk, and let it take off. At first it landed on a spectator's head. She (the expectator that served as he perch), was really cool about it did not panic. I'm not sure if I could have remained that calm. When it took off again , it must have felt the force and freedom of the wind. The trainers were a little stressed, especially when they saw it landing on a tree right in the middle of the grizzly bear habitat. Eventually they managed to retrieved the hawk without being mauled by the bears. The next show got canceled! Kudos goes to Christian D. for confronting his fear of heights head on.

We had a really great day, and as I was savouring an aero ice cream; only found in Canada and it also happened to be one of my favorite candy bars; I said I would have to return another time to have this yummy ice cream again. Only I would earn it by doing the Grouse Grind, hiking up instead of taking the gondola, a mere 2800 feet elevation gain in 3km. As I was struggling to jog our little trail today, I thought: "Who was I kidding?" I either have to start some serious training or just forget about my aero ice cream.