Five Golden Toques

After blogging about how we don’t have “real” seasons in Vancouver anymore (just hot hot for 2 months in the summer then 10 months of grey wetness [mbv]) Mother Nature made me put my foot in my mouth as the Lower Mainland with dusted with several inches of snow this weekend [mg] [mbv].

It’s still coming down although it’s not as noticeable downtown. We took the Skytrain out to New Westminster this morning and as we headed East, the more snow there was.

There’s about 8 inches right now in Burnaby, New West and from what I hear, Surrey. Any place with an incline has either become the fun afternoon hangout for kids in snow suits armed with toboggan and crazy carpets, OR a skating rink for car with a driver freaking out about this white substance falling from above that is ruining their traction.

Luckily, we can rely on the transit system for now so John and I can just walk or grab a bus/Skytrain if we need to get anywhere. On the train this morning they had a message playing every 2 stops: “Skytrain is now running it’s Snow Plan. There is an attendant on every train. Due to heavy snow, there may be sudden stops. Please hold on at all times or stay seated, thank you.”

I’m pretty curious as to how the commuters will fare tomorrow morning, downtown may be pretty empty tomorrow without all those who don’t want to brave the trek in. One thing I have to mention is if you’re coming from the burbs and you have a foot of snow piled on top of your car, please make sure to scrape it all off. Nothing worse than driving behind someone with a foot of snow on their roof and WOOSH the wind catches it and you get clumps of falling snow either on the road right in front of you or smack dab in the middle of your hood. Please be careful out there and check out these traffic webcams to find out what your route might look like.

It’s a good thing I walk to work… or is it?

Here in the West End, the snow is piling up. We just came from Burrard station where the insulating concrete of the heart of downtown is keeping everything pretty liquid. I’m looking outside the window and I see trees covered in powder, not as much as in Burnaby, but there’s enough on the sidewalk to scoop up and mold into a killer snowball. So this one’s pretty easy, my next “cheap fun thing to do in Vancouver” is this: Build a snowman & have a (friendly) snowball fight.