Tightening Our Belts

Back in April Jen met a man in Brooklyn who was converting a vintage belt factory into an art gallery. He was stuck with thousands of belts and was trying to get rid of them, so Jen and I decided to take a few off his hands. We were shown around this huge warehouse, escorted to the top floor and left to explore the factory on our own. We were totally overwhelmed within the first five minutes. 20 years worth of dust covered everything, birds were flying around and we had no idea what creatures we would encounter in each box. We picked through boxes and boxes of stuff and gathered some really cool belts. We then grabbed our stuff and proceeded to the nearest staircase, but it was closed. We found a second staircase - closed! Then a third - closed! We then called the guy to send up the elevator, but he didn't answer. For a brief moment I envisioned having to climb out a window and shimmy down the side of the building, but we split up and looked in every nook and cranny until we found a little rickety stair case. I was a little panicked by the look of the staircase, but Jen was already racing down it leaving the scary factory in her wake. We made it home in one piece with some really awesome belts.

The end of the line

It's the last day of our Vancouver tripand I had one last spot to take the girls. To get there I drove down Hastings st., which has one of the largest populations of homeless, drug addicts and hookers in North America. I didn't think that much about it until Jen pointed out the window and asked what was going on. Throngs of the shadiest people were all over the side walks, cracked out and some just lying on the side walk. I had been down that street hundreds of times and it had seemed normal to me, but it is strange. Even in New York the homeless are dispersed through the city and you don't see anything like that. We made it to our store and on the way back Jen asked to go back down the street. I slowly cruised down the street and we all looked out the window at the end of the line.

Day 8- Grinders Grouse as Jen likes to call it

We woke up this morning and crammed in more shopping before deciding to do the Grouse Grind (or as Jen likes to call it Grinders Grouse). The Grind is a hiking trail, but not just any trail - it's a ass busting, leg numbing, 2 mile climb up the side of a mountain. It will pretty much make every hike you did before and after seem like a joke. I had done it once before and the memories of feeling like I might die caused me to opt out and take the tram up instead. An hour and a half later the girls came up the stair case looking miserable and part of me felt guilty for not detailing exactly what they were getting into, the other part of me felt amused. (above- view from my comfy ride up)