Another Girls Trip - To Middle-Earth!

Yeah, I bet you didn't know Middle-Earth is in British Columbia, did you?! Ha! It's here, and it's only a 5-hour drive!

Actually, no, Middle-Earth isn't, but Brandywine Park is. Brandywine was the name of one of the rivers in the Shire, which is why my two cousins and I pegged it for our destination for our second girls' trip.

Two years ago, before I began at SPU, two of my cousins and I decided to take a day to go exploring some part of the PNW. This year, we decided to do that again, and I fortunately didn't have a broken toe this time.

We decided to head up to Vancouver, British Columbia, first. This was kind of a rest stop, but it was also a souvenir stop. There are some beautiful little stores in Gastown, a neighborhood there, that have unique and local souvenirs. So we spent some time shopping there.

Anyway, we then drove another hour and a half or so to get to Brandywine. The area we drove through is part of the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, and we drove on the Sea-to-Sky Highway. Now, I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think it's called Sea-to-Sky because the mountains and the ocean are right next to each other. The mountains just fall straight down to the water, with no valleys and not much beach in between.

Pictures from the way up:

Right around here, we drove by the Sea-to-Sky Gondola. I had never heard of it and wanted to go on it, but it was something like $30 per person, so we passed it up. Next time...

Anyway, then we got to Brandywine. The link I gave to it before says the picture doesn't show the falls' height accurately. Here are my pictures:

We were definitely in some hills, if not in the mountains themselves, so we found some other beautiful distance views:

It's worth mentioning, by the way, that height isn't the only thing that comes with hills. Another aspect of hills is the wind. The insane, wild, strong, push-you-back-if-you-jump wind. How strong was the wind? 

This strong:

My hat is not attached to anything. The wind is holding it up.

Of course, there's also wildlife. Like this snake!

I like snakes! I think they're cool. I did try to catch it, but it was too fast for me.

See how he's weaving in between the fence?!

It turns out there was also a scenic railroad. So, pictures there, of course!

After this came our full-blown exploratory hike!

The youngest of us really wanted to stop at Capilano, where the world's longest suspension bridge is, but it was out of our way and crazy expensive, so we skipped it. For the record, a "suspension bridge" is basically a rope bridge. It means the bridge is supported by being "suspended" by two high points on either side of what it crosses, rather than being supported by pillars. Capilano has the longest one in the world, but we didn't see it this time. 

But the trail we took at Brandywine promised us a route to a bungee bridge. All of us - all three of us - thought that meant we were going to a suspension bridge made out of bungee ropes. We all thought that. 

Well, we got to the end of the trail and saw that we were all wrong. It was not a bridge made out of bungee ropes. It was a bridge for people to bungee off of:

Looking down

We did not. We watched about three people bungee jump. That basically solidified my determination to never do that. Oh no. 

Anyway, then we stopped to eat a snack, and then we started the drive back.

I didn't get too many pictures, like I did with last time, because my phone battery was needed to navigate. But I had a good time, as I always do with those two. Nothing beats cousins!