As you know by what I have been writing over the past little while and by what you have read in the news, BC receives a lot of rain in the winter. We have found though, that it rarely rains around the clock and there are many breaks throughout the day. Yesterday, one of the reasons we went to the museum was because it was raining when we got up but by the time we got there, it had stopped. Today, it was cold here, 6C, but the sun was shining and there were a few puffy clouds in the sky. They say, "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes" and today it became very understandable.

I am back to my Nordic Track routine, which is set up under the awning on our patio and this morning, the first thing I noticed was the temperature drop. I looked up from my book periodically, to see the clouds rumbling by at a fairly high speed but thought nothing of them. After our breakfast, we were reading when it proceeded to get quite dark and all of a sudden we were being pelted with a heavy downpour. Shortly after, there was a large rumbling of thunder (a real rarity out here) followed by a major hailstorm (another rarity). With no end in sight and the awning getting progressively weighted down, Rick scrambled outside to try to bounce it off. The ground became white in just a matter of minutes and for a while we were questioning our sanity for being here.

Within 15 minutes the hail changed to rain and by the time we went out, an hour later, the sky was clear again. We joined Karley and Ian for an enjoyable stroll along Robson Street, downtown Vancouver, window-shopping and people watching. We stopped for dinner around 7:30PM and Rick noticed that the stars were out so we expected a clear evening, however on our drive home the rain was back. By the time we got back to the campground, it had turned to a misty drizzle and any evidence of the hail had melted. We're told that this is usually the temperature we can expect all winter, in which case the rain isn't so bad, however we can do without the hail. I suppose we're just getting a taste of Vancouver weather.