Vancouver in the fall

This is one of my favorite pictures - ever. I took this in the late afternoon when I was sitting at the bar in the Pan Pacific Hotel. The windows are basically floor to ceiling and when you look west, this is what you see.

The floating gas station in the foreground, then Stanley Park where the leaves are changing color, then, if you look carefully right above the gas station, you can see the span of the Lions Gate Bridge.

Above that? The mountains rising out of Burrard Inlet, with the houses of West Vancouver adorning their feet. Most days in the winter, this is what you can see (if even this much). Once the clouds arrive for their permanent residence - usually October to April - the tops of the mountains are clothed in cloud.

It's impossible to tell if they're covered with rain or with snow until the clouds roll away and, suddenly, what you see is this -

The end of the housing and the beginning of the mountains. Right now, this early in November, there is no snow. But it's cold and it won't be more than a few days before the first sprinkles of white highlight the tops of the peaks.

I can hardly wait.

Kate