Stanley Park, Sunset Cruising and Good Friends


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North America » Canada » British Columbia » Vancouver
July 15th 2010
Published: August 26th 2010
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After breakfast we walk to Stanley Park with the intention of going for a ride around. We see heaps of people riding hire bikes but don’t see anywhere to get them. Finally we get to an information point and discover the bike hire places are back in town. So we do a quick u-turn and look for the shop. They’re not too far, so we don’t feel like complete idiots. There are two places right across the road from each other, talk about competition!

So we get our coolio bikes, mine comes complete with a basket. After Tim stops laughing because I have to wear a toddlers bike helmet we head off back to the park.

It’s a huge park, about 10km around, the main path runs around the edge next to the water. There are enormous pine trees everywhere mixed through the lush green bushland and even though it’s midweek it’s really busy. There is a strict rule about only going around in one direction and also the bikers and rollerbladers have their own side and the walkers have to stay on their side.

Not too far in there is Totem Park, there are about a dozen Totem Poles of all different sizes and there is a description of the story that each tells. They are pretty much like looking at someone’s family tree.

About half way around there is a water park with sprinklers and fountains to play around under, it even has a blow dryer to dry the kids off after! Good thing, because even though the sun is shining it’s not warm enough that you want to go too far dripping wet!

We see an otter that has somehow ended up on the path way, it is slowly making its way back to the water, but it doesn’t seem to be in too good a way. There is a huge crowd watching and someone phoned for the Ranger to come and help and he’s only a few minutes away. We leave because I can’t stand to see it suffer, we hope that it does ok…

There was also a raccoon feeding in a shallow natural pool near the sea side. No-one seemed fazed to see it but for tourists like us it was cool to see.

About three quarters around there is a swimming pool and snack bar. So we pull up a chair and have some lunch. Even with all the people around, it’s still so peaceful here.

After lunch we cut through the centre (you can ride any way you like once you’re off the main path) and head to Beaver Lake. It’s really really nice through here. The path is narrow gravel and the trees seems extra huge. It’s beautiful, green and very tranquil, just the sound of my knees grinding! We come across a lake almost completely covered in lilly’s, if there are any beavers in this lake they are well hidden. As a great consolation prize, we find a heap of ducks that are more than happy to accommodate me and let me feed them.

We find our way out of the park and even manage to find our way back to the bike shop, us and the bikes intact. A nice way of killing a few hours that I highly recommend.

VANCOUVER TOWER

We walk to the Vancouver Tower which stands about 180m high. Our ticket also allows us to go back any time today, so we’ll probably go back after tea so we can see everything at night, everything looks better with the lights on! The elevator is glass and we see the view going up and down which was pretty cool, we had been watching it from the street earlier.

The view is great, you can see the tall city buildings alongside the beautiful Stanley Park with snow capped mountains in the distance. If it sounds like a postcard, it truly looked like one too. It makes us even more excited to see the rest of Canada! We could watch the seaplanes taking off and landing on the water in front of us was neat!

It doesn’t take long to do so there is plenty of time to have a bit of quiet time and get ready for our dinner cruise tonight.

SUNSET DINNER CRUISE

We were able to get an extra seat for Adam to join us for the dinner cruise so we walk to meet Adam and then we walk to the marina to meet the boat.

When we first arrive we see an old paddle boat and at first think this is ours, but ours is actually the one next to it. The paddle boat seemed pretty cool, but it was old and our boat looked a lot nicer, not that you can tell a book by its cover. Fortunately the cover told the right story and our boat was really nice!

The meals are served in the downstairs area and almost all the tables are window ones, there are only a couple that are set up in the middle, but all the windows are big so even in the middle you would still have a good view. It reminded me a lot of Kylie and Kelly’s wedding reception in the Sydney Harbour. Nothing like a nice memory to make something seem even better!

Before tea we head onto the deck and take in the passing view. Vancouver really is a pretty city, that’s for sure. I’m not sure how long it was before dinner was served, time pretty much flew by.

Dinner was a buffet and had different salads, veges and meat. I was able to pre-order a vegetarian meal, so I had Cannelloni, it was really nice. There was plenty of food and even enough for seconds. The dessert bar had chocolate cake, cheesecake and even fruit salad for those healthy ones. I’m sure the fruit salad was nice, but the chocolate cake was great!

It was a really great night and Adam is just one of the funniest guys I’ve met (besides Tim of course!), so it was a big laugh fest!

We hope to get back up the tower but miss closing by 5 minutes, not meant to be.

After we all walked back to our hotel, on the way checking out all the outrageously expensive boats that if we ever win lotto, we probably still would never be able to ever afford. They are like floating banks!

So, sadly we bid Adam farewell, hoping to see him again in Las Vegas while we are there.





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