Alaska, Canada and NYC Day 27

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Today is a lazy day - bit of a sleep in and then decide to do our second day on the hop on hop off bus to get around town. Head towards Stanley park (big peninsula just at the end of town with a 9 mile track that goes around the entire peninsula - bit like the Tan back home).

Wander through the convention centre forecourt and look at the Olympic torch and the green roof on the centre. Up to the bus where the sellers are haggling tourists for their respective buses. Ours comes along and we get on - no roof but ok at the moment. Famous last words.

We finally get to Stanley park, but the queue for the park connection bus is huge so we decide to go the next stop which is in the park and near the aquarium. Hungry so go to the pavillion for a bite. It is now 1200 so lunch is the order of the day. Food arrives and looks good, fresh hot chips and a burger. It starts to rain again - hmmm...

Finish our lunch and go back to try and catch the bus, none coming so decide to wander the park a little. Beautiful rose gardens and we also look at the damage done to the trees when a huge wind storm blew through the park about 3 or 4 years ago - over 10,000 trees destroyed or damaged.......

Walk to where we think the 2nd bus stop for the park is and wait. Other company buses come and go, then our companies bus appears, and goes - no stopping......

Walk back to where the original,link stop is - in the drizzling rain - grizzle.... Get in sight of the ATP and the park bus is there, get closer and yes, it closes the doors - frantic waving, and he stops and picks us up. Same driver we had on the first day in Vancouver, bit of a wag.

Off we go and he gives great commentary with lots of jokes. Very informative tour with lots of local info as well. Get back to the start/stop and get off. Weather has turned and the sun is out now so we decide to go over to the beach and walk back towards town. Lots of white bodies out sunning themselves, some even swimming. Get to their version of the Coffee Club Cafe called the Cactus Club Cafe (these are all over the place). Have a beer watching the water, ships and people walking the sea wall track - very relaxing.

Pay and decide to walk back to the hotel. Up the hill we go. Lots of little cafés, shops and even some barbers - time for a trim. 10 minutes later I am shorn and feeling better. On we go up the hill. Pass a gallery, so as usual, we don't pass the gallery. In we go, really interesting stuff, all painted, then layers of acrylic to give a great sheen finish. Get talking to the artist who is standing there working on another huge painting.

Tells us how he does his stuff, and then we get talking what we have been doing. He gives us some more ideas on what we could do tomorrow. One is to take a float plane to Victoria (on Vancouver Island). Also mentions that they do a mail run where they take passengers on the float planes to little islands where they drop off passengers and the mail. Hmmmmm..

Thank him and head to the float plane terminal with our interest piqued. Get there after a really nice walk through the outer downtown area (apartments for the rich). Talk to the people at the float planes and we are booked on tomorrow's mail run to 3 different islands. Won't be getting off, but the up and down and sights sound great.

Walk back into town to look at the Vancouver art gallery which has a statue of a head that people stick their gum onto - yuck. This is art though so we look. The smell is like a thousand juicy fruits going wrong... The gallery is open late tonight so we decide to go in. Big queue then we see that this is tight arise Tuesday - entry by donation...... In the line we go. Ask someone what is the usual donation amount -$5 - bonus.

The display is by the guy who did the gum head so could be interesting. Not wrong. Very out there. Lots of stuff to test your senses.

Finally get through all of his stuff and look for something to eat. End back at our hotel for a feed, exhausted after our day of relaxation. Do a Skype session with Charlie, Stephanie and Jessica which was good. Got all the news from Charlie. Unfortunately Pippa was asleep, maybe next time.

Off to bed now.....

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