Stanley Park Gardens, dolphins and whales

Last night we read an extensive travelogue that had been written especially for us by Graham, a delightful and unashamedly patriotic Canadian I met through my work. Graham had previously worked as a tour guide, and without knowing our family, had guessed pretty much the things we would be interested in. (Thanks so much Graham- we are indebted to you)

We made a decision last night to leave Vancouver Island until the end of the trip, so today was to be pretty much our last day in Vancouver for a while. Graham had given us so many suggestions that we were spoiled for choice. We elected to visit Stanley Park, and the Vancouver aquarium contained within. We actually thought we might be able to do something after this, but we were wrong!

We have been staying at 1111 Burnaby St. It's called the Sunset Inn, but don't let the name put you off. The deal is fully serviced apartments and we have found it excellent. We are on the 8th floor (you've seen the view) and we are walking distance from downtown, False Creek and from Stanley Park Gardens. The apartments are clean and tidy, and the place runs well, with 24 hour reception attendance and very helpful staff at that. Exiting onto the street, I find myself buoyed by the beauty and greenery: the whole street at this end is a leafy glade. It feels friendly and fresh. The friendly atmosphere is enhanced by the large number of people walking from A to B. It seems many people (especially students) do a lot of their travelling by foot. The other thing I notice is the pace… people aren't in too much of a hurry here. It all lends to quite a relaxing and calming effect: rare in a large city.

No anti-discrimination laws here??

Near our apartment- Burnaby St

Anyway, I digress. As Graham informed us, the park contains some huge trees, and would have been much more impressive prior to a storm in 2006 which flattened many old giants. We had a leisurely breakfast (a "continental breakfast" included with our accommodation- that means croissants, muffins, fruit, cereal and coffee) before departing. We walked for 10 minutes until we were at the park. 

A less relaxing atmosphere at this part of the walk to the gardens!

Wandering fairly aimlessly in a counterclockwise direction we soon found ourselves lost at a lagoon. Alternatively I could write we soon found ourselves precisely at "Lost Lagoon" but the former is more accurate. This is a beautiful spot, and we soon found ourselves snapping away (cameras, not verbally) at swans, ducks, raccoons, turtles and a heron. 

Wandering further we made our way zig-zaggedly to the aquarium. As promised, it was fantastic!

I know this looks fake, but it's not. It's a real photo
With the aquarium lighting it looks amazing.

 Highlights for me were the beluga whales and the dolphins (I've seen dolphins before at Waterworld but they never cease to amaze me). If these animals weren't deemed "unfit for release" I would have found their confines depressing but I have to admit they seemed happy and loved! How's that for some anthropomorphism in action.. as if I can assess the emotional state of a dolphin!

A sea otter. A fascinating animal to watch.. or be watched by.

After the aquarium, W and I left the other two and walked to LionsGate Bridge, a high and long suspension bridge at the northern part of the park. 

This squirrel was flat out!

We ascended to the highest roadway point and gazed down at the water far below. Done. 

Back home via the seawall. This is a shared pathway and it is very well used. There were roller bladers, cyclists and pedestrians. The strangest site was a guy with a small bike which he had fitted with a sound system including two large speakers mounted beside his front stem. The trance music was intrusive and inappropriate to the scene. He seemed oblivious to his effect on the tranquillity, and I have to say my annoyance was definitely outweighed by bemusement… what a strange thing to do!

Stanley park is superb. The gardens are peaceful, large and beautiful. I highly recommend spending a day here.

Perfectly balanced

The artist at work

W had very sore feet, but suffered fairly silently. We were both glad to get back to the apartment as this had been a substantial walk! There wasn't much more to do except cook (yummy omelette tonight) and plan tomorrow's activities. We pick up the RV. I have to confess to a bit of trepidation about this.. but we should be OK. I don't have trouble adapting to driving on the right hand side of the road, but combining that with the sizeable vehicle ups the challenge a bit. My other apprehension is Robin Williams' fault- I have a slightly daunting image of problems with waste disposal, but we won't go there!

Sorry.. couldn't resist!

So tomorrow we do the Grouse Grind. It sounds challenging. 

I am not sure when I will post next as mobile broadband in Canada is a real problem once you leave the cities. It's incredibly expensive. There are some global data roaming solutions (Thanks Belinda for your suggestion.. unfortunately we couldn't find the booth in time at LAX) and tonight I stumbled upon a Telstra add-on international data roaming pack advertised on their website. It looks pretty good.. $85 gives you $450 value on the local Rogers network roaming. There are some problems though..

1. When I rang Telstra the line cut out and they rang me back. I don't have roaming, but this call exhausted my credit and I got cut off when my money expired. I had alerted the Telstra rep to my suspicions (I was getting frequent warning texts about my credit, and she was surprised as she said I shouldn't be charged. Nevertheless, she didn't know enough about the plan and kept me on hold until I lost the call… No way am I calling back)

2. You can't find this on the Telstra site, but $85 actually only gives you about 29MB (yes that's MB not GB) in Canada. That's useless. One GB costs $1800 at this rate. So basically.. we won't have internet if our local SIM from the Fido network can't find a connection.

If we do have a signal, I will probably post text only as data is really steep. It makes me appreciate our Australian system. 

Anyway.. Bye for now.