September 3, 2014 ? Day 106
Woke up to no rain, cloudy but no rain, this had to be a good day. Today we explore Vancouver. First up, we were driving to Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver. In winter it is a ski resort and in the summer they have a gondola ride up the mountain, a bear sanctuary, a lumberjack show, ziplines, helicopter tours, parasailing and raptor center. They even have the world?s first and only wind turbine that allows you to stand in a clear glass view pod at the top of the tower. You are about 10 feet from its massive, rotating blades and you get a 360 degree view. Well, we did go to the bear sanctuary but after all the wild bears we?ve seen it just didn?t hold the same fascination for us. We did enjoy the lumberjack show. The two guys sawed through logs, chopped logs, climbed up and down a 60 foot pole and did some logrolling for us. We then had some lunch and rode the gondola back down. I thought the wind turbine sounded like fun but Jim didn?t like the idea so we skipped that. The skies were still very overcast and for most of our time up at the top of the mountain we were shrouded in clouds. There was once a couple of deer eating some grass and they faded in and out depending on the clouds coming through. We did get some good views of Vancouver as we neared the bottom but it was hard to see as the gondola car had 60 to 70 people in it.
On the drive back into Vancouver we went through some pretty nice neighborhoods. It was pretty ritzy. We then went to Stanley Park, which was just voted the best urban park in the world by TripAdvisor. We had trouble getting our American credit cards to work in the parking lot meter, since most American cards do not have the latest embedded-chip technology and that was the only type of credit card that the machine was set up to use. A very nice local guy paid the fee for us. We told him we would pay it forward. We took an hour long ride on a horse drawn wagon, whose driver told us interesting facts about the park and its surroundings. We could see why the park is so popular. As a matter of fact, that was the only problem we noticed, both in the park and in Vancouver itself. It was very crowded; people were everywhere. Part of this feeling may have been due to our having spent so much time in the wilds of Alaska and British Columbia lately, but we both felt like there were too many people. Our guide did mention that the part of Vancouver we were in is one of the most densely populated parts of Canada, with almost 45,000 people per square mile.
After our horse ride, we got the bikes off the Trailblazer and did a 5.5 mile ride around the entire park. It is bounded on one side by the ocean. The park boasts an aquarium, a rose garden, 2 lakes, a beach and several restaurants within its 1000 acres.
Tired from our ride, we decided to go to the Gastown area of Vancouver to look for some dinner. Of course, we timed this so we were driving through Vancouver during rush hour. After threading our way through most of those 45,000 people, we found the area we were looking for, only to realize that there was no parking and most of the area appeared to be very rundown with lots of street people, lying about or standing on the corners, yelling at the cars going by. So with Jim?s expert navigation we found our way out of the city. Went back to Langley and had dinner at the Olive Garden. As we drove back to WeBe the sky was almost dark at 8 PM, kind of makes one sad to see the summer end. Now it is off to bed for us, we re-enter the lower 48 in the morning.
TTFN
pics- Vancouver cruise port- skyline of Vancouver- in Standley Park- a person from Vancouver fell in love with the mermaid statue in Denmark and asked if he could copy and they said "NO", so he commissioned his own work and it is a girl with swim goggles and swim fins on.