North America Travels 2006

Vancouver | 22 May 2006

Monday - We left Whistler in the rain, its not much fun loading the van in wet weather! We drove along the Sea to Sky highway. We stopped at a place called Shannon Waterfalls. The journey into Vancouver was very wet, unfortunately we couldn't see much of the scenery. We arrived in Vancouver mid afternoon and had a drive around the city, there were plenty of homeless people wandering the streets of the city. Didn't feel as though I would like to wander around by myself. We stopped for lunch at Stanley Park, which is huge, 1000 acres actually. We had to find a large tree to use as a shelter from the rain. We stayed in a hostel in downtown Vancouver, as it was easier to get ourselves around in the city. I've never stayed in a hostel, so it will be another new experience! I shared a room with 3 girls from the other group, as there are no other single girls in mine. I went with Murco to a place called Granville Markets, it was once a dock area, but now it has been turned into markets. We went to a model train and boat display, which had model trains operating, unfortunately it wasn't worth the entry price. The two groups combined and went out to dinner down near the waterfront. Afterwards most went out for drinks, I went back to the hostel to sleep in a mattress with sheets!!
Tuesday - Woke to another overcast morning. I joined Big Rich and Murco and we walked to Stanley Park, it took us about 30 mins to get there. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium. Got to see the Bulga Whales, these animals are amazing! Also saw sea otters, dolphins, seals and a large display of fish and jungle animals. The dolphins were very different from the ones we have in Australia. From here we decided to walk up to the Lions Gate Bridge, which was at the other end of the park. Finally got to the bridge and then we had to walk up the hill,to see the view from the top, by this time my legs were killing me! Along the path we came across a number of raccoons which seemed to be very tame, must be used to people feeding them. We were unable to catch a bus back to the hostel, so we had to walk, which of course was in the opposite direction. We walked through the forest paths of the park which mainly consists of douglas fir and western red cedar, there were some huge trees. we stopped at one tree stump that is now hollow, it once measured 18.3 metres around the girth! It was large enough to park a small horse buggy in it. We finally got back to the hostel, 10 hours after leaving in the morning! My feet and legs were very sore, I didn't worry about getting anything to eat I just headed to bed.

Locations Visited: Vancouver

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