Vancouver, Part I

Vancouver. is. awesome. We really enjoyed our time there and after three days of VC activities we only scratched the surface of what there is to do. The city and its surrounding areas are beautiful, just beautiful. It's a clean, friendly city, and there are trees everywhere. We highly recommend it.

Our first day in VC may have been my favorite. We drove up from Seattle, arriving in VC mid morning. Our first stop was a little area I'd read about on a blog: Granville Island. It's not really an island, but a little area under a bridge with shops, a farmers market, restaurants, etc. We had sandwiches on the water, explored the shops, and enjoyed some VC gelato*.

Armed with our cartoonish map of VC (thanks, Sheraton) we drove around the city a bit before landing in Stanley Park. You guys, this park is so cool. It's a huge park in downtown Vancouver that wraps around one side of the island. There are miles of dirt trails weaving throughout surrounded by dense forest. It's gorgeous. We explored the park for over three hours, entering in the sunny afternoon, and finally emerging at nightfall. I'm pretty sure we went in a big circle for an hour, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Our first day ended with a beautiful sunset on the water, an exhausting hunt for vegetarian food near the hotel, and a sleepy dinner in bed.

{flag at the border}

{Granville Island}

{Granville Island market}

{hm..another view of the sign}

{downtown Vancouver}

{Granville bridge, delicious sandwich bite}

{tribal mask, a tad scary}

{I climbed on it anyway, hmph}

{Granville bridge}

{found my way to the gelato}

{downtown, harbor}

{Francis feeding the angry geese}

{he made a friend}

{the beginning of our three hour saga through Stanley Park}

{Stanley Park greenery}

{me, tree trunk crocodile (alligator?)}

{SP, me}

{balancing pretty good}

{gazing at the green canopy/showing off my pale neck}

{thirst, footbridge}

{Francis atop his humble tree trunk}

{first of many sunset pics from our first night in VC}

{breathtaking}

{view from Second Beach}

{boat, islands}

{lots of boats}

{the path that borders Stanley Park}

{water, sunset, pines}

*The gelato in VC was good, but Rome still has the best...sigh...