Thursday, July 05, 2018

The Great Escape - Day 15: Touring Vancouver with Friends

4th of July

Quite the day of touring today, thanks to the tour guide efforts of both Sue and Yvonne.

Sue, a scrapbooking friend of Martha whom she met online; and Yvonne: Bobskoot's widow.  Both gave us great car tours of the Vancouver area.  Thanks Ladies!

In the morning, Sue picked us up early and we were at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park as they opened at 8:00 AM to avoid crowds.  It was quite nice to not have a lot of people in the park, allowing us to wander slowly, enjoying the sights.

 Sue and Martha near the entrance to the
Capilano Suspension Bridge Park

 Walking among the tree tops

 A view of the several small bridges winding their
way through the trees.


 Banana Slug
This one was about six inches long.


 Park Map

 Cliff Side Walk



 Capilano Suspension Bridge

 Not too bouncy, unless more 
people were walking at the same time!\

 Mountie Bear

After the Suspension Bridge, we went to Stanley Park; named after the first Governor General for Canada.  We took in a horse drawn carriage ride of part of the park:

 A two horsepower carriage tour

The tour included a ten minute stop at a Totem Pole Park:



 Views of the Vancouver skyline from Stanley Park



 Statue of Olympian who simultaneously held the world
records for the 100 meter and 100 yard dash

After the Stanley Park touring, Sue drove us to Granville Island's market area where we had lunch and some wandering about the little shops.  It was starting to get crowded by the time we left, apparently it's a crowd control nightmare on the weekends!

 Cement Factory in Granville Island

Further car touring after Granville Island had us briefly at Jericho Beach where one can see distant mountain peaks and several oil tankers waiting to be filled up with crude oil.

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Sue dropped us off at our hotel in mid-afternoon and soon after we met up with Yvonne who took us to meet her son Ryan and daughter Tami for dinner near Tami's place.

 An interestingly decorated car, Ryan apparently knew of 
the owner from local car clubs.

 Yvonne (center) and her "kids"
Ryan and Tami.

We were treated to a really nice dinner at a restaurant next to Kitsilano Beach, good conversation and much reminiscing about Bobskoot as we exchanged memories of him.

After dinner, after saying goodbye to her kids, Yvonne took us on a whirlwind evening tour of Vancouver.  She'd point out locations, comment on how things have changed, landmarks and regions of the city were pointed out and named.  Finally, she showed us this collection of strange looking statues:

A-maze-ing Laughter is the name of this exhibit.
The artist wanted to portray hysterical laughter.
Hmmm....

Yvonne dropped us off at our hotel, a perfect end to a very full and nice day.


6 comments:

RichardM said...

Some familiar locations. Capilano Suspension Bridge, Stanley Park, Granville Island, Jericho Beach… The Laughter sculptures were across the street from our hotel.

Artie & Leinen's Grand Adventure said...

It was so much fun reading this post and reliving our trip to Vancouver just last week! Are you stalking us? Those laughing statues are just a block down from the hotel we stayed at. We had family food and games at Jericho Beach. I'm looking forward to seeing your pics and reading your thoughts on your cruise. I hope you see many whales.

SonjaM said...

Vancouver... always worth a visit. The tree top walk is really something. Installations like this are also very popular in German Nature reserves.

Great you could meet with Bobskoot's family, sounds like you guys had a wonderful time.

redlegsrides said...

The statues still seem a bit freaky to me, RichardM

redlegsrides said...

Thanks Bridget, not quite stalking but close!

redlegsrides said...

We did have a great time with Bobskoot’s family SonjaM...one of the trip highlights so far