4 July 2012

Happy Independence Day!

No rain today!  As I write this, I can’t see a cloud in the sky.  It’s 68 degrees and sunny, hip-hip hooray!

We spent our 4^th walking around Vancouver.  First off, Vancouver is a very commuter friendly city.    At the campground we bought day transit passes, which allows use of the metro and all buses for $9/day after rush hour.  We walked about 10 minutes from the campground to the metro and then rode downtown to the waterfront.  From there we went to Gastown, which is one of the earliest parts of downtown.  There’s a famous steam powered clock that we had to see and you can see I was having my morning Starbuck’s in honor of Lynda as well.  I stopped in a jewelry store that had ammolite.  Not knowing anything about ammolite, and the saleslady not being busy, I got instructed on this stone.   Basically, it’s the Canadian version of opal.  It’s a soft stone that’s found in big rocks like opal and is mined solely in Canada.  It has a rainbow color sort of like an opaque tourmaline, and is a soft stone.  Needless to say because it is a soft stone I didn’t buy any.  However I did get a picture of the second largest ammolite stone ever found in Canada.  The saleslady said the stone is priceless and was not for sale.

Next we walked over to Chinatown.  Vancouver has the second largest Chinese population in North America, only behind San Francisco.  The Chinese gate was dedicated in 2002 with sponsorship by the local Chinese Canadian community.  From there we walked to Dr. Sun Yat Sin’s Chinese Garden.  We went into the free section of the garden.  We didn’t feel the need for tea in the pay section, and the claim to fame is that all the parts used in construction were imported from China.  (Of course this left me wondering what the big deal is with Chinese imports, have they been to Walmart lately?)

Then we headed to W. Pender St to catch a bus to Stanley Park, which is a very large park on the tip of continental Vancouver and from where you can see North Vancouver and Lion’s Gate Bridge which connects the two.  The park is really nice.  It is a lot like Golden Gate Park or Balboa Park.  There are pedestrian walkways that run parallel with bicycle and rollerblade paths.  We walked a lot.  Starting at the crew boat house and ending at the outbound bus pickup.  About a third of the way around, there is a very interesting totem pole park, where all the various Pacific First Nation People have a totem pole with their interpretation of the various deities that their heritage had/has beliefs in.  After that we walked the seawall and along the way we had to stop for ice cream, because Roger was so famished that he desperately needed nourishment (?).

We rode the bus back to Gastown and had an unremarkable late lunch at Steamworks Pub.  Since the food was so-so, we opted not to get dessert there.  Instead we found a unique place to indulge our vices.  Roger got ice cream.  I got chocolate.  Afterwards we headed back to the campground.  We’re now relaxing.  Roger has a recycled copy of a newspaper we picked up on the metro, and I’m occupied writing my entry.  All in all, a great day.