Stanley Park

We ended up visiting Stanley Park twice while we were in Van. The first day we went later in the afternoon and wandered around looking for bike hire places. We had minimal success so ended up walking around the lake, enjoying the beautiful weather and just chilled down by the 'beach'.

Some interesting sculptures. there was a guy down on the beach that actually looked like the sculpture  hassling all the people sitting on the beach

A squirrel... we're kind of getting over taking photos of these little guys there are just so many of them around! Taking photos of them is almost the equivilant of taking photos of black crows or magpies back at home.. (i think the locals think we're a bit strange!)

Our first raccoon sighting!

We went back to the hostel and looked at a map to find out we hadn't even entered the park and had just done the outskirts!

On our second visit to Stanley Park we were a little more prepared and had sussed out where we could hire bikes. The weather was nowhere near as nice as it had been on our first trip but we were determined to jump on our sweet cruiser bikes and complete the 10km loop along the seawall around the park. There were some classic sights including the famous Lions Gate suspension bridge and amazing views of the city facing north.

The weather wasn't really with us on this day and continued to get worse so we decided to make a pit stop  into the Stanley Park Aquarium midway around the circuit (just in the nick of time as the rain began to fall!). The aquarium houses some very different animals to the aquariums back home. Not only do they feature some nice Barrier Reef style coral formations, but there were different sections for the various places throughout the world including the Amazon, Arctic, Deep Ocean and of course the River Systems which are the home of the spawning salmon! 

I managed to take a few cool 'screensaver' style aquarium videos

 

Em was lucky enough to have a turtle come pose for her to take some pics

and the dolphin was a bit of a poser too! 

The Otter - he was just swimming backwards and forwards on his back doing some impressive tumble turns when he got to the end

Poisonous frog

The Amazon is a scary place - everything is seriously oversized!

Even the penguins looked cold!

While we were there,  a documentary screening of the life of a Salmon was played in 4D (by my favourite documentary narrator - David Attenborough). There were some amazing visuals and suprises along the way - A bald eagle swoops in to grab a fish, and as the fish is plucked from the water something comes from behind and pokes you in the back and splashes you in the face!! haha the 3D effects were also way cooler than those that we get these days at the movies. (and the glasses WAY more attractive ;) )

4D Movie

 The Arctic section had 2 beautiful Beluga Whales and we were lucky enough to time it right and see a show!

It seems customary these days to ensure there is at least one tank at all aquariums with Nemo and Dory

and the jellies!

A butterfly posed for Em too..photos didn't quite turn out as cool as her dad's but the butterfly wasn't as pretty! 

Backpacking Vancouver

In true back packing style we stayed in youth hostels while we were in travelling through Vancouver and opted for the private rooms. Because we had no idea what we wanted to do during our 2 weeks in Van, we’d booked 2 nights at the HI Hostel Downtown (http://www.hihostels.ca/westerncanada/169/HI-Vancouver_Downtown.hostel) before leaving Aus just to give us something for when we arrived. After catching the train from the airport then coming out at the Granville Street train station, we commenced the hike to the hostel. It was a little further than expected but I suppose when carrying back packs that weigh half your weight everything feels a little more difficult!

Our humble abode at the HI Hostel downtown

Anyway, the hostel was located in a quieter part of Vancouver and only a 5 minute walk tops to the main street and clubs etc on Granville Street. We ended up staying here for a few nights before heading over to Vancouver Island, where we once again stayed in HI hostels at Victoria and Nainamo. So far so good.

When we got back to Van we spent another week back at the HI Hostel downtown. We had thought about moving down the other HI hostel on Granville St but found out it didn't have kitchen facilities so that kind of quickly crossed it off the list for us! We really loved our little private room at the HI Hostel downtown, it was close to al the public transport, nice and quiet (for the old timers were starting to turn into !)  and everything and the organised tours (including Erik's tours) and evening yoga from there were fantastic! We were really happy we’d stayed here!

Our pad in Naniamo

The other bonus with staying at the HI hostel.. when we arrived we paid $26 for HI membership which got us discounts on our room rate (at all HI hostels around the world), 25% discount off greyhound tickets (best way to get up to Whistler from Van) and a whole bunch of other deals. Definitely a good $26 spent..

Haloween at the Beaver Bar downstairs from the Samesun Hostel

Through TWHC (the company we got our jobs through) we got a free night accommodation at the Samesun hostel, (http://samesun.com/) which is located down on Granville Street. We opted to use our free night and stay here the night before we jumped on the Powder Express bus to head up to Whistler and we were kind of glad we didn’t spend any more time here. There was a bar downstairs so it was a lot noiser than the other hostel we had been in, and the down rooms were also quite small with minimal lockable storage areas. The dorm rooms fitted 4 people in them though so would be perfect for those travelling in small groups and wanting to be in the midst of it all!

Leaving the Samesun. Destination - Whistler!

Not sure on prices of any of the rooms or anything but I did hear from a few people that staying in dorm rooms in hostels was starting to get a little more exi..so be prepared

All in all, staying at a HI hostel on Granville(http://www.hihostels.ca/westerncanada/170/HI-Vancouver_Central/index.hostel)  would be good if you were going to become a member and reap the benefits of membership, especially for the bus trip up to Whistler.. and weren’t fussed being able to cook. Location wise it’s perfect and there are heaps of cheap places to eat and drink so either the Samesun or the HI hostel on Granville would probably be the place to be if you wanted to be in the heart of party Vancouver!  

There is also a really good Japanese restaurant down on Granville Street (opposite the American Apparel Store) where we chose to celebrate our last night in Van. They had the most amazingly fresh sashimi and Rhys treated himself to a platter of sake! 

Tuna and local salmon sashimi 

Rhys and his platter of sake

Eriks Lynn Canyon Tour

The Lynn tour was very similar to Eriks previous tour to the Capilano suspension bridge, but we headed over to North Vancouver to Lynn Canyon and spent a little more time exploring downtown Vancouver.






 The day was memorable for Erik as there were 7 guests on the tour and 7 interesting things happened throughout the day which had never previously occurred on one of Erik’s tours.


4 of the 7 people on the tour were from QLD

1. We saw people kyaking down the dangerous section of the river
2. Hollywood North (production company famous for some major films and tv series like twilight and once upon a time (sadly they are the only 2 we can remember!!)) was filming in the forest and had left their expensive camera gear etc lying around without security while they were on a break
3. We caught the train in the wrong direction at the terminus station because our connecting bus was late
4.  The bear sign was up at the national park when we walked through (rare for this time of year as the bears are heading into hibernation)
5. The lanterns at the Chinese garden were turned on in the afternoon
6. We saw a dog wearing a full raincoat

Much of the day was spent within the city and we learnt the background of a few of the government buildings, law courts and various residential apartments.

Set of stairs which incorporates a disabled access ramp

Massive Swinging Pendulum Inside One of the Banks

A short bus ride took us across to North Vancouver where we visited the Lynn Canyon and smaller suspension bridge. As we entered the national park Erik pointed out a sign which suggested being aware of their presence as there was a recent spotting on the trails! Apparently when you see a bear you have two options – either lie down and play dead OR make yourself look as big as possible and attempt to ward off the bear with some loud noises. Depending on your luck the bear will either respond by walking away or viciously attacking you as it defends its ground. Fingers were crossed we didn’t actually get an encounter this close!

Lynn Canyon Fore

More Forest Pics

The Vancouver Hydro company are working on a massive water filtration project which will increase the water quality for Vancouver. Currently water is carried directly from the dams into the water supply – untreated! During large rain events the water becomes very silty however with the new treatment process the water is transported from the nearby dam through pipes where it is shot with a flash of ultra violet light ( I think) which makes the water almost pure!

'Bear proof' bins - there is a latch you need to flick to open the bin

We walked down by the twin falls where there is usually 2 water falls, but because there had been so much water lately the waterfalls were one and there was a ferocious wall of white water! We met some crazy locals from the kayak club on one of the trails – they were on their way down to the river to paddle down the white water rapids  The water looked extremely cold, but they were all well kitted out with nice little mittens attached to their paddles and big jackets.

The rapids which the kayakers were venturing into

Crazy locals

We jumped onto the sea bus (basically a giant City Cat) back to town and then wandered through China Town. Personally..if you've seen one you've seen them all and being to China it'self we felt we'd seen it all.. we did go to a Chinese garden which was pretty cool and had been voted the best Chinese Garden in the world.. surprisingly better than those in China it'self.. In any case we got a few cool pictures even though the weather wasnt favourable. 

While walking out of China town we walked past the narrowest building in the world, according to the Guinness book of records. The building was only 2m from front to back and had been built by some rich guy who was angry after the size of his piece of land was reduced to make way for the expansion of the roads. It looked like a pretty useless building but was still impressive.. and had some quality Chin-glish going on as the sign in the window said it was in the 'Guinness World Of Records..."

On the way back through the city we walked through the very nice public library in the heart of the city. The building was shaped as a modern version of the Colosseum with some creature comforts including massive amounts of curtain walls and fully air-conditioned! One interesting architectural feature of the building is - each of the library floors are elevated above the suspended slabs to make room for all of the building services to run through which means the library staff are free to modify the floor plan as they please as there are no walls within the internal structure, only columns and partition walls! - Cool photos

More beautiful fall colours