Vancouver - Stanley Park

Another beautifully sunny day. We took the bus to Stanley Park, 1000 acres of parkland, just a few minutes walk from downtown Vancouver. Predominantly we followed the 6 mile seawall. Due to some REALLY bad weather last year, part of the trail is closed. We wondered what really could be so bad to close it. It was only when we saw hundreds of massive trees uprooted, think trunk diameters of about 1 metre, and splintered and part of the pathway washed away that we understood. The views as we walked around were great, there were several beaches, the largest family "paddling pool" that we have ever seen - think Olympic sized pool. Many people running, cycling, rollerblading in the sun. We came across several racoons just walking on the paths, we took photos - the locals looked at us like we were crazy, also saw lots of squirels- the black ones looked the strangest. We also got some great views of the big suspension bridge that we drove over to enter the city.

After a long walk, we decided to visit the Port where we would be setting off on our Alaskan cruise in a few days time. It was great to watch these massive ships leaving, with all their excited passangers waving back to the sightseers. We are both very excited now about the weeks trip which should take us close to some massive glaciers that are breaking up into the sea. Fortunately, we checked what time we should arrive for our cruise on Saturday. I say fortunately because we found out we actually leave from a different Port somewhere else in the city! Next to the Port was a dock full of seaplanes, it was funny to watch them taking off and landing in the sea. They also have gas stations just floating in the middle of the sea for boats and seaplanes to fill up.