Vegetating in Vancouver

Sunday 4 May

Having a nice quiet day today. Have to get over the trip through the Rockies.  Karen and Ian came down to us for lunch and then we went to the pictures to see the "Amazing Spiderman".  Been to the pictures twice since we have been here. It was pretty good.  Both of the movies had amazing special effects.  It just amazes me the imagination of the movie makers and their ability to bring it to the big or small screen.  It pretty well filled in our day.

We went back to Ian and Karen's apartment for dinner and had baked spaghetti.  Ian had it when we went out to lunch the previous Sunday and he wanted to give it a try.  It was really good.  A nice way to complete the day.  No photos taken today so I thought it might be nice to put in some local colour from previous days.

The Street where we live - Homer Street, Vancouver looking North

Homer Street looking South

Looking from Homer Street down Davie Street towards the harbour

Monday 5 May

Had another nice quiet day today.  Deb and I walked downtown to do some shopping.  Ian is working from home and he was able to come down mid morning to meet us.  He took us to a place that sold coffee and doughnuts.  There was quite an array of various flavours.  We all had something different.  All the doughnuts I have seen here are sold cold with some sort of galze on them.  The glaze can be very thin or fairly thick which can make them very sweet.  I haven't seen any hot doughnuts similar to what you can get from Donut King in Australia.

Deb wanted to get some meringue powder which is found in some American recipes for icing on cakes.  Ian took us to a place called Michaels which is an art supplier, however they have a lot of things for cake decorating.  We got the meringue powder there without a problem.

Ian took us home to his apartment for lunch. We walked a slightly different way than we had been before.  It went through a slightly older part of the city where there a quite a few houses and older apartment buildings.  There were lots of gardens which were flowering nicely.  If we have time when we get back from Seattle and Portland I will definitely take another walk through the area, this time with a camera.

After a lunch of leftover baked spaghetti we headed home because I had a blog to complete.

Dropped into a drug store on the way home (they sell just about everything) and checked our blood pressure.  Suffice to say we should remain on holidays forever because the results were spectacular.

There are heaps of water features here in Vancouver.  We took some pictures of them.

Water feature outside the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel

Outside Westin Bayshore Hotel

Another One

Tuesday 6 May

This morning we headed off to Granville Island.  We have been there a few times now.  We were heading down there to get some souvenirs of our trip here.  We also wanted to get some meat and veg for dinner and we know that there are some very good butchers and green grocers there.

Because Vancouver is a little hilly we decided that we should arrange our travel so that we went downhill there and back.  To do this we walked down hill to the harbour and caught a ferry across to Granville Island.  There are quite a few of them and they go past at very regular intervals.  We only had to wait for a few minute before a ferry arrived.

The Ferry to Granville Island.

Another view of a ferry.  They all seem to have a list to starboard (right)

View of Vancouver from the ferry

Ferry operated by another company

We completed all the shopping and headed home by bus.  It is only a couple of stops from Granville Island and our stop is at the top of the hill above our street.  It is about 800 metres down hill to our apartment.  We had another good walk.

Dinner tonight was spectacular.  Deb prepared baby back pork ribs which we got at Granville Island.  She adapted a recipe she found on the Internet and they couldn't have turned out better.  Unfortunately Karen was unable to get here because of work.  We sent some home with Ian for her. ( not sure if she got to eat them though!)

Wednesday 7 May

Ian and karen have told us of some very nice areas downtown that we haven't seen yet. Near the convention centre that was constructed for the Winter Olympics in 2010 there is the Olympic Flame and a statue of an orca made from bricks.  Looks like it is made out of Lego.

Orca on the foreshore in Vancouver

The Olympic Flame from the 2010 Winter Olympics - It is also a water feature

If you have a special occasion you can have the Olympic Flame lit.  So if you want to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary what better way to do it for $10,000 per hour.  

The floatplane base is also in this part of town and you can get a very good view of the aircraft.

de Haviland DHC 3 Otter

de Haviland DHC 3 Turbo Otter

House boats in the Marina

Another House Boat

The day was absolutely beautiful and there were quite a few people taking advantage of it.  The group of people below were having a game of bocce.

Bocce Players

An example of the flowers on display.

Garden outside the Westin Bayside Hotel

Today was a good wander alongside the harbour at a location called Coal Harbour.  It was a really pleasant way to spend our time as it was one of the nicest days since we have been here.

Ian and Karen are picking us up outside our apartment at 6.00 am tomorrow as we are off to Seattle and  Portland in the United States so I'll finish here.  The next blog will not appear until Wednesday at the earliest.

Deb and Den