Picture Day goes north of the border!
For the Memorial Day weekend in 2001, Krys and I decided to take a short trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, which we had never visited in our eight years in Portland. We had always wanted to, so we seized the day! Boy, it was a lot easier to carpe diem when we didn't have two kids. Isn't that always the way?
In case you've never been to Vancouver, here's a map. I also found some cool images on-line:
The downtown area is that thumb of land with the park at its tip, which is part of the reason why Vancouver is one if the most picturesque cities I've ever visited. Grouse Mountain, where some of these pictures were taken, is at the top of these pictures, behind North Vancouver. Just so you know.
Our first stop was the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is quite awesome. It's up in North Vancouver, and is quite the tourist attraction. Note all the people in these pictures!
In that last picture, we were trying to get across the idea that the bridge sways a lot. Unfortunately, we didn't have a video camera, so you really can't get that from a still photo. But it sways. A lot. It's actually kind of difficult to walk across!
This next photo is the cable car up to Grouse Mountain, which is the ski resort that, technically I guess, is inside city limits. How neat. Of course, we went there in May, so there wasn't a whole lot of skiing going on. But that doesn't mean there wasn't snow!
This is a rather hazy shot of downtown. The wooded area off to the right is Stanley Park, which is a nice big area right to the northwest of downtown. The bridge from Stanley Park to the north shore, which you can see vaguely, is Lion's Gate Bridge, and is the only outlet from downtown to that part of the city, which makes traffic on it hellish.
This is me, of course, in the snow. I rule!
We took a boat tour around Vancouver, so I took photographs of downtown, of course! I took this one specifically because of the floating gas stations in the water there. Yes, they're actually gas stations. How are you going to fill up your boat, after all?
The building in the middle of this picture is interesting. You can see the "suspenders" that extend from its top, which makes it rather eye-catching. This is apparently to keep it safe in an earthquake. Vancouver is on the "Ring of Fire," which means it gets frequent earthquakes, and engineers claim this is a safe design. I'm not an engineer, so who am I to argue?
This is Gastown, the historic part of Vancouver. It was the place that was first settled, and has become a trendy spot after years of neglect. We walked around later on. Pictures to follow!
So that's the first part of our Vancouver trip. As I've mentioned in the past, this is one of my favorite cities, so I wish I could return. Maybe some day!
In case you've never been to Vancouver, here's a map. I also found some cool images on-line:
The downtown area is that thumb of land with the park at its tip, which is part of the reason why Vancouver is one if the most picturesque cities I've ever visited. Grouse Mountain, where some of these pictures were taken, is at the top of these pictures, behind North Vancouver. Just so you know.
Our first stop was the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is quite awesome. It's up in North Vancouver, and is quite the tourist attraction. Note all the people in these pictures!
In that last picture, we were trying to get across the idea that the bridge sways a lot. Unfortunately, we didn't have a video camera, so you really can't get that from a still photo. But it sways. A lot. It's actually kind of difficult to walk across!
This next photo is the cable car up to Grouse Mountain, which is the ski resort that, technically I guess, is inside city limits. How neat. Of course, we went there in May, so there wasn't a whole lot of skiing going on. But that doesn't mean there wasn't snow!
This is a rather hazy shot of downtown. The wooded area off to the right is Stanley Park, which is a nice big area right to the northwest of downtown. The bridge from Stanley Park to the north shore, which you can see vaguely, is Lion's Gate Bridge, and is the only outlet from downtown to that part of the city, which makes traffic on it hellish.
This is me, of course, in the snow. I rule!
We took a boat tour around Vancouver, so I took photographs of downtown, of course! I took this one specifically because of the floating gas stations in the water there. Yes, they're actually gas stations. How are you going to fill up your boat, after all?
The building in the middle of this picture is interesting. You can see the "suspenders" that extend from its top, which makes it rather eye-catching. This is apparently to keep it safe in an earthquake. Vancouver is on the "Ring of Fire," which means it gets frequent earthquakes, and engineers claim this is a safe design. I'm not an engineer, so who am I to argue?
This is Gastown, the historic part of Vancouver. It was the place that was first settled, and has become a trendy spot after years of neglect. We walked around later on. Pictures to follow!
So that's the first part of our Vancouver trip. As I've mentioned in the past, this is one of my favorite cities, so I wish I could return. Maybe some day!
Labels: Canada, My life, Picture day, Vacations, Vancouver
posted by Greg | 10:54 AM
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