Time to be tourists

Sharon and I hit the tourist traps over the past couple of days. Our first destination yesterday was Stanely Park. This is a massive urban park located at the north end of downtown Vancouver. It was funny on the bus trip to the park listening to an Australian family and a curious Canadian having a conversation about Australia. Once we arrived at the park it started raining, but this was definitely not going to stop us from walking around the park. There is a very long 10.5km track that follows the shoreline around the lake. We ended up walking over half this track in the pouring rain. It was amazing to see the number of joggers and cyclists that were out in the rain as well!

After lunch we decided to check out the Vancouver Aquarium. This is a pretty stock standard aquarium. Sharon and I got to hold a snake (not that interesting). The highlight was seeing the crazy white, beluga whales (only found in the artic ocean) that seemed to be a more like dolphins than whales.

Today we caught the seabus to North Vancouver. We first walked across the Capilano Suspension Bridge that was built over 100 years ago by loggers. The bridge is in a pretty location but not worth the $20 price of admission. The company that runs this park is really preying on tourists.

After the bridge adventures we caught a bus up to Grouse Mountain. This is the closest ski field to donwtown Vancouver. To get to the snow you catch the “skyride” lift that goes straight up the 1,100m mountain in 10 minutes. It was freezing up on the mountain so Sharon and I went straight to one of the restaurants for some soup (to try and warm up). The views from the mountain of greater Vancouver were totally amazing.

Vancouver

We have had a good time walking around different parts of downtown Vancouver over the past couple of days. Yesterday we went to a really cool area called Yaletown that has many funky cafes, bars and shops. We are going to head back to an oyster bar for dinner on Friday night.

Today we walked over the Granville Street Bridge to South Granville. This is also another cool area with art galleries and shops.

There are plans afoot to visit Victoria and Whistler next week.

First Day

Sharon and I spent the day walking around downtown Vancouver. It was a bit wet and chilly outside but all the shopping malls are joined together so once you are inside there is no need to leave. One thing I noticed today was that there are no buttons on any of the traffic signals for pedestrians! Every time I crossed at an intersection I kept finding myself looking down for a button to press (which is pretty sad). Neither of us seem to be suffering fom jetlag.

We have arrived

Well, after many delayed flights (a 4.5 hour wait in Sydney before we even started) Sharon and I have arrived in Vancouver!
The weather for our arrival was a pretty mild 5 degrees. Much the same as a winter’s day in Canberra. We are already hearing horror stores of -47 degrees in Calgary, so we can’t complain.

Clare is in da house!

I officially became an uncle on Friday night when my sister Majella gave birth to bouncing baby Clare. Both mother and baby (and father) are doing well. Check her out, she’s a bewdy!

You can also check out more images here.

Google Web Search Features

Wow, I never knew google has a built-in calculator! Not only does it do math calculations but it also does conversions as well. There are a heap of other cool things that I never knew google could do, such as tracking FedEx parcels, stock quotes and even a spell checker.