Travel Book Completed

G'Day All,
Well it took some time to pick through the 10,000 plus photos to pull together the book of this Canadian Adventure but I got there.

Details and sneak peek can be found at Blurb by clicking on the image below:

A Canadian and Alaskan Adventure

By Gary Want

If you'd like a copy, it is available for purchase, details are at Blurb.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

03 August - Wednesday - Vancouver

G'day All,

Opened the curtains this morning to a typical Vancouver day, raining... to be expected really as they do receive about 1,200 mm a year at the airport and around 2,400 mm in /north Vancouver about 20 km from the airport.

View from the 17th floor of the Rosedale on Robson this morning (rainy day ahead)

After breakfast we walked a few blocks to get to Canada Place to catch the Hop On op Off (HOHO) bus. As we left the hotel we met a couple of ladies heading the same direction, also to catch the HOHO, turned out they were from Brisbane (Caboolture and Burpengary). The HOHO voucher was exchanged OK, this was he one we purchased in Australia to be used on our first stay in Vancouver (before we went to Victoria) but were assured we could use today (guess sometimes you can trust the sales people) :-).

We are beginning to think that all bus drivers in Canada complete the Mad Max school of driving to get their licence as the rides we've had have been quite the adventure. We did the full green circuit which leaves from Canada Place at the port and goes through Stanley Island. From there we hopped off at the False Creek Ferry and took the huge ferry (photo below) across to Granville Island to browse the markets, shops and galleries.

The ferry that holds about 12 people.

Some of the fresh produce at the Granville markets.

From there we picked up the red circuit with another HOHO bus and driver who obviously used the same driver program. In all the green and red circuits cover 33 stops around Vancouver city.

The second HOHO trolley bus we took.

Museum of Vancouver

Crab sculpture at the Museum of Vancouver

Unusual car art.

Victorian style clock (actually circa 1970's) blows stream whistles on the hour.

Gassy Jack - founder of Gastown

International Village sculpture.

Prospect Point lookout to North Vancouver

Street Lamps and flowers

We stayed on until we made it back to Canada Place and decided to walk back to Gastown as it looked interesting and also had some nice shops for last minute gifts. It also appeared to had some darker areas with a lot more homeless and a line up at the methadone clinic. The homeless / beggars are everywhere in the city and nearly always approach with the line "I don't want any money but if you can spare some..." They can be seen sleeping on the streets from 1:30 pm, this guy was had an unusual approach, crouching down and hiding his head under the cardboard...

Not quite sure of this guys strategy, but it wasn't working for him, the cup was empty.

Not the brightest photo to end our holiday in Canada, so below is one of the more memorable photos from the trip, a family catch up. All packed and heading to the airport and we are both feeling that it's about time to come home, unless of course there has been a lotto win we don't know about . . .

The Canadian family selfie - Gary, Samantha, Penny and Oliver

Brisvegas, we are heading home...

P.S. For those interested in how many photos I took for the trip, lets just say it was more than 12,000 and I am going to be very busy sorting them out to compile our vacation book :-)

Cheers

Gary and Penny

02 August - Tuesday - Vancouver

G'day All,

Had a bit of a sleep in before heading to the included continental breakfast with a plan of attack to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park ( I pre-purchased the tickets in Australia) utilising the free shuttle that pulls up out side the Vancouver Library about 50 metres from the hotel.

Vancouver Library.

While waiting for the shuttle I noticed the truck below parked in the street and had a chuckle.

Looks like he does house calls and he didn't look too happy about having his photo taken either.

The weather closed in again and we had some light rain most of the day, good planning meant we had our rainproof jackets on hand and we are used to the on / off rainy weather that Canada seems to have thrown us on this trip. It seems that most of the attractions we have visited for this trip revolve around heights and Capilano is no exception :-) with a suspension bridge that is 137m long and 70m high, a walk through the tree tops on seven suspension bridges through the Douglas fir trees and finally a cliff walk on a suspended bridge along the sheer granite cliff faces offering stunning canyon views. Penny did all the walks and was fine with them all, just didn't like the idiots who jumped and ran on the suspension bridge making it unstable. The staff had to warn people many times during our walk across, to tell them to stop running and jumping.

Capilano Totems

Suspension Bridge

Penny crossing the suspension bridge.

Aerial shot of cliff walk.

Some of these trees are between 400 and 800 years old.

The tree tops walk from below.

Tree tops walk from above.

Tree in pond.

Penny plucked up more courage to do the tree top walk.

. . . and again to do the cliff walk.

All up we spent a solid three hours exploring the park and enjoyed the forest despite the showers. A nice cup of coffee to top the trip off before transferring back to the city. We had a bit of a walk around looking for some lunch and saw a couple of oddities along the way. Everything from 25c peep shows to stores dedicated to weed...

25c peep show anyone?

Tomato sales?

or perhaps some glassware to keep it safe . . .  this was all this store sold and it was wall to wall.

It was 3 pm before we got down town for some lunch and found a nice small eatery on Granville St. called The Famous Warehouse where every meal on the menu was $4.50. The food was great, the price good and the place was full which might explain the slow-ish service, but we weren't in a hurry so didn't mind. Tomorrow will be a Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Vancouver and the last day of the holiday :-( so tonight marks the last sleep in Canada as the trip draws to a close. We don't fly out until 11:45 pm tomorrow so most likely won't sleep until we are on the flight home.

Cheers

Gary and Penny

22 July - Friday - Rocky Mountaineer Day 3 - Whistler to Vancouver

G'day All,

Since we had the upgrade and adjoining rooms we utilised both bathrooms and made the most of the space, if only for the night. We decided overnight to do the chair lift to the top of Whistler and also do the Peak 2 Peak gondola ride as well. For someone not keen on heights Penny was getting amongst it with yet another elevated activity :-)

Looking back towards Whistler as we ascend to the top.

At the top of Whistler mountain.

Gold gold gold.

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola is a tri-cable gondola lift located in Whistler, British Columbia that links Whistler Mountain's Roundhouse Lodge with Blackcomb Mountain's Rendezvous Restaurant. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains. It holds world records for the longest free span between ropeway towers at 3.03 kilometres and highest point above the ground t 436 metres. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola was built by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group in 2007 and 2008 at a cost of CDN$51 million.

Peak 2 peak looking from Whistler towards Blackcomb mountain.

View from Gondola

Passing another Gondola

It's a long way across and down.

View from the top of Blackcomb Mountain.

Once we got off the gondola we had a look around and noticed a marmot just below the lookout viewing area. This is the animal that Whistler was renamed after, the marmots are abundant on the mountain and surrounding area and make a whistling sound.

 Marmot.

From here we had to head down hill on the ski chair lift, another challenge for Penny with her little legs swinging in the breeze.

Penny wasn't so sure about descending on the ski lift.

After we had our feet firmly back on the ground we did a bit of a walk around Whistler village and then headed back to the hotel ready to catch the bus to drop us back to the train for the last leg to Vancouver.

River on way to Vancouver

Beside the fjord as we head to Vancouver.

The train pulled up in Vancouver and the rocky Mountaineer crew kindly organised a voucher for a taxi from the station to the Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel, for a while it was looking like we would have to carry our luggage a few blocks as this wasn't a regular drop off point. We decided to rest up for the night with the view to do the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Vancouver in the morning as we didn't need to be at Canada Place at the Port of Vancouver until 12pm to book into the Holland America cruise. So rest up we did.

Cheers
Gary and Penny

21 July - Thursday - Rocky Mountaineer Day 2 - Quesnel to Whistler

G'day All,

Up bright and early and heading for Whistler. The scenery changed quite a bit from Quesnel (with a silent "S") to Whistler, transiting from pastures and forest to arid bare hillsides and chasms and back to forest on approach to Whistler.

Onwards we go . . .

Across the bridges.

Passing the lakes.

To changing landscapes

Through the arid chasms.

And back towards water.

The mountains beginning to change.

Higher the mountains rise, dusted in snow.

Contemplation.

Back into the forest as we enter Whistler.

We arrived in Whistler at checked into the Fairmont Chateau overlooking the Upper Village. When we opened the room we noticed we had no luggage so I went down to the front counter to see what was going on. The concierge said the bags had been delivered to room 507 but we were in room 505, a quick check revealed that we had been booked in to both rooms (?). He organised for our bags to be delivered to 505 and all was well in the world. About 30 mins after we got settled there was a knock at the door where another staff member informed us that we had been given an upgrade and had both 505 and 507 adjoining rooms with 507 more or less being the formal lounge and second bathroom. Sweet gig but only for overnight so we really didn't get to utilise both rooms fully. We did a quick lap around Whistler and decided it was time to seek out a place to eat and what better idea than an Aussie icon, a pie. Owned and operated by Aussies, Peaked Pies will open its second store in Vancouver in a couple of months. The pies were absolutely what we needed to fill (over fill) our bellies, if you find your self in Whistler or Vancouver look them up for a taste of home :-)

Aussie pies in Canada.

Hunger pangs satisfied it was off to bed, tomorrow was a free day until mid afternoon, we had nothing planned so had a look at some things to do but left the decision up to the weather on what we would do as it looked like it may be a sunny day after quite a cloudy trip to date.

Cheers
Gary and Penny