On Monday we realised that our 2 zone bus pass expired in a few days. We decided to make the most of it and have a trip down to Richmond. Richmond is a City just south of Vancouver, it has a large shopping centre, a Buddhist temple... and not much else that we could find.
We headed straight to the Buddhist temple. Its a nice garden and buildings modelled on the Forbidden City. It was really nice but similar to temples we had seen in Thailand not that long ago. It didn't take us too long to put a tick in that box. From there we headed back to Richmond Centre which is a massive shopping centre - and also the main bus terminal in Richmond. After a couple of hours wandering round the mall we had had a nice lunch in the food court, found Rach a new earring butterfly and found Rach some clothes for her first week at work (which was getting close fast). After wandering malls and gardens all day we were stuffed and our feet were sore so that was all we could manage that day.
We headed straight to the Buddhist temple. Its a nice garden and buildings modelled on the Forbidden City. It was really nice but similar to temples we had seen in Thailand not that long ago. It didn't take us too long to put a tick in that box. From there we headed back to Richmond Centre which is a massive shopping centre - and also the main bus terminal in Richmond. After a couple of hours wandering round the mall we had had a nice lunch in the food court, found Rach a new earring butterfly and found Rach some clothes for her first week at work (which was getting close fast). After wandering malls and gardens all day we were stuffed and our feet were sore so that was all we could manage that day.
On Tuesday we carried on with the garden theme and went out to UBC to see their botanical gardens. Given that we had to pay admission, I'd have to say I was a little disappointed. It wasn't hugely expensive, but it wasn't a huge garden either. To be honest, Hamilton Gardens are better and free. After that we wandered around the coast starting at Wreck Beach... Vancouver's "clothing optional" beach. Based on my experiences at most European beaches, you only see things that you really didn't want to. It was hard work, despite keeping our eye's on the ground right in front of us we were slipping on rocks the whole way around the beach and Rach got some massive blisters as evidence of the pain we went through. Here's a look at the mission/walk:
It took a lot out of us so we headed home after that to put our feet up. |  |
Wednesday was a big day... it was Canada Day! We started the day down at Granville Island. The place was crazy, people were everywhere and the atmosphere was fantastic. We wandered the stalls and watched the performers before grabbing ourselves a spot for the parade. It was just a small parade, only took about 15 minutes to pass but it was really well done with a lot of effort put in by most participants. After the parade they had speeches and the National Anthem on a stage in a park on Granville Island. I think everyone there had goose bumps after the anthem, it was really nice to see everyone so passionate about their country.
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After Granville Island we headed into town to catch the celebrations there. They had four areas setup with stalls, stages and hundreds of people! We had a small brush with fame here too, at the main stage we stopped for a quick bite and sat right next to where Elise Estrada walked past. Unfortunately we didn't have cameras ready and we didn't know who she was. After that excitement wound down we wandered up Thurlow St to grab a spot for the day's second parade. This parade was fantastic! It went on for ages and finished with what was basically a street party. We left the party and headed to the conference centre to hold a good spot for the much anticipated fireworks display. We got a fantastic spot, right on the water only about 100m from where the fireworks were being fired from. We had a bit of time to kill while we waited for the display to start so we took some great photos of the sun going down over Stanley Park. After the sun was gone, we took some more fantastic photos of the fireworks.
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Canada Day was fantastic. It's such a good thing to get everyone outside together just celebrating their country. I really think New Zealand should do the same, the only thing NZ has that compares to these celebrations is New Years.
We got home late after the Canada Day celebrations so took it easy on Thursday.
On Friday we packed a picnic and went to second beach. We had a nice afternoon sitting on the beach watching the world go by. We packed up early and headed home because we wanted to catch Transformers 2 that night. We had grabbed our tickets on our way to the beach, which was lucky because it was insanely busy. We got to the theatre about 20 minutes before it started... and we were lucky to find two seats together. It was a nice evening but the movie was disappointing. It was like an 80's movie had been made with modern CG effects - which i guess it is in a way, shame the story line was of that era too.
Saturday was a fantastic day, one of the best since we've been here. We started the day with nothing planned so decided to make the most of the good weather and go up Vancouver Lookout. Unfortunately it wasn't as clearer day as Friday had been, a bit of a haze had rolled in. It was still a good day and an amazing view from up there. While we were up there we got a txt from Sarah who had flown in from NZ on Friday on her way through. She was at Kits beach and invited us to join her. So once we were done up the lookout we headed there. She had already spent a few hours there when we eventually arrived so they were starting to pack up. Instead we went round to Marie's place - she was a friend of Sarah's from when Sarah lived here. Marie was lovely we attempted to make burgers while drinking Sangria. The burgers were a small disaster but it was still a really nice evening. After dinner we tagged along with our new found friends to catch some of the Vancouver Jazz Fest... unfortunately we arrived half way through the last song. Instead Rach and I headed back to Vancouver Lookout to see the city at night. It was surprisingly different and I'm glad we made the trip back there.
We got home late after the Canada Day celebrations so took it easy on Thursday.
On Friday we packed a picnic and went to second beach. We had a nice afternoon sitting on the beach watching the world go by. We packed up early and headed home because we wanted to catch Transformers 2 that night. We had grabbed our tickets on our way to the beach, which was lucky because it was insanely busy. We got to the theatre about 20 minutes before it started... and we were lucky to find two seats together. It was a nice evening but the movie was disappointing. It was like an 80's movie had been made with modern CG effects - which i guess it is in a way, shame the story line was of that era too.
Saturday was a fantastic day, one of the best since we've been here. We started the day with nothing planned so decided to make the most of the good weather and go up Vancouver Lookout. Unfortunately it wasn't as clearer day as Friday had been, a bit of a haze had rolled in. It was still a good day and an amazing view from up there. While we were up there we got a txt from Sarah who had flown in from NZ on Friday on her way through. She was at Kits beach and invited us to join her. So once we were done up the lookout we headed there. She had already spent a few hours there when we eventually arrived so they were starting to pack up. Instead we went round to Marie's place - she was a friend of Sarah's from when Sarah lived here. Marie was lovely we attempted to make burgers while drinking Sangria. The burgers were a small disaster but it was still a really nice evening. After dinner we tagged along with our new found friends to catch some of the Vancouver Jazz Fest... unfortunately we arrived half way through the last song. Instead Rach and I headed back to Vancouver Lookout to see the city at night. It was surprisingly different and I'm glad we made the trip back there.
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Sunday was a day we'd been looking forward to for a while. We had heard good reviews for the local Les Miserables production so we grab a couple of tickets a few weeks earlier. We were not disappointed. It was a fantastic production and so well done. They've extended their production another couple of weeks because of the demand so we're obviously not the only ones that were impressed by it. After we got out of the theatre we headed back to the park to try again at catching the Vancouver Jazz Fest.
We meet Sarah there this evening and had another good catch up with her. Its so weird catching up with another Kiwi on the other side of the world. The music was quite different this night and wasn't really do it for either of us so we headed home early so Rach could get a good sleep for work the next morning.
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