Hello Stampers,
Remember that Chicago song “Saturday in the Park..you’d think it was the fourth of July”? Today we headed down to Stanley Park which is Vancouver’s equivalent (albeit on a smaller scale) of Central Park in NYC. It’s called the “Jewel of Vancovuer” because it truly is a spectacular walk, ride, roller blade, drive, run…along the many trails and kilometers of “sea wall”. Today it finally felt like summer here – about 28 degrees near the water and about 33 degrees inland…HOT!
The adventure begins at the bike rental shop. Are we having fun yet?
When I was a kid I was fascinated with these floating gas stations in the harbour – if you catch a cruise ship from Vancouver to Alaska this is the pier you leave from and you travel under the Lions Gate Bridge and out to sea – you can see a Princess ship in port behind the gas station.
This is looking across the inlet from Stanley Park to to the North Shore mountains. The mountain you see is Grouse Mt and has one of our “local” ski hills. In the summer there is a famous climb that people do up the side of the mountain – the very fit can do the “Grouse Grind” in under 45 minutes – most of us take hours. LOL
You reach the top by gondola which also runs in the summer – you can take your bikes to the top and ride the trails.
Here are some pictures of the totem poles in the park – the one on the left has just been added while the others have been in the Park for many many years. The carvings were created by the aboriginal peoples of the area and are breathtakingly beautiful.
This the the majestic Lions Gate Bridge that links Vancouver with the North Shore and West Vancouver which has the most expensive real estate in the entire country – homes can reach the tens of millions. The bridge was built in the 1950’s by a private group so that people could get to this prime location for homes.
I thought this was a cool ship – out in the harbour with it’s own crane…not sure what the heck it’s doing but it was a cool picture.
There are some marvellous beaches in the Park – here’s Second Beach – we always stop here on our trip around the seawall for barbequed hamburgers – so good.
So it was a great day – Bikes for 2 hours for 4 people $60; hamburgers at the beach $8, spending the day with your family bikeriding around some of the most beautiful scenery in the world…priceless.
Have a great weekend and Canada Day!
Cheers,
Alison
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