Hurricane Katrina- Update

Now that we're back I realize just how lucky we were. We returned to find the power on and just a few spoiled items in the fridge. If anyone is interested in helping the victims of Katrina, please visit www.redcross.org or just click on the link to the right.

North Van

Our perfect weather finally ran out and our excursion to North Vancouver was filled with chilly rain. The area was so picturesque that it didn't really matter. We spent the day hiking around Lynn County Park (with a 50m suspension bridge) and the harbor town of Deep Cove. The weather didn't dissuade us from our activities, nor did it affect the divers we saw coming up on the beach as we were looking for seals.

Vancouver Aquarium

The Aquarium is home to a freshwater stream that allows juvenile coho salmon to swim downstream into the ocean to mature. Most of the exhibits are of west coast Canadian waters, but several tanks are dedicated to Indo-Pacific and Amazon regions.

Vancouver Aquarium (Mammals)

We attended the beluga and dolphin shows, and watched the sea otters, stellar sea lions, and harp seals.

Vancouver- Stanley Park

The weather was perfect this afternoon, nearly 80 in the sun and in the low 70s to upper 60s in the shade. So we decided to rent a couple of bikes and ride the 10km sea wall around Stanley Park. The views were breathtaking. We saw several seals in the water, along the way.

Vancouver- Stanley Park (Totem Poles)

One of Stanley Park's features is a totem pole garden. The carvings on display are pretty impressive.

Vancouver- Granville Island

Yesterday, we visited Granville Island. It was only a few blocks and a 30 second Aqua Bus ride away. This is a non- commercial district (no Starbucks or McDonalds) with a wonderful public market, marina, art galleries, restaurants, and the Granville Island Brewery. We started in the market and had a nice breakfast while looking at all the beautifully displayed produce, spices, teas, and meats. We then walked around, checking out all of the local artisan shops. Unless you happened to look up, you'd never realize that most of this area was under the Granville Bridge. At 2:00 we took the Brewery tour and sampled the local lager, pilsner, hefeweisen, and pale ale. We shared the tour with a couple from Manchester, England; another from Wales; and a couple of guys from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. One of the guys, Darren, a pilot recently relocated to Vancouver, invited us to BBQ some local fish at his apartment. Rene, Darren's cousin and Kirk's Girlfriend, met up with us and we ended up having a really nice dinner with a few bottles of wine that Darren had made. Later that night, we all headed to the Chinese night market which was unusually small (presumably due to the rain we had that evening).

Vancouver- Chinatown

Vancouver's China Town is the second largest in North America, however it seems considerably smaller than San Fransisco's. It does, however, have a public park and traditional Chineese Garden among the many Asian shops. Michele found a beautiful yak horn necklace in one of the shops and can't wait to wear it.

Vancouver- Gastown

Gastown, right near the water, is the original Vancouver. It boasts cobblestone streats, Victorian style buildings, native Inuit art and carvings, a steam whistle clock, and the Steamworks Brewery (I'd recommend their IPA). This was a wonderful area to walk around, provided you don't go to far east as Vancouver's needle exchange program has created an area for junkies to congregate among the ramshackle industrial complexes.

Hurricane Katrina

I guess we were luckier than New Orleans. We only had a few downed trees and widespread power outages. Our flight to Vancouver was cancelled, but after four itinerary changes we made it out of Miami the following day. Hopefully we'll have power when we get back home.