Vancouver, B.C.

Day 4

As we drove from Mt. St. Helens to Vancouver, it rained both here and there. It was a good day for traveling. Going across the border was fairly simple as the line was not too long and we were only questioned for about a minute. In Vancouver we went to a really fancy restaurant for lunch. I have never had the waitress put a napkin in my lap for me while I was wearing jeans. I had a warm scallop salad and Patty had salmon. It was wonderful. The motel we are staying in is really nice. They have breakfast and a place to do laundry. So I did a batch.

Day 5

After yesterday's rain, we had an incredibly gorgeous day today. We took a bus tour that lasted almost all day today. They picked us up at our motel, in North Vancouver, around 11:00 and then we met up up with the rest of the group in downtown Vancouver. We toured for almost seven hours and saw all the highlights of the city. We had a very informative tour guide who let us know many interesting facts such as there are 2,000 Canadian words, they don't have water meters in their homes in Vancouver because there is so much water, there is a large German and Chinese population and so on. We visited the Totem Poles in Stanley Park, Gaston (the oldest part of Vancouver), Chinatown (2nd largest in North America), Prospect Point in Stanley Park, Granville Market, the Capilano Suspension Bridge, and many other places. The bridge was an interesting experience. You walk across this extremely tall and long suspension bridge (over the Capilano River) while it is swinging back and forth. It was very difficult to maintain your balance and it seemed to take forever to go across. When you finally reach the other side you realize that you have to go back over it to leave the park. Motion sickness---here we come.
Vancouver is a very beautiful city with day time temperatures in the 50s in the winter and 70s in the summer. I've included pictures of Patty on the bridge, a view looking down from the bridge, and me on a suspension bridge built between the tree tops.