We are spending two days here in Vancouver. Today our plan is to go to Stanley Park, one of the largest urban parks in the world. We have discovered that Canadians celebrate Labor Day too, except they call it Labour Day. This is Labour Day weekend and all the trouble I went through to avoid the holiday crowds in the U.S. is for naught. So we head out to Stanley Park as soon as it opens hoping to avoid some crowds.
Our first stop is at the Aquarium. There are not many people here yet. Yay!
Inside there is a lot of information on keeping plastics out of the sea environment. Plastics break down into micro-plastics which find their way into fish and birds. Here are some exhibits we see.
All the exhibits show the links to British Columbia—where each specie lives and what its habitat is like.
We also see a 4-D movie which is really for kids but we enjoy it. There are lots of bubbles floating around and when there is a splash we get squirted. It is fun.
After leaving the aquarium we drive around the park stopping to look at different things. There is a good view of the Lion’s Gate Bridge which we came over. I was not driving!!
We also stop at the hollow tree. It’s a dead Western Red Cedar. It apparently means a lot to the people of Vancouver because when it was damaged in a storm in 2006 and the park wanted to remove it, a big todo was made and money was raised privately to stand it back up and put a framework inside to keep it from falling down. What people do here is have their picture taken inside the tree. So that is what we did.
Later in the afternoon we go to Walmart to pick up a few needed articles like a new pillow and pillowcase to replace the one I left in Nanaimo. (Luckily they are sending it back.) We stop at Halima Grill for some lentils and brown rice. (More ethnic food!)
We don’t want to eat much today because tonight we are going out to our favorite restaurant which we try to make it up to Vancouver especially to eat in each year. Maenam is a Thai restaurant (another ethnic restaurant!) which was voted best new restaurant several years ago and is still living up to its accolade. Unusually, they have a five or six course tasting menu which gives you lots of small tastes. I also have to mention that John did a super job finding a parking space and parallel parking right across the street from the restaurant.
Next is a bunch of food pictures so we will remember what we had.
It is all delicious! Of course it is too much to eat and I have to let John finish up a few dishes which he doesn’t seem to mind at all!