Vancouver Day Two

Despite the fact that I never sleep well in hotels, I slept like a ROCK last night. We woke up around 7:30 local time feeling refreshed and ready to start the day. After a quick free breakfast in the hotel we took off for our first stop of the day, Stanley Park.

For those that don’t know, Stanley Park is kind of like a central park, but not as big and WAY more green. Its full of huge redwoods and cedars over 500 years old. And yes, it is named after Lord Stanley, as in the Stanley Cup Stanley. Inside the park there are lots of things to do, including one of the biggest aquariums in north America. We were a little early so we drove the loop around the park and took in some of the sites before touring the aquarium. Lots of photos were taken there! It was a very cool aquarium filled with local wildlife as well as some more exotic species.

After the aquarium we took a horse drawn carriage ride through the park and learned some of the history of some of the sites. Our horses were Smokey and Flint.

We then looped back after with the car to find this monster tree that I had read had been torn down after some serious wind storms. The Toronto Star is apparently full of lies as we found it upright and exactly how I remembered it from my last trip with my Granddad.

We then took off to my second cousin Debbies house for a BBQ that she was putting together so we could meet up with as many of my family in one stop. We got there close to three and stayed until 11:30. Many stories were told, and I learned some new things about both my grandparents. (Apparently my grandmother had a taste for messing with people too!) We watched the Canucks game together and was it very tense there at the end! We had many people drop in, including Tracy (Uncle Harolds Daughter) Wanyne, uncle Georges’ son and his wife Rita, their daughter Melanie, her husband, daughter and son. Dinner was fantastic and it was a wonderful afternoon where we could just relax.