Vancouver (Day 1)

February 26, 2012

The original plan was to ride our bikes in the Chilly Hilly ride on Bremerton Island.  That is in the Puget Sound / Seattle area for those not familiar with the Pacific Northwest. At any rate, we opted out of the Chilly Hilly for two reasons:  Chilly and Hilly.

Vancouver skyline at Coal Harbour

Dollie and I haven't ridden much lately because the weather has been so wet, cold, and miserable since what feels like 1963. It's been a long winter. So, we were unwilling to subject our pee-pee legs to the rigors of a challenging 35 mile ride. The chilly part was very obvious as we left home in a driving snowstorm. Since we were heading 500 miles north, getting up to Vancouver (our Chilly Hilly replacement destination) was most certainly in question.

Not off to a good start!

However, we need not have worried as the snowstorm in Winston was as bad as it would get, we dealt with rain and intermittent (but harmless) snow flurries on the drive up to Seattle where we overnighted with Roy (Dollie's brother).

Sun and clouds at Coal Harbour

Arriving in Vancouver the next afternoon, we immediately drove over to Stanley Park and began walking the seawall bike path next to Coal Harbour. Vancouver has to be one of the most scenic cities in the entire world. Mix in a spectacular day with clouds, sun, blue sky all competing for dominance over the cityscape, harbors (excuse me, make that harbours), marinas, bays, inlets, and some magnificent snowcapped mountains and you have one special walk and two very content walkers.

Magnificent scene at Burrard Inlet

Rounding the Stanley Park peninsula at Brockton Point with it's red-striped lighthouse, we headed towards Lion's Gate. The gate is a narrow strait on Burrard Inlet with a seemingly spindly bridge spanning the strait in what is Canada's version of the Golden Gate Bridge. Or vice versa.

Girl In A Wetsuit

Along the inlets edge was perched a small statue a la Little Mermaid, the famous Copenhagen statue. From what I read in Wikipedia, the original idea was to make a Little Mermaid replica but when permission to do so was not granted, a wetsuit and legs were slapped on the mermaid and the statue is simply called "Girl in a Wetsuit". 

Man in a wet suit

The sun was getting pretty low so we left the water's edge and headed overland via one of the many trails in the park. I got to see my first rugby pitch which looks a lot like a field from the neanderthal football played in my country.  Arriving back at the car at a tranquil Coal Harbour reflecting the cityscape nicely, we drove across the Lion's Gate Bridge and found a place to spend the night in North Vancouver.

I am a camera god