Vancouver

Have you ever been to Vancouver, British Columbia Canada?

No? Well hold on because I'm going to take you for a drive 'roud town!

Mom and I headed into the city today and I brought along my camera so that while she was in at her appointments I could scoot around and snap some pictures.

The pictures above and bellow are of the beautiful old homes in very wealth neighborhood called Shaughnessy/Kerrisdale. This area is where the who's who of Vancouver live! And have since the early 1900s!

The streets here are truly beautiful this time of year... actually they are pretty darn good lookin' any time of year but the pink cherry blossoms are a nice touch....

This place here was a convent way back when. It was also owned by a Whiskey baron, a gold Miner and a politician! Yah, go figure!

After about an hour of drooling over architecture I headed back to pick Mom up and we headed into the metropolitan centre of the city... Here is THE corner- Robson and Burrard....

Doesnt look like much but you can get just about anything your wee heart desires within a few blocks of this corner... some Kiehls hand lotion, Canada's famous Roots leather and sweaters, a out-of-this-world Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Candy Apple, some Armani clothes, Tiffany jewelry and top it off with some food from our world famous restaurants. Feel like Indian? Try Vij's... Martha Stewert said it was a very good thing! Sushi, you have to go to Tojos... Or if your a vegetarian check out Sophie's. The options are endless!

But there was only one thing that I REALLY wanted! A Nutella crape from my favorite little hold in the wall, La Crepe! I didnt get a picture of the cute young man who made my crepe...he said, "No, no! Against policy!" when I asked to take his picture so I took on of the street instead. Their was a street musician around the corner singing "Bye Bye Miss American Pie" , the air was warm, the breeze cool and the air filled with the smells of spring. Oh! And I swore I saw Robert Pattinson walking towards me (he is in town shooting the next movie in the Twilight series) but he saw my camera and ducked into a store.... alright, so it might have just been a particularly gorgeous young man in sunglasses and a hoodie... and he could have just been shopping... but if I want to pretend it was Rob Patt... dont burst my bubble, k?

So, I didnt get a picture of my delicious, delectable, divine Nutella crape... sorry... I was to busy devouring it... actually I savored ever last bite! But above is a picture of the city on-the-go! We were headed off to Mom's next appointment. Ya'll thought we lived in a bunch of igloos up here in Canada, didnt you! Nope! We have sky scrapers and everything! But no matter where you are in British Columbia, you're never more than a few minutes away from a park...

This is Stanley Park. It is two minutes down the road from those big ol' sky scrapers you saw above. And it is a 1000 acres of forest, gardens, parks and even an aquarium, all surrounded by the "Sea Wall"- a paved trail that wraps around the border between the park lands and the ocean waters of the Burrard Inlet.

A road cuts through Stanley Park and leads to a bridge that takes us from downtown Vancouver, across the Burrard Inlet to the North Shore. This is the Lions Gate Bridge...(and btw, it doesnt lean to the right like that... but apparently I do!.....)

This is the North Shore, a residential area of Vancouver with an smaller urban area... we are heading to the upper right hand corner of this picture....

Oh and look who is there to greet us at the foot of the bridge- it is the Sealy Mattress Sheep!! Good gosh! Who would use a sheep as a spokesperson? We dont need to go over my sheep prejudice again, I think we about covered it!.....

Here is the view from the North Shore. Trust me when I say it gets WAY WAY WAY better than this... but it was another picture-on-the-go! Mom was running late by this point...

So, after a long day on the road we stopped for a Starbucks. I picked up a delicious bottle of Jones Soda... I love the flavor almost as much as I love its bright orange color! It makes me feel like a kid again...

What didnt make me feel like a kid again was the vocabulary my Mother used while discussing this licence plate...

But we'll leave that for another day! (Or not.... ) Oh! You should know that the below photo is of "The Cut"... this is a very steep, very straight stretch of highway leading to the another bridge (This one is called The Second Narrows) that will take us back across the Barrard Inlet and on our way towards home...

Wanna see the ugliest part of Vancouver... something that we are world famous for...

Thats right! Some REALLY horrible traffic! Traffic that was better than usual today because everyone headed home early to catch the hockey game. It's playoff season! .... but I'll leave that for another post!

Well folks, that's all I have for you but stay tuned because on Sunday I will be heading back in to Vancouver to watch my DB run the Vancouver Marathon!! His goal is to run the 26.2 miles in under 3 hours and 20 minutes !!! "Lets hear it for the boy!! Lets hear it for my Man!! Oooh! Ooooh! I LOVE that song! And that movie!!