Thursday, April 30, 2009

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!!



13 comments:

  1. Dude, your trees have leaves!??

    What the heck?

    K-beautiful trip and thanks for showing us around, but...

    How come your trees have leaves?

    We won't see foliage like that for another month.

    Oiii...I'm so confused.

    Sorry, I know you wanted me to get a lot more than that out of your beautiful sightseeing trip. I did, really I did.:) Can I come visit?

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  2. Nice photos!!! Van looks so nice - sadly I've only technically been once and it was a drive from the harbour to the airport, so I don't know if it really counts. (We took an Alaskan cruise and ended in Vancouver)...

    Alot of people from Eastern Canada flock to the West coast for the warmer weather and beautiful scenery. I can totally see why. My in-laws spend the winter in Victoria and lament that they never bought a place out there 30 years ago when things were cheaper.

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  3. I truly enjoyed this post, thankyou so much for sharing it! What a BEAUTIFUL area!!! There's only one word to describe those houses ... magnificant!!! I don't know about overseas laws, but in Aus you can legally stand on public property (e.g in the street) and shoot into the shop window and take his pic! ;) Just so you know.... lol!

    Stanley Park is AMAZING! Heaven in a (no offence) hell for a country girl like me! I feel like I've heard of it somewhere before but I cant think for the life of me where.

    Poor sheepy! I'm guessing (since he's still standing), you weren't driving? =P

    Took me a minute to work out that numberplate!!! ;D

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  4. Nice trip of Vancouver. Never been but I feel that I have now.

    The local high school where I live just did the play of Foot Loose. It was great! I had so much fun watching them act it out.

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  5. Thanks for the tour! It reminded me alot of Seattle - especially the traffic, Seattle is too close to sea level to have a Subway or any other underground form of transportation like most cities of it's size has. So that accounts for alot of the traffic congestion - is that also the case in Vancouver?

    Want to know where that Jones soda was started? Right here in the Pacific NW - we all love Jones soda!

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  6. Ooh! Thanks for the sight seeing Chelsi! You are a great tour guide!

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  7. We've reviewed several of the sugar free Jones Sodas for our readers and love all of them. Great company with great drinks!

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  8. WOW
    Those pictures were so beautiful ,take your breath away .
    Thank you for the awesome trip it was so much fun.
    I am so glad I dropped in for a little visit .Your a great tour guide.
    You really made my weekend spectacular .Thank you for sharing.

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  9. BEC- We DO have leaves! Isnt it exciting??!! LOL They were late and they give me allergies but I am still thankful for how beautiful they make everything look. Come on out! Hope you get some soon:)

    Laura- it is expensive out here! Trust me, that whole hillside you saw in one of the above photos- my great grandfather wanted to buy up all of it to make it in to a pig farm back when it was nothing but forest! He was going to do it too but my g-grandma said no way! lol I hope you came during a nice time of year, Van isnt too nice in the winter...

    Gecko- Glad you liked it! Same laws apply here but I am a totally wimp when it comes to that stuff. I saw Jen Aniston and Vince Vaughn in Vegas but was too shy to say hi! LOL Oh and I wasnt driving! lol Blasted sheep! Stanley Park is amazing and I just took a few shots as we drove by, not nearly doing it justice!

    Aunt Krissy- I noticed there were quite a few high school productions of Footloose on youtube. I bet they are great!

    Stephanie- Isnt Jones great! Actually because we are getting the winter olympics next year they just put in a subway from the airport in to the city... but I dont know if that is possible for other areas closer to the water...

    OS- Thanks! I wish I had more time so I could get more, that was just a little taste!

    glucoholic- I love Jones sodas...the bottles too (the pictures change all the time and are sent in by regular folks!)

    Terry- So Glad that you enjoyed it! It was just a tiny taste of the city...there is so much more to see! Come on up! lol

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  10. I've never spent a lot of time in Vancouver...once for a bachelorette party, so we were mostly shopping and partying! ;) I've driven through it a lot on the way to Whistler. Hope to go back and explore more!

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  11. Thanks for the tour down memory lane, I was born and raised in Vancouver (well, in the suburbs) and Stanley Park is my favorite place on earth!

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  12. Thanks for the tour. I LOVE older homes.

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  13. Great tour Chelsi. What struck me the most is how....American it feels, as if by visiting, an American would feel right at home with many of the same restaurants, foods, drinks, trees, and even songs (American Pie)that you are all so familiar with. It doesn't seem like another country...which it still is..right?
    lol!

    That photo of the bridge...stunning...even if it was crooked. Must have been that sheep that had you feeling a little off. lol!

    By the way, I had my sheep sheared. Man....their wool stinks! bah!

    ~Lisa

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