Hello again!
Welcome back to another exciting blog update! For those interested, if we could go straight to Anchorage from here, without concerns of water or roads, we would be 2130km away!
Today we had quite the full day touring Vancouver. We started the morning by doing a 3-hour walking tour of the city, which was recommended to us by Steve's friend, Jamie. It took us all around the city, which was quite a distance. However, we got to see some really awesome parts of town, like the beach, the shopping district, the judicial building (Steve was pretty excited about that one), and some of the original Edwardian homes that still exist in the neighborhoods.
After walking around a bit, Tammy decided it was time for Olympic fever! So, we started an Olympics tour. First, we saw the countdown clock the city installed in 2007 to let people know how close the city was to opening ceremonies.
Obviously, it has been turned off now that the whole shebang has ended. BUT, this was also where we learned Tammy's fun fact of the day. The clock is located right outside the art museum and next to a fountain. The art museum, however, used to be the local government building. Some allege that the government built the fountain as a way to stop people from protesting immediately outside the building.
We also went to the cauldron, which is the outdoor Olympic torch.
Unlike during the Olympics, it was no longer surrounded by fences or construction, so we could walk right up to it.
On our path to exploring the Olympic icons, we also got to see an awesome water-based airport. There were tons of small water planes taking off and landing from here, and we spent some time just watching in amazement as these things went from being fully stopped to up in the air in such a short time, and with such force. We were also really excited to see the floating Chevron gas station in the water, since our friend Jim had talked to us last summer about the company's efforts to get this thing into place in time for the Olympics.
After exploring the Olympic monuments, we headed to Granville Island. Tammy previously earned the title of "Keeper of the Map" by our friend Rese while traveling South America together. Thus, she took control of deciding the route we would take to get to Granville Island. Unfortunately, although her navigation skills are awesome, the map was unclear and we ended up on what felt like a bridge to nowhere. We spent a good mile walking along the highway crossing over the water (on a very narrow pedestrian walkway), until we finally ended up about a 1/2 mile from the actual market. However, the walk was well worth it once we arrived.
Inside was an amazing collection of stands selling fruits, vegetables, pastas, cheeses, meats, dairies, and other assorted goodies. We quickly put together a plan for dinner tomorrow (stir-fry!) and bought all of the necessary vegetables, rice, and sauces.
Then we decided to leave the island (which, by the way, is not actually an island) for dinner. For fear of having to walk so far again, we splurged and paid for the ferry across the small waterway.
Don't let her title "Keeper of the Map" fool you. She was keeper of the map in Atlanta as well and we got lost!
ReplyDelete:)
I dunno, Tammy is a pretty great navigator. I mean, we were in South America! The maps were not even in our native language! And we were able to find cool stuff all of the time. Plus, I like having someone else carry the maps. I stand by the title.
ReplyDeleteVancouver seems amazing, I've wanted to go there for a while. I shouldn't read your blog anymore because I'm just getting more pissed off that you're doing this awesome stuff and not me. :)
ReplyDeletePS I can't believe you both remembered my gas station story!