We had a busy walking day today and walked from our hotel in downtown Vancouver to Granville Island (not a true island). Once we arrived we stopped for a bit in a park and watched the splash pad. Surprising how many were playing with it being a cool day (and eventually a little rain). We then walked around a bit and I had to take a photo of this bear!
It rained for about half an hour so we went to a covered picnic area before walking around a bit more and heading back to our hotel. We were all happy to rest for a bit and finished a card game we had started on the ferry a few days ago.
Today we ventured to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. The park is much more than the bridge but the bridge is a big part! It is 450 feet across and 230 feet above the Capilano river. Here is a view of what it looks like!
This is a view after we crossed of the river below. The area was beautiful! And it was interesting to have done this in 1993. At that time the bridge was the only part of the park. Now there is a tree top walk and cliff walk. It was all breath taking!
This is part of the tree top walk (both the walkway above and the log).
This is from a ways away of the large suspension bridge and the river.
We saw a bald eagle. It was hiding in this tree and we later saw it in the river.
The bald eagle is in the water but very hard to see/find!
After lunch we went on the cliff walk.
Beautiful waterfall!
A little bit of the cliff walk.
Another family photo!
We did another trip over the suspension bridge and wanted to noted the large tree that crashed onto the bridge and didn't cause issue. They say it can hold a loaded 747!
This is a view of how it looks to walk the bridge!
And a wild view of what it looks like from underneath!
We started the day exploring Stanley Park. We saw some of the beautiful totem poles.
We went to see the nine o'clock gun - it is a large old cannon that fires every night at exactly 9 p.m. for about a century!
We walked to the former lighthouse and it started to rain more and more and we realized we needed an indoor activity.
So we headed to the Vancouver aquarium! It is the largest aquarium in all of Canada and we quickly realized how spoiled we are to have the Monterey aquarium so close and have visited multiple times. It was very cool, but rather different! Olivier always loves taking photos of the sharks.
One of the sharks!
They had a rain forest area that we walked through!
This is a sloth hiding in the tree!
Can you find the Yacare Caimans in this photo? (it looks like a crocodile)
Here is a video of it when the rainforest sound effects and rain started. Check out that tail!
We saw some of the sea otter feeding and the rain had stopped so we dried off some bleachers and watched the sea lion activity. This is the largest of the three!
They had a lot of frog exhibits and the one was interesting because the frog was against the glass and you could see the throat moving!
We finished our visit by stopping by the seals. This one wanted to pose!
Today we headed to see the Olympic venues in Whistler from the 2010 winter games. They use the various gondolas for different summer activities, including an impressive mountain bike course. Olivier was really bummed to not have his bike! You could rent them but that wasn't on the agenda for today.
They had a cool app that included a self guided tour to see various sites in what was the Olympic village.
Including seeing the Olympic and Paralympic metals!
And some of the artwork installed during the games.
I believe this art was near the press area. Which just happened to be right by where the Norway house was during the games...it is now a daycare!
And the lakes and streams and pools of water all had a white cloudy appearance. It is caused by glacial flour! I had never known about it and found it very interesting!
We got to see the Olympic rings!
And where the flame was during the games!
We checked out some shops and the boys posed with the friendly moose!
I liked this tea towel!
We then went to the bob sled/skeleton/luge venue! I tried to do a panoramic photo but with all the curves in the venue it looked very wonky!
I continue to be amazing by the beauty around us!
We walked to the top of this spectator area and this was more than half way down the course! Crazy! I think we all have a higher appreciation of the events!
Then we headed to the ski jump! Yes! This is what it looks like in the summer! The boys walked all the way to the top!
This is the view from the top. Anna and I were in the yellow chairs at the bottom. Can you even find the yellow chairs? We can but know were to look!
And this is a still photo of that view!
And here are some of the markers along the way and give you an idea of the incline.
Right around that area we saw three black bears! Very cool! Here are a couple of them!
