Day 74, 75 Revelstoke to Vancouver
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
82
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Vancouver,
British Columbia,
Canada
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
We rolled the Castle out and found a service station to gas up for the trip into Vancouver.
We had chosen a trip around some lakes and a circuit away from Kamloops, simply because we can!
This road was through some wonderful lush green farmland but also we managed to climb a very long highway up a mountain to a height of around 2600metres. The Castle handles this type of climb extremely well, Guess we really don't want to ask what miles per gallon we achieve but it really doesn't matter it is the hill we have to climb!
We mention here also we had travel through some avalanche tunnels, (as we did a couple of days before) they are built as a semi tunnels in high avalanche areas to shoot the snow/ice over the highway, in the winter time.
We managed to achieve the summit and travelled down and stopped for lunch.
Then on down through some picturesque lake areas that would bring the water skiers in our families drooling at the mirror flat water and immense runs available. Maybe we should pool resources and buy a holiday home on the lake to escape the Aussie winters and spend time up here?
We arrived into Vancouver in comfortable time to the RV park to set up and relax to choose our agenda for the next day.
Day 75 Vancouver
We had attempted to organise a hire car late last evening and hoped to have a pick up at 8;30am, well this was a patience "test" after around 4 phone calls between us and the hire car people a pick up occurred at 10:35am.
THe Capilano Bridge
Oh well never mind we will be late home maybe!
The drive in to the city was not too much of a challenge, Karon and Mandy appear to have sorted themselves into a reasonable communication team.
We headed directly into Stanley park, much talked about and a "must see" destination for tourists such as the brave four.
Gee no big deal into a car park and pay the fee for a couple of hours, also a bonus of a free trolley around the park, let us hop on the trolley and "do the lap" to see what is around. As we climb on we over heard one person ask where the "aquarium" is? The driver said you are at the closest spot here!
Not to worry we pile in and have our chat about what we would look at, and the trolley sets off, past some beautiful rose gardens and flower gardens both sides of the road, ("very good to take pictures" according to the new driver that had hopped on before we left)
Then around a corner to the next stop ("very good to take pictures" according to the driver) this stop was the Vancouver rowing club.
Then about 500 metres up the road the next stop ("very good to take pictures" according to the driver) another traveller asked about the aquarium, "this is the best stop for the aquarium" According to the driver. (Obviously his track was jarred to jump the quote because this wasn't "very good to take pictures spot")
Well the brave four had decided the aquarium was a must see because of the Brulga whale, so off we hop.
Oh boy the aquarium in the school holidays is a really fun place to be! NOT!
We "squished" our way into a couple of the exhibits, Frogs and stuff, we found our way to Dolphin display.
Rick "being" himself
This was giving an informative talk about rehabilitating dolphins that had been hurt or netted, as well as giving some demonstrations of the training. We did a short wander around to find the Brolgas whales pen, This whale is a completely white whale and had recently (41 days ago)given birth to a 50kg baby girl, the grandmother was also alongside the pen to assist with the bonding of mother and daughter whale.
It was just sit and observe the whales behaviour with a short informative talk about the birth of the young one.
We decided after a short bite to eat that we had enough of the squishing in the aquarium and headed back to catch the free shuttle trolley.
We headed back in the direction we first hopped on and, YEP it was closer than the stop we had jumped off to see the aquarium, "oh well we must have required the exercise"
We then line up for the next trolley, and yes you guessed it! We managed to time our return to the trolley to have the same driver pick us up.
Away we go again, to hear about the "good spots for the taking of pictures, this time we stuck it out and sat at the back to hear of ALL "good spots for taking pictures" the drivers skill was also not quite up to a standard we are familiar with, with some jerky take offs and sudden stops as well as cutting a corner to have the curb push the tyre sideways to ensure it stayed on the road. Coupled with "the good spots to take the pictures" and no narration about the park of the views, we suggest that if you take this service, maybe look for a different driver!
Ok back to the car and program Mandy to take us to the next famous sot, The Granville Markets, gee another challenge for the navigation team J
No problem we head across the bridge and mange to stay in the correct lanes all the way, UNTIL! The driver is told to take 4th avenue, but there is no 4th avenue the next avenue is 6th avenue. We head down there which promptly takes under a large bridge structure and Mandy loses her sat signals, GREAT! Where to now. We slowly progress forward hoping for the "guidance from above" to kick in again, and suddenly we come across a 4th ave, Well done team! We turn into it and it leads us directly to the markets we wanted. "Who said we were lost?" Nah just using good old Aussie guts, "give it a go we will end up somewhere!"
We also lucked into a free park as well how good are the gods smiling on Earnie and Rick today?
We pile out and hit the pavement, after all this stress and hard work it definitely was coffee time, Rick's nose takes him directly to a coffee shop, luckily they included restrooms, a much needed after the challenges faced in the exploration of the city thus far.
Then it was the girls pounding the pavements and the boys "tagging along behind"
The boys are absolutely certain they travelled in circles and visited the same shops or markets twice, but the girls assured them that "No! It is your imagination, just keep up!"
To the boys relief at some point it was decided we had "Seen enough" so back to the car and load up, oh boy now we have a problem, Mandy is still not communicating with her upstairs friends, and we want to head out to go to the Capilano Suspension bridge. Well just go foward in a genral direction until Mandy chooses to come in to play.
We did manage to get out of the Sat no see spot and found our directions to the famed bridge.
Again an experience worth enjoying, Karon had been in training from day one if you recall her trip over the rope bridge in Tarzan's tree house in Disneyland, and slowly build her immune system to over come her fear of heights and swaying bridges. On the other hand Marian was thrown in the deep end, "we have come this far, it has been here since 1896, so just walk on it!"
It is a weird sensation and it is a great height over the canyon, the sense of achievement to conquer this is also a wonderful feeling.
We walked the other rope bridges between high trees, as well as the cliff hanging walkway, then proceeded back across, This time Karon did it NO HANDS! How brave is that?
From here we headed to the Old Town area called Gastown, Interesting trip to travel along one street to observe the gathering of the less fortunate along this street. Lining up for the food cart, all with varying loads of belongings packed in all sorts of rolls or of course the supermarket trolleys loaded with their worldly possessions. Travel across one block to the beginning of the Old Gastown area we run into boutique shops, restaurants and souvenir shops, all just down the road from the new cruise ship terminal. We also stopped to watch the first ever Old Steam Clock do it's thing and blow off steam in tune at the half hour.
We walked the street and up and around the new cruise terminal that houses a convention centre, wander back through the Gastown and head into "the Old Spaghetti Factory" for a nice meal that Marian paid for and we thank her for that kind gesture.
Head home tired but very satisfied tourists, having achieved a great day.
