Garden Ramblings: Vancouver and Lee's Birthday

On Wednesday the 13th, Cathi, bless her heart, along with Patience, Jordyn and Nick, drove us into downtown Vancouver to our hotel, where we were to meet Peter and Bryan. The trip in wasn't TOO bad, we all played "I spy", so that passed the time for the "littles". Cathi and I had cookies and fruit snacks for the trip back, as well as a movie qeued up in the video player. It was sad to say good-bye to them, and Patience and Jordyn both had tears. Nick had tears, too, but mostly because his mother had gotten out of the car, and he wanted to make sure that he was going where she was! But we had hugs all around, and then Cathi and kids began their drive back to Aldergrove. We talked to her after she got home, and the reverse trip had been great, traffic wise, which was good, although she still had unhappy children : (.

We got our copious amounts of luggage up to our room, and decided to go out for a walk, as Bryan and Peter were out, and Jo, John and Billie were not due to arrive until the 14th (Thursday). The weather was overcast, but not cold, and we had a nice stroll around downtown, as our hotel was on Granville Street. We got back to the hotel about 5, only to meet Peter and Bryan coming up the street from the opposite direction! Dinner that night was at an Irish Pub, with Canadian beer! It was great to catch up, and of course, we were all buzzing about the cruise, which sailed on Friday, the 15th.

Thursday, the 14th, was Lee's birthday! We spent the day with a great walk across the bridge to Granville Island - in the rain! Fortunately we were all prepared with rain gear and didn't get TOO wet! We spent a lot of time at the public market there - lots to see! It reminded us a bit of Pikes' Market in Seattle. When we were finished there, we took a water taxi across the river and back to downtown, where we had a walk around there. We came across a series of sculptures by a Chinese man, which depicted him in various stages of hysterical laughter! It was quite amazing, and inspired some of us to pose with the statues!

We got back to the hotel about 3 pm, as we knew that Jo, John and Billie would be arriving from their trip across the Canadian Rockies! They had flown into Vancouver and took the train and coach tour across the Rockies, where they ended up in Calgary and the Calgary Stampede!! So they had already had quite a trip when we caught up with them, and the cruise was still to come - exciting times!!

We had dinner for Lee's birthday in Gastown, at the Spaghetti Factory! We had a great table, and good food, wine and excellent company! Lee's birthday was a great send-off for our cruise the next day! What fun!!

Granville Island Public Market - a great place to while away the hours!

Waiting to board the water taxi - you can see that we no longer need hoods, but still gray

Water taxi's and the Vancouver skyline

Bridge and waterfront from Granville Island

Peter, Pat Lee and Bryan

One of the many sculptures around the Public Market - this one was a series of horns, made into a fountain - pretty amazing!

Beautiful carved bench - the tree of life - with Peter and Bryan

Vancouver has plans to be the greenest city in the world by 2020, and they already have a great start! Most buildings have trees on the rooftops, and this one was pretty amazing!