Hi y'all, and greetings from beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Firstly, let me just say that this place is just stunning, beautiful tall green Fir Trees, mountain ranges with snow caps and beautiful blue water abound.
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| The Plekkers...keeping you in the picture on Day 37 |
Today we woke at around 0800h before heading straight across the other side of town to see the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, north east of Vancouver.
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| The scenic drive through Vancouver towards Capilano |
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| Crossing Lynn Creek |
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| Nearly there |
This park has been a tourist attraction since 1869, and it's easy to see why. Notwithstanding the awesome suspension bridge(s), one of which has a 150m span, the treetops adventure where you stroll the rainforest canopy at treetop height, the cliff walk, which includes a walkway that seems to hang precariously alongside a cliff face, high above the ground, the magnificent Totem Poles, or the beautiful lake setting along the Raptor Walk, the true beauty of this place is simply the natural surrounds. This includes some of the most magnificent tall trees some of which are over 1300 years old and majestic views of Grouse Mountain. The drive was around 40 minutes from our Hotel and we are truly glad we decided to try out this place.
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| Welcome to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park |
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| Some good looking chick adorning a Totem Pole |
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| Schuyler and Kyle check out another Totem Pole |
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| The 150m long suspension bridge |
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| Those daring Plekkers on the suspension bridge |
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| Oh and I was daring too |
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| Schuyler checking out the fast-flowing Capilano River below |
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| Walking the trails |
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| The Plekkers all over the place |
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| The view from the tree-tops |
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| Beautiful moss-covered trees |
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| The suspension bridge from below |
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| A small flowing stream making its way to the Capilano River |
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| Beautiful tall Fir Trees |
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| A small lake across the Capilano River |
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| Making our way towards the cliff walk |
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| The cliff walk |
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| It all attaches to this |
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| Like my shoes? |
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| The cliff walk |
When this was completed, we headed into the small township of Edgemont Village where we had wonderful Sushi prepared before our very eyes at the Nobu Japanese Sushi Bar.
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| Crossing the road in Edgemont Village |
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| Our Rental Car |
We then headed further north to Cleveland Dam which sits on the southern side of Lake Capilano. Cleveland dam supplies pure drinking water supplied by the surrounding mountains called 'the Lions' to the greater Vancouver region. The view from the top of the dam to the 100m tall spillway is breathtaking.
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| Lake Capilano with the Lions to the right |
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| Lake Capilano leading to Cleveland Dam |
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| Schuyler have a good time at Lake Capilano |
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| The spillway at Cleveland Dam |
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| The spillway at Cleveland Dam |
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| A beautiful reflection at Lake Capilano |
Afterwards we headed across Vancouver Harbour on the 1.8 km long / 111m tall Lions Gate Bridge to Stanley Park with it's beautiful vista of West Vancouver, English Bay and Vancouver Harbour. The Lions Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge built in 1938.
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| A log cabin gets some work done as we leave Cleveland Dam |
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| The view from Stanley Park to the Lions Gate Bridge |
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| Later in the day Schuyler and I would walk this bridge |
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| The view towards English Bay |
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| Family picture at Stanley Park |
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| Don't you just love this tree? |
We then headed into the city to check out the Vancouver Lookout Tower. The Vancouver Lookout Tower sits atop the Harbour Centre in the Vancouver CBD. Glass elevators take you up 163 m above the pavement level allowing you to circle the top of the building capturing the scenery from all directions. The angle of the viewing windows and cleanness of the glass really made photography easy. An interesting tidbit we learned was that Neil Armstrong officially opened the tower in 1977 and his footprints were impressed on a concrete plinth. However, a renovation around three years ago resulted in the plinth mysteriously disappearing. Some say that it was inadvertently damaged and disposed of, whilst others suggest it was stolen.
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| The Harbour Centre Building with the Vancouver Lookout Tower above it |
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| Nice buildings and skies |
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| A Vancouver Trolley Bus |
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| Street scape |
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| The Harbour Centre from a different perspective |
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| The map actually included Canberra...yay! |
Views from the Vancouver Lookout Tower:
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| The view towards the city of Burnaby, BC. |
We then headed across to the nearby city of Burnaby to check out the largest shopping mall in the district, the Metropolis at Metrotown. This 400 store Mega Mall was exhausting, but we managed to persist and shop, nonetheless.
Finally, as it was nightfall, we headed back to the Lions Gate Bridge to try our luck with catching some Vancouver City nightspots. To do so, we parked under the western end of the bridge and proceeded to walk more than a kilometre to the centre of the bridge. Unfortunately, being a suspension bridge meant that it shook with the passing traffic, which will have affected some of the longer exposures we (Schuyler and I) were shooting.
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| A not-so-sharp view of Vancouver taken from the very shaky Lions Gate Bridge |
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| The Lions Gate Bridge |
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| The north main pillar of the Lions Gate Bridge |
After a long day, we headed back to our Hotel around 30km from the bridge. It was a very busy day in Vancouver and I'm sure we didn't do it justice. I think you could easily spend a week here, which I would love to do.
Well that's it for Day 37, tomorrow we head back across the USA-Canada border to Seattle, Washington.
PS. A little something we saw in the Gift Shop at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park:
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