Dr. Alison Marr

This morning we went took a water taxi over to Granville Island and checked out all shops and public market which was similar to Pike Place Market in Seattle.  We ended up picking up a few things and assembling a great lunch!

Multi-grain bread, salami, fresh cheese, strawberries, and lemonade

Then we drove outside of Vancouver out to Lynn Canyon and went across the suspension bridge and went for multiple hikes at two different parks.

Giant mossy forest

Alison on our hike

Twin Fall

Waterfalls

Some random observations from our first day:

• I’m not sure if it’s because we have gone from the middle of nowhere, then prim and proper Victoria with gardens everywhere, now to the city, but it seems crowded and a lot of chaos here, I guess this is our welcome back to the real world?
• Our hotel is fine (nothing like the one with a breath-right strip and sticky floors in the other Victoria, TX) but the scent in our room is kind of like a used car smell that someone tried to cover up.
• I told Alison “there are more hobos than you can shake a stick at here.” They are everywhere or at least it seems, just like Austin, however a few of them actually open doors and push people in wheelchairs into stores, so at the very least they are courteous. I’ll get the memo out to the Austin society of Hobos for thoughts on this.
• Also, I haven’t seen any plasma or flat screen TVs here, Canada loves the old CRT ones from ye olde yester year.  Old TVs and VCRs – time warp. 1.21 jiggawatts makes time travel possible, Marty.  Yes, that was a Back to the Future reference if you were wondering.
• We walked and walked and walked till our legs almost fell off, I’d like to write more but Alison has a schedule for us today and is telling me to hurry up but my fat fingers can’t type fast enough on this tiny computer. We will post some pics tonight. Off to Stanley Park and other what nots and what have yous in Vancouver.

We began our day with a 4 course breakfast at our B&B. We had yogurt with granola, dragonfruit and melon, orange poppyseed scones, raspberry and pineapple bread, and a hot plate of salmon, cheese, polenta cakes and a frittata. We were stuffed!!

We then headed out into the rain in our rain gear and umbrellas. Our first stop was the Victoria Bug Zoo and it was amazing! We got to hold huge bugs like walking sticks, catydids, cockroaches, praying mantis, and millipedes to name a few. It was sweet! The whole time I was thinking my sister would love this place. She’s always said she’d be cave tour guide when she retired from teaching, but I think this place would also be a good fit.

Then we thought we’d go inside the Parliment building, but they only do guided tours on the weekends and that didn’t interest us. So, by recommendation of our breakfast buddies from Calgary, we tried out the Royal BC Museum. It was nice to get out of the rain since it was soaking through my shoes, but I’ll have to say natural history museums are not for me. Too many taxidermy animals and old stuff to look at. We should have seen the Hubble IMAX narrated by Leo instead.

After the museum, we ate our leftover scones and bread from breakfast. I also had a bubble tea while Jeff enjoyed a chocolate covered waffle. This was our nutritious lunch since we were still pretty full from breakfast.

After these adventures, we headed to our room to dry out. Then, despite the rain we decided to drive out to Bruchart Gardens. Jeff and I both discussed how much our moms would enjoy this place. Lots of beautiful flowers and it finally stopped raining in time for the fireworks show. Let me just say this is one serious fireworks display choreographed to music. Dancing fireworks. Fireworks that shot sideways. Bug shaped fireworks robots. Crazy stuff! You’d have to see it to appreciate it, but I’d give it to thumbs up. Now it’s past my bedtime so we’ll see you tomorrow in Vancouver.

Lighthouse- We stopped by Fisgaurd Lighthouse on our way into Victoria, it was a lot smaller than I expected (almost ompa lumpa size) but it had a pretty cool view of the Victoria harbor. Notice I didn’t say scent, there was a stink in the air here. More like a STANK

Wonka Lighthouse

Redfish Blue Fish – We spent an hour in line waiting to order food from this seaside shack, angry Alison came out and began pacing back and forth so she wouldn’t pass out. I don’t follow the logic here but I’m not arguing with it. We got some different fish tacos that people love, they were alright but one of mine had a hair. I tossed that one right into the trash!

Long lines here!

White Heather Tea Room – I nicknamed this place “Grannys Cupboard” because it had a very formal, stiff feel, with muted colors and ancient curtains which I believe is what you are going for if you are interested in afternoon high tea and the cutest little scrumptious delectable finger foods. I struggled to describe this in a positive manner to some Canadian folks earlier today and the guy told me “Well it’s not a Texas rattlesnake BBQ” which I’ve never even heard of (and I’m from Texas) but I appreciated the stereotype but only after lassowing a nearby twister and tossing my ten gallon hat in the air while filling it full of molten hot lead from the blazing barrels of my deadly six shooters. Yeeeehaw. Anyway, I’ll go on record of saying I’d prefer anything involving rattlesnakes over high tea again. Tea is good if you toss out the frilly doilies and what not.

High tea at it's finest

B&B – I’m not a big fan of B&B’s because they usually feel like I’m staying in someones back bedroom but this place is nice. The bed in our room is gigantic, seriously, like you need a step ladder or running start to get into the thing. Whoever lived in that lighthouse definitely didn’t sleep in this bed.

Tapas – For dinner we went to a tapas bar for some drinks with our tiny plates of food. If you know me you are probably thinking I’m going to make fun of this place, but I actually liked it. We need to go to more places like this and less like Grannys Cupboard.