Tour guides for the weekend

It is a long weekend, both in the US and Canada, for Labour Day. We had arranged with friends from below the border in WA, to come up for the weekend. None of them had sporting commitments and we were going to act as tour guides and show them around Vancouver. Even though it is only 100 miles from where they live, the kids had never been here and it was a long time since Roger and Patty had been here.

Well, guess what? They arrived on the Friday night, and the forecast was not good. It was overcast and rained on both Saturday and Sunday. They had to leave on Sunday night, so the fact that Monday wasn't too bad weather wise, didn't enter into the equation.

We had hoped to take them up Grouse Mountain, but a look out the window confirmed that the top was in cloud and not worth the trip, so we decided to head to Stanley Park. We had two vans and communicated using walkie talkies. There was a guided commentary coming from the lead van as we headed down to cross the Lion's Gate Bridge and our first stop at Prospect Point. It is here that we are reminded by a plaque on a rock that there was a huge storm in December 2006 which took out some 10,000 trees in the park.

"In the early morning hours of December 15, 2006 a major windstorm struck this revered park with a vengeance. After two short hours of gale-force winds, some reaching 119 km/hr, the storm subsided leaving a level of devastation that had not been seen since Hurricane Frieda in 1962, and for the first time in over 40 years the entire park was closed to the public."

We walked out along the point to check out the view and noting that the tops of Cypress, Grouse and Mount Seymour were all still enveloped in cloud. We also walked down to the bridge and walked out to the first of the support towers. After heading back to the cars we drove around to the Totem Poles. From there you get a good view of the city. There were at least three liners berthed, waiting for their passengers before departing for their cruises to Alaska.

After heading through the park and towards English Bay we drove through the city, passing by B C Place, and G M Place, the citie's two main stadiums, through Chinatown, and finally stopping at La Casa Gelato to get icecream. This shop has over 500 flavours, but can only serve 218 from the shop at any one time. You are able to taste flavours such as garlic, curry, wasabi, durian, death by mango, etc. We all discussed the flavours we tried and headed towards Gastown. We parked and walked along Water Street past the Steam Clock and the Railway Station to Canada Place and the Convention Centre. By this time we were all starving and headed home for a meal.

On Sunday we awoke to a wet and miserable day. It didn't look any good for scenic views from the mountains and the breeze was quite cool, so any swim or water based activities looked out of the question as well. We decided to head in to Granville Island and the public markets and surrounding shops and galleries. There are always street entertainers there in summer and some of us watched the entertainment while others strolled through the market. After a couple of hours here we headed back for an early dinner before they had to head back to WA. Before they left, Paula made sure that our SA friends from down the street came up to say hello. Both families had heard about each other and were keen to meet. We had a bit of a chat and a drink before it was time for everyone to leave.

One more day until school starts for the new school year.