Vancouver

Day 4 was reserved for Vancouver. We visited the Vancouver Aquarium, Granville Island, Stanley Park, and Chinatown. We also took several pictures of the BC Ferries trip to and from Vancouver Island.



The Vancouver Aquarium was one of the first facilities to incorporate professional naturalists into the galleries to interpret animal behaviours. Prior to this, at the London Zoo Fish House, naturalists James S. Bowerbank, Dr. E Lankester, Mr D. Mitchell and Philip Henry Gosse (the creator of the word aquarium) had regularly held "open house" events, but the Vancouver Aquarium was the first to employ educational naturalists on a full-time basis.
Aquarium research projects extend worldwide, and include marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation.





The aquarium is run by a self-supporting non-profit organization. The operation of the aquarium receives no government funding. The property is owned by the City of Vancouver and rented to the Aquarium for $40,000 a year since 1991 (prior to which it was $1 per year).




In October 2009 the Vancouver Aquarium was designated as a Coastal America Learning Center by the US Environmental Protection Agency. As the first Learning Center in Canada, this designation is intended to strengthen the Canadian/U.S. partnership for protecting and restoring shared ocean resources.




The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre is a public aquarium located in Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In addition to being a major tourist attraction for Vancouver, the aquarium is a centre for marine research, conservation and marine animal rehabilitation.



Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare (1,001 acre) urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada.

It is more than 10% larger than New York City's Central Park and almost half the size of London's Richmond Park. The park attracts an estimated eight million visitors every year, including locals and tourists, who come for its recreational facilities and its natural attributes. A paved 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi) seawall path circles the park, which is used by 2.5 million pedestrians, cyclists, and inline skaters every year. Much of the park remains forested with an estimated half million trees, some of which stand as tall as 76 metres (249 ft) and are up to hundreds of years old. There are approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) of trails and roads in the park, which are patrolled by the Vancouver Police Department's equine mounted squad. The Project for Public Spaces has ranked Stanley Park as the sixteenth best park in the world and sixth best in North America.




Granville Island provides amenities such as a large public market, an extensive marina, a boutique hotel, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (named in honour of the artist), Arts Umbrella, False Creek Community Centre, various performing arts theatres including the Arts Club Theatre Company and Carousel Theatre, fine arts galleries, and variety of shopping areas. There are two zones remaining from the Island's industrial heyday: a machine shop and concrete plant.
Since its redevelopment in the 1970s, Granville Island has maintained a community of craft studios, including: a Glassblowing studio, two Co-op Printmaking studios, a Fine Art Print Studio, a Luthier, a master saké maker, various Jewellers, the B.C. Potter's Guild Gallery, The Crafthouse Gallery, The Circle Craft shop, art galleries, boatbuilders, a Wood Co-op Shop, Woodworkers studios , etc. A daily Farmer's Market has been ongoing since the early 1990s - this was the first contemporary Farmer's Market in Vancouver.





Granville Island Brewing Co. is also the name of a beer company which originated on Granville Island in 1984, but whose main base of operations was moved to Kelowna, British Columbia some time later. In 2009 it was purchased by Molson's Brewery and continues to brew small batches of its varieties at the Granville Island brewing original site, and offers beer-tasting and tours of their brewing facilities.
Granville Island Public Market



Public market
The Granville Island Public Market features a farmers market, day vendors, and artists offering a various of local Vancouver culinary offerings. There are fifty permanent retailers in the market offering local products. In addition, there are over one-hundred Day vendors in stalls throughout the market selling a variety of Artisan cottage-industry foods and unique hand-made crafts on a rotating schedule.

Buskers
Granville Island plays host to a variety of buskers throughout the year. Busking is encouraged by the Granville Island administration, and a group has been created to oversee the activity. Performers must purchase a licence prior to busking, and are restricted to specific areas of the island. As of 2007, approximately 100 performers are registered to busk, including musicians, jugglers, magicians and other street performers. Buskers can be found most of the day at two main outdoor locations. One being the triangle square in front of the La Baguette Bakery, and the other being the Market Courtyard behind the public market on the waterfront. Unamplified buskers can also be found at various indoor and outdoor locations throughout the island. Performances take place year-round with the majority taking place during the busy tourist season (May–September).




Chinatown remains a popular tourist attraction, and is one of the largest historic Chinatowns in North America. However, it went into decline as newer members of Vancouver's Cantonese Chinese community dispersed to other areas of the metropolis. It has been more recently overshadowed by the newer Chinese immigrant business district along No. 3 Road in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, which had been an Anglo-Saxon bastion until the 1980s. Many affluent Hong Kong and Taiwanese immigrants have moved there since the late 1980s, coinciding with the increase of Chinese-ethnic retail and restaurants in that area. This new area is designated the "Golden Village" by the City of Richmond, which met resistance to the proposed renaming of the area to "Chinatown" both from merchants in Vancouver's Chinatown and also from non-Chinese residents and merchants in Richmond itself.Jus

Whistler

On day 3 we travelled to Whistler. The coastal view is awesome. Although it was a cold and rainy day on our way to Whistler, the return trip was sunny. You will see evidence of the activities of the 2010 Winter Olympics. This is a very picturesque and very commercial town.










Whistler's history began in the early 1900s, when the only residents in the valley were a few trappers who had settled into the area via the Pemberton trail. This trail was completed in 1877 and was intended to be used for cattle-driving, however the terrain was inhospitable and most cattle were lost. Word got around about the beauty of Whistler, and Alex and Myrtle Phillip were the first couple to purchase land in the glorious valley. Soon after, the village began to blossom with people and became a popular summer resort.




It was not until 50 years later that this resort was discovered as a skiing destination. Four Vancouver businessmen began the development of Whistler Mountain and it officially opened for skiers in 1966. A town site was developed in 1975 and construction began 3 years later on what was previously the area's garbage dump. Shortly after, Blackcomb Mountain opened and expanded Whistler's horizons being recognized as the top ski resort in North America. Whistler has continued to blossom since then, and has won many similar honors and awards and is still one of the world's best four-season holiday destinations.
After the two unsuccessful bids for the Winter Olympics, Whistler teamed up with Vancouver and bid again in 1998. With much success, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2010 Winter Olympic Games to the cities of Vancouver and Whistler. The lifelong dream for the community has finally been reached.

Victoria

On day 2 we visited Victoria. We took in the legislative buildings, with the legislature in session. As well we viewed the harbour and Fisherman's Wharf. We also took in Mile Zero, the western most end of the Trans Canada Highway. Here are a few pictures from this leg.





Fisherman's Wharf
This area is an easy walk from central Victoria. There are seals there that will rise up to be fed, but the most interesting thing to see, in my opinion, are the unique and colourful houseboats. Each one is unique to an extreme degree and each one is worth a photo on its own. You can also see the seaplanes taking off and landing nearby.












Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of about 330,000, the 15th most populous Canadian metro region.
Victoria is about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from BC's largest city of Vancouver on the mainland. The city is about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Seattle by airplane or ferry, and 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Port Angeles, Washington by ferry across the Juan de Fuca Strait.
Named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and of the Dominion of Canada, Victoria is one of the oldest cities in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1841. The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks, the British Columbia Parliament Buildings (finished in 1897 and home of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia) and the Empress hotel (opened in 1908). The city's Chinatown is the second oldest in North America after San Francisco's. The region's Coast Salish First Nations peoples established communities in the area long before non-native settlement, possibly several thousand years earlier, which had large populations at the time of European exploration. Victoria, like many Vancouver Island communities, continues to have a sizable First Nations presence, composed of peoples from all over Vancouver Island and beyond.










Mile 0 of the Trans Canada Highway is located on Dallas Road & Douglas Street on the beautiful Victoria waterfront on Vancouver Island. The Mile 0 marker has proven to be a popular roadside attraction for visitors taking photos at the start of the longest national highway in the world.
The monument is located in the beautiful Beacon Hill Park which is also home to manicured gardens, shaded pathways and a nesting site for blue herons.