Gail Simone
01-05-2009, 12:50 PM
It was kinda scary driving home last night a lot of the way from Victoria to home...lotsa snow, and even in Vancouver we saw lots of spin-outs and accidents.
Man, we did a lot of stuff.
In Vancouver, we saw the Vancouver Museum, Space Museum, took a full day trip to Whistler (one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on), saw the Chinese garden and walked Chinatown, saw Theatresports (an improv group--they were really funny) and Seussical: The Musical on Granville Island, at at a Malaysian restaurant called the Banana Leaf, did the Big Bus tour of the city, walked the Capilano Suspension Bridge at night with the Christmas lights up everywhere, saw the Nutcracker at IMAX at Canada Place, saw the baby beluga whale at the Aquarium, went to the top of the Vancouver lookout, ate some very good sushi, walked all over Vancouver in the snow, including hipster Robson Street, and drove all through Stanley Park while it was snowing. Beautiful. Everywhere we went, people were friendly and kind and great. We'll remember the Whistler trip forever, in particular. We stayed at the Regency Hilton, a very nice but somewhat generic hotel. The people were great, but it really didn't have any personality. We also went to the great Vancouver Art Gallery, which had a feminism in art exhibit that was quite impressive.
Then we took the ferry to Victoria, which was gorgeous in the snow, amazing old buildings and faux old buildings. We stayed in a funky, cozy hotel called the Royal Scot Suites and we LOVED that place. We wanted to stay another day but I'm behind on work and my son would have missed a day of school. There, we saw the famous Butchart Gardens during the day, and then came back at night. All the flowers are covered in snow, so it should have been a rip-off, but it was actually lovely seeing the gardens covered in white, with beautiful ponds and fountains and Christmas decorations, especially at night. We had high tea, which Butchart is famous for, and it was exceptionally lovely and well-worth the spendy cost. At night, the whole place is festooned with Christmas lights and was quite breath-taking. We also went to see Craigdorroch Castle, which my son went nuts for. He LOVED it, and that was a great visit, and finally, we took this funky, amusing walking tour, GHOSTLY WALKS, where this guy and his son take you through the downtown area and show you where the murders and ghost stories took place. Good fun, and he was a great storyteller, and lots of story ideas popped into my head, even though I don't believe in ghosts whatsoever.
The ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles back to in the states goes over beautiful terrain, but is much more like a floating bus than the one from Vancouver to Victoria, which has two restaurants and some nice shops. The P.A. one is just functional, and the little breakfast we had was just hideous. It's kind of indicative of what we saw a lot up there, how FUNCTIONAL and nice Canada is. Every time we go up, we are amazed by how nice the people are, how clean everything is. In short, we love it there, and it's a bit disappointing to go from Vancouver on one side of the ferry, all gorgeous and up-tempo and lively and fun and arty, to dumpy little Port Angeles on the American side.
We love Canada. It was about twelve hours getting home so I'm pretty exhausted, and we walked many, many miles, much of it in the snow and up crazy hills and stairways, but man did we have a delightful time.
THANK YOU, CANADA!
Man, we did a lot of stuff.
In Vancouver, we saw the Vancouver Museum, Space Museum, took a full day trip to Whistler (one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on), saw the Chinese garden and walked Chinatown, saw Theatresports (an improv group--they were really funny) and Seussical: The Musical on Granville Island, at at a Malaysian restaurant called the Banana Leaf, did the Big Bus tour of the city, walked the Capilano Suspension Bridge at night with the Christmas lights up everywhere, saw the Nutcracker at IMAX at Canada Place, saw the baby beluga whale at the Aquarium, went to the top of the Vancouver lookout, ate some very good sushi, walked all over Vancouver in the snow, including hipster Robson Street, and drove all through Stanley Park while it was snowing. Beautiful. Everywhere we went, people were friendly and kind and great. We'll remember the Whistler trip forever, in particular. We stayed at the Regency Hilton, a very nice but somewhat generic hotel. The people were great, but it really didn't have any personality. We also went to the great Vancouver Art Gallery, which had a feminism in art exhibit that was quite impressive.
Then we took the ferry to Victoria, which was gorgeous in the snow, amazing old buildings and faux old buildings. We stayed in a funky, cozy hotel called the Royal Scot Suites and we LOVED that place. We wanted to stay another day but I'm behind on work and my son would have missed a day of school. There, we saw the famous Butchart Gardens during the day, and then came back at night. All the flowers are covered in snow, so it should have been a rip-off, but it was actually lovely seeing the gardens covered in white, with beautiful ponds and fountains and Christmas decorations, especially at night. We had high tea, which Butchart is famous for, and it was exceptionally lovely and well-worth the spendy cost. At night, the whole place is festooned with Christmas lights and was quite breath-taking. We also went to see Craigdorroch Castle, which my son went nuts for. He LOVED it, and that was a great visit, and finally, we took this funky, amusing walking tour, GHOSTLY WALKS, where this guy and his son take you through the downtown area and show you where the murders and ghost stories took place. Good fun, and he was a great storyteller, and lots of story ideas popped into my head, even though I don't believe in ghosts whatsoever.
The ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles back to in the states goes over beautiful terrain, but is much more like a floating bus than the one from Vancouver to Victoria, which has two restaurants and some nice shops. The P.A. one is just functional, and the little breakfast we had was just hideous. It's kind of indicative of what we saw a lot up there, how FUNCTIONAL and nice Canada is. Every time we go up, we are amazed by how nice the people are, how clean everything is. In short, we love it there, and it's a bit disappointing to go from Vancouver on one side of the ferry, all gorgeous and up-tempo and lively and fun and arty, to dumpy little Port Angeles on the American side.
We love Canada. It was about twelve hours getting home so I'm pretty exhausted, and we walked many, many miles, much of it in the snow and up crazy hills and stairways, but man did we have a delightful time.
THANK YOU, CANADA!