Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Country of Maple Leaves 4 ~ Stanley Park

Stanley Park is the backyard of Vancouver, an evergreen oasis of 400 hectares next to the downtown Vancouver, and that’s our next destination of the day. We rented 2 bicycles from a shop at the entrance, and started our exploration of the park.

This is the map of Stanley Park. We started from ‘S’ in the map, and cycled a big round through Beaver Lake. We were not able to make a full complete circle, as we originally decided to rent the bicycles for 2 hours, but we ended up with 3 hours for the ¾ round.















Some nice scenery along the way.







































The green lungs of the city:
















Yacht parking
































Notice the divider on the road? They have very good system in the park: separate lanes for bicycles and for pedestrian, both ways. It was so enjoyable riding in a nice cold weather, without worrying that you might hit someone jogging in the park.
















The totem poles, monumental sculptures carved from large trees by native aboriginal people in Canada.











The light house
















Cloudy weather, best time for cycling as it’s not too hot or too cold.

















Stanley Park is home to a wide range of resident wildlife including:

Raccoon – we met this cute little fellow half way cycling. Many people stopped by to take photo.















Duck A: I don’t want to friend you anymore.
Duck B: Hei, we are not friends. We are just colleagues.
















How come this guy was talking using hand phone with swan?















It was as if a goose standing on top of my head :P
















Vic: Where are we? Are we lost?

















This is the Beaver Lake. We rested there for a while, and had some chocolate to restore energy.
















There were some ducks resting in the middle of the lake. When they saw me squatted down eating chocolate next to the pool, 2 ducks swam quickly towards me from far hopping for food. It was so funny to see the ducks shaking their bucks and swam eagerly towards you.
















We spent some time relaxing and cycling around the lake and jungle, then realized that we almost late for the 3 hours rental time. We cycled quickly and rushed back to return the rented bike, and yes, we make it on time!!!

After returning the bicycles, I was too tired and just sat down near a resident area. Those residential are very well maintained, the gardens are decorated beautifully with colourful tulips and all sorts of flowers.

































Victor took a nap in front of the Lost Lagoon after the tiring exercise =P
















After taking a good rest, we had our dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant before heading home. I always miss Vietnamese food in North America; tasty, big portion and cheap!


















Wow, what a great day to begin a journey! I have fallen in love with this beautiful city in just 1 day!

2 comments:

Dawn said...

Hey Minsi,
Have you finished your story in Canada? Or you have stopped it? =.="

Lina said...

I love your Vancouver post! Brings back lots of memories :) It's great to see another view of the same places that I took.