vancouver and the islands part 2
so the sunday, i headed out with the cousin's daughter, jenn, again and this time we went to the aquarium. it was really cool. they had a lot of plant and animal life from the georgia strait (the body of water between vancouver and the gulf islands.
we then went to granville island and did a little bit of shopping. it's the artsy district with all sorts of little shops where you can find anything you need, including origami paper. i then was dropped off at some friends house. they are a couple that my parents know from yellowknife and the only ppl i know in the area that are family friends and not danish! so i had a nice sunday dinner with an italian-ukranian family. it was really nice.
monday was a planning day to get some things organized for the next week and for australia. then on tuesday i used the voucher i got for the ferry to head off to garbriola island, an island just across from nanaimo. the last time i went there was 6 yrs ago and b/c of a miscommunication, i waiting 6 hours at the ferry terminal for ferries arriving from vancouver rather than waiting at the terminal for ferries going to gabriola. nanaimo has 3 different ferry terminals! the bc police were alerted and everyone was looking for me but not at the right place. so this time i got myself to the island and enjoyed being there a lot. i read, played cards, went for walks and picked up a few nice shells. the only bad day i had for weather was that wednesday but it wasn't too bad, as long as you had a good rain coat. this is the view at low tide of a shoreline on gabriola.
after gabriola, i headed to parksville a town about 20 minutes north of nanaimo. it's apparently a really nice place to retire to. and has the best beach on the east side of vancouver island. it must because i got a major sunburn on my back while playing on the beach there when i was 4. i was visiting a danish friend who was origianlly from montreal. but since she is retired, she was busy doing a lot of volunteering. so i went for a walk on the beach and found my first sand dollar ever. it's a shell that is round and flat and is really fragile.
there was a lot of life on the beach during low tide. a lot of crabs and hermit crabs and various shell fish and birds and even random dog. in the evening after supper we went for a walk down to the beach again to enjoy the sunset.
the next day, the friend's son-in-law picked me up and brought me to a local farmers market. then we drove to nanaimo and ahd some of the best sushi i have ever had. we sat at the sushi bar and it was really cool to see the chef make the food. we were never quite sure if what he was making was for us or for other customers in the restaurant. then i took the ferry back to vancouver and headed to a hockey game. the canadian i met in rome that lives in vancouver works for the vancouver giants, the hockey team one level down from the nhl and she had gotten me tickets for the team's home opener. so with jenn and her boyfriend, i watched a hockey game. the game was really good. the score was 0-0 after the first period. then in the second, vancouver scored 3 goals in about 5 minutes and by the end of the period it was 6-0. and by the end of the game it was 9-0. because the home team scored 6 points we got a coupon for a free entrees at one of the restaurants that seem to be everywhere in town: white spot (it's a decent place). and the pacific coliseum (which is a spitting image of the edmonton coliseum) had very interesting bathroom signs. more about the last few days in vancouver later.
posted by madeleine @ 1:04 AM
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