Cathy & Max Take Vancouver

Vancouver Zoo

I'm a real fan of zoos. I enjoy all the different animals and set ups and it's all really amazing.

The Vancouver Zoo... I can not recommend. It's awful. First of all, it's an hour drive from downtown. It's out past all of the things and places and people. Still British Columbia, so still pretty and stuff, but way out there.

So we've spent an hour in the car. We have to pay $6 for parking. Then we have to pay $24 per person. We're now $54 and gas money into this trip.

Then we see the first enclosure. It's for the lions. There's a chain link fence about 15 feet tall with some barbed wire at the top. THAT'S ALL THAT SEPARATES TWO LIONS FROM THE REST OF US. Maybe this is just a weird one. Maybe the actual lion cage is under renovations and they just had to put them here temporarily. Let's continue.

The map lets us know that there are no elephants or fancy things like that. The map does tell us that they have every kind of deer known to mankind. No bears or anything fun like that either. No real aqua-life, no seals or anything, or even polar bears. I'm not currently impressed. Maybe what they do have will trump what they don't.

We walked past some baby pigs in the petting zoo area. Max freaks out! It's at least set up well.

That face though!!

This was one of the highlights of the day.

We saw several deer or other large-hoofed types behind simple wire fences I'm convinced they could jump over if they really had the motivation.

The vegetation is way over grown. There's horribly pointy bushes sprouting on the sides of all the paths. Then, the path became less paved. In fact, not paved at all. Simply gravel.

Well.

This is cute.

As we begin to question these pointy plants growing across the unpaved paths, we encounter a sign. "These plants are quite sharp! If you injure yourself on them, the pain should last 24 hours tops. Don't scratch, as it will only make the inflamed area worse."

Thanks. Real helpful.

No paths. No real fences. No real animals.

We walked back past the lions. I have a picture because I don't think anyone would believe it otherwise.

Which led to a repeat of this face.

There's no protection, so the lions can PEE ON YOU. Then they want you to let them know that it happened.

What is this place.

This is the best of the best.

We were on our way out when we spotted the birds of prey show! The owl was out and about. It's name is Hagrid. I got to hold him! It was amazing! Then there was a hawk and a falcon. The guy was from Australia and had an amazing since of humor. This was the only redeeming thing about this zoo.

Hip hip!

We can hear a lot of city noises when we have the windows open. The most common sounds are from the construction at Roger's Arena. Someone somewhere decided it would be a great idea to build high rises ON TOP OF the stadium. I don't mean really really close to. I mean, ON TOP OF. It's nuts. The construction has a large crane which swings within 10 feet of our building. The construction continues on 6 days a week. It's a lot. But it's comforting now. It's the sound of the Vancouver we know. We also hear sirens, car horns, and loud yells from the open air soccer stadium across the highway.

Tonight though, tonight was different. BC Place can apparently open their roof. BC Place is the pointy-topped stadium off to the right in the last picture of the post I did earlier. It's actually pretty nifty. The center portion stays in place but some of the panels around the middle lift out.

The main point is that there was clearly a large event there tonight. We could hear the crowds heading into the game! Here they participate in coordinated chants and cheers prior to entering the stadium. Tonight there was a rendition of the old "Father Abraham" song with words touting the superiority of the home team.

I'm not even sure what sport event is occurring this fine evening. BC Place is host to the Whitecaps soccer team, the Lions football team, and multitudes of one-off events. My guess would be for the Lions, which is odd. Football here seems to take place in the summer. I don't know.

But it is loud. That's the real point. It's very loud.

Becks in Vancouver

The Becks came to visit! We went from 3 people to 5 people crashing in the 900 square feet we call home. It was thrilling.

But in all honesty, it was a joy to have them! It gave all three of us an excuse to get out of the house every day and make some of those big adventure trips we'd been wanting to take.

The main reason they were visiting was for Jake's graduation! He was nominated for awards, graduated with honors, and had his final project game to show off. It was really cool for Max and I to go see the school, workstation, and neighborhood!