Vancon 2011, part 2a/?
Part 2! (a, aka from waking up to about 5 o'clock which was only the first half of day 2, lol)
Firstly, everyone should know that in addition to our condo having a shower in the kitchen, we also had an elevator that went ... every way. I personally liked to turn it to sideways, but the other residents of our hall liked it to point up and up for some reason. Very Percy Jackson. The maintenance man was highly amused.
So as far as I can say for sure, we may have spent more than half of our trip in parallel universes or flash sideways...es.
Anyway - MORNING TWO!
(We slept in, and we played around with our ducks, and I went and got us groceries at this tiny store on the corner called Foodness - FOODNESS(!), and we had breakfast and were just generally lazy before we left the condo, okay? )
Our goal for the day was to go to Stanley Park. We left the condo around 11, but we didn't reach the outer edges of the park until about 4 pm. Yes, it was a long walk, but we mostly kept getting distracted by the city. And blacklid's malfunctioning GPS.
I was especially amused by the Vancouver ArtGallery. Mainly because that is not a typo - someone intentionally named it that so that the initials would be VA instead of, you know - VAG. *dies laughing* There was a movie filming there and I can't remember what it was called - Infamous, maybe? I'll have to get back to you guys on that one. Anyway, we watch the crew set up for a while and sat by this gorgeous fountain, then moved on.
The Sheraton Wall Center Hotel, where the convention is held.
Right across the street from the largest church we visited, though not the oldest. Opening in 1933, the congregations it united were two of the oldest in town (1889 and 1901), so the vision was there for something grand and it shows in the beauty of the windows. Definitely the most ornate of any we saw. Sidenote: I think Supernatural filmed an episode or two here: Houses of the Holy being one.
St Andrews - Wesley United Church
The stained glass in this one was absolutely beautiful. I never really watched Smallville, but I am told they filmed part of their series finale here.
Right across the street from that one, we found what ended up being our favorite for the entire week - until the last day, lol. But it held the record for being our favorite for the longest. :)
Christ Church Cathedral
The pipe organ at Christ Church was AMAZING.
After leaving the Cathedrals, we spent a good deal of time shopping ... everywhere. We lol'd every time we saw anything to do with ducks. :)
We had lunch underneath the Moose at the Cactus Club Cafe on Robson. He gave us warm fuzzies. *g*
Speaking of moose, I bought this little guy in Robson square. I couldn't resist him, he was just SO CUTE.
And blacklid bought a shiny lizard bracelet. Don't worry, I don't think he's poisonous.
This is the upstairs at the Cactus Club Cafe. If we had seen this sooner we may have eaten up there. O.o Of course, we may have ended up having too much wine to ever finish out (what ended up to be) 15 mile trek around town.
After a long morning of shopping, dawdling and oogling the city, at 4 we finally reached the very outer edges of Stanley Park - The Lost Lagoon.
On the walk-up I fell IMMEDIATELY in love with this willow. Because LOOK AT IT. It's GORGEOUS.
*Willow!Spam*
It was such a peaceful, beautiful place to relax we just had to spend some time there.
I think they call it the Lost Lagoon because you go and you don't ever want to leave.
BUT, the sun was starting to get kind of low, and we still weren't even IN the park yet, so we went ahead and started walking the Lost Lagoon Loop.
We found all kinds of cool things.
Like this seekrit cave!
Wonder who lives there.
This was a VERY tall tree. These are 2 of my favorite pictures from the trip. This tree isn't as big though as some of the trees - the Stargate Tree, for instance, which is in part 2b.
The trail around the Lost Lagoon is very pretty, and has a lot of cool views.
It also has several native beggars residents that are apparently well-known around the city.
There is a major problem there with people feeding the raccoons. I noticed the natives seemed to want to pin it on the tourists, but the only people I saw feeding them was a Canadian couple, and the girl got bit and the guy turned to me and said 'Hey, they don't carry anything, right?' and I said, quite brightly, 'Oh no, just rabies! Seriously. Go get her vaccinated. Right now.' And he was like O.o and I was like *eyeroll*
Morons.
But whatever, we got cute pictures.
We call this one, 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!'
After circling the entire lagoon (about 3 miles), we crossed the bridge and FINALLY made it into Stanley Park.
Our first stop was the Aquarium, where we bought tickets to come back later, since it was so late.
After our stop at the aquarium, we were finally ready to enter ~the forest~!
~Forest~, coming soon(ish?)
Firstly, everyone should know that in addition to our condo having a shower in the kitchen, we also had an elevator that went ... every way. I personally liked to turn it to sideways, but the other residents of our hall liked it to point up and up for some reason. Very Percy Jackson. The maintenance man was highly amused.
So as far as I can say for sure, we may have spent more than half of our trip in parallel universes or flash sideways...es.
Anyway - MORNING TWO!
(We slept in, and we played around with our ducks, and I went and got us groceries at this tiny store on the corner called Foodness - FOODNESS(!), and we had breakfast and were just generally lazy before we left the condo, okay? )
Our goal for the day was to go to Stanley Park. We left the condo around 11, but we didn't reach the outer edges of the park until about 4 pm. Yes, it was a long walk, but we mostly kept getting distracted by the city. And blacklid's malfunctioning GPS.
I was especially amused by the Vancouver ArtGallery. Mainly because that is not a typo - someone intentionally named it that so that the initials would be VA instead of, you know - VAG. *dies laughing* There was a movie filming there and I can't remember what it was called - Infamous, maybe? I'll have to get back to you guys on that one. Anyway, we watch the crew set up for a while and sat by this gorgeous fountain, then moved on.
The Sheraton Wall Center Hotel, where the convention is held.
Right across the street from the largest church we visited, though not the oldest. Opening in 1933, the congregations it united were two of the oldest in town (1889 and 1901), so the vision was there for something grand and it shows in the beauty of the windows. Definitely the most ornate of any we saw. Sidenote: I think Supernatural filmed an episode or two here: Houses of the Holy being one.
St Andrews - Wesley United Church
Click to view The stained glass in this one was absolutely beautiful. I never really watched Smallville, but I am told they filmed part of their series finale here.
Right across the street from that one, we found what ended up being our favorite for the entire week - until the last day, lol. But it held the record for being our favorite for the longest. :)
Christ Church Cathedral
The pipe organ at Christ Church was AMAZING.
After leaving the Cathedrals, we spent a good deal of time shopping ... everywhere. We lol'd every time we saw anything to do with ducks. :)
We had lunch underneath the Moose at the Cactus Club Cafe on Robson. He gave us warm fuzzies. *g*
Speaking of moose, I bought this little guy in Robson square. I couldn't resist him, he was just SO CUTE.
And blacklid bought a shiny lizard bracelet. Don't worry, I don't think he's poisonous.
This is the upstairs at the Cactus Club Cafe. If we had seen this sooner we may have eaten up there. O.o Of course, we may have ended up having too much wine to ever finish out (what ended up to be) 15 mile trek around town.
After a long morning of shopping, dawdling and oogling the city, at 4 we finally reached the very outer edges of Stanley Park - The Lost Lagoon.
On the walk-up I fell IMMEDIATELY in love with this willow. Because LOOK AT IT. It's GORGEOUS.
*Willow!Spam*
It was such a peaceful, beautiful place to relax we just had to spend some time there.
I think they call it the Lost Lagoon because you go and you don't ever want to leave.
BUT, the sun was starting to get kind of low, and we still weren't even IN the park yet, so we went ahead and started walking the Lost Lagoon Loop.
We found all kinds of cool things.
Like this seekrit cave!
Wonder who lives there.
This was a VERY tall tree. These are 2 of my favorite pictures from the trip. This tree isn't as big though as some of the trees - the Stargate Tree, for instance, which is in part 2b.
The trail around the Lost Lagoon is very pretty, and has a lot of cool views.
It also has several native beggars residents that are apparently well-known around the city.
There is a major problem there with people feeding the raccoons. I noticed the natives seemed to want to pin it on the tourists, but the only people I saw feeding them was a Canadian couple, and the girl got bit and the guy turned to me and said 'Hey, they don't carry anything, right?' and I said, quite brightly, 'Oh no, just rabies! Seriously. Go get her vaccinated. Right now.' And he was like O.o and I was like *eyeroll*
Morons.
But whatever, we got cute pictures.
We call this one, 'YOU SHALL NOT PASS!'
After circling the entire lagoon (about 3 miles), we crossed the bridge and FINALLY made it into Stanley Park.
Our first stop was the Aquarium, where we bought tickets to come back later, since it was so late.
After our stop at the aquarium, we were finally ready to enter ~the forest~!
~Forest~, coming soon(ish?)