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| Being Silly in Stanley Park |
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| Stanley Park |
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| Vancouver Coast |
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| Random Laughing Statues |
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| Across the False Creek from the Granville Farmer's Market |
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| The City |
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| On the Vancouver Beach (Canada's Stonehenge?) |
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At UBC in Downtown Waking up this morning was a vision for me. I woke up in the bed, realizing I had fallen asleep between Haley and Estrella –which was random because I was supposed to be on the floor! I then moved to the sleeping bag next to Christina (who seemed far more comfortable on the floor-her arms reflected this ). It’s funny to think about how we’ve learned each other’s quirks and habits. My barking dog alarm awoke us later in the morning—we all felt tired from going to bed at 2AM the night before and from crying our hearts out. Next thing we knew, we were out the door on our way to Stanley Park, ready to observe more of Vancouver. As we entered Stanley Park, we were promptly serenaded by a man playing tennis. We wandered the park for an hour-which wasn’t too impressive. The renowned park was more like an extremely large version of Memorial Park with large trees. Next, we went through Stanley Park's statue garden and headed to Vancouver’s English Bay Beach. Vancouver is apparently one of the only places in the world where you can see snow-capped mountains and beaches. Yet as water droplets rained down bit by bit, we realized how amazing California’s weather really is! We’ve been spoiled with California’s beautiful, sunny, optimistic weather- it was hard not to compare Vancouver’s overcast beaches to the beaches of Malibu… We must have been in a mood or something because everything in Vancouver felt so “ehh” (Canadian pun) and similar to the bad parts of Los Angeles. Not to mention, Christina, Estrella, and I had an incident with bird poop. Meanwhile, I was getting fun texts from Canadians we had met along the way. One important thing to mention is that we have bonded so much because of this trip! I think traveling makes you reflective about life in a way that’s difficult to do when you’re at home, cruising routinely through life’s obstacles and obligations. Traveling for me has been a lot more about growing as a person—thinking about the future and contemplating the past. With good friends and deep conversations, it becomes clearer what I want out of life. I stop to think about where I want to be in the future. Our lives as adults have just begun and this roadtrip has been an eye-opening experience. As we continue to have random encounters with Canadian natives, we realize how life can be for others and how it can be for us. My dreams and perceptions are expanding in way that’s perpetually been limited by living in the bubble of La Canada. Leaving home is refreshing, to say the least. After walking the beaches of Vancouver, we took a few photos across the False Creek from the Granville Farmer’s Market and then continued around the downtown area of the city. We even passed by UBC. We stopped for delicious Mongolian food for a late lunch and shopped around a little. The Mongolian BBQ was a large meal and kept us stuffed. Right after, we took a quick cat-nap at the room—I fell into a deep dream state due to her new-found love of Northface sleeping bags. By 6PM, Estrella, Christina, and I were ready to explore the Gastown. As we walked the 2 mile trek through the not-so-nice parts of town, we noticed the extreme urbanity of Vancouver’s downtown. In the Gastown, we encountered the old gas lamps of the past and entered multiple touristy shops—a store with first nation’s peoples (the Canadian term for Native Americans) masks and totem poles caught our attention. We sampled cookies made from maple syrup. Yummm...Walking around Vancouver for multiple blocks made us realize how much we loved Los Angeles (or at least how much I’ll miss LA going to D.C.). Did I mention that Canada is expensive? By night, we were at the hotel’s den discussing our plans to come back to Banff (our favorite city!). We were in the hotel’s bar using the outlet when we met a native of Vancouver. She told us about her life as a part-time musician, about B.C.’s scene, and about how she admired the fact that we were blogging about our roadtrip. It’s amazing that we’re at the halfway point of this trip! Bests · Nice walk around downtown · Mongolian BBQ · Text messages · Adventures in Gastown · Late night convos at the den Worsts · Bird poop incident · Overcast weather |
Looks reallllllly super!
ReplyDeleteIt would be GREAT to know who is writing which blog entries!