English Bay

This is day #25 of straight sunshine in Vancouver BC! Not a record but still phenomenal!
Today we drove our friends around Stanley Park and of course looked at the great collection of totems ( recently copied with the old ones going into museums) and the great views and saw thousands of bikers and walkers. Then after a bite to eat, our friends were anxious to get on their cruise boat bound for Alaska later this afternoon! A bit if time around crowded Canada place where the boats dock did us in so H and I headed for the Vancouver Art Gallery for a surprisingly interesting exhibit "Grand Hotel: redesigning Modern Life." And a coffee and a bite in it's very fine cafe outdoors. Then a trip to Home Depot to buy a grill for the island ( some of you are probably raising your eyebrows about this as I am not fond of cooking- but other people are, our little hibachi is rusting out, we are here in the city so can buy it in Canada because we can't bring it from the US, so we did it!). Whew - and then sat in the outdoor bar at our hotel ( 100 year old "Sylvia"to cool off and muse about hotels we have known, had some snacks for dinner, thoroughly enjoyed this view, took a walk along the sea, had an excellent ice cream. This is the view from the hotel bar looking out on English Bay -kind of toward where yesterday's picture was taken from. With a wee bit of reflection in the glass. The big barge moored off the beach is for the "celebration of lights " fireworks show that we will miss, but can hear from our gulf island. 2 days of big city traffic is plenty! We'll be happy to be there tomorrow.