Museum Hopper

on our last day in vancouver, we went to the dr. sun yat-sen chinese garden , which was the first chinese garden of its type in north america.   it was this peaceful oasis in the middle of the city.  the area surrounding the garden was pretty seedy including walking right by a man bent over a police car surrounded by cops.  once you stepped foot in the garden, however, it was serene and beautiful.   we followed the tour...we did not, unfortunately, take the tour since our timing was not great to attend one of those.  it did provide enough information in the brochure to really appreciate the garden.  the views were just beautiful.  it was a great little break in the bustle of downtown vancouver.   times visited: 1 time in garden: a little over 1 hour overall: B+

during our walk through stanley park , we went to the vancouver aquarium to check out the dolphins and sea otters and the beluga whales .  it was a drizzling rain and gloomy.   the aquarium has some indoor and some outdoor exhibits, which we did not quite realize going into it.  the aquarium was quite easy to get around and had a number of above tank and beside the tank viewing spots (especially important for the whales and dolphin viewing).   we went to a few different shows, dolphins , beluga whales , seals and sea otters , while we were there.  we loved seeing the large mammals.  the shows were definitely written for children, but we learned some new little tidbits, particularly in the beluga show.  it was also interesting to see the exhibit on the local northwest coast.     the best part (and i cannot believe i forgot to put this part) was the rescued pacific white-sided dolphin, daisy.   if you head to the ...

our first official day in vancouver, we headed to stanley park ! we probably picked what ended up being the worst day to go, but off we trudged.  it was rainy off and on hovering around 32F/0C.  we started walking as cars can drive through the park, so out to the point on the north side of the park.  as we walked through, we stopped at the totem poles, which you can see here.  they are pretty interesting! we walked all the way out to the point to the lighthouse.   we also went to the vancouver aquarium, which is inside the park. overall, i enjoyed the park.  it had maps at often enough intervals.  my biggest complaint was the lack of path clearing anywhere in the park.  we spent the entire time trudging on half melted piles of snow.  times visited: 1 time in park: 5 hrs overall: B+

while i was in vancouver, i also headed to the vancouver art gallery ! i went with my boyfriend, who was not super excited about it to begin with. we arrived at the end of the day and were able to use our student IDs to get a discount on entrance. the museum had been mentioned a few different times in the guidebook and i was pretty excited. when we arrived, the building is quite beautiful. we asked for a map of the museum, but they do not have one. Once we started through the museum, we saw that a map was not really necessary. each floor was on a complete exhibit and the top floor is currently closed. the first exhibit started out as interesting...i hoped it would get betteras we went up. it was a good start. it was an exhibition titled we: vancouver . it was a good view of vancouver values and ideals. some of the ideas were unusual and i have seen similar things discussed in detroit like the urban farms and new urban building development. the next exhibit we visited was ken lum ...