Vancouver - 2016

Upon exiting the plane and walking to the passport check to enter the country - the Vancouver Airport lets you walk through this pond scene with the amazing eagle perched above. Kudos to YVR, American airports (and the TSA) should visit this airport for tips on how to do it!

First day in Vancouver...started out a little overcast and drizzly. I started by hiking around most of Stanley Park, a GIANT park on a pennensula by the harbor. It is comparable to Central Park in NYC. Super place!

Totem poles

One of these is a national symbol that many travel miles to gaze at the splendor of ....the other thing is a totem pole.

Across the harbor on a dreary morning, the giant pile of sulfur awaiting a ship to take it away certainly stood out!

1st sign that I'm not in America anymore. Listeners to the Hello Internet podcast will recognize (even though it is slightly obscured) that the British Columbia flag on the right is rubbish. Look it up - horrible!

The entire city (this was Stanley Park) has paths to walk next to water...they even have seperate paths or lanes for pedestrians and cyclists! Amazing! This is my kind of city!

Cool dragon statue overlooking the Lions Gate Bridge

I love bridges. I think I drove over this at one point but I'm not sure (it was dark and I didn't really know where I was going...)

Fall was in full effect in Vancouver. Looking at the colorful leaves made me happy (they are beautiful) and sad (it reminded me that this will happen at my house soon and I'll have to rake...)

Very nice path through the woods

Nice lake within Stanley Park that had a cool reflection

Jellyfish from the Vancouver Aquarium. They had a ton of incredible jellyfish - great place to visit.

I watched this crab hang out for a while...he was cool!

Yep...

I sat on this beach on multiple occassons and gazed out to the ships parked in the inlet waiting to come in to the harbor to load up. Very peaceful place.

Granville Island is a island in the middle of Vancouver if you love to shop. I don't...but I do love...

FOOD! This place had some incredible food. I spent a fair amount of money here over a few days.

Yum

I had heard about Durian but never seen one....I didn't try one.

Had a selection of fresh produce to rival that of WalMart!

There was even a broom store. I tried think of a hilarious joke about witches without offending too many people so I'll leave it to you to fill in the blank. "Looks like they were having a convention of _____ in town this week and they all parked here!" Please write the appropriate word in the comments below if you dare!

This is what the weather looked like during most of my trip. Nice!

Sunset at Sunset Beach

On Monday (Canadian Thanksgiving), I took a trip south into the states. I stopped off at this town that has an incredible motto: "Ye Olde City of Subdued Excitement" - at least they are honest!

Cool statue for the local fishing fleet

I took a tour of the Boeing Factory (it's the building to the left, largest enclosed space in the world. I got to see 747's, 777's, and 787's being built. Sadly, cameras were not allowed. When we came back, this Antonov 124 was taking off (extremely impressive thing to see). The tour guy said that this plane is brought in when a supplier misses a deadline and is a little late on sending things through the normal means (train, truck). Behind, you can see some of the dozens of aircraft of all different types getting outfitted and tested before delivery. I love airplanes and this place was heaven!

The front of a GE90 jet engine. It is ENORMOUS! Almost large enough to fit a 737 inside. These monsters can produce up to 115,000 pounds of force and can be found on 777-300's and 777-200LR's (I think those are the two...the 200ER's have smaller engines from RR and PW...I think...

The back of the engine. All of the pipes and wires were availble to check out. Most people would be totally bored by this, but I was geeking out pretty bad!

Once done with the Boeing factory, I headed down to Seattle. I first stopped at the Pikes Place Market. It's sort of like the Granville Island Market, except much worse. This is the place that throws the fish...they didn't seem to be throwing any at that time and I didn't feel like waiting around to see it.

Nice view of the Seattle waterfront

As a note to any current or future employers, I don't know what this store sold because I did not go in. It did have a funny name though.

I visited the "Experience Music Project" Museum in Seattle. They had a special exhibit of the orginal equipment and costumes from Star Wars. I'm not a huge Trekkie, but that's something to see!

Jimi Hendrix's mixing board. I wonder if Matt Broom would trade SMPC's board for this. It has the same sign (look in the top right)

I'm pretty sure if you are a tourist and don't take this picture, you'll be shot on site. I was in America afterall.

In the shadow of the Space Needle is the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. Chihuly is a famous glass artist that has made a ton of really cool glass items.

This was the ceiling of a room - it looked pretty cool!

This is a giant garden of plants made from glass.

From the ceiling

Neat bowl

Part of the exhibit is in a greenhouse or outside.

I thought this was a neat reflection

I named this piece "The Episode Where Big Bird Swallows a Hand Grenade"

Thanks to Andy Cornett for suggesting "MOD Pizza" - it was incredible. You get to pick as many toppings as you want and they make these incredible pizzas. The roasted cloves of garlic are a must get!

I wound down my day in Seattle sitting by this enormous fountain (there are often many people in the bottom part playing in it) as the sun lit up the Space Needle with an incredible golden hue.

The next morning I headed to the mountains! This is a panorama taken in a cool little town of "Horseshoe Bay"

I tried getting a good shot of this massive waterfall but failed.

Gondula to the top of a mountain!