{"id":3775,"date":"2016-07-15T21:15:32","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T01:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/?page_id=3775"},"modified":"2016-07-16T19:44:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T23:44:47","slug":"canadian-rockies-page-07-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/canadian-rockies-page-07-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Rockies – Page 07"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vancouver – The end of our road\/tour<\/h1>\n

We arrived at Vancouver and took a brief tour of the city.\u00a0 One stop was at Stanley Park.\u00a0 From here you can see the cruise piers where cruise ships leave for Alaska. In 2006 Mary Ann and I left from here for a cruise\/tour to Alaska on the Diamond Princess.\"7030<\/a><\/h2>\n

The tide was out so I took the opportunity to look for sea glass.\u00a0 I make jewelry out of sea glass: Pendants and ear rings. Some of the women on the bus asked about my jewelry and I got orders from 5 of them for pendants and ear rings.\"\"<\/h2>\n

Here are the pendants I made for Nancy Arvay:\"7034<\/a><\/h2>\n

After leaving Stanley Park we went to Granville Island. This is\u00a0 the place where all the tourists go in Vancouver. Lots of small shops selling souveniers and tee shirts,\u00a0 It was an industrial island but now it’s almost all shops.\"\"<\/h2>\n

We hadn’t had lunch yet so we headed to the Public Market:\"\"<\/h2>\n

There were loads of food stalls and a big crowd of people:\"\"<\/h2>\n

We found something for lunch and ate while watching a busker perform the usual stuff:<\/h2>\n

After all that driving and Granville Island excitement we were ready to get to the Holiday Inn in down town Vancouver.\u00a0 We had a nice room and unpacked for the night.\u00a0 After a brief rest we took off for a walk down Granville Street (the same street that goes to Granville Island) near the Holiday Inn.<\/h2>\n

This street is littered with tacky shops and dingy cafes that didn’t look too inviting, but a few blocks away we found a nice IGA on Robson Street that had a lot of ready to eat food and a place to sit and watch the people walk by.\"\"<\/h2>\n

The Food Court at the IGA.\"MarketPlace<\/h2>\n

After a nice dinner, we headed back to the Holiday Inn for the night.<\/h2>\n

On Day 14 it was raining a bit in the morning, but Neil drove us to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens located in Vancouver’s Chinatown.<\/h2>\n

Sue, our Chinese-American guide explained the the garden was built in 1985\u20131986. This\u00a0 inner garden was conceived by Wang Zu-Xin as the chief architect, with the help of experts from the Landscape Architecture<\/a> Company of Suzhou<\/a>, China. Funding for the project came from the Chinese and Canadian governments, the local Chinese community, and other public and private sector sources, and it opened on April 24, 1986, in time for Expo 86<\/a>.<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"7045<\/a><\/p>\n

Because the climate in Vancouver is similar to that of Suzhou, many of the same plant varieties are found in the garden as in its Suzhou counterparts. The plants were chosen according to their blossom schedules in order to emphasize seasonal changes, especially the \u201cawakening\u201d in spring. They are also selected to invoke the symbolic, historical, and literary meaning of each plant and are used sparingly, in contrast to western gardens, and provide colour through all the seasons.<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Classical Chinese gardens employ philosophical<\/a> principles of Feng shui, Yin Yang,<\/a> and Taoism<\/a>, striving to achieve harmony and a balance of opposites. Craggy rocks, for example, are juxtaposed against delicate foliage. Water is also an important element of the garden, and the large pond offers stillness, sound, a reflection of the sky, and helps to unify the other elements.<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"7040<\/a><\/p>\n

The garden is named in honour of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen<\/a>, a nationalist<\/a> leader who is considered the \u201cfather of modern China.\u201d The attribution is not arbitrary, as it emphasizes his connection with Vancouver. While traveling the world to raise awareness of, and funding for, the Chinese nationalist movement, Sun Yat-Sen stayed in Vancouver on three different occasions for extended periods.<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are even Yin Yang salt and pepper shakers in the Gift Shop.<\/h2>\n

\"7042<\/a><\/p>\n

For lunch we went to the Floata Seafood Restaurant. Floata is a unique venue in the historic Chinatown area of Vancouver. As North America\u2019s largest Chinese restaurant. , Floata has become one of Vancouver\u2019s top venues for hosting a banquet.<\/h2>\n

Here is the parking garage and restaurant (second floor):<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It has 20,000 square feet of dining space that seats 1,000 guests With the newly renovated dining space, along with the convenience of a 7-floor secured indoor parking lot.\"https:\/\/yagmurbaspinar.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/floata.jpg\"<\/h2>\n

We were seated at several round tables with a lazy susan in the middle (just like restaurants in China).\u00a0 Dishes were placed on the lazy susan and we spun it to select a dish to our liking.\"\"<\/h2>\n

After lunch we returned to the hotel and had a relaxing afternoon hanging out in down town Vancouver.<\/h2>\n

We gathered at dinnertime for a last ride for our Fare Well Dinner at Milestones Grill & Bar on English Bay, Vancouver.\"\"<\/h2>\n
\n

The below mysterious stone figures can be found throughout the circumpolar world. Inukshuk<\/em>, the singular of inuksuit, means “in the likeness of a human” in the Inuit language.<\/h2>\n

This type of structure forms the basis of the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics designed by Vancouver artist Elena Rivera MacGregor. It is widely acknowledged that this design pays tribute to the inukshuk that stands at Vancouver’s English Bay.<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Friendship and the welcoming of the world are the meanings of both the English Bay structure and the 2010 Winter Olympics emblem.<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/h2>\n

Here\u00a0 are some pictures of our group.\u00a0 Great group!<\/h2>\n

\"7050<\/a>\u00a0 \"7060<\/a> \"7065<\/a> \"7070<\/a><\/h2>\n

Across the street from the Milestone is a public art structure called the “Laughing Giants”. The sculpture was designed by Yue Minjun<\/a> and installed in Morton and\u00a0 along the English Bay<\/a> in West End, Vancouver<\/a> in 2009. The patinated<\/a> bronze sculpture<\/a>, composed of 14 statues each about three metres tall and weighing over 250 kilograms, portrays the artist’s own image “in a state of hysterical laughter”. <\/span><\/h2>\n

As part of the installation, an inscription carved into cement seating states “May this sculpture inspire laughter playfulness and joy in all who experience it.<\/span><\/h2>\n

I couldn’t help laughing!<\/h2>\n

\"7075<\/a><\/p>\n

Our final trip picture.\u00a0 Mary Ann and I laughing together before our long trip home the next day.<\/h2>\n

It was a great trip.\u00a0 Saw a lot of spectacular scenery.\u00a0 Met some great folks. Had a super-great\u00a0 GCT Program Director, Made some enlightening “Discoveries” Had a super-careful bus driver, Ate some interesting meals, and stayed in some really nice hotels.<\/h2>\n

\"7080<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s all folks!<\/h1>\n

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Vancouver – The end of our road\/tour We arrived at Vancouver and took a brief tour of the city.\u00a0 One stop was at Stanley Park.\u00a0 From here you can see the cruise piers where cruise ships leave for Alaska. In … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3775","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3775"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3817,"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3775\/revisions\/3817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}