As soon as we arrived in Vancouver, we located the Australian Consulate so that one of our touring party could exercise his democratic right to vote - Friday arvo being Election Day in Australia. This worked a lot more efficiently than receiving postal voting papers in Hood river 3 weeks after having ordered them from the AEC.
Vancouver looks a lot different in summer: this was particularly highlighted by our trip up Grouse Mountain in the gondola. The last time I was there, we couldn't do much at the top except admire the view over Van and sit in the bar watching the ice skaters directly outside. This time we went up the chairlift to the peak and took the elevator to the top of the wind turbine to enjoy the view from there.
As we had only a long weekend in Van and we planned to spend it with family, we made a beeline the following day for the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens with a cold bag of champers and a picnic pack of supplies from the French cheese shop.
The gardens were in full bloom: I just loved the various outdoor 'rooms' of different habitats, especially the herbs and flowers, and the grasses. We got through the maze quite efficiently working as a team. The many sculptures featured during our visit were by a group from Zimbabwe called Zimsculpt: these were available for sale but way too heavy to bring back to Abbotsford in a suitcase with a 50lb limit.
This was followed by a lazy sunset on the verandah at Kitsilano, enjoying the view of the bay. Being a bit tired out the next day, an idea started percolating - to do a couple of laps in the longest pool in the Northern Hemisphere - at 137 metres it proved to be an interesting experience. The protocol is for all lap swimmers to swim up on the outside of the right line and return on the outside of the left line (there being only two lines marking the laps). Overtakers swim between the two lines. Got it? The whole effect is further enhanced by its brilliant location overlooking the beach.
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