There's more to Vancouver than Stanley Park...

But you wouldn't know it from these pictures!! Our first few days in Vancouver seemed to involve spending most of our time there... but it is a really fantastic park.

Actually, the word park doesn't really do it justice - it's 1000 acres with play parks, restaurants, beaches, forests, walking and biking trails, an aquarium, heated outdoor pool, formal gardens, totem poles and a free trolley bus to get around. And all only 15 minutes walk from our hotel (would love to pretend this was all part of a masterplan, but just dumb luck - could have ended up anywhere in Vancouver when picking accommodation!).

This picture of the Vancouver skyline is taken from the seawall in Stanley Park and makes Vancouver look very pretty - which it isn't!!! Not to say it's not a great town - we all really loved it and the kids thought it was great too - but I expected it to be more attractive than it was - lots of dated high rises and even the newer ones manage to look a bit messy. But a wonderful place in spite of that...



Even managed to see a bit of wildlife too - our first raccoon - enthusiasm slightly dampened by one local telling us there was a rabies warning in place, but still...



And a bit more wildlife - James announced that we were in a primeval swamp (!) so they all proceeded to be dinosaurs. Nutters.





We went for a walk and found the Lost Lagoon, which then presumably wasn't lost anymore, and saw the snow still on the top of the mountains behind.

We tried to find the children's railway, but failed, so walked back along the seawall and had to content ourselves with the discovery of the best climbing tree ever.

Better than any park, the children reckoned. We spent a LOT of time on this tree... I suspect this tree was one of the ones brought down in a big storm in 2006, and amazingly, in spite of the fact that it's lying on its side, it's still growing!









So that was it for Day 1 in Vancouver. Will fill you in on Granville Island, our return to Stanley Park and meeting up with our Canadian relatives soon...