British Columbia Archives

The Alaska Adventure starts in Vancouver

Our Alaska Cruise departs from Vancouver, Canada. We flew into Vancouver the day before we had to board. This time we were cruising on Princess Cruise Lines. So far I’ve been on Royal Caribbean, Carnival and now Princess. I had been to Vancouver years ago for a convention. Its a beautiful city.

We didn’t have much time to explore but we did get a chance to walk along the waterfront after breakfast and before we headed to the ship. The staff at our hotel, The Best Western Sands, were awesome; helpful with our luggage and transportation to the ship.

Strolling along the Seawall

Our morning stroll started in a sculpture garden. The main sculpture is A-Maze-ing Laughter by the Chinese artist Yue Minjun.

Even though it was raining the gardeners were working on the landscaping so flowers were abundant.

So were the birds. There were Herons, gulls, ducks, geese and loads more that I couldn’t identify. I shouldn’t have been surprised about the rain. Vancouver and much of southwestern Alaska are part of a temperate rain forest! Who knew? I think of rain forest as the Amazon or Brazil but the Pacific Northwest is also rain forest! Little did we know that the rainy Vancouver morning foreshadowed what we would experience on our cruise.

Time to head to the ship

The morning flew by and before we knew it, it was time for lunch and then we needed to find the ship. The hotel concierge told us we were close to the port but with our luggage we felt a cab was a good choice. The front desk made a call bringing a cab right to the front of the hotel. It really wasn’t far to the port but there was a lot of traffic. We probably could have gotten there faster walking but I’m pretty sure we would have gotten lost! Taking the cab was the right choice.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is living up to it’s reputation for rain. Vancouver is Canada’s third most rainy city, with over 161 rainy days per year! Even so we were determined to get in a bit of time exploring Stanley Park.

Stanley Park is Vancouver’s first, largest, and most beloved urban park. We stopped at the front desk for directions and to find out where we could leave our luggage until we left for the cruise ship.

Continuing in the friendly tradition I mentioned yesterday the desk tagged the luggage for us and placed it behind the desk. That way we could check out, they could get the room ready for the next guest and we could call for our luggage later.

The clerk also told us we were just steps from Stanley Park. I’m not sure if we went in the wrong direction but we ended up in a park that followed the water front. We didn’t get to the normal Stanly Park attractions like the Totem poles, the botanical gardens , or any monuments. I believe that we ended up following the Seawall.

The Seawall is a scenic 22 km path that lines Vancouver’s waterfront. We got caught up watching the birds that seemed to be everywhere, mostly herons and ducks.

There were also plenty of dogs jogging with their owners.

In spite of the cool weather, the landscaping was well underway.

Our walk started with a sculpture of laughing men.

A bit of research identified the sculpture as A-Maze-ing Laughter by the Chinese artist Yue Minjun. It is well named as it had us both smiling as we explored the bronze statutes.

The huge sails that dominate the waterfront were built for the 1986 World’s Fair . These sails are Vancouver’s equivalent of the Sydney Opera House or the Empire State Building. Located on Canada Place you can’t miss them.

We also passed a sculpture that looked like it was right out of Stonehenge.

This is an inuksuk which is a stone landmark or cairn built by humans. Such monuments were used by the First Nation People of the Artic Region. An inuksuk was used as the basis of the Vancouver 2010 logo and the construction of inuksuit around the world have led to increasing recognition of them.

The time passed quickly and before we had even scratched the surface it was time to get lunch, retrieve our bags and get a cab to the main event….the cruise ship. The friendly desk clerks helped us gather our bags and even called a cab for us.

The time had come for the adventure to really begin.