PART 3 - SIGHTSEEING

We had selected the Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel for our stay in Vancouver because of it's business relationship with the Oak Bay Marine Group, the owners of The April Point Lodge where we spent the last days of our vacation.  OBMG owns several Resort/Fishing lodges and facilities on Vancouver Island and the northern coastal area of British Columbia.  As most of the people staying at these facilities must fly there to and from Vancouver, and, most must spend at least one night in Vancouver going to or coming from them the relationship between OBMG and the Fairmont Airport Hotel is a natural. The hotel is first class and we enjoyed our stay very much.

Having but two full days to sightsee in and around Vancouver, we put a lot of things in a list and chose to be sure and drive up to the town of Whistler and to visit Granville Island and the Vandusen Botanical Gardens. We also had selected several drives around the area to fill in any time we might have left over after seeing the above.

DAY 7 - TUESDAY MAY 28TH: When we woke up Tuesday morning, it was raining and the TV indicated that it would continue to rain off and on for the next two days. This was not good for local sightseeing so we decided to take the drive up to Whistler and hope for some better weather higher up in the mountains.

From the Airport in Vancouver, it is very easy to get through the main city and across the Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver and then on up Highway 1 to Whistler. In the rain, it was an unpleasant 2 hour + drive and with the cloud cover there was not much to see on the way up.

Once we got there the rain abated and we did get nice views of the surrounding mountains and we were able to walk around the town and check out the shops. We had lunch at the local "Boston Pizza Company" which served very good French Onion Soup with a baked cheese topping and toasted cheese bread on the side. We are sure that with that one meal we consumed our allotted ration of cholesterol for the entire year. Boy it was good!!!

The rain had subsided and the clouds had risen considerably for our ride back into Vancouver so we were able to enjoy the views and made several stops at overlooks. Getting back across the Lions Gate Bridge required some maneuvering as they have several lanes merging into only one line heading into the city in the afternoon. Naturally, not being familiar with this, we got into the wrong lane when approaching this situation. I solved the problem by following a large bus which took a bus only protected lane and got us onto the bridge way ahead of the people we had been traveling with. Luckily there were no RCMP's around. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police).

As it was approaching 4:00 o'clock when we got back across the bridge and we did not want to get tied up in the after work traffic for our 10+ mile ride back to the airport, we drove directly back to the airport and our hotel where we had a great time sitting in the lounge with drinks watching the planes come and go.

DAY 8 WEDNESDAY MAY 29TH: More rain when we got up and even more was forecasted for the day. As we had rain gear with us we decided to start out by going to Granville Island where we definitely wanted to see the "Model Railroad-Game Fishing-Model Ships" Museum.

The rain had stopped for a few moments when we arrived just before 10 o'clock, and we found a parking spot good for 3 hours very near the museum. This little museum is wonderful as it displays in three separate areas the items it is named for. The only real problem I have with the operation is the fact that NO photographs of any kind may be taken inside and they confiscate cameras going in.

The displays are most interesting. There are well over 100 of the most detailed scale models of ships and boats including war ships, fishing boats, famous cruise ships and many other large and small vessels. The detailing of some of them was marvelous.

In another part of the building were displayed hundreds if not thousands of vintage fishing reels, rods, lures and other fishing items. I saw fishing plugs that I had not seen since I was a teenager and keep wishing that someone would produce again as I have great memories of catching fish on them. There were some items of tackle that made me wonder why they were ever discontinued as they seemed so practical.

Finally on the 2nd floor was the Model Railroad exhibit. There were many individual model railroad cars and engines displayed and also there was an entire large room containing a working set up to scale of H gage trains with all of the detailed landscape, bridges and trestles, tunnels and cross overs.

There were I believe 6 trains running on these tracks at the same time. Some of them were running in different directions while others waited on sidings for the passing trains before continuing on their trip around set up. 

This museum is a wonderful way to kill a couple of hours on a rainy day and we are glad that we had the opportunity to see it.

After the museum, we wandered around the island looking at the shops and markets before leaving and heading for the Vandusen Botanical Gardens which we definitely wanted to see since it was spring time and we were sure that there would be bountiful items in bloom.

The garden is very nicely located in the city and has good off street free parking close into the main entrance area. This feature we really appreciated as it began to rain again just as we arrived.

We decided to go ahead and enter the gardens hoping that the rain would stop long enough for us to see part if not all of the garden areas.  While we were waiting for the rain to stop, we were approached by one of the volunteers who happened to be in a motorized chair. We talked for a while about where we are from and the flowers that were in bloom and all the while hoping that it would stop raining.

When it did not seem that the rain would stop, this man excused himself for a moment and when he cam back he had a big golf umbrella which he said he had gotten out of his car. He offered this umbrella to us to help us see part of the gardens even though the rain was still falling. We thought that this was a wonderful gesture. 

Just as we started out, another volunteer lady drove up in a covered golf cart and offered to give us a covered cart tour of the gardens along with a couple of other people who had just about decided to skip the gardens for the day. 

For the next hour or so we rode around the gardens with the wonderfully knowledgeable lady who was able to point out what flowers we were looking at, how long the garden had been growing them, where they came from and all of the things we would have never learned had we been walking by ourselves.

If you are in Vancouver with some time to spare, we highly recommend that you see the Vandusen Gardens. Tell them that the "oldgator" sent you.

After leaving the gardens at about 3:30 pm we decided to drive out towards the university and stop at some of the lookout areas before going back to the Hotel before the rush hour.

TO VIEW PICTURES OF OUR SIGHTSEEING IN VANCOUVER