10th August - Touring Vancouver

Today was our first full day in Vancouver. We took a half day sight-seeing tour around the city.
First stop was Stanley Park, named after Lord Stanley of Stanley Cup fame. 

After that it was on to Granville Island for lunch.  Granville Island used to be heavily industrial, but today it's being redeveloped as a location for artists and food.  There's a huge food market, where Denise and I had lunch (or tried to).  The seagulls around the island are demons for stealing people's food.  I had an ice-cream that came in a choux bun.  They cut the top off the bun, fill it with ice-cream, and then put the top back on in a moon shape - sticking up like a decoration.  Before I'd even sat down a gull swooped in and made off with the piece of pastry sticking out of the top of the ice-cream!   The only heavy industry left on Granville Island is the cement factory, but even her the artists are taking over - by decorating the tanks with a mural called "Giants".

The tour bus drove us around Gastown and ended at the Vancouver look out.  Unfortunately the only way up to admire the view is in a glass lift that goes up the outside of the building - so Denise went up and I waited at the bottom.

In the evening we went to Joe Forte's for some very nice seafood and some giant desserts.  The restaurant is named after one of Vancouver's first life guards.