Vancouver Trip 2011: Day 4 Monday

Having spent the early hours of Monday at a club let's just say that Monday didn't get started until noon.  That's when my girlfriend finally woke up, while she was sleeping I was in the living room reading a book.  it was all fine, but I really wanted to go, it's was nice outside, the sun was shining, how could I not want to go outside. But my friend did not disappoint and she got up before noon and we were on our way.

 

Our first stop, and really only stop, was Stanley Park.  I have this love for Stanley Park that is hard to explain to other people. It's something about the park that just gives me a sense of peace. I think when I get to New York, Central Park will offer the same feeling.  I am not much of a nature girl, I don't really care for camping, I like to be warm and I hate to be wet, unless I am swimming, but I do appreciate Nature and what it has to offer.  So a park like Stanley Park in a huge metropolis that makes you feel like you are way out of town just has a special calling to me.  That's the best way to describe it, the peace I feel in Stanley park  is reminiscent of the Peace I feel when I am in Lake Tahoe (my favourite place on the planet).

We spent a good two hours in Stanley Park, I would have been happy spending time there until the sun was setting, but my girlfriend had to work.  So in our two hours at Stanley park we walked around the park.  We walked by the Aquarium, which I plan to take my kids to one day, and to the totem poles.  I really enjoyed the totem poles, and reading about them.  I truly admire the Native Culture and the creations they have made and their impact on our society today. For me history shapes our future and if we deny our future we deny our true history.

The stories behind the totem poles were all interesting because I, well I don't know what I used to think, but I had no idea that Totem Poles had so many uses and meanings within the tribes of the Northwest.  They really used them for everything, and they were one of the only tribes to use them.  I suspect it has to do with them not being as nomadic as the prairie tribes and the trees in British Columbia being the large redwoods that lent themselves to being carved in that manner.  I find it sad that people had actually stolen the real totem poles.  It's terrible the destruction people do to our historical items because they lose their significance when they are not honoured properly. 

Monday night we just chilled at my friend's house the next day I would be going home. We had talked about doing the Grouse Grind, which I was pumped to challenge myself to do.  It would be one huge staircase like the ones at Heritage Ranch that I run ten times when I go, but instead I would only do this one once.  I don't think my friend had faith in me that I could do it, just based on some of the things she said, and it was a little frustrating to me but I had seen a lot of Vancouver and was beginning to miss my family and really just wanting to get home.

Inside the trunk of a tree in Stanley Park!!