May 27, 2016

May 27  Vancouver

   

   This morning the sky had lots of white and light gray clouds, but some patches of blue sky, too. It was a cool 9 C.  There were still puddles on the streets from the overnight rain.  The forecast was for showers this afternoon.

   After breakfast at the hotel we drove taking almost an hour to get to the University of B. C. to view the Botanical Gardens.  This was graduation week.  We were able to get a parking spot in the Rose Garden Parkade and then walk about 30 minutes to the University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens, where we purchased a ticket for the gardens and the Greenheart Canopy Walkway.  We had walked about 3 km. There were areas of sunlight where the surrounding shaded sections were cooler and a mist of evaporating moisture rose from the ground.  We walked through the rainforest on asphalt paths and wood chip paths along the Upper Asian path, to the entrance to the Greenheart Canopy Walkway of suspended steel walkways supported by steel cables.  There were stops for platforms around trees and about eight suspended walkways in the midst of the trees about 25 metres in the air.  There were about 400 metres of suspended walkways before returning to the ground.  When we returned to the ground we followed the lower Asian Trail to the tunnel under the road to reach the Food Garden of herbs and vegetables and the Alpine Garden of alpine plant species from six continents. Then we returned beneath the roadway to the lower Asian Trail and to the Botanical Gardens exit.  We had logged 5.94 km. The walk back to the car park was another 2.3 km.

   Next we set the GPS to Stamps Landing at False Creek to meet Tante Loretta and Alain as well as cousin, Murray, for lunch at Branas, where we had a cousins and aunt reunion over a bottle of Pinot Noir wine. We ordered Kale and Spinach Salad or Mediterranean Hash.  We said good-bye to Murray as he had to return to work and we reminisced more before the parking meter time was nearly expired.  Then we set the GPS to take us to cousin, Janine and her husband, Anton’s home.  We met the children and over appetizers and dinner enjoyed another reunion. We had taken the China trip pictures in their albums to share with the relatives.  We enjoyed a photo presentation of Janine’s son’s recent pictures, and some games and dance performances from Janine’s daughter.  After a wonderful family evening we left at the same time as Tante Loretta and Alain and returned to our hotel.

  Total distance walked 11.10 km