BC's Coastal Rain Forest

BC's Coastal Rain Forest

Two People Walking by Trout Pond

No trip to the west coast would be complete without an excursion into the woods, which are a darn sight different from those in the East. Do you see those little things at the bottom of the picture? Those are people. This should give you an idea of the size of the trees in British Columbia.

I took my daughter up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge for some outdoor walking. The footbridge is 450 feet in length and sits 200 feet above the Capilano River in North Vancouver. As I felt the sidewards sway taking my first few steps onto the bridge, I heard, "Oh bloody hell!" from a man with a Scottish brogue behind me. I turned to see a middle-aged man wide-eyed and looking straight down, clinging to the rope rails. His children were laughing. "Just give us a second to get used to this, will ya," he said. Even though you're only 200 feet from the ground, it seems much higher.

On the other side, there was a beautiful nature walk past a trout pond and plenty of activities for children to discover the different layers of the rain forest. The treetop tour gives the visitor a squirrel's-eye view of the forest, taking the visitor up another 100 feet into the Douglas fir trees, through a long series of suspension bridges with more spectacular views of the canyon and Capilano River. There are also some magnificent totem poles at the entrance and a historical guide to the park and area. Oddly enough, we heard a group of people singing, "Farewell to Nova Scotia" and a few other songs from the Atlantic provinces.

This trip was a welcome break from the city and a great opportunity to breathe some fresh mountain air.

Related posts:
Vancouver, the Beautiful
The Vancouver Aquarium


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The Vancouver Aquarium

The Vancouver Aquarium

Aboriginal Art Sculpture

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Vancouver was a visit to the city's aquarium. With an emphasis on West Coast marine life and conservation, the Vancouver Aquarium offers both interesting and aesthetically pleasing displays of both flora and fauna. As we walked through, I could hear the cheerful and enthusiastic staff passing on their knowledge to visitors. The Aquarium also provided some very motivating paper and pencil activities that I saw a lot of young people working on.

Although we all go to aquariums to see the big fish, the belugas and dolphins, I found myself just as interested in the beautiful underwater plants, the laid-back starfish and, of course, the relaxing beauty and flow of the jellyfish (Don't believe me? Check out my video below). All the animals seemed happy and well-cared for, and the aquarium offered both under and above-water viewing.

An added bonus was the 4D Experience Theatre. We were given a pair of 3D glasses to view a short film on sea life in the shallows. Well, what is the fourth dimension? That would be the spray of water you get when a dolphin jumps out of the sea, the tickle of a wire on the back of your legs as a nest of snakes disperses or the jolt your seat receives when a predator pounces on its prey. The 4D surprises had most of us on the edge of our seats. There was a lot of laughing and screaming, most of which came from the adults, namely me.

Curious Otter

The only criticism I have of the Aquarium was that the paper and pencil activities were not available in French. Yes, after living in Quebec for 10 years, I have had two children whose first language is our other official language, and as every parent knows, my job is to advocate on their behalf and ensure that they have every opportunity to learn. I asked and was disappointed to learn that my daughter could not benefit from the well-developed and highly motivating activities the Aquarium staff had prepared. Although the Aquarium does offer some programming in French, there was no translation of these exercises available.

Apart from this, the Vancouver Aquarium is not to be missed if you are visiting the Lower Mainland.

Check out the 1-minute video of the Moon Jelly Fish.






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Vancouver, the Beautiful

Vancouver, the Beautiful

View of Mountains in North Vancouver

Last week I was in Vancouver for the first time since the early 1980s. A lot has changed both in my circumstances and in those of the city. Downtown Vancouver no longer appears to be the end of the line for runaways, drug addicts, panhandlers and prostitutes. This may still be the case in the Down Town East Side (DTES); however, I was struck more by the opulence of the city's core--the empty office towers, the new BC Place stadium, the Colosseum-style library, the Skytrain, the Olympic and Expo buildings and the emptiness of the once thriving Chinatown.

Cherry Blossom

If my memory serves me correctly, downtown Vancouver was much more Asian, Native and gritty. I was told that the city had gone through several successive clean-ups in recent decades and that certain populations had been shifted to other areas of the Lower Mainland. I once felt like a foreigner in the hustle and bustle of Chinatown, which has apparently moved south to the city of Richmond. The empty office buildings, I was told, were the holdings of wealthy Chinese poised for the next economic boom, which was expected sometime in the next three years. In addition, some 130,000 new immigrants were expected to arrive in Vancouver shortly, according to our tour bus driver.

Gates to Chinatown

Of course, some things had not changed. The 1,000-acre Stanley Park, just west of the downtown, was still there with its towering trees and relatively new seawall for cyclists and pedestrians. The fresh forest air, the smell of red cedar and the beauty of the surrounding coastal mountains are among my fondest memories of British Columbia. We were just in time for the cherry blossoms and azaleas, but it had been a cold spring, so the rose garden in Stanley Park had only some tender green to offer.

So which Vancouver do I prefer? The new orderly wealthy White city or the old, adventurous, multi-ethnic chaotic mixture of rich and poor. Difficult to say...orderly is good for investments, which leave me indifferent, while diversity makes for a much more interesting city, or is that just nostalgia speaking? Whatever you prefer, the sushi is still cheap and the rain plentiful.

For further reading on real estate speculation in Vancouver click here.



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