Day 1 -- Vancouver

Over the next few weeks, I'll share some images and thoughts from our trip to Alaska. I'll try not to make it too much of a travel log, but then again...it's my blog, and I'll log if I wanna. (Click on any image to make it larger.)

Day 1 was Vancouver. We arrived in town about 2pm after flying from Charleston to Washington, DC, to Denver and then to Vancouver. We rode a bus from the airport to the dock with a talkative bus driver who told us about the city.

There are two ethnic areas of the town -- China Town and India Town. There were still several buildings that one might recognize from the Olympics. They had removed the temporary roof from the building where the opening and closing ceremonies were held and were currently installing the permanent roof (not done in time for the event). The dorms where the athletes lived were to become low income housing. I thought that was a cool idea

The original part of the city was called Gastown (named after Gassy Jack Deighton -- yes, really). The city used to be heated by a steam heat system, which was also harnessed to power a Steam clock -- very interesting.We boarded the ship at the dock. Seven large sails are the highlight of the area -- once for each province of Canada (I think). Victoria, the capitol of the Province, is located on a an island near Vancouver.

The bridge over the bay as we cruised away was designed by the same man who designed Golden Gate Bridge.