While in Vancouver for the OpenStack Summit, I made some time to visit some of the sights as well. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do as much as I’d like, when I arrived early on Sunday I was sick and had to take it easy, so missed the Women of OpenStack boat tour and happy hour. Then after a stunning week of sunny weather, the Saturday afternoon following the summit brought rain. But I did get out on Saturday to explore some anyway.
First thing on Saturday morning I laced up my running shoes and took advantage of the beautiful path around the waterfront to go for a run. Of all the places away from home I’ve run, there’s been a common theme: water. From Perth to Miami, and even here at home in San Francisco, there’s something about running along the water that defies exhaustion otherwise brought on by travel to inspire me to get out there. It was a great run, one of my longer ones in recent memory.
While on my run I got to see the sea planes one last time. The next time I visit Vancouver, taking one of them to Victoria will definitely be on my list, I knew I’d regret not taking time on Saturday to do it and I totally do! Vancouver isn’t that far away, I’ll have my chance some other time.
I then packed up and checked out of my hotel in time to meet a couple colleagues for lunch, and then I was off to Stanley Park to visit the Vancouver Aquarium. I’ve been to a lot of aquariums, and this one is definitely in my top 5. They had a Sea Monsters Revealed exhibit that I visited first, very similar to the Bodies exhibits that show the insides of people, these ones showed the inside of sea animals. Gross and cool.
Fish, frogs, jellyfish, but the big draw for me is always the marine mammals. I continue to have mixed feelings about keeping large animals like belugas in captivity, but they were amazing to see. While I got a glimpse of one of the dolphin from an underwater tank, the above ground section was closed due the other recovering from surgery, which I later learned was sadly unsuccessful and she passed away the next day. Then of course there were the sea otters, oh the adorable sea otters! I also got to see the penguins get some food from one of their caretakers, after which they were quite lively, waddling around their habitat and going for swims.
Great visit, highly recommended. The rest of Stanley Park was beautiful too, I should have taken more pictures!
More photos from the aquarium here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157651049343264
I then headed back down to Gastown, the historic district of Vancouver, for some shopping and browsing. I picked up some lovely first nation-made goodies as well as some maple coffee, which may be a tourist gimmick, but it is one of the few types of coffees I’ve grow accustom to drinking black and it’s tricky to find south of the border. Gastown is also where the really cool steam-powered clock lives. While not historic, it is very steam punk.
And with that, the skies opened up and it began raining. I had planned for this and wore my new raincoat supplied as the gift to OpenStack attendees (nice thinking in Vancouver!). It was good to break it in with some nice Vancouver rain, but I did get a bit soggy where I wasn’t covered by the raincoat while walking back to the hotel. I then enjoyed a drink with a colleague who was also escaping the rain and we enjoyed chatting and I wrote some post cards before heading to the airport.
Saturday, May 30th, 2015 at 20:06
I was in Vancouver in late 2002/03 and we made it to the aquarium, are there still any beluga whales?
While in Gastown we almost got mugged! We went into a shop and told the store assistant what happened and they said he was known for such as he was homeless.
Vancouver is a lovely city!
Thursday, Jun 4th, 2015 at 15:52
Yep, they still have a pair of beluga whales!