the west coast; a breath of fresh air

It was July 31st when we landed in Vancouver after a five hour flight. With cloudy sky and drizzling rain we made our way to the first point of interest; our self-proclaimed initiation to our journey, the National Buddhist Temple. Despite the rain, the beautiful energy of the space was clearly felt right after exiting the car. We wandered through the gardens and were astonished by the statues of various Bodhisattvas that reached the temple ceilings. Offerings had been made at various places, consisting of fruits and flowers mostly. After about ninety minutes, we had taken in a lot of positive energy and decided to leave, knowing very well that we would return to this beautiful place once again in the not too distant future. Off we went towards downtown Vancouver to check into our hotel.

That night we went for Japanese food on Denman Street, which quickly became a great place of interest. The restaurant was called Toratatsu and I had an interesting main course; it was a bowl of rice with seasonal ingredients. Little did I know that the seasonal ingredients consisted of vegetables and grilled eel. There is a first time for everything, I suppose. Driving along Robson Street we quickly realized that Starbucks dominates the streets of Vancouver. In fact, I don't recall seeing a Tim Horton's anywhere, which is unheard of in Ontario. At one intersection, for example, there were two Starbucks facing each other. Clearly an indication that we would get along with the city just fine.

Over the next few days we went up Grouse Mountain where we astonishingly watched two orphaned grizzly bears and zip-lined through the trees. We did whale watching, which was an amazing experience. A promised three-hour trip on a little zodiac turned into five hours, and boy was it a bumpy ride. If you ever decide to get into a zodiac, I would suggest sitting in the second or even the third row because my entire body was aching for a few days afterwards. We went through a misty patch on the water and out of no where appeared a pod of killer whales in resting mode. I will not forget the sound of the water spurting out of their blow hole as they swam by our boat.

One day we drove up to Whistler after the rocks had been cleared from the Sea to Sky Highway. The rock slide happened just a couple of days prior to use flying into Vancouver. We went to the peak of Whistler Mountain and the view was almost therapeutic. It reminded me of the snow-capped mountains in Switzerland.

The trip was very eye-opening and just reaffirmed my desire to spend more time in Vancouver once we are done with this school year. Heron and I both fell in love with the city. We drove through different neighborhoods and visited the Vancouver Aquarium. The dolphins and beluga whales were majestic.

The festival of lights just came to an end when we were there and we had the privilege to witness the fireworks one evening. We sat on the extremely crowded beach near English Bay and were blown away by the thirty-minute display. Never in my life have I seen so many people in one space. We speed walked back to the hotel after the fireworks.

Another example of great timing on our part, Vancouver Pride was going on that weekend as well. What a breath of fresh air Vancouver is compared to London, Ontario. When they say Vancouver is a queer-friendly city, they are putting it mildly. Couples walking around hand in hand, pride flags all over the place and pride cup cakes at the hotel just to top it all off.

To make a long story short, we were impressed with Vancouver. We are excited about Vancouver and we can't wait to go back. Vancouver is the whole package and exactly what we need.