First Day of Alaska Vacation

My sister, my husband, two friends and I decided to go to Alaska.  The trip to the airport takes over an hour so we left ahead of time in case there were any delays.  Once we got to the airport, we waited 30 minutes for the Delta check in desk to open.  I wonder how long the people in front of us had been waiting.

 

When I booked the flights, I knew our layover in Seattle was just over an hour but, a month before the trip, they changed the flight time to 16 minutes later.  Knowing that that would make the connection time short, I called Delta and was reassured that we would have plenty of time.  They told me that, even if we missed our flight, there were flights every 2 hours.  I didn't like that, but they weren't willing to change our flights.  
But then our flight out of Eugene was delayed another 30 minutes.  Once in Seattle it landed at a remote site from which we had to take a bus to the actual gate!  Yep, we missed the flight to Seattle, but we were far from the only ones that the delay affected.  I heard a lot of people complaining.

Anyway, they put us on the next flight at 3:27.  Now we had time to catch a bite to eat. The plane boarded on time, backed away from the jetway and stopped for a mechanical issue. They shut the plane down for a while for maintenance. Then, after a 20-minute wait, they decided that the plane wasn't going anywhere so it pulled back to the gate, and we deplaned.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME????!!!!
A short time after we had all deplaned, they announced we were taking another plane at a different gate.  I think we went to three different concourse this day.  Anyway, we waited to board this next plane.  Once boarded at 5:10 pm, the plane went to the end of the runway, and we waited for at least 15 minutes for a break in traffic so we could actually take off.  Most of the flights I take anymore see to be either delayed or cancelled.
We had a smooth flight to Vancouver and going through Canadian Customs was quick.  We were lucky to get a taxi for all five of us. 

I'll just say the taxi ride to our downtown hotel was an adventure.  We passed by one very interesting building, but I couldn't get a photo, so I found this one.  The building is smaller at the bottom than at the top.

Vancouver, BC, Canada

There seemed to be a lot of interestingly shaped buildings in Vancouver.  This one was right across the road from our room at the Coal Coast Harbour Hotel in downtown Vancouver. 

 

We took a bus excursion whose first stop was Stanley Park. Stanley Park is a 1,001-acre public park with many attractions including, a petting zoo, a polar bear exhibit, an aquarium, and a miniature train. Stanley Park is about one-fifth larger than New York City's 840-acre Central Park and almost half the size of London's 2,360-acre Richmond Park.  As you can see by the photo, tram rides are available.

Horse-pulled tram rides.  We had to follow one for a little while, very slowly.  Wikipedia has some great information on Stanley Park.  Interesting history.

Our bus dropped us by the totem poles.  From here we got a view of downtown Vancouver.

And cruise ships at Canada Place Cruise Port.

There are three "People Amongst the People" archway sculptures by the totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park.  I found a great website that goes into the history of each of the totem poles.  If you are interested in more information, go to 
https://quirkytravelguy.com/stanley-park-vancouver-totem-poles-bridges/

This plaque is very hard to read so here is what it says. "The totem was the British Columbia Indians "coat of arms". Totem poles are unique to the northwest coast of B.C. and lower Alaska.  They were carved from western red cedar and each carving tells of a real or mythical event.  They were not idols, nor were they worshipped.  Each carving on each pole has a meaning. The eagle, represents the kingdom of the air; the whale, the lordship of the sea; the wolf, the genius of the land; and the frog, the transitional link between land and sea."

Archaeological evidence suggests a human presence in the park dating back more than 3,000 years. The area is the traditional territory of multiple coastal Indigenous peoples, so it is an appropriate area for these totem poles. The collection began in the 1920s and has grown over the years, with some poles dating back to the 1880s. The totem poles were moved to their current location in the 1960s. Each pole tells a unique story through its carvings, depicting animals and supernatural beings like eagles, ravens, bears, and wolves.  

If you have trouble reading any photo, double click on it to enlarge for reading.

Next, we walked to a view of Vancouver Harbour.  The above photo is of a display that labels the features in the photo.

This is a photo I took of the view.

Up close of piles of sulfur on the north shore of Vancouver Harbour. Sulfur is used for making car batteries, fertilizer, oil refining, water processing, and mineral extraction. Other applications for sulfur-based chemicals include rubber vulcanization, bleaching paper, and product making such as cement, detergents, and pesticides. And some gunpowder.  I found a great website about sulfur and how important it is to our bodies and much more.  
 https://byjus.com/chemistry/sulfur/

Prospect Point Lighthouse is part of Stanley Park.  

Lions Gate Bridge

There were a few informational panels by the gift shop. 

Our bus tour of Stanley Park only took us to a small portion of the park.

We boarded the bus and continued our tour of Vancouver.  The highway back into downtown is the only major artery across the narrows to West Vancouver on the north shore so it's a very busy road.   

Just one of the many interesting buildings in Vancouver, B.C. 

What a juxtaposition of a half-timbered look to a skyscraper in the back.

What a pretty littlefreelibrary!

Next stop - Granville Island.  The city of Vancouver was called Granville until it was renamed in 1886, but the former name was kept and given to Granville Street, which spanned the small inlet known as False Creek.  In 1915, with the port of Vancouver growing, the newly formed Vancouver Harbour Commission approved a reclamation project in False Creek for an industrial area.  Many different industries occupied the island through the years with the last one leaving in 1956.  In 1979, the federal and provincial governments converted a 50,000 square foot building into the Public Market, a place where farmers and other food vendors could sell to consumers.  This entrance to Granville Island is actually under the bridge to downtown Vancouver

We were hungry so we found a seafood place along False Creek, where we watch interesting boats and even saw a large rubber raft with a bar float by.  After eating we wandered through the very crowded public market.  Lots and lots of vendors.

As I mentioned before, there are a lot of interesting buildings in Vancouver.   This one has two towers connected on an upper floor by a swimming pool with a glass bottom.

Many routes in downtown Vancouver use electric trolley buses, including major streets like Granville Street and Robson Street.

Reddy Kilowatt is a cartoon character that served as a corporate spokesman for electricity generation in the United States and other countries for over seven decades.  I hadn't seen him in a long time.

We went through Chinatown where the trees were hung with red decorations that looked like lanterns.

The streetlights were pretty nifty.

Even the street signs were different.  I didn't get a photo of it, but we passed by the narrowest building in the world.  Only six feet wide, the Sam Kee Building was constructed in 1913 by owner Chang Toy. It is attached to the adjacent building in the back. To maximize square footage, architects devised bay windows protruding above the sidewalk and extended the basement underneath the street below. 

The Gastown Steam Clock is a famous landmark in the Gastown section of Vancouver. It was built in 1977 as a monument for local merchants and to prevent homeless people from sleeping on the steam grate it was built on. The clock operates by both steam and electricity, producing a puff of steam and whistles on the hour. It is one of only a handful of working steam clocks in the world.

Our last stop is The Lookout.  It is built on top of a skyscraper called Harbour Centre making it one of the tallest buildings in Vancouver.  With a 360-degree view, we could see all of Vancouver.

Signs along the ledge below the windows told us what section of the city we were seeing. 

Floating gas station for the boats.

More skyscraper construction in the distance.  There were several areas of skyscrapers in the Vancouver area.  Vancouver itself has an estimated population of 681,420, but the Greater Vancouver area has a population of more than 2.4 million.

Hotel room key was very colorful.  My family had VW buses as I was growing up, so it was interesting how many t-shirts and other references to them we saw around town.

One of the hotel's advertised amenities are the toilets.

Ours came with instructions and

an operation panel.