Exploring Vancouver’s Stanley Park in early January

by Keith and Heather Nicol

    On our recent trip to Vancouver we had a chance to explore Stanley Park and do some “summer” activities in early January 2014. We were staying at the conveniently located Times Square Suites Hotel (http://www.timessquaresuites.com/ ) which is at the corner of Denman and Robson in downtown Vancouver. We started our exploration of Stanley Park by heading to Spokes Bicycle Rentals (http://www.spokesbicyclerentals.com/) where we rented a tandem bike. Although the weather called for sunny skies there was frost on the grass as we headed out. We were joined by our daughter, Kristie and set out pedaling in a counter clock wise direction around the park on Vancouver’s famous Seawall. We stopped to photograph some of the sculptures and iconic landmarks like the Lion’s Gate Bridge. We even saw 2 harbour seals! We cycled about 10 km to the Inukshuk statue before returning our bikes and having lunch.  Stanley Park also has many kilometers of hiking trails to explore and we plan to walk some of those on our next visit. 

Spokes is a convenient place to rent bikes

Kristie passes under the Lion's Gate bridge along the Seawall

The Inukshuk is just one of many pieces of outdoor art along the waterfront in Vancouver

There was a large display of jelly fish at the Aquarium

In the afternoon we headed back to Stanley Park to see the impressive Vancouver Aquarium. It has many shows to take in as well as many aquariums with a variety of exotic and local fish as well as other marine organisms. We really enjoyed the seal and sea lion presentation as well as the dolphin performance. For more information on the Vancouver Aquarium see:   http://www.vanaqua.org/  .  

The Pacific White Sided Dolphins put on a great show