Juanita, Ben and I took the Skytrain in to Waterfront Station. Then, because the line-up for the free shuttle bus was so long, we walked the 45 minutes to Brockton Point... picnic supplies in hand! It was a stunningly picturesque walk along the waterfront, past sea planes, fancy yachts, and Vancouver's swishest hotels. I couldn't believe I'd never been to that part of Vancouver on foot before. It certainly reinforced why the words "Vancouver" and "beautiful" are so often found in the same sentence!
This is the cauldron from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. We'd never seen this in person before!
Sea planes with North Vancouver in the background...
Sights along the seawall...
Into Stanley Park...
We saw a raccoon on the path just before I took the photo below, but it didn't hang around long enough to pose for me!
First glimpse of the VSO concert... we arrived just as the first song was ending...
We found ourselves a picnic spot, settled in, and soon saw some more of our friends sitting about 15 metres in front of us (we had already known they were somewhere at the concert!). Then it was just a matter of sitting back, digging in, and listening to awesome music for the next hour!
The concert finished with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Here's a video of the first few minutes and one of the last few minutes (16 cannon shots included!)...
This is the view from Stanley Park of Vancouver's one and only wind turbine (The Eye of the Wind), up on Grouse Mountain. It's fully functional, but it's also one of Vancouver's newest tourist attractions, which you can tour for $20!
The rest of our friends left after the VSO concert, but Juanita, Ben and I stayed to hear the next act: Spirit of the West, a famous Canadian folk rock band that has been around since 1983 (but which Ben and I heard of for the first time this same evening!). They were very good, and the lead singer had amazing stage energy, but the VSO was still the highlight!
The crowd configuration changed somewhat as the evening went on. Once the smell of wafting marijuana smoke became too overpowering (which I think was near the end of the concert anyway!), we packed up and started the 45 minute walk back to the Skytrain.
It was a great evening, and a very enjoyable way to celebrate our city's 125th birthday. Thanks, Vancouver!
2 comments:
Looks like a great evening! It really makes me miss summer!
Looks like you're still having a fantastic time in Vancouver! I check your blog very often even though I don't comment very often :-) We're in Ireland right now...
Jo & Peter
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