WEDNESDAY, JULY 30

WEDNESDAY,  JULY 30:

    Another perfectly glorious day of sunshine and cloudless blue sky in which to rejoice!   Got a bit of an earlier start this morning, and made it over the LG bridge and into Stanley Park with no problems – yea!  Our plan for the day was to take a horse-drawn trolley tour around the Park, and then visit the Aquarium (which is an attraction within the Park.

     Parked the truck in a lot by the Aquarium, took the bikes, and pedaled down a short ways to the Park Info Center, which is where the horse trolley tours originate, and locked our bikes there. 

                                                                                 

     The trolley tour was just wonderful.  Sooo relaxing. We started out going by the Seawall for a while,

                                                                         

                                                                    

but then went on an interior road which we hadn’t been on before, which included passing by the Rose Garden.  Our tour guide/horse driver gave us all sorts of interesting info about the Park – its history, its landmarks, its flora and fauna, even some background about the horses, all while we were inhaling the fresh fragrance of a lush Pacific Northwest forest and accompanied by the by the steady clip clop rhythm of the horses’ hooves.

 

     When we completed the tour & got back to the departure point, we had a most unwelcome surprise awaiting us.  Bill’s bike was gone.  The cable locking it was neatly cut.  I’d seen a TV spot recently which highlighted bike thefts in San Francisco . . . saying that it took a thief about 30 seconds to cut through a bike cable.  It’s a very sad commentary on contemporary urban life that we weren’t even that shocked or outraged – just sadly concluded that that’s the way it is.  We’re guessing that the thief(s?) targeted Bill’s bike because it was a name brand (Fuji). We’re also guessing that the culprit(s?) probably just hangs out around this area, watches for people who leave their bikes and catch the trolley, and knows that he has a good hour do his work.   When something like that happens, all you can really do is count the positives – the  “at least’s” . . .  . at least it was only one; at least it wasn’t an expensive recumbent; at least we’re within walking distance of the truck . . .

            So off we went on foot back to the truck to put my bike back on, and chained it to the truck bed!   Walked over to the Aquarium.  Spent several hours there.  Several very good exhibits inside, including an excellent one on the Amazon Rain Forest,

                                            

 and outside there were venues for several marine critters:  sea otters, dolphins, seals, beluga whales.  We watched the cute little sea otters and seals being fed,

                                                                             

 

 and caught the shows featuring the belugas

              and dolphins. 

                                                                

               

We especially enjoyed the beluga show, since we’d never seen them before.  So graceful!  Their shows were geared towards education, which I believe is one of this Aquarium’s main objectives, along with marine research.  And while the Aquarium seems to achieve this goal and has a good reputation for these things, it wasn’t nearly as pleasant a place to me as, say, Sea World, with its gorgeous landscaping, little tide pools sprinkled throughout the park, lovely shady scenic spots to relax and eat, etc.  This seemed more sterile.  But was still an enjoyable few hours for us, and you can hardly complain about the price:  $45 for the two of us – even less when you convert to U.S. currency J

     When we walked back to the parking lot, had another unwelcome surprise – a parking ticket.  We’d paid for all day, so at first were really puzzled.  Then Bill saw that it was for “taking two parking places.”  We were over the right-hand line by about 2 inches – if we wanted to be able to get out without scraping the car on the left, we had to.  They make these parking spaces the same way they do some RV sites – not for large vehicles.

     And since good/bad news always comes in three’s – when we got home, there was an e-mail from wonderful neighbor Mary, who informed us that it looked like our water had been turned off.  I looked back on-line to verify that I had made the water payment this month, and ooops – sort of missed that one L   You’d think after 6 years of never being late w/ a payment, they’d cut you some slack. They may have left us a call on our home phone, but since we’re charged roaming for every call we make up here in Canada, we haven’t checked home messages for a while.  Anyway, when I called Mary, she thought that it had only been turned off for about a day, as she’s been taking great care of our plants.  So will call them tomorrow.

      Enjoyed our Chinese leftovers for dinner and went to bed fairly early, as we both felt tired.