Harbour Cruise Continued

Hello friends,

A few weeks ago I posted part one of the Vancouver Harbour Cruise which my friend invited me to join her on. If you missed it you can find it here. Today's post is the conclusion of the Harbour Tour Cruise. 

 The cruise is just one hour long and so it's easy to fit into a busy touring schedule. The departure point is conveniently located between the downtown Vancouver core and Stanley Park just past the Westin Hotel.

Vancouver Yacht Club located a few steps from the Harbour Cruise office.

The old fashioned boat named the Constitution is the boat that takes us on our journey.

I rode this boat many years ago when I took my youngest sibling on a journey up to Indian Arm.

I was surprised to see the boat is still in operation.

That's how long ago I took the last tour!

My friend poses before we board the boat.

I was looking for a map of the cruising route but couldn't find one so I am sharing a map here that gives a good idea of where we were in relation to the City of Vancouver.

If you look on the map below our departure point was from Coal Harbour near Denman Street.

The cruising route was roughly in a circle across the harbour to around Lonsdale Ave in North Vancouver and back.

In case you might be interested in one of the cruises offered by this company you can see what other visitors here have had to say about it at Trip Advisor.

By and large people seem to enjoy their experience.

We're off!

You can see it is quite cloudy and it looks like we are going to get a deluge of rain.

However the rain held off and it became a bit clearer later in the afternoon.

We are heading eastward.

On the right we get a great view of the Vancouver City skyline and the two different buildings which make up the Vancouver Convention Centre.

This next photo captures a mountain view to the north.

The tower with the round observation deck on top is called Vancouver Lookout.

Once we finished our Harbour Cruise we went to the top of the lookout.

I've been there many times over the years.

Another view to the northern mountains and the city of North Vancouver.

I learned that these barges contain salt from Mexico.

The salt is what is used in our winter on icy sidewalks, parking lots, etc.

You might be able to make out the round sign (white and red) in the photo below.  That is the sight of the public market area called Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.

The next few photos are of seals who are lying on the logs.

Below is a longer view of the seals and the City of North Vancouver in the background.

 Below is a close up of the boat mooring area in North Vancouver which is very close to where the seals are enjoying their leisure.

We are making our way back to Vancouver and this view is toward the northern mountains and North Vancouver. There is the circular Lonsdale Quay sign on the right and the sea bus on the left making it's way back to Vancouver's Waterfront Station.

These barges contain sulphur (yellow mounds). To be honest I'm not sure what sulfur is used for even though the tour guide did tell us.

After a brief google search I discovered that the sulphur seems to be owned by the only Canadian manufacturer and supplier of sulphur, Petrosul which has it's head office in Vancouver. Petrosul markets sulphur to North American and offshore markets.

Sulphur is also used in many other industries including non-ferrous metals, pigments, fibers, hydrofluoric acid, carbon disulphide, pharmaceuticals, agricultural pesticides, personal care products, cosmetics, synthetic rubber vulcanization, water treatment, and steel pickling. (Source: Sulfur Institute).

and

Today, it's most common use is in the manufacture of sulfuric acid, which in turn goes into fertilizers, batteries and cleaners. It's also used to refine oil and in processing ores. Pure sulfur has no smell. ... Rotten eggs and stink bombs get their distinctive aroma because of hydrogen sulfide. (Source: Live Science).

( Sulphur is spelled a few different ways as noted from the above quotations taken from different sources).

Who knew sulphur was so useful? 

I like this photo of the Vancouver City skyline.

This seagull seemed to follow our journey for awhile.

Above and below is a great view of the "sails". This building is the home of the original Vancouver Convention Centre and the Pan Pacific Hotel. Both of these sites remain but the convention centre is now referred to as Convention Centre East.  The low lying building to the right is the new addition and called Convention Centre West. 

Convention Centre East

Convention Centre West

Sadly the tour has come to an end.
I hope you enjoyed it.

I'll be linking up this week (once the linkys open)

Through My Lens

Friday Foto Friends

Skywatch Friday 

and 

Saturday's Critters 

Mid - June 2018

Some gorgeous skies tonight. 

I wasn't going to post because I was late in getting photos together. 

It has been cloudy and raining a bit over the past several days. Today the sky was a bit unsettled but tonight the light is still bright enough.  I hurriedly snapped a few pics and  resized for sharing.

Next week we will have the official start of our summer season.

Despite our Spring season starting off rather hot, it has cooled down considerably.

That is probably good to help ensure we don't have so many wild fires this summer (time will tell).

I hope your season is treating you to glorious skies wherever you are.

A few blossoms from my container garden.

The last photo is of a friendly dog I met in the  neighbourhood. 

While I sat on a bench and rested he was wandering around. 

He came up to me several times so I could pet him and would have stayed longer

with me but his owner beckoned him home.

I noticed the dog's rich and luscious fur while petting him.

His owner must take very good care of him.

Sorry the photo is blurred.

I took it quickly and surreptitiously with my phone camera. 

I guess I was trying to take it a little too quickly.

This is a late entry for

Skywatch Friday 

Friday Foto Friends

and

Saturday's Critters 

Thank you for stopping by. Have a great weekend everyone.
Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there.

I Say Goodbye & Welcome Some Cloudy Days

I said goodbye to a friend of mine recently. We met at church many years ago and haven't been keeping up well with one another since she and I no longer attend that church. She also lived another municipality away.  Though she was very busy packing and cleaning, I wanted to take her for a farewell lunch.

My friend Celia did not want to leave the  City of Vancouver.  But most of the condos in her building were bought out by a developer and thus in the end she had to sell too.  She has purchased a much larger home in her new city. It sounds like a wonderful location near shops and a man made lake with walking areas surrounding it.  Now that all the decisions have been made, a new house and furniture purchased, she is looking forward to the move.  Everything has worked so smoothly in her favour that she believes it was a divine event for the benefit of her future.  I'm quite certain she will enjoy living in her new home.  She has the added benefit of her daughter and grandson living nearby. Her daughter has been coaxing her mom to make the move for some time. As my friend Celia says, she had to be forced and now that she has been she is very accepting of the situation.

Here is my friend answering the phone. She was being invited out to dinner the same evening by yet another former church friend.

Salad Bar

Cabbage and Spatzle?

Beef Roulade and perogies

Breaded trout with beans in mushroom sauce

Bratwurst

A small portion of the desserts on offer

We had a fabulous visit but we visited so long that my throat was dry and parched afterward. The only thing that separated us is she began to run behind schedule for dinner! We had a lot of catching up to do and hopefully we'll have a chance to visit again in her new city.


~~~~~

On another subject I haven't participated in a long while in the Saturday's Critter's meme. I'm not sure why but it never seems to be the right time for me to take photos of animals or creatures of any kind.

I found one bee or wasp while I was taking photos of the geraniums.

The seagulls were photographed on my recent harbour cruise. It's always interesting to watch birds flying against the wind.

The last photo is of 5-6 seals lying on the logs, also from the harbour cruise.

Can you see them?
Click to enlarge and it will be easier to see the seals.
I'm afraid I don't have a good lens to zoom in close enough.

I'm a bit behind in posting as I still have a post to share with you about the harbour cruise.


Joining in with

Saturday's Critters

Thank you for joining in.

If you missed my Skywatch post you can find it here.

Have an awesome weekend.

Change is in the Air

Reading these gardening books

Reading this unusual horror book. Not my usual genre.

Ahmed Saadawi is an Iraqi novelist, poet, screenwriter and documentary film maker. He won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction for Frankenstein in Baghdad. He lives and works in Baghdad.  The novel is set in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq. If you wish to read more about the book you may do so here.

Vietnamese Pho Noodle soup with basil & beans sprouts + a roll dip & tea

After a good run of many sunny days we are now having a few cloudy, cool days.

It is supposed to rain. I hope we get a good soak for the garden.

This is the high rise going up.  You can see the clouds gathering. Change is in the air

The high rise under construction is part of a large development. The rest of the building is behind the high rise. Altogether the development takes up a good half a city block. I'm not sure when the development is scheduled to open but all the condos were sold out years before construction began.

Small hotel immediately across from the high rise development.

The blue sky is peeking out from behind the clouds.

The hotel and high rise are located next to shopping, restaurants, pharmacies, coffee shops and so on.

The people living there will enjoy the neighbourhood and they will have spectacular views of the city especially at higher levels.

The high rise proposal came with a lot of back lash and push back from local residents but it will soon become a reality. Since the approval of this particular high rise, similar development has now been approved in one or two other areas where this simply would not have been possible before. That is no doubt why people fought so hard against it but in today's world in Vancouver, there is no where to build but up. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Joining in with 

Skywatch Friday

and 

Friday Foto Friends

There is no where to build but up.

The Little Patio Garden

The little garden has been keeping me quite busy with buying soil, mulch, more plants and pots to plant in. It hasn't rained much since I planted and I'm finding it hard to get the garden watered just right.  Behind the table there are more plants and plants in containers which I will feature as the garden matures. Many of the plants I bought were so root bound making it very difficult to get the water right where it needs to go even though I tried to break up the roots.  It's one of the reasons I'm spending more time than usual trying to make the garden grow.  I hope my efforts bear success and that everything will look a lot better in a few weeks.

Only two small strawberry plants are planted this year.  But I've been able to harvest a few small berries a few times already.  They make a nice little treat.  Maybe next year I'll be fortunate enough to find more strawberry starter plants or I'll get started earlier and plant my own seeds.  In the meantime I'm happy for what I do have and the little birds, bees and butterflies will have something to feast on.  I'm less happy about the big rat that ate all of my veggies last year before I could.  My neighbours only grow flowers so I guess he doesn't eat those. If my corn stalks grow the squirrel might come back. I really only try to grow corn for the squirrel to eat.

In the photo is a pile of my latest reading stash from the library. I've finished the book at the top of the pile, Bride of New France, about girls from a convent in Paris who make the voyage to Canada to settle with the men who came over before hand to trap for furs. It was a very interesting work of fiction based on history.

The other books are to whet my appetite for gardening in my small space.

Thanks for stopping by.
Enjoy your week.

Linking up with 

Our World Tuesday