Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

7th June 2012 - Depart Bellevue for Vancouver, Canada

This trip has not been without its problems with our truck and the 5th wheeler. Before we head on the road, all brake lights, turning lights etc. have to be A okay - well, we were up bright eyed and bushytail and ready to leave at 8.30am. It is 10.30am before we can go as the right tail lights on the 5th Wheeler (aka as Al) is not working.  Thank goodness Tom is an excellent handyman but it still took 2 hours troubleshooting and fixing before we hit the road.

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We were warned that crossing over to the Canadian border can be a long arduous process with an RV, however to our delight it took no time at all as we took the Commercial Vehicle channel. In fact the Canadian Customs Officer was not even going to stamp our passports if we had not requested it(just so to say we've been to Canada!). She was absolutely wonderful...only apples, peaches not allowed into Canada, we also had no problems with alcohol.

A rather spectacular bridge in the process of being built.

Logs floating down a river - unfortunately as you can tell, the weather was rather miserable.

8th June 2012 - Burnaby, Canada
Arrived around 2.30pm at the Burnaby Cariboo RV Park. What a lovely RV Park - it has an indoor swimming pool, spa, gym, games room, kids playground. 

Office at Burnaby C RV Park.  The truck refused to start after we had stopped to register - thankfully it decided to go after Tom had opened the hood and had a look.  It was raining on our arrival so getting set up was rather wet...thank goodness we had decided to invest in a couple of $1 rain ponchos from the Dollar Store in Salem! The RV Park offers help with reversing Al into his slot.

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Al in his "green" box.  If you have a good look, you will see white stuff on the ground..well they are the seeds of the cottonwood. Major hayfever irritants - this stuff just floats everywhere and gets into everything. Tom had to get on top of Al and give it a good clean as the cottonwood becomes clumps of cottonwool when they get wet.

Creek in the conservation park.

Doing my David Attenborough thing - I found this black slug at the park. Meanwhile, the truck is still giving problems with starting.

9th June 2012- Burnaby, Canada
Called out the Canadian Automobile Association guy (RACQ has reciprocal with them) - no  charge. He was at our site within 30 mins - such a nice guy.  The truck's batteries need replacing - he suggested the best price for them is at Costco.  Canada has a 12% tax, plus environmental tax and deposit charged on aluminum cans. 2 new batteries later and all's well.

10th June 2012 - Vancouver City, BC
My brother and family live in Vancouver, in a suburb called Pitt Meadows. We had planned to meet him at Granville Island before heading to his home for a couple of nights. This is the approach into Vancouver City Centre. Vancouver is a large sprawling city..it must have the next largest population of Chinese outside of Asia!

Approaching downtown Vancouver City.

Granville Island is not an actual island but a piece of land that juts out from the mainland. Its a tourist attraction with buskers, beautiful vegetables, craft shops etc. There is Paid Parking, credit cards are accepted at the Parking Stations.

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Crowds enjoying the free busking at Granville Island.

Eduardo and his mate entertaining us with his fabulous pan flutes.

Eduardo's assistant - she's in charge of selling his cds - check out her gold necklace!

Tom at Food Hall, Granville Island.

Vegie Stall at Grandville Island, Public Market.

Check out the different varieties of berries! yum yummmm!

Gluten Hell!at Granville Island.

My brother's home at Pitt Meadows.

My sister in law Cindy and me.

My niece, Faith

Tom, Chris and Faith at Osprey Estate

Tom cooking up some steaks at Chris's home.

My sister in law Cindy, my nieces Faith and Grace with Tom.

Chris took us to this lovely estate near his home called Osprey Estate. 
It is situated next to a First Nation (Canadian aboriginals) settlement.

Check out the Pepsi dispensing machine on the balcony. 

You wouldn't want to run out of coins at home!

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Looks like the Canadians have the same problem as Australia.

Latest refugee arriving at Alouette Lake! Just kidding - its only Faith.

A rather chilly day at Alouette Lake.

Faith came prepared with rice and chicken! That girl can eat. Her sister Grace could not join us as she was sitting for her Grade 7 Piano Exam.

A lovely aspect of Alouette Lake.

Faith being her energetic self!

Money does not equal class - this monstrosity is locally known as Disneyland.

This is a private home, check out the number of garages.

The Asians at Burnaby Mountain Park gettting ready to do the tourist thing.

The Boyds at Burnaby Mountain Park which was virtually round the corner from Burnaby RV Park.

We thought these totem poles at Burnaby Mt Park might have been carved by the Canadian Indians but as it turned out, they were a gift from the Japanese!

Lynn Canyon - water everywhere,

it was absolutely pouring but being the true blue tourists, we persevered.

The girls and their Aunty Betty on the suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon.

Do we look like we are having fun?  Of course we are!

We went prepared for the deluge as you can see. It would have been quite a beautiful place if the weather had co-operated.  There were trails that we could have done but would have been rather miserable and dangerous in the wet.