Vancouver

We spent Saturday night in an RV park outside of Vancouver, BC that must have been designed by Edward Scissorhands - the nicely trimmed hedges provided privacy that the small sites lacked.

Travelling in a 30-foot vehicle is not ideal for urban areas, so when we mapped out our plans for touring the city on Sunday, we concentrated on Vancouver’s many parks rather than the downtown. We started with Queen Elizabeth Park which boasts the the highest elevation in the city. Morning fog and haze restricted us from the promised 360 degree view, but the gardens are beautiful and apparently a prime destination for wedding parties.

From QE, we headed to Stanley Park, a 1000 acre park established in 1888 on its own peninsula that includes views of the Pacific, old-growth forests, hiking trails, and other sights. Unfortunately, the primary access into Stanley leads right through Vancouver’s downtown business district - despite our best-laid plans, we ended up having to go right through the city to get to the park (we wondered why we didn't see any other motorhomes in the city), but we managed with minimal problems and the effort was well rewarded.


Our next destination was the University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens, requiring us to retrace our path through the business district, which by now was clogged with foot traffic from tens of thousands of spectators at Vancouver’s annual Gay Pride parade.

It took us an hour to travel eight miles (John was worried about running out of gas in the middle of the city - $1.15 per liter), but again found ourselves rewarded for the effort.