Day 4

Finally crossed into another country for the first time in my life! We drove into Canada and went right through the heart of Vancouver and over Lions Gate Bridge. Traffic was a lot like driving in San Francisco during rush hour. It took a long time to get through the city and half of the streets are straight or right only, no left turns. Oh, the green lights flash! That made it hard to drive because the whole time we were trying to figure out why they were blinking. After the Lions Gate Bridge, we ended up in a middle lane that changes direction with the flow of rush hour. Green lights above the lane let us know if we were allowed to travel in it or not. I know we have those in the US also, but I had never actually seen one until going into Canada.

Our first event for this day was going to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. We spent a few hours hanging out there. The bridge was okay. I doubt I'd go through the trouble of going there again. Although, it was interesting and kept us busy for the day. The bridge itself is over a gorge and is 450 feet long and 230 feet high. We tried to cross with bridge without using our hands to hold the rail, but because there were so many people walking across it as the same time, the whole bridge swayed and trying to keep our balance was nearly impossible without holding on. The height of the bridge didn't really bother me much. Maybe I'll have to try skydiving to get my heart racing.

The next adventure was to again cross the Lions Gate Bridge into Vancouver and make our way to Stanley Park for the 2008 HSBC Celebration of Lights. Basically, this was a 30 minute firework competition. That night was Canada's night. We found our way into Stanley Park and found a great place off to the side of the crowds to watch the show. We arrived fairly early and had a few hours to kill. We walked around very briefly just to get an idea of where we were. We ended up just North of the English Bay (which is where the firework show was being performed out in the ocean). The beach directly in the English Bay was crowded. Since we were off to the side, we were not in the mist of the crowd. The spot where we sat was perfect. We were able to hear the music the fireworks were set to and we still had a great view of the show right in front of us (the barge was the base for the fireworks). It was probably the most amazing firework show I've ever seen.

That night, it took us a long while to get back over the boarder to stay in Bellingham again. We stayed there for practical reasons. Number one being that it was a lot cheaper to stay there. Between the firework show and the Pemberton festival, most of the hotels were sold out or very expensive. Driving back to Bellingham saved us some money, but the drive through the heart of Vancouver, especially after the fireworks, took a long time.