Eric's birthday surprise....

VANCOUVER, CANADA!! Where Eric and I spent the entire weekend...what a gorgeous city! My hubby has been saying since we moved here how much he wants to go see Vancouver but we have never made the time soooooo I thought it would be perfect to just kidnap him away for the weekend - force him to leave his work and enjoy himself!! Eric and I had a blast visiting Gastown, Granville Island, Robson Square, China Town and my favorite, Stanley Park. Even our little monster Gabe had a great time at home with Eric's parents (thank you Cheryl and Don!!) and didn't even miss us, I hear. Which I guess is a good thing, although I have to admit I was just a tiny bit disappointed to know that I could disappear one day and his happy world would go on as usual! I just tell myself that it's because he is such a well adjusted, cheerful child! hee hee :)
(There is Canada Place on the far left of the skyline in the picture below.)

Stanley Park is beautiful with its huge green trees covered in moss, view points like Lion's Gate Bridge and Prospect Point, and the Seawall surrounding the entire park where cyclists and walkers enjoy ocean and forest all at once. There are all kinds of things to see and do there. I can't begin to describe it - it's wonderful! Unfortunately it lightly rained all day (and to be honest I'm not in any condition to walk for miles at this point in my pregnancy!) so we didn't take advantage of any of the trails through the park but we did have a lot of fun driving around and seeing all the sights, getting familiarized with it all and planning our next trip this summer! We are going to bring the kids, our bikes and bike trailer, and picnic basket and make a day of it at Stanley Park... I'm so excited already! The totem poles...a must see in Stanley Park.Eric's favorite was downtown Vancouver for sure. He loves to see all the big buildings and beautiful architecture of different cities and this one was really pretty, even I have to admit! The cobbled streets and gas lights of Gastown were so quaint and picturesque...probably my own favorite part of the city. We only got to see Canada Place from a distance as it was closed in preparation for the Olympics but it was fun to see in real life anyway. What a neat building! China Town was spectacular with it's enormous gate and bright red lamps and banners. The markets and shop fronts were so fun to see there! But the highlight for Eric was definitely Robson Square where a lot of the Olympic preparations were being made. That was the place where things were happening, that's for sure!Aren't the blue roofs on those buildings behind Eric beautiful?!The ice skating rink at Robson Square.

These steps led down to the ice skating rink that was located directly under the street! The paintings on these steps were really fun to see. The pictures don't capture the scenes very well, sorry!

Gate of China Town...

What a fun get away! Can't wait for next time!!