Mountains to the left of me, ocean to the right.

Well, Vancouver is pretty cool.  There are charming clothing and jewellery stores. There are wide and clean streets.  The public transit system within the city limits seems pretty good.  Your food options are varied and interesting.  People seem pretty chill.  There is an abundance of museums.  It hardly snows...

The catch?  I'm sure there are a few (the housing market for one). But I think the reason that so many people look beyond the downsides and choose to make a life here is because you can see mountains on one side, and on the other, the Pacific Ocean, a body of salt water that is so very different than the Atlantic Ocean of my home.  For me, this is just part of the appeal of this city, this coast.

The main draw to Vancouver this week was family. Six  of us "kids" traveled from all over to visit with our branch of parents in BC.  We filled every nook and cranny of their float home just outside of Vancouver.

View from the dock of the float home. 

Every once in a while you can feel the water gently buffetting the float home up and down (and side to side) a feeling that (luckily) I relished.  Out of every window, at every point of the day, rain or shine the view was just perfect.  While there was a good amount of time to relax, we certainly did a lot in a short period of time. 


We fed birds at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary and Stanley Park.

Photo kudos to Steve. I'm feeding seed to a Chesnut Backed Chickadee in Stanley Park.

  We explored the Vancouver Aquarium.

I can't get over how awesome penguins are.

  We visited with excellent friends over a delicious meal. 

Thanks to Mary for this picture! I love these beautiful people.

 Most exciting of all, we went to a wedding... on a boat!  

Bouquets and boutonnieres were handmade by Nicole and me.

 In addition to all of this, we went for walks, tracked the tide, put together puzzles, watched movies, read books and celebrated happy hour nearly every day.  The days were full and good, just like a vacation ought to be.  I can't wait for the next one.