June | 2010 | These are a Few of my Favorite Things

After a few wrong turns walking from the subway to the hotel, we got settled in, and set out for some fun!

Our big plan for today was to head to Granville Island – which was described as “magical” on the internet. To get there, we had to take a ferry. Loving transportation like I do, I was quite excited for the ferry ride. However, I did not expect them to be cute little ferries that you could basically fit in your pocket! So cute!

So we hopped on board and set sail for Granville Island. We were glad to make it, as the 12 yr old boy driving the ferry didn’t really sit at the steering wheel at all, and when he did, he was chatting on his radio.

Once we were there, we wandered the public market, then decided that we were starving because we had not eaten lunch. We shared a delicious turkey and bacon sandwich and bought some fresh cherries at the market. Sitting on some steps outside the market, right along the water, was quite picturesque. The pigeons really wanted to share our lunch, but we said no.

After lunch we wandered through the rest of the island. Several times over. We still had 4 hours to go before our Shakespeare play we had tickets to. We didn’t want to pay to take the ferry back to the hotel and back again, but we also were SO tired, and definitely had seen all there was to see. After a brief not-really-sleeping-nap to this guy’s lullabying guitar music

We decided that looking for ridiculous photo ops would be a good use of our time. On our third time through the market, I sampled several almonds that were coated in delicious flavorings, like cinnamon, raspberry, or butterscotch. The boys selling them really wanted to be my friend. Upon seeing my camera they offered to let me take a picture of the almonds before I ate them – saying they’d be my hand model. They were really sad when I said no, but thanks SO much for the generous offer. And now you are probably sad, because that would have been a terrific pic for this post. Some of the highlights we DID photograph involved:

creepy ice cream baby

America’s Next Top Model

We all know how much Rachel loves concrete!

I was mesmerized by the steel balls rolling around the track…

Eventually we had wasted enough time that we could walk to Vanier Park and pick up our Much Ado About Nothing tickets.

On our way there we took note of:

awesome sailboats

pretty flowers

Interesting sculptures

the gateway to the Northwest!

and learned that when Canadians say STOP – they REALLY mean it.

Eventually it was time for the show. It was magical! The stage was in a giant tent, and the set was open in the back and you could see the sun setting and the mountains in the background. The actors were HILARIOUS and although we were fighting to stay awake after a really long day, we definitely thought it was worth it!

In conclusion: day 1 = success!