Thelma's Travels: March 2010

Some views of the lovely flowering trees and plants in the Q.E. Park. I hope you don't find these photos boring, I just love the Spring Flowers over here. They must remind a lot of the English people reading this Blog of "Home"

Charlies ChocolateFactory and Queen Elizabeth Park

This Azalea shrub was out the front of Charlies Chocolate Factory. The photo doesn't do it justice. It was beautiful. So was the Chocolate Factory !1 All the different types of Chocolate you could think of.........except Rocky Road!! They had never heard of that !! Rocky Road must be an Aussie Chocolate. So I had to be content with Coffee Creams instead ! I think overall the Choccies were cheaper than the Margaret River Chocolate Factory and certainly more interesting, with their Chocolate "Water Wheel" in the River of Chocolate.

I thought this Daffodil to lovely not to take a photo. The entire city seems to have Daffodils, Cherry Blossoms and Magnolias growing everywhere. It is so lovely after dry old Perth.

This tree was in Queen Elizabeth Park which grows trees from all over the world. It's called a "Monkey Message "tree and if you double click on it you will see all the Monkey like tails on it. Very interesting.
As you can see it was overcast today, but if we had rain it was during the night.I think the Temp was about 8 degs Celcius. I will probably feel like it's a heat wave at 20 degs when I come home. I'm sure my blood is getting thicker!!
That is Graham and Jackie's car in the photo.

Saturday 27th March I went out with Jackie and Graham and the team of Citizen's Crime Watch. There was a team of 16 people plus the Police Sargeant and myself. I found it very interesting and fail to understand why we, in Perth, don't have a similar scheme going. It consists of volunteers, and one Policeman,( who is paid.) It is tightly run, and if orders are followed, no one gets hurt. As Jackie described it, it's extra eyes on the streets who are in direct contact with the Police. Last night there was a 4 year old child who went missing. So the Citizens Crime watch formed a grid pattern and combed the streets where she was missing from. As it happened, the child had gone to sleep where she wasn't expected to be and all was well.
Each car is supplied with a Laptop and combs their allocated area of Vancouver punching Car Registration numbers into a special programme on the computer which tells them if the car is stolen or not . Last night there was a car parked in the street which was stolen. So the units who were nearby all convereged on that area and more or less blocked that car in until the Police arrived and furtively disabled the stolen vehicle. As it happened, the car had been there for some time and would be removed to the Impound area of the Police and the owner would be notified. A win situation for the Insurance Company!!!
I was with Graham and another man called Doug. Doug drove the car (His own ) Graham manned the radio and called the car rego nos to me who punched them into the computer. We didn't discover any stolen cars, but I enjoyed doing the Crime watch thing !!
I was also disappointed that we never saw a Racoon or a Skunk of which there are supposed to be plenty of around here !!
These Daffodils were given to Jackie by a friend who came to Dinner last Friday night.

Today, Sunday 28th March, we went out for Brunch with Jackie and Graham's 2 sons. This display of Rododendroms was by the Restraunt where we ate. They grow really beautifully over here in this cool climate. I certainly chose a beautiful time of the year to visit here. The Magnolia trees are absolutely drop-dead gorgeous along with the Cherry Blossoms and the Daffodils which grow everywhere.

I don't know what the little mauve flower is but it looked lovely next to the Rododendroms.Worth a piccy I thought.

This photo and the photo below are both taken from the SeaBus as we pulled away from the Terminal.

These flowers were really lovely. They were at the restraunt where we ate our lunch.The orangy flowers are Tulips which are flowering everywhere over here and the longer flowers are Cale which are also flowering. I have never seen Cale in flower in Perth.Very pretty.

Today, Wednesday, we had an easy day. Sleep-ins and then off to the Super-market to do a bit of shopping. Yesterday we had a good day. We caught the SkyTrain and went for a decent ride into the city where we walked, what seemed miles to me, and got onto the SeaBus and went across the Harbour to have a look at the Market and have lunch. A lovely day, but it tired us all out. Think it was the sea air!
This train does not have a driver, it is all computerised.

These trains,below, are lined up for the peak hour rush. Ready to take people on a longer journey out of Vancouver. Graham told me that each carriage holds about 100 people, so you can see a lot of people use the trains over here.

This is the interior of the SeaBus. It also holds a large amount of people. And everyone has to be seated. No Standing! It leaves Vancouver and goes across the Harbour to North Vancouver and is a very pleasent way of travelling. As you can see, bikes are allowed.

Vancouver's night of terror !

Thought this was rather neat aross the elevator doors in the Headquarters of the Police Building.

This is Sergeant Fred who took Jackie and I out for our night of "terror" in this Police Car

The word had gone out ofcourse that The Aussie was riding along and all the Criminals immediately went to their beds and stayed there trembling with with fear. One silly young fool dared to drive his Father's car without Insurance, but we soon stopped that with a flash of blue and red light !! The tow truck was called (No driving around here without Car Insurance!) the car was towed away and a taxi was called to make sure the passengers went home safely. Then it was back on the road again where absolutely nothing was happening !! A couple of "Working Girls" got a fright when Fred pulled over to make sure they were ok and then they were really scared when they thought I was going to take over their corner. But ofcourse it was to cold out there for me to be able to stand around in the cold waiting for the suckers to come along. Besides, there was a rowdy tenent with the music to loud at 2am to be dealt with . So off we sped to quieten them down !Fred was very careful with this one. He first sussed the place out and made sure there were no "Funny Smells" around, we didn't want to go barging into a Drug Den. But it was just people being thoughtless of the neighbors and playing their music to loudly.
Fred told them politely to "Shuddup", which they did.
Oh well it must be time for a Hot Chocolate to warm us up.I was really the only one who was cold !! As you can see by the photo below, I have about 4 layers of clothes on and Fred is in a short sleeved shirt !! I feel such a fool at times when everyone is warm but me !
It was a good night though and I enjoyed the experience and was tired by the time we were dropped off at about 3,30am. Thanks Fred and Jackie for all your kindness and for the chance to see how quiet it can be in a big city when all the Crims. are terrified of an old girl from Australia. I won't forget the night we prowled around the laneways looking for that elusive white car.!!

More Adventures

Tonight, Sunday, I am going out with a Police Car "On Duty". Jackie and I are going with a friend of Jackie and Graham's. I have signed all the papers releasing the Vancouver Police from all liabilities if I should get injured. So if I happen to catch a stray bulllet, don't bother suing them Judy and Steve, there will be no money in it !!! Jackie reckons I will be safer tonight than when I went to Mexico for the day !!
I have heard on the TV that Mexico is certainly a No Go area at the moment. The Drug Cartels are really fighting it out down there .
Must away now, we are going to a Sushi Restraunt for lunch and I have to shower yet. Bye for now.

Waiting for the cable car to arrive to head home.

Coming down in the cable car overlooking Seymour Reservior.

The cable car is getting closer to the ground!! It wasn't cheap to do this ride up to the top. $42.95 for an adult and $37.45 for and "oldie".

These photos are taken inside where the Track Cable Anchor is for the Gondola.

Who said I'm afraid of bears ???

A few Indian (Feathers) carvings which were also inside the Resort

And here I am out on the snow as happy as the pig in the proverbial!! I was quite nervous because the snow was a bit icy and I was frightened of slipping over. But between Jonothon and my walking stick I had nothing to worry about and managed to stay upright.

It doesn't appear as though there are many people there, but believe me when I say there were hundreds!

If you look closely in the centre of this Photo you will see a big carved wooden bear.

Saturday my dream was realised when I went up to Grouse Mountain. This is the type of Gondola that we, Jonothon and I, travelled to the top in. It holds approx. 100 people ! I didn't get to go to the top of Grouse Mountain the last time I was in Vancouver and now I'm happy to say I have done it. I would have liked to have been 50years younger, but better late than never !!

Over looking Vancouver and the Harbour.

The Day was sunny but Vancouver was a bit hazy, which was a bit disappointing.

The Beautiful Cherry Blossoms in the city

We were unable to Park the car but I did manage to get a cople of photos of the Olympic Flame

Downtown Vancouver

The Olympic Cauldron

Yesterday, Friday, as Jackie wasn't well, Graham and I set out to see if we would be able to get a photo of the Olympic flame And have a visit to Stanley Park. No one can visit Vancouver without at least one trip to Stanley Park. I was interested to see the damage that was done a couple of years ago when a big storm went through the Park and blew dowm thousands of trees.The photo below is looking from Stanley Park across the Harbour to Vancouver. It was a beautiful day and a lot of people were taking advantage of the sun.