The Capilano Suspension Bridge

First order of business was retrieving my camera from the repair guy. Seems easy enough, except that he was over the other side of Vancouver, and I had to work out how to navigate the bus system, buy a ticket, transfer between lines, and generally learn to survive. Like Melbourne, you can't buy single ride tickets in the shops (but they don't tell you that on the web site), and you need exact change on the buses. Meant that I missed my planned buses, and all of the hassles that goes with all of that. I always feel for visitors on public transport in Melbourne. The number of different rules and systems around the world makes it a real adventure, and Melbourne's isn't at all helpful for occasional users like tourists.

However, I did eventually make it, and my camera was fixed and waiting - yay for the good guys. All the camera settings were now different, but at least the sand was no longer in the innards.

Back to the unit before the ticket expired and, after buying lunch to take, we took the shuttle service to the other side of the harbour and lobbed into Vancouver's biggest tourist attraction - the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. A fun day in brilliant sunshine. There were a number of 'attractions' to visit including the suspension bridge itself which 150 metres long and 75 metres above the river, so it's a biggy.

There was also a tree top adventure where you wandered 10 stories up on boardwalks between the big trees, and a cliff walk where you head out over the gorge on a walkway just bolted into the rock face.

Along with that was all the usual rainforest things - ranger guided walks, coffee shops, native guide walks, coffee shops, history walks, coffee shops, totem poles, souvenir shops that sold coffee, boardwalks and so on. A great way to spend your day.

The standard park story told by all of the guides is how the first park owner fell for an attractive woman 30 years his younger, but her mother refused him permission to marry her. He even employed the mother as his park manager to no avail, and it was 10 years before she relented and allowed them to be married. Of course, there's a twist to the tale, and the mother subsequently fell for one of the park rangers, yes, 30 years her junior, and married him. So they discovered the first cougar in the park. Boom Boom!

Sometime in the middle of the afternoon we caught the shuttle bus back to town, and sat by the harbour watching the sea planes come and go. Seems that its one of the busiest sea plane airports in the world, and has it's own control tower.

Had a shawarma dinner down the street, as we loved that when we were in Jordan at Christmas, but it wasn't a patch on the real thing.