January 2014
Happy New Year!
Vancouver Aquarium
Helen was working the weekend so I had the
girls to myself during the day. I figured if it was the
three of us home along they would eat me alive so we made plans to
get out of the house. Theresa kindly offered to join us at
the Aquarium!
Our general plan is to run for the Beluga
tank when we first get in so we can have the big windows to
ourselves. The kids usually find something else
interesting. This time it was the two harbour porpoises -
they seemed especially interested in us looking in on them.
We stood for quite a while watching them watching us. I
really makes you wonder if you could communicate, what is going on
in their heads.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
I'll admit it, I like to see birds from
time to time. Reifel Bird Sanctuary has a diverse set of
birds in large quantities and they even sell bird seed at a good
price.
There a large number of "ponds" and network of
trails around them. A few places have bird blinds where you
can watch the birds without scaring them. Claira really liked
the little houses even though she probably wasn't looking at the
birds. Happily, there weren't any "serious" birds there to
disturb from real birding.
The birds were cooperative. There is never a shortage of
mallards looking for handouts. Sadly, the bird feed is quite
hard so the feed does nothing for the chickadees, but that doesn't
stop them from asking. Today I was quite happy to see a belted
kingfisher. I've seen Belted Kingfishers before but they were
always skittish and flew before you could get close with a
camera. Maybe because of the cold, this bird wasn't flying
much so I got some photos.
Vancouver Boat Show
Granville Island is almost on our doorstep, my parents were over
for the weekend and the boat show was on - how could we not
go? On the way down we stopped by the playground to get
some of the "play" out of the kids and then went down to the
island.
We visited the very nice boats (we walked
through a $775K boat with three bedrooms and two bathrooms with
showers) and the search and rescue boat. Nara didn't like
the air ride seats in the search and rescue boat (the seat was
probably a meter off the deck) and the docks were getting crowded
so we took the shuttle ferry over to BC place.
The vendors at BC place were
impressive. Lots of large boats where you wonder how they
got them inside the dome. The crowds were pretty light (less
than half what I remember the car show being) and the displays
were pretty.
We found the kids zone and they had paddle
boats! These little boats are cranked by hand and after a
brief lineup, Nara got to try it out. She pretty quickly
figured out the differential steering and was able to maneuver
around the pond. I think she had a pretty good time.
Sadly, Claira turns into a monster around nap time so we called
for Helen to drive by for a pickup. My Mom and Helen had
been out shopping and they had a good time too - a good morning
for everyone!
Tags: Reifel Bird Sanctuary(8), Vancouver Aquarium(3), Vancouver Boat Show(3), bird in flight(2), boat(2), paddle boat(2)
People: Claira(9), Nara(4), Helen(1), Theresa(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2023 to 2005 > January 2014
Last Modified Sunday, January 29th, 2023 at 12:12:03 Edit
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