Finding my path as a creature of habit, today i managed to do three things i have already done here. First was Caffe' Artigiano, but just for coffee and bagels, which were as good as yesterday. Coffee in this frigid town gets you going much quicker than in the lathargic climes of Los Angeles. I was hopped up enough to try a run on Vancouvers public transportation system. All i can say is these guys run their system the way they should all be run. Instead of being told to get off the bus because i didnt have any coins, i was told "get on, pay later, i get paid at the end of the day no matter whats put in the money machine" I just about fell over; humans acting human.....i was in heaven. So our humanatarian, or just not caring bus driver shuttled us on over to Stanley Park where i became even more impressed with Vancouver.

A few weeks ago a storm, or series of storms had blown through here with such furosity that hundreds of trees had been ripped from the ground, or shattered like toothpicks. What came next was a barrage of accusations of shotty construction, and poor tree grading. recently the park had been supposedly brought up to code, and trees graded to withstand certain seismic conditions, including just the storm that fell upon vancouver in recent weeks. low and behold contractors built structures that were not up to code, and inspectors signed off on hundreds of trees that they would stand when they actually were never graded. So as i paid for my ticket to the Vancouver Aquarium, i had no problem paying the two extra dollars they asked for that would go to fixing this mess of a park.

The Vancouver Aquarium is located in the middle of Stanley Park. Easy to get to by foot, or by public transport, its well worth the time. Opened in 1956 The Vancourver Aquarium or Vamaqua is one of the five largest aquariums in North America. From amazing Jellyfish to the creepy Beluga, Vanaqua has hours of exhibits full of things to see and do. I actually watched their dolphin show. The most amazing thing in Vanaqua has nothing to do with animals. Its the fact that their food stand served Panini, salads with Brie or Goat Cheese, or a range of other high end foods at less of a cost than a Disneyland hot dog. The point is, you can sell decent food at a decent price if youre willing to, and Vanaqua comes through swimmingly. www.vanaqua.org

www.seestanleypark.org.

We decided to walk back to the downtown area, having decided to not pay our bus deal off. Having seen Bald Eagles all my life i had no idea how excited i would be to see a giant bald eagle flying over me. Seeing these birds up here in the north is a whole different experience than seeing them in a reintroduction program off the coast of Los Angeles. As we got back to the Coal Harbor area of Vancouver we saw the Massive amount of apartments, and apartments being built. With Vancouver winning the bid for the 2010 olympics, its easy to understand the growth, and to want to be part of it. Being part of it meaning buying one of these apartments which are going anywhere from 200,000 dollars CA to one million plus. Vancouver is on the come up and should be paid attention to as a major player in regards to a great spot to live, as was noted when it won for Most Livable City in the World in 2002.

So after ourday in the park and imagining that we were going to buy into the Vancouver real estate world, we headed back over to Samba for a light lunch. Our lack of creativity was due to the fact that we were exhausted. Samba and then the Marketplace IGA and we were heading back to the Marriott for a movie and an evening of doing nothing.