Amazing pictures from Vancouver!
It is a wonderful city. I really would love visiting it.
Your blue hour and night pictures of the city are reamakable.
I have known about the blizzards you have suffered this Winter, but I must say snow has turned the city even prettier.
Thanks for the tour and greetings from Madrid, Spain.
Recently I went to Burnaby out of curiosity (and having seen it so much on SSC/SSP over the years), and I have to say I was a little disappointed by it. I was expecting it to be this bustling urban little downtown but really it felt like auto centric suburbia with a smattering of condo towers. It didn't really have much of an urban fabric I was expecting. Not saying it's not a nice place, but I guess it's always been portrayed as being a 2nd Vancouver on here.
No one in Vancouver thinks of Metrotown as a second downtown. My area (Lonsdale Ave in North Van) has better street life despite towers being capped at 25 storeys.
Recently I went to Burnaby out of curiosity (and having seen it so much on SSC/SSP over the years), and I have to say I was a little disappointed by it. I was expecting it to be this bustling urban little downtown but really it felt like auto centric suburbia with a smattering of condo towers. It didn't really have much of an urban fabric I was expecting. Not saying it's not a nice place, but I guess it's always been portrayed as being a 2nd Vancouver on here.
Nice that you made a visit! Yeah, Burnaby is still a vertical suburbia, but there is a lot going on in here. The challenge with Burnaby is that the city is concurrently building no less than four different town centres and they are all cannibalizing each other in terms of attention and public amenities. So there is no one city centre, but thanks to its location right next to Vancouver there is a lot happening.
There are no less than 100 towers going up in Burnaby in the next 10 years, so the pace of change is quick and streets especially around Skytrain stations are getting busier and seeing more services like restaurants go up. My home street Beresford Street is exactly like that with tower podiums having shops in there.
Metrotown where I live is the area that Burnaby is trying to build as its "Downtown" with a mix of office and residential towers, but this is challenging due to the huge mall at the very center. There are long-term plans to possibly put the mall underground or at least split it to make a new small scale street network that would eventually become a walkable city centre. Currently there is still a suburban feel to Burnaby, but things are improving fast. I quite enjoy living in Burnaby, as the city is much bolder than Vancouver and will soon have skyscrapers taller than in Vancouver and several skylines more impressive than many 2nd tier American cities.
It's already April, but snow conditions up on the North Shore Mountains are still amazing. Here's how Cypress Mountain looked like on last Sunday.
The snow was plenty, but some runs were quite icy in the morning.
Looking at Mount Strachan.
Chair lift to the summit of Mount Strachan.
Vancouver far below.
Howe Sound and the surrounding North Shore Mountains.
The Lions rock formation.
Mount Seymour nearby has seen almost 14 meters of snowfall this year and their snow base is respectable 3,5 meters and summit at almost 7 meters. Curious to see how it looked like, we drove up there and were not disappointed.
With this much snow, absolutely everything is covered with snow.
Not in British Columbia, but just across the border, Mount Baker had its season end this past weekend. This winter having been as epic as it has, we couldn't resist driving up there for one more day in deep snow.
It's a funny feeling to start your day down in a valley where leafs are opening and flowers are blossoming, just to be shortly later in full winter setting.
Mount Baker has this winter had an incredible snowfall of almost 21 meters (830 inches). That is more than any other ski resort on the planet! Snow depth at the base was close to 6.5 meters (250 inches) which is insane.
It's quite thrilling to drive up a road that is carved deep in snow.
There was some 5 meters (200 inches) of snow surrounding the parking lot.
Deep snow covers everything, even buildings.
And how was the skiing? Pretty damn amazing!! There was some 15cm (6 inches) of powder overnight which made for fresh tracks all morning.
Really. Deep. Pistes.
There was no seeing of Mount Baker itself, but the 2,783-meter (9,131 feet) tall Mount Shuksan was seen on few occasions. The mountain appeared fairytale-like, shrouded in the clouds.
All in all it was an epic ending to an epic ski season here on West Coast. I manager to double my normal ski days with 16 days in the slopes. The La Nina weather pattern really delivered on the snow this winter and one can just hope for a similar one next year.
Welcome to Vancouver, Murphy! May normally tends to be a warm and pretty dry month (June is often worse with best weather being between July-September).
Tsawwassen Mills is a brand new shopping mall in the suburb of Delta. It is the 3rd biggest mall in British Columbia and makes for an interesting visit if you have a car. Otherwise it is difficult to get to and you are better off shopping at Pacific Centre in Downtown or Metropolis in Burnaby's Metrotown (right next to our building).
They are trying to advertise Tsawwassen Mills as an international outlet shopping destination for cross-border shoppers from the United States, but I don't know how successful that has been. All visitors to Canada should still consider doing some shopping while in here, as the Canadian dollar is currently rather weak, so your EUR or USD will go a long way right now.
For many years I have been hearing stories about tulip festivals in Fraser Valley, but somehow I have always missed them until this year. For the next two weeks fields in Abbotsford and Chilliwack will be painted in bright colors.
These photos are from the "original" tulip festival that moved this year from Agassiz to Chilliwack. The flower fields certainly make for a nice drive from the city.
Last night we were invited to attend the Reveal Gala on Rogers Arena. This charity fundraiser was organized by Canucks Autism Network and they had transformed the hockey arena into a virtual Venice for the evening.
Videoscreens of Venice, Italy surrounded the dining area.
We were seated in a VIP table right next to stage. There was a lot of swag to take home.
The evening was hoted by the five-time Olympic medalist Hayley Wickenheiser and the ET Canada host Rick Campanelli. Former Canucks goalie Kirk McLean on stage with the two.
One of the evening highlights was the performance of blind autistic Youtube sensation Christopher Duffley together with The Tenors. Their take on the Italian opera classics was breathtaking and garnered standing ovations.
It was quite a night with lots of local celebrities, wealthy businessmen and other socialites. The Aquilini family (owners of the Aquilini Group, Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena) were also present.
The evening ended in a high-stakes auction of luxury items and trips that all went for high five-figure sums. As we were told, the fundraiser met their target which was nice to hear. It was certainly an unique night that we were happy to be part of.
Welcome to Vancouver, Murphy! May normally tends to be a warm and pretty dry month (June is often worse with best weather being between July-September).
Tsawwassen Mills is a brand new shopping mall in the suburb of Delta. It is the 3rd biggest mall in British Columbia and makes for an interesting visit if you have a car. Otherwise it is difficult to get to and you are better off shopping at Pacific Centre in Downtown or Metropolis in Burnaby's Metrotown (right next to our building).
They are trying to advertise Tsawwassen Mills as an international outlet shopping destination for cross-border shoppers from the United States, but I don't know how successful that has been. All visitors to Canada should still consider doing some shopping while in here, as the Canadian dollar is currently rather weak, so your EUR or USD will go a long way right now.
Yea I just got back from a two-day tour in Vancouver ... ran a little bit of BMO Marathon, stayed at Trump Hotel, strolled around downtwon area, did a bit of shopping ... turns out two days in Vancouver is not that enough and making everything in a rush, but it's ok it's ok cuz I can't even remember what decent things did I do when in Sydney, New York and Toronto, which makes Vancouver experience more memorable.
One thing to mention is the Trump Hotel, it was alright experience in there and forget about performance price ratio everything in there MUST BE expensive. You know as the average hotel price in Vancouver city center already excessively high (equals to Manhattan NYC), not a good idea to stay at Trump's.
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I am delusional, I talked to photos.
Last night we were invited to attend the Reveal Gala on Rogers Arena. This charity fundraiser was organized by Canucks Autism Network and they had transformed the hockey arena into a virtual Venice for the evening.
Videoscreens of Venice, Italy surrounded the dining area.
We were seated in a VIP table right next to stage. There was a lot of swag to take home.
The evening was hoted by the five-time Olympic medalist Hayley Wickenheiser and the ET Canada host Rick Campanelli. Former Canucks goalie Kirk McLean on stage with the two.
One of the evening highlights was the performance of blind autistic Youtube sensation Christopher Duffley together with The Tenors. Their take on the Italian opera classics was breathtaking and garnered standing ovations.
It was quite a night with lots of local celebrities, wealthy businessmen and other socialites. The Aquilini family (owners of the Aquilini Group, Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena) were also present.
The evening ended in a high-stakes auction of luxury items and trips that all went for high five-figure sums. As we were told, the fundraiser met their target which was nice to hear. It was certainly an unique night that we were happy to be part of.
Something like this is a dream..and unfortunately, it will continue to remain so for the longest time. Aagh, i would die for the opportunity!
Yea I just got back from a two-day tour in Vancouver ... ran a little bit of BMO Marathon, stayed at Trump Hotel, strolled around downtown area, did a bit of shopping ... turns out two days in Vancouver is not that enough and making everything in a rush, but it's ok it's ok cuz I can't even remember what decent things did I do when in Sydney, New York and Toronto, which makes Vancouver experience more memorable.
Good to hear that you had good time while in here. Two days is cutting it really short, so you should make plans to visit another time again. Hotel prices are expensive, although currently it is still low season. I don't suggest checking prices in summer, when the high-season is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by leonia
Something like this is a dream..and unfortunately, it will continue to remain so for the longest time. Aagh, i would die for the opportunity!
It was indeed a surprisingly entertaining and nice event with good food and music. Reveal Gala is actually open to public as well, however the tickets start from $500...