Be A Tourist In Your Own Town

This past week two beautiful, sunny, warm days begged me to take them off and become a tourist in my own town. I learned from visits to two of my other favourite cities, San Francisco and New York, that taking the famous “Hop-On-Hop-Off” bus tour was perhaps the best way to not only see each city in a day or two, but also learn about its history. So last Tuesday I purchased a two-day ticket from Westcoast Sightseeing for the ultimate Vancouver adventure, hopped on their open air bus, sat back and enjoyed the ride. I learned from past experience that taking the tour once all the way through (here it took just over 2 hours) before hopping off gives you a great contextual experience, allows you to hear the whole story about the city you are visiting and gives you a chance to make note of which stops you want to visit the most. This Vancouver adventure takes you throughout downtown, across all of Stanley Park, along the seawall by English Bay, across False Creek to Granville Island, through hip Yaletown, historic Chinatown and back to your starting point, hip and historic Gastown. Other tours offered by Westcoast Sightseeing include Vancouver’s north shore as well as the stunning Capilano Bridge and Grouse Mountain, among others. Their bus drivers are gifted story tellers who bring the city’s vibrant history to life. For example, did you know that the famous Guinness family (you know, that meal-replacement-barley-sandwich that everyone loves?) bankrolled the construction of the Lion’s Gate Bridge? I know, me neither!

I shot the photo above along the broad and sunny shores of English Bay, where Chinese artist Yue Minjun has gifted Vancouver with a glorious public art installation called “A-Mazing Laughter.” By taking this tour, I learned more about the Vancouver Biennale, a wonderful non-profit organization that brings public art installations to cities around the world. On this tour I “found” a number of these installations, which I will share with you in several more posts to come. Yue Minjun’s charming, unexpected statues drew me in on a day when I needed a good belly laugh. Trust me, you cannot witness these statues of Yue in various laughing poses without grinning from ear to ear! To learn more about the Vancouver Biennale, please visit their site here, and please also learn more about artist Yue Minjun here.

If you would like to see a few more snaps from my great Vancouver adventure, please pop over to my photo website for a visit. Even better, come out to Vancouver when you can and I’ll take you on a bus tour to remember!