Pictures from Canada, part 1: the beach and the aquarium (dial-up warning)

[billyskank]

Day 1: The Beach

I got waaaaay too many pictures from Canada to post in one thread, so I am separating them out.

On the first day yvr and I visited the beach. yvr was just showing me around the city a bit. This is looking out to sea:



As you can see, the tide was out:



Looking right, towards downtown Vancouver:






Day 2: The Aquarium

The aquarium is in Stanley Park, a large forested area on the peninsula next to downtown. I saw lots of fish and stuff:













The aquarium also has a tropical area, where the conditions are kept like that of a rain forest. It was very close in there. yvr wondered what stopped the butterflies from flying out (since there were no doors keeping them shut in):





I don't think these were actually alligators; I can't remember exactly what they were called. But they look like mean fuckers:



My pictures of the jellyfish all came out blurred. I guess this is because the camera could not figure out what I wanted it to focus on. So I reduced the images down, because the jellyfish were very beautiful and I wanted to show them to you. They looked very ethereal to me:



This seems quite appropriate, given that SHARK WEEK is upon us: ;)



The sharks just move too damn fast to get a good picture of them:



In the same tank as the sharks were some turtles. These also move too quickly to get a good photograph:



The star attraction at the aquarium is the beluga whales. These whales live in the arctic, so they have much more blubber than other whales. This gives them a curious appearance in the water - they seem to fold as if they had no bones. yvr and I decided the demonstration was best viewed from underwater:









We also saw a sealion. This guy was HUGE:



He was so big that when he was swimming about underwater, I thought he was another whale! :crazy:

I didn't get any pictures of the notorious sea otter. :P

After the aquarium we got coffee from a place in Stanley Park, and we saw some raccoons:



They may be cute but I understand you don't want to get close.

More from Vancouver to come later!

[billyskank]

1. Kick

:kick:

[Mutley]

2. Hooray pictures!

:hug:

The aquarium looked like fun.

That sealion is too cute. :P

[SeattleGirl]

3. Thanks billy!

Vancouver is a great city! Glad you got to visit.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear billyskank!

OH, sweetie! These are wonderful!

I just love all of them......you have some wonderful memories here!

I've been to Vancouver, and I just loved it .......

Alas, though, all my pics are film, and I don't have a scanner.......

Great job!

:toast:


:loveya: :hug: :loveya:

[1monster]

5. Love the raccoon. He looks a little apprehensive...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. Awww...Love the raccoon!

Looks like a terrific aquarium!

[u4ic]

7. Beautiful pics!

I especially love the sea lion - super shot.

(I am sooo jealous you got to see a shark!)

Geez, those furry critters really seem to like you, don't they? :rofl:

[Dangerously Amused]

8. All so beautiful,

...but what's funny is I think I like the ones that "didn't turn out" - the jellyfish and the sea turtles - best of all. They have a nice "artsy" quality to them that one could never find in a picture book on the subject.


Thank you for sharing these. I can't wait to see the next installment!


:bounce:

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

9. looks like a beautiful vacation!

:hi:

great pics!

[Suich]

10. That's Jericho Beach, isn't it?

Nice pictures!

[XemaSab]

11. Procyon lotor

[In_The_Wind]

12. WOW! You weren't kidding about a "dial up warning"!

I'm glad you included the jellyfish and turtle pictures. :)
It looks like you had a wonderful visit!

:hi: Thanks for all the pretty pictures! :loveya:

[progmom]

13. wow - nice pictures, billyskank!!

And I am glad you had a good time.

It was nice knowing that two of my favorite people were spending some time together. :hug:

[Arugula Latte]

14. Great photos!

Was the gator-like critter a caiman by any chance?

[billyskank]

15. Could have been

That seems to ring a bell.

[MissHoneychurch]

16. Wonderful pics

I like the one from the ocean with view towards Vancouver

Looks like yvr girl showed you a lot

[miss_american_pie]

17. Wonderful!

That raccoon looks so deceptively sweet. Thanks for posting them. :hi:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. Those first couple of aquarium pictures...

are more or less what you'd see if you were two hundred feet out and sixty feet down in your first couple of beach pictures.

What impresses in the aquarium are those enormous Amazon river fish. They look like coelcanths or something. Have they still got those?

They used to have orcas. But those have died since the last time I went.

[billyskank]

22. Yes, they had some enormous fish

and they did recall the coelacanth to me. I don't know whether they actually are; I thought those fish were so rare that people thought they were extinct for the longest time.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Coelecanths are indeed very rare.

Biologists thought they were extinct because the fossil record vanishes many millions of years ago. It was only a few decades ago that people actually found any.

The fish at the aquarium were not coelecanths. My understanding is that while scientists have seen coelecanths from submersibles, nobody's got a live one in captivity.

[sundog]

19. nice pics billy

:)

love the shark pics :bounce:

[RetroLounge]

20. Great Pics! Thanks!

But none of yvr?

:shrug:

RL

[Callalily]

21. Great pics billyskank

Thanks for sharing. Looks like you really enjoyed Vancouver. Can't wait for installment two.

[HEyHEY]

24. What kind of camera are you using....BTW

I ask cause that sea lion pic is very crystal clear.

[billyskank]

25. Canon IXUS-40

4.0 megapixel

[NewWaveChick1981]

26. Cool pics, billyskank!

Very cool pics! :hi: Vancouver's so beautiful!

:* :loveya:

[spindrifter]

27. Very cool pix.

Especially the jelly fish. Where did you go and how long were you in Vancouver--one of my all-time fave places. So many great places to hang out there. Did you stay for friends?

[AirmensMom]

28. Great pics, billy!

:bounce: How did I miss this thread? :shrug: Anyway, thanks for posting them! Sounds like you had a great time! :loveya: :hug: