Monday, April 25, 2016

April 24, 25 – Chinatown and Beacon Hill Park

Yesterday the forecast was kind of iffy, with a threat of afternoon thunderstorms and highs in the low teens. We decided to drive downtown and walk around some of the shops.

First up was the famous Chinatown.

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Nice arch but Chinatown itself was pretty underwhelming as it only consisted of the single block of the one street.

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Some restaurants, a few grocery store and gift shops. It most famous section is a narrow alley.

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We had lunch of one of the restaurants. So much for Chinatown.

We stopped in this one large store called Capital Iron.

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It seemed to be trying to be a bit of everything. There was camping and sporting goods but also furniture, hot tubs, kitchen supplies and a hardware section.

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By the time we made it down to the inner harbour, it had gotten nice and sunny.

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We hit the visitors center but decided to leave the area for another day.

A closeup of the Parliament building.

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Unfortunately the outside of the Empress Hotel is covered in scaffolding.

We may do one of these bus tours.

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We had dessert at a gelato place before heading back to the car.

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Today we went back downtown to wander around Beacon Hill Park. It is not a large park but has a petting zoo, some nice walking trails and lots of gardens.

We parked near the petting zoo but did not go in. Jennie is not an animal fan. There were peacocks wandering around the grounds.

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I didn’t get around the building in time before he put his tail down..

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We wandered around the trails.

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A few flower pictures. Just wait until we get to Buchart Gardens.

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As we were walking up to the actual Beacon Hill a light spring shower started. We headed back to the car and drove up to he parking lot at the top to have an early lunch and wait it out.

Our view across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It seems like the Olympic Mountains are always covered in clouds.

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We headed down to walk the path along the ocean. Looking back up you can see that Beacon Hill is not very high. We were parked beside that old RV.

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We climbed down the stairs to beach, the first of many beaches on this trip.

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Some people were heading off on a speedy whale watching trip.

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And others were comin back from what looked like a much wetter one.

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Up on the point at the end of the beach some guys were practising their parasailing. One guys went up in the air.

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Two other looked like they were learning and tried to control it while on the ground.

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The beach was very rocky and it had been tough on our feet so we took the easy way back to the car.

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We are so out of hiking shape that we crashed into bed for a nap back at the RV.

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