Today we bought tickets for the Hop On/Hop Off tour bus in Vancouver. We like to do this when we first get to a new town because it gives us an overview of the area and then we can better decide what we want to further investigate.  When we lived in Europe and the kids were babies, the bus tours let us continue to learn about the city even when the kids needed to nap.  They are flexible kids for the most part.

We went to Stanley park and enjoyed the verdant rain forest-and yes it sprinkled off and on in the open air bus!  It was about 50° but tomorrow promises to be sunnier. It was only uncomfortably chilly for a bit.

We got off the bus at Granville Island and enjoyed wandering around. Zack bought a moose stuffed animal and Nathan bought a bald eagle stuffed animal both with their own $.  I got postcards and a skunk stuffed animal- let me explain!

I'm calling it the "I wasn't a stinker today!" Award. At the end of each day we all vote for whom we think had the best behavior or did something really nice for someone else. Today we voted for Rich because he tracked down a battery charger for my Canon camera (which I forgot at home) while we all went swimming at the hotel.  *see photo soon.

I think our little skunk will also be our trip mascot- so look for him in upcoming photos.

That's it for today!