Grand Adventure - Day 3

Good morning! We are happy report that our Vancouver visit is off to a fine start... A relaxing start to the day on the hammock. "Waiter... I'll have some tea with honey... no... wait... just make that honey straight up!"

We went to some botanical gardens... cause Jerry loves flowers!

And visited the airport to pick up a special guest...

Rounding off the day with a visit to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden... they have bonsai trees that are perfect for little bears!

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Hullo! We had a great day in Vancouver on Day 3 of our Grand Adventure. Jerry and Ben were beary entranced with the rhododendron blossoms.

"They are soooo bee-utiful!" said Jerry, "the bees must love them!"

They are pretty, aren't they but...

We have places to go and things to see! Come on Rose!

 We have been promised some gardens today (for our honoured guests)... so let's get going.

First we had to go for a car ride...

Ben checked the right side of the car...

while Jerry and I checked the left hand side. We didn't see any Starbucks! Hmmm... this is not a beary good car ride so far!

But finally... we arrived! We wanted a photo of the three of us but... Auntie photo-bombed our shot!

We visited Queen Elizabeth Park - it is beary beautiful with lots of flowers...

But the highlight was the Conservatory...

 It has all sorts of tropical things. It's like a big greenhouse!

There were parrots...

And orchids...

And a mouse! Must be a relative of Beanie Mouse.

We were entranced with this little bird. It kind of looks like Picasso had a go at painting him. Beary cute!

After the Conservatory, we wanted to see the shallow fountain pond and play in the water but... apparently they have a rule that little bears cannot play in the water. "Mrrrph..!!" said Jerry, "Let me go!!!" "I'm getting squished," squealed Sandy. "Can't breathe!" panted Ben. Nothing worked though... Rose was not letting us go!

 Then... we went to the VanDusen Botanical Gardens. A beary large garden (beary large). We couldn't see everything, so Rose led the way to her favourite spot.

Along the way we passed the "Laburnum Walk". Those trees are super gorgeous.

Oooohhhh! A Maze!!! Let's go!

It's a cedar maze... and... well...

It beary quickly became clear that little bears are not the best navigators. We followed Ben and ended up in a dead-end.

We followed Jerry and got nowhere...

"I don't know how to get out of here," wailed Jerry! "We're all going to die!!"

Rose!!! We need help!

Luckily, Rose knows the maze like the back of her paw... er... hand. And we made it out.

 As a reward... we got to go and see the bee hives! There was a fence there, and Mama made sure we stayed on the one side of it...

Wait a minute... where's Jerry???

Uh-oh... Jerry is going to make a bee-line for the bees!

Luckily (or unfortunately, if you're Jerry), she nabbed him in the nick of time.

All three of us had to be content with watching the bees from a distance. Sigh.

Can you see the bee? Yeah... we barely could either. Deep, tremulous, little bear sighs.

We did learn that bees are non-aggressive and only sting in self defense (unlike wasps).

After VanDusen, we zipped to the airport and...

Picked up Gramma! Gramma has a long history of teddy-bears and knows enough not to squish us!

After we got Gramma's luggage home, we went out for ANOTHER adventure (holy moly). This time we went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. There were cute little-bear sized bonsai trees there. Although... we didn't actually get to climb any of them.

Neat rocks in weird shapes made perfect resting spots for pooped little bears. Three botanical gardens in 1 day?

In fact, a couple of us almost feel asleep on the warm rock in the warm sun.... (Probably due to honey deprivation).

It is a beautiful garden, an oasis of serenity in busy Vancouver.

That's it for now! Stay-tuned for our Day 4 adventure to... Winnipeg! ("Grumble" said Ben "Winterpeg is more like it!")