The little town is a historic site and hosts the Fort Langley reconstructed fort from 1827. In 1858 the province of British Columbia was proclaimed in one of the buildings in the fort. The fort, like the one in Thunder Bay we visited, was really a trading company location and not used defensively. The Hudson Bay Company used these outposts to run a hugely successful trading business with the natives for many years.
The town itself is a single main street of historic buildings now hosting a multitude of tourist oriented shops and restaurants. At the end of this street and across a small bridge was our campsite on McMillan Island.
On Sunday we went into Vancouver itself which is a huge metropolis of over 4 million folks, according to one of the locals ... I believe her. We battled the one way streets and the throngs to visit Stanley Park which is a 1,000 acre oasis in the middle of all that humanity. In the park, in addition to many other features, is the aquarium, in which we spent the afternoon. Really nicely done but small by some other cities' standards ... most notable was the beluga whale tank and the show they put on ... well trained white monsters.
Vancouver skyline from Stanley Park and the Vancouver Yacht Club parking lot.
Tomorrow morning we are off to the US and our long time good friends, Richard and Wanda Gardner, who live on Whidbey Island, off the coast from Seattle. First we will stop in Burlington, WA, to get some much needed work done on the Flying Scotsman ... all the stuff that's been ignored since we crossed into Canada last May 1st.
