How lovely to be back in Vancouver after 9 years & have the pleasant experience of seeing the changes & also the familiar sites, igniting happy memories of our times here with the children - we kept having deja-vu moments as we walked around. After another flight with no sleep we were greeted at Vancouver airport by the most delightful volunteer named Harry who welcomed us in the generous way Canadians do & made us feel "right at home" immediately! It's now an easy train trip from the airport to downtown thanks to the Winter Olympics. We filled our 3 days here with plenty of walking & visits to interesting places starting with breakfast at Bellagio restaurant where we ate years ago. I wanted to see the Bill Reid Gallery with his beautiful native Haida art so we kept ourselves awake on the first morning by spending time there. His interpretations of the First Nations stories turned into sculptures & art are famous in Canada & the jade carvings are quite stunning. Being a fan of stones & Inukshuk we strolled along the shore of English Bay in the evening to see the large one here by the water - the long days here in summer are such a change from cold Canberra & so many people are out exercising in the lovely twilight. Spent most of one day at Van Dusen Botanical Gardens among huge trees, fabulous flowers, waterfall, fountains & had a barefoot picnic on the lush green lawn. Drinks & dinner with James' school friend Andy & Alicia in Yaletown rounded off the day perfectly. A tiny ferry ride took us across False Creek to Granville Island Markets for brunch & another wander amongst stalls with enormous strawberries, huge salmon & arts & crafts. We walked some back streets to find an art gallery, happened on a community garden right beside the road & went to the Vancouver Museum. This place had the story of the original Musqueam village & it's people prior to foreign settlement & as usual it's a story of loss of native lands, traditions, ancestral sites......... sadly the same treatment of native peoples everywhere! Just one block behind the hotel is an area called Mole Hill with a block of heritage homes & another community garden - a beautiful little oasis among the high rise that is taking over Vancouver with it's shiny reflective buildings. It all has it's beauty & I hope they get the balance right in this lovely growing city.