It was an easy flight from the Twin Cities to Denver to Vancouver. Our gate in Denver was just across from the gate we arrived at. We arrived in Vancouver around 1:30PM and checked into our hotel by 3PM. The walk from the gate to immigration is very pleasant with a mini-museum along the way. A lot better than the long sterile walk in Toronto.
Our room was very small, but for one night it was adequate. We left the hotel and found a snack. From there we proceeded to walk to the waterfront and Stanley Park. We ran across these houseboats as were walking along the waterfront.
We continued walking through Stanley park. Coming up on the "Girl in a Wetsuit" statue we wondered if the Danes had sent a copy of their mermaid. The statue was placed in its current location on 9 June, 1972. The sculpure was created by Elek Imredy. Near the sculpture is a replica of the figurehead from the SS Empress of Japan. Walking along the seawall we came across the lighthouse below. The tide is obviously very large in the Vancouver area. It was close to low tide when we were in the park. Several boats looked like they could not leave their moorings until the tide rose.
	We were planning to eat dinner in the park, but the more casual restaurant was closing and we were not dressed for the more formal place. We ate a salty dinner at a cutely named place on the waterfront called "The Crime Lab". The salty entrees were all named appropriately. I had a well prepared salty steak. Did I mention that they used way too much salt? It was a very pleasant setting to eat dinner. After dinner we walked by Canada Place to figure out where we needed to go to catch the ship and then proceeded to Gastown and China Town. If you have ever been to China Town in San Francisco, you will be seriously disappointed. We then hoofed it back to the hotel and collapsed with very sore feet.