Today was a long bus ride day, and as I have learned from the China trip, it was a sleep on the bus day as well.

At the moment I woke up, I realized that allergies suck. I must have went through like 20 billion tissues. It just kept on coming, and I just kept on blowing.

Our first stop of the day was Queen Elizabeth Gardens. There was a really nice view of a snow-caped mountain in the background, the city of Vancouver in the middleground, and the bright colors of the flowers in the foreground.

Vancouver	Queen Elizabeth Gardens 1	Queen Elizabeth Gardens 2	Queen Elizabeth Gardens 3

Next it was onto Gastown…yeah…gastown. It was named after some guy (do what you will with that fact). The tour guide explained, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Well, in this quaint little town, we stopped right by a gift shop with an American, Canadian, British Columbian, and…Taiwanese flag. Expecting us maybe? Anyways, this shop is where I got my pooping cow keychain =).

Interesting Flag Choices	Steam Clock	Cow Keychain	Poopy!

We next passed through downtown Vancouver and moved onto Stanley Park. The whole park is on this island. The rest stop we stopped at had these totem pole replicas and these displays on the Native Americans living in the area.

Well now, the highlight of the day was probably the salmon place we went to. It was like an entire ad for salmon products (pate, jerky, raw, whatever). The salmon wasn’t the interesting part, it was the poster and pictures inside the store. They were pictures of Wreck Beach, which also happens to be a “clothing optional” area, meaning there were many ugly naked people. The shocking thing was that both adults and the little kids on our trip admired it…/shudder.

Our next stop was a Chinese supercomplex called Yaohan, I think. There was a gigantic foodcourt, where we had lunch and the parents bought like 20 cups of boba (it was like buy 10 get one free); a supermarket, where the moms bought a bunch of snacks and fruits; and a bunch of stores on the second floor, all with Asian products and run by Asian people. I walked into the music store and found all these Asian pop CDs (Namie Amuro, BoA, CoCo, etc.).

One thing I noticed was the soda cans. First of all, they have both English and French on them, but they don’t have that nutrition facts box, like stuff in the US does.

Totem Poles	Various Salmon	Ugly Naked People	No MPH Here

From there we traveled Eastward into Alberta and the Rocky Mountains. Along the way we stopped for bathroom breaks, but while on the bus ride, to pass the time, the adults first sang all these songs (some off key I might add), then we started watching “The Last Day” (I passed out for the greater part of the movie), and toward the end they started telling riddles.

Well, at this one rest stop, there were tons of mosquitoes. They entered the bus and so we were all on a whacking fest.

Eventually we arrived at our hotel (Sandman again), had dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant and checked in for the night.

Well now it’s late and I’m watching the England-Brazil World Cup Soccer match on TSN (not ESPN…they don’t have Sportscenter, but they have Sportscentre). The dads are watching the game in a nother room, but I’m happy being by myself, without having to deal with a bunch of drunk dads. And just for fun…England has just scored a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL! It’s 1-0. Hey, I’ll just sleep on the bus ride tomorrow.

Mountain...ooOOoo	Rest Stop	Lake Reflects Landscape	"Look Mom, Cows!"