Vancouver from Granville Island

Wow, it's been a long, long, long time since I've posted anything. Nearly exactly a year since my last post. In any case, last year, we went to visit Martha's brother in Vancouver and coincidentally, it was one year minus 1 day that we went again. This time, I took a picture of what I suppose is southern Vancouver from Granville Island.

Fire Escape

The side of a building in downtown Seattle.

City View

A partial view of Seattle from Victor Steinbrueck Park next to Pike's Market.

ISO 200 | 55 mm | f/4.0 | 1/800 sec

Shadows

I was waiting at a stop light and noticed the construction on the other side of the street. I liked the concentric shadows cast by the roof supports.

Three Cultures

Today was a day full of activities. Ili's friend from Australia arrived yesterday in the afternoon, so today we took him to several places. We fist went to Calixtlahuaca which is about 10 minutes from our house. These are some ruins originally build by the Matlazincas in the Toluca Valley. It was eventually taken over by the Aztecs and this urban center was used to control a large portion of the Toluca Valley. The most interesting structure is the round pyramid seen in this picture. There are only two or three round pyramids in the world and this is one of them. Since the cite is rather small, it's a nice place to avoid tourists and enjoy the views of the valley. See this location in Live Maps.

On our way back from Calixtlahuaca, we stopped by the old church in Tecaxic. I'm not too sure about the history of the church, but I do know that it has gotten some write-ups in tour guides about Mexico. So, I guess it must have some nice architecture on the inside. Unfortunately it was closed, so we couldn't see inside. However the outside is very nice.
See this location in Live Maps.

Later in the afternoon after lunch, we headed to downtown Toluca. The main place we were going to visit is the Cosmovitral. Toluca isn't a very nice city, but if you ever go, you must go here. The Cosmovitral was an old market turned into a gorgeous botanical garden surrounded by stained glass windows. The garden is nice, but the main attraction are is the stained glass windows that surround the entire building. The design of the windows show the creation of the universe and good(day) and evil(night). The central piece is the representation of sun which looks spectacular as the afternoon light shines through it. See this location in Live Maps.

That evening when we were back home, Justin commented that it was amazing to be in places and building that were much older than anything in Australia.

You can see more pictures of Calixtlahuca, Tecaxic and the Cosmovitral in my Picasa Web Albmum.

University Presbyterian Church

Went to church here today in the morning. See this location in Live Maps.

Fremont Troll and Gas Works Park

Went sightseeing today. The first place I visited was the Fremont Troll. It's been part of Seattle since 1990 and can be found under the Aurora bridge and 35th street. His eye is made from a hubcap and in his left hand he clutches an old VW beetle. See this location in Live Maps.


After visiting the troll, I went to Gas Works Park which is near by. The park used to be an old gas manufacturing plant. It was eventually shut down and turned into a park. Besides it's green areas, it also has some remains of the old gas plant and several play areas for kids. See this location in Live Maps.


The park has a great view of Lake Union and provides an excellent northerly view of the Seattle skyline. Check out more pictures in my Picasa Web Album.

Discovery Park

Today in the afternoon I went to Discovery Park, located north west of Seattle. It is the largest public park in Seattle and is located in the former location of Fort Lawton. I specifically wanted to visit the light house at the very tip of the park. I was fortunate that it decided to stop raining today, as it has been raining all week long. Well, that is, it stopped raining for most of the day. On my way out, I was caught by a heavy down poor. Fortunately, I was already in my car on the way back home.

On my way there, I could see the Olympic Mountains covered in snow. It was a great view I was hoping to take a picture of. But, once I was at the beach with a clear view, the clouds beat me and the mountains were completely covered. Nonetheless, I still had a great view of the Puget Sound. A strong wind was blowing from the south west, causing several big waves. I was also hoping to get a nice view of Seattle but it was hidden behind some cliffs.

I took several pictures and you can see the other pictures on my Picasa Web Albums page. You can also see the light house using Live Maps.

Taronga Zoo

Last Tuesday the 16th, we went to the Sydney Zoo. Taronga Zoo is located on the north side of Sydney, so we had to take a ferry to get there. The ferry left from Circular Quay and took is directly to the zoo. On our way over, we were able to see the Opera House from the back side, which you can't see unless you are on a boat.



For some reason, it had never occurred to us to visit the zoo. However, when we were deciding what to do that day, I realized that we would not get to see all the Australian animals if we did not visit the zoo. So in the hopes of seeing all the famous Aussy animals (kangaroos, koalas, etc), we headed off to the zoo.

The ferry over to the zoo takes about 15 or 20 minutes to get there. As I already mentioned, you get a different view of the opera house and also get to see several of the houses in north Sydney. From the looks of it, this might be the more expensive side of town. Once arrived at the peer, we had two options for getting to the zoo, the first was taking a sky rail, and the second is a bus. We decided to take the bus on the way up to the entrance and we would take the sky rail on the way back once we were done at the zoo.

The first animal at the entrance of the zoo is the Koala. It seems that at the time we arrived, it was their nap time, because most of them were asleep. We were lucky enough to see one or two that were semi awake and eating some eucalyptus. From the picture below, you can see that Koalas are nice, fuzzy and look very cuddly. However, you would not want to hold one of them because they have very sharp claws to hold on to the trees.



I won't go into all the animals we saw or this would take forever. But, we were able to see most of Australia's known animals with the exception of the platypus. We also got to see the most poisonous snakes and spiders in the world. I don't remember the exact numbers, but there was a sign that said that Australia contained 11 out of the worlds most 15 poisonous land animals.



After having lunch at the zoo, and finishing up the rest of the animals we had not seen, we headed to the sky rail and left the zoo. Before returning to the city, there was a trail we could walk along a small peninsula next to the zoo. This trail has several overlooks and access to a few beaches. Being the adventurous type, we walked along the coastline, hoping among rocks instead of walking the trail (pic below).



After finishing our hike, we headed back to the pier and waited for the ferry to come . As we waited and on our way back, there were two military black hawk helicopters that kept circling the bay over and over and doing maneuvers. We wondered what on earth was going on and later that day we saw on the news that there had been anti-terrorism exercise that day.



Since it was not quite supper time yet, we walked around on the side of the harbor bridge and made our way up a hill to view the sunset. By the time the sun had set, our stomachs were talking to us and decided to find some food. A short walk from where we were, there are a series of pubs and restaurants so we walked around a bit to see what sounded interesting. After walking around in circles unable to decide on a restaurant, we finally made up our mind and had dinner at a restaurant where you get to pick your meet and grill it yourself. It is a good thing no one was in front of us because we were both very hungry so we got to grill our food fast.

On the way back to the train station, we could see the opera house all nicely lit up at night. I sure wish I had a tripod to take a good picture. However, I was able to take this one that is not as blurry as the others.

Sydney Harbor Bridge

If you are facing the Opera House and look to the left, you can see Sydney Harbor Bridge. This is a very impressive and massive bridge. Some of you might remember seeing the bridge back in 1999 at the turn of the millennium. The picture below doesn't have all the fancy lights and cool fireworks, but it still is a great sight. This picture also includes one of the large ferries that depart from Circular Quay to the multiple locations across the harbor.



As I mentioned in the previous post, you can pay to have a tour to the top of the bridge. In the following picture, you can see a group of tourists at the top of the bridge along with two Australian flags. Too bad you can't bungee off this bridge, I'm sure that would be fun.

Sydney Opera House

After getting our hotel stuff all figured out and settled in to our room. We grabbed a map of the city and headed out to explorer the sites.

We planned on visiting the famous Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Tumbalong Park on Darling Harbor.

From our hotel, we walked to Central Station and for the moderate price of AU $15 bought a Day Pass which lets you ride the trains, busses and ferries all day long an unlimited number of times. We took the train from Central Station to Circular Quay Station (below). This left us near by the Opera House and the Botanic Gardens.



As you get off the train, you immediately have a great view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We wanted to walk to the top of the bridge, but after finding out that it was $120 to do that, we decided we would simply enjoy the view from the ground.



You have to walk just a little to the right of Sydney Cove so you get a view of the Opera House. I took many pictures, and I'll share them with you later on, but right now I'm tired.



We walked around the opera house, and found out that the roof is not really all white tiles as you see from the pictures. Instead it also consists of light brown or beige tiles. This actually gives it a slightly different feel than what I had expected. I thought it would be a bright white, but it actually turned out to be a dull aspect.



If you look back from the front of the Opera House (above), you get a great view of the downtown buildings. In this picture below, you also get a view of part of the Royal Botanic Gardens. This park has many gorgeous trees, amazing birds and spectacular views. I will share all of these with you later.