Stanley Park

Stanley Park is a 1,000 acre urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The park attracts an estimated eight million visitors every year, including locals and tourists, who come for its recreational facilities and its natural attributes. A 5.5 mile seawall path circles the park and there are an estimated half million trees that can be as tall as 250 feet and hundreds of years old. There are approximately 125 miles of trails and roads in the park, which are patrolled by the Vancouver Police Department's mounted squad.

There are lots of things to do at the park. You can drive, walk, bike, or roller blade. By circling the park you'll see many of the landmarks: Lost Lagoon, the Vancouver Aquarium, Brockton Oval (a small sports complex), the naval reserve base HMCS Discovery, famous totem poles, the Nine O’clock Gun, Lion’s Gate Bridge, Lumberman’s Arch, Prospect Point.The west side of the seawall has three swimming beaches. The first you'll come across is Third Beach. You can see weird rocks when the tide goes out. Second Beach is popular with families because it has a wonderful outdoor swimming pool equipped with slides and a special tortoise slide for the little ones. If you have a racquet handy, tennis courts and a pitch-and-putt golf course are close by. I’ve lived in Vancouver all my life and never tire of visiting Stanley Park. You can do about a hundred different activities there - feed squirrels, climb trees, watch a Beluga whale show, ride on a horse-drawn carriage (which I’ve still never done), and ride the miniature train. You can go swimming on a sandy beach, take in an art show, wander through the rose gardens, or play pitch and putt. You can picnic inside the hollow tree or at a variety of grassy areas or go fancy at The Fish House or The Sequoia Grill (where my nephew had his wedding reception after getting married on the expanse of lawn overlooking the ocean and mountains. ) Whatever you decide to do, you won’t go wrong by visiting Stanley Park in the beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia.This is my 3 1/2 year grandson watching the beluga whale show from underneath the aquarium.