Here, I am by the sign on a board in the front of the bus where the bike rack is -- today there were no bikes when we rode this bus. I am glad I did not have to ride out here for the trip. . . even tho the sun was shining.

Here I am waiting patiently at the bus sign for the driver to return. I can hardly wait to go downtown and also see the waterfront where Paulie goes for some of her walking treks!

The bus driver said Paulie could take a picture of me inside the bus too. We were the first ones on after a break the driver had taken. I got to sit up front -- well I was standing actually because I did not want to miss a thing! I told the bus driver Paulie had tape for me and I would be safe because it was like wearing a seat belt in the bus. We are finally ready to begin on our adventure of downtown Vancouver and the waterfront of the Columbia River.

This is me by the wooden frog tree stump sculpture in downtown Vancouver. (We were walking from uptown (where she took the picture of me by the VANCOUVER sign) to the downtown area. It was so cute that I just wanted everyone else to see it. Paulie says it was carved there a long time ago by a local artist and is quite weather worn but still fun to look at.

Paulie went to the C-Tran office downtown and asked for souviners for my buddy Daniel --hope he likes them.

Here we are in Esther Short Park downtown. I managed to get in the photo by Paulie holding me in front of the camera with her other hand that was not busy with the camera. This land was donated by Esther Short to always be an open space for the community of Vancouver. Soon there will be lots of activity in this park: the Saturday Farmer's Market is set up on one side; there is a bandstand where they have summer concerts; an old house from the beginning days of Vancouver is relocated on the corner of the park and is used mostly for tours and a theater company; the Olympic torch for the winter Olympics in Utah was here and several runners took it through the streets of Vancouver before it was flown to the next city on it's way to the Olympics. Paulie said she got up before 6:00 AM just to see it happen in person.

This "Salmon Run Bell Tower" was constructed just a year ago with money donated by George Propstra, a local businessman who wanted something wonderful in this park to commemorate the history of the Chinook Indians and the salmon spawning legends. One side of the tower (near the top) opens and little animated characters come out while the story of the salmon run is told in a three scene Glockenspiel with a recording. They have this going for school groups and on special occasions. It changes scenes several times. The bells are computerized and play songs on the hour. It can also be programmed to play the bells at other times for longer periods for special events. It is all computerized.

Here I am on one of the salmon sculptures on the front side of the bell tower. That is sure a big salmon!

This is another big salmon on the other side of the bell tower.