Final Destination: Vancouver, BC.

Final Destination: Vancouver, BC.

Well, our trip is almost over. We arrived in our last location, the city of Vancouver, located in British Columbia. It is a very beautiful city, situated along the Pacific Ocean coastline. Here are some interesting facts about the city:

Latitude and Longitude: 49°N, 123°W
Population: 1 987 000
Population Density: 704
Landforms: Western Cordillera
Climate: Pacific Coast
Ecozone: Pacific Maritime
National Park: Mt. Revelstoke
Industries: Shipping, forestry, mining, film
Tourism: Capilano Bridge, Vancouver Aquarium, Harbour Cruises, Lookout

So we’ve spent the last days of our trip in our final destination, a city called Vancouver on the West coast of BC. We started off the day by going to the harbour, on the west side of Vancouver at the Pacific Ocean. Once we arrived there, we were all able to board a ship and go for an epic cruise around the harbour and coastline of BC. It was a lot of fun, and my sister got seasick (I laughed at her. I know I’m a mean brother). We passed a shipyard filled with cargo ships from all over the world, even places like China, as Vancouver is one of Canada’s most important ports for the transportation of goods across the ocean.

The next spot we went to was the Capilano Suspension Bridge. The bridge is just a long suspension bridge spanning the Capilano River, at a height of about 70 metres above the river. The bridge is also about 135 metres long, and offers a great view over the valley and surrounding area. My whole family walked out to the middle of the bridge, and then my evil dad ran back to the entrance, making the bridge sway and shake and freak us all out.

The last place we visited while in Vancouver was the Vancouver Lookout, atop the Harbour Center, a tall skyscraper and well-known Vancouver landmark. The lookout is a very popular tourist attraction, as it offers a great view of Vancouver from it’s 360 degree viewing platform. It is about 146 metres off the ground, making the Harbour Center one of Vancouver’s tallest buildings.
I have to admit, the trip was a lot more fun than I had expected. I’m really going to miss all the cool places we visited, like the West Edmonton Mall. Can’t wait until we go on another trip next year!!!

Works Consulted:

Lat/Long: http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong_ca.html

Pop/Density: Textbook

Landforms: http://www.canadainfolink.ca/

Climate: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/

Ecozone: http://www4.agr.gc.ca/

National Park: http://www4.agr.gc.ca/

Industries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Vancouver

Tourism: http://www.vancouverattractions.com/

Paragraph Info: http://www.wikipedia.org/

Pictures and Maps: http://www2.canada.com/topics/travel/guides/maps/, http://www.paulenagnes.nl/reizen/2008/, http://www.infovancouver.com/

4th Stop: Edmonton, AB.

My family and I have spent the last few days in our 4th stop; the city of Edmonton, located in south-western Alberta. Here's some information on the city:

Latitude and Longitude: 15 N, 113 W.

Population: 938 000

Population Density: 98/km2

Landforms: Interior Plains

Climate: Prairies

Ecozone: Prairies

National Parks: Banff National Park

Industries: Oil, Gas, Agriculture, Tourism

Tourism: West Edmonton Mall, Citadel Theatre, Alberta Aviation Museum, Valley Zoo.

Edmonton is a very large city with a lot of interesting things to do, so it was hard to choose. But we did eventually choose the things we would do, and the first one was travel to the Citadel Theatre. It is a very significant part of the arts in Edmonton, and its talented actors and actresses have put on many plays since it was first formed in 1965, back when it was originally called "The Salvation Army Citadel". Another very interesting part of this specific building is it's indoor layout. The main stage is at the front, with seats on the floor, and several

balconies along the walls up to the ceiling, giving the theatre a very "opera house-ish look". We watched a play there, and I must admit, it was quite impressive, the set, acting, costumes, and everything else.

Another place we visited while in Edmonton was the Alberta Aviation Museum. I learned while there that the Alberta Aviation Museum is home to the last remaining

example of the "Double Double" WW2 British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and the museum was built in 1940, as a maintenance hangar for planes in the Air Force. During WW2, the hangar was used by the USA to service planes heading to Alaska, and was later converted to a car dealership in the 1960's. The museum currently has several planes on display and is known as a provincial historic site.

The last place we visited while in Edmonton was the West Edmonton Mall. This was definately my favourite stop on our journey, because it is basically a huge building, with a ton of stores, and pools, and an amusement park, and even an aquarium that you can scuba-dive in!!! The West Edmonton Mall is the fifth largest mall in the world, and has many attractions inside. There is a large amusement park, called Galaxyland, and also the mall is home to World Waterpark, the world's largest indoor waterpark. The slides there are really scary, but fun, and you can also bungee jump over he wavepool (I was too scared to do that). We also had fun on the miniature golf course inside of the mall. If you're ever going to be in Edmonton, you absolutely MUST go to the West Edmonton Mall. This was probably the most exciting stop out of all the other places visited so far.

Works Consulted:

Lat/Long: http://www.skyscan.ca/latitudelongitude.htm

Population/Density: Textbook

Landforms: http://www.canadainfolink.ca

Climate: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/

Ecozone: Textbook

National Parks: http://www.trailcanada.com

Industries: Textbook, my dad

Tourism: http://maps.google.ca/

Paragraphs: http://www.wikipedia.org/

Pictures: http://www.redtag.ca/travel-guide/imagefiles/3723.jpg, http://z.about.com/d/themeparks/1/5/1/f/WEMall.jpg

3rd Stop: Sudbury, ON.

3rd Stop: Sudbury, ON.

Today, we arrived at our third stop on our journey across Canada. This was the city of Sudbury, ON. Here’s some basic points about this location:




Latitude/Longitude: 46°N, 80°W



Population: 157 000



Population Density: 60/km2



Landforms: Canadian Shield



Climate: Great Lakes/ St. Lawrence



Ecozone: Boreal Shield



National Parks: Pukaskwa National Park



Industries: Nickel Mining, Steelwork, Mills.



Tourism: Big Nickel, Science North, Dynamic Earth.

We started off the day by visiting a very popular tourist attraction in Sudbury; The Big Nickel. It really lives up to it’s name. The Big Nickel is about 30ft high, and is located near the Dynamic Earth Center (which I will explain later). The significance of this large sculpture is to represent Sudbury’s large nickel mining industry.
The next location we visited was a rather interesting complex known as “Dynamic Earth”. It was just a large interactive museum focusing mainly on Sudbury’s mining industry and it’s long and exciting history. I especially enjoyed this location because we got to put on the outfits real miners would wear, and actually travel down into a mine shaft for a tour in the underground tunnels. I would definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Sudbury anytime soon, it was quite a fun learning experience.


Our last tourist attraction that we went to was a large star-shaped building called Science North. Inside, there was an IMAX theatre, and a planetarium. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a big room with projections of the universe, stars and planets and all that stuff, projected onto the dark ceiling, so when you look up it’s like your stargazing into the night sky. Also in Science North, there was the F. Jean MacLeod Butterfly Gallery, which is a large exhibit of different butterfly species and tons of amazing plantlife. Overall, I think it’s fair to say that Sudbury is a wonderful city, and it is a lot of fun.









Works Consulted:

Lat/Long: http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong_ca.html
Pop/Density: Textbook
Landforms: http://www.canadainfolink.ca/
Climate: http://www.statcan.gc.ca
Ecozone: http://www4.agr.gc.ca
National Parks:
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/national/natpks_e/referencemap_image_view
Industries: http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/com/index-eng.php
Tourism: http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/sudbury-cdn-on-ons.htm
Pictures and Maps (in order of appearance): http://www.wlra.us/wl/wlnickel.jpg
http://www.mtarch.com/mtascinhigh.gif
http://www.nostringsattachedband.org/images/SudburyMap.gif

All Other Info: http://www.wikipedia.org/
www.dynamicearth.ca
http://sciencenorth.ca/science-attractions/science-attractions.html

Stop #2: Montreal, QB

Well, we went to our second stop on our journey across Canada today. This stop was the city of Montreal, QB. Here's some information on that city:

Population: 3426 000

Population Density: 851/ km2

Landforms: St. Lawrence Lowlands

Climate: Great Lakes/ St. Lawrence Lowlands

Ecozone: Mixedwood plains

Closest National Park: Park National Du Mont-Saint-Bruno.

Industries: Medicines, technology, petroleum, steel, food+beverages, and tobacco.

Tourism: Museum of Archeology and History, Biodome, Art Museum.

Today was interesting. We arrived last night and went to the Biodome this morning. It was a very cool place, and I definately recommend it to anyone visiting Montreal soon. The Biodome is pretty much just a building where you can tour replicas of

America's 4 ecosystems; The Tropical Forest (South America), the Laurentian Forest (North America), the polar area (Arctic, Antarctica), and the Saint Lawrence Marine Eco-System (based on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence). The Biodome was originally constructed in 1976, for the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games, to hold cycling and judo events. After the Olympics, it was converted to the indoor ecosystems by 1992.

Another extremely intriguing attraction we visited was the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. My whole family is into art and has been for awhile, so it was only right to visit it. There were many interesting and exciting exhibits, such as the one on Pre-Columbian Art, featuring about 100 objects. There were lots of different sculptures of the art that they had done thousands of years ago, and it was very interesting how they lasted that long. It was a great day, and I'm having better hopes for this trip, but still won't let anyone know, for risk of being taunted for life.

Works Consulted:

Pop/Density: Textbook

Landforms: http://www.canadainfolink.ca

Climate: http://www.statcan.gc.ca

Ecozone: http://www4.agr.gc.ca

National Parks: http://maps.google.ca

Industries: http://www.wikipedia.org

Tourism: http://maps.google.ca

Picture and Map: http://www.dalsa.com/images/montreal_map1.jpg, http://fr.academic.ru/pictures/frwiki/66/Biodôme-Montréal.jpg

First Stop, Halifax NS.

Hello again!!! Today, I was dragged through the city of Halifax, NS, with my evil family. Here's some information on the city:

Latitude and Longitude: 44°N, 63°W

Population: 360 000

Population Density: 1506.2

Landforms: Halifax Peninsula, Halifax Harbour.

Climate: Short warm summers. Long, cold winters.

Ecozone: Atlantic Maritime.

Closest National Park: Kejimkujik National Park.

Industries: Defences, Transportation, Fishing, Education, Health Care.

Tourism: Maritime Museum Of The Atlantic, Citadel, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax Harbour, Pier 21.

We started out the day by visiting the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site. It's just a big fort on top of Halifax hill, overlooking the harbour. The Citadel was a very significant symbol of Halifax's importance in the Naval defences of Canada. The fort was used by the Canadian Military during WW1 and WW2, but it was never attacked. The fort is uniquely shaped as a star, and took about 28 years to build. We explored that for about an hour, and then moved on to the Museum of Natural History.

The Museum of Natural History was also rather interesting. It is just a large museum explaining Nova Scotia's natural history. We visited an awesome exhibit about snakes and other venomous reptiles such as tarantulas and scorpions, and we toured an exhibit on meteors and their effects on planets and the universe. I must admit, it was better than I expected, and was kind of fun. But I won't admit it to my family for the sake of them telling me "We told you so" for the rest of my life.

Works Consulted:

Lat/Long: http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong_ca.html

Pop/Density: Textbook

Landforms: http://www.canadainfolink.ca

Climate: http://www.statcan.gc.ca

Ecozone: http://www4.agr.gc.ca

National Parks: http://maps.google.ca

Industries: http://www.wikipedia.org

Tourism: http://maps.google.ca

Picture and Map: http://www.johntomlinson.ca/NS/halifax.gif, https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR6jHEp56H04AXnJMXboioaIBX8gWHZsivmymQaIB16QNt6yaS4OqlJSumYhzWXsz70-oY5G5My_1dYA2eclcj-hriwsq_rUQmsH1VWYT4WVXZzFqKTgfn8wdM78H8-MwBPYkOUclFXow/s400/HalifaxCitadelHill.jpg

ARE WE THERE YET???

Hi everyone, my name is Linden. My family is dragging me along with them on a vacation across Canada. We're going to be starting in Halifax, and then going through Montreal, Sudbury, Edmonton, and finally arriving at our last stop, Vancouver. The vacation is going to be horrible, for a number of reasons. First, the only vacation we've ever been on before was a camping trip, and we were rained on for three days straight, stuck in a leaking tent on some godforsaken island near Lake Huron. So my expectations for this trip aren't very high, in fact, any positive expectations are pretty much non-existent. The only reason we even... sorry, let me rephrase that; The only reason they even had the idea was because I didn't go to any camps this summer, and I waited too long to apply for a job, so according to them, they're saving me from being bored all alone for 2 months. Truth is, I'd rather be bored for 2 months alone than for 2 weeks with them. This whole blog is just going to be me posting/complaining about all the things happening on my trip through Hell, so all I can really say is sit back, relax, and be glad you're not in my position right now (which is stuck rather uncomfortably between a cooler and a duffel bag in the backseat). And if you are in my position right now, trust me, I have great sympathy for you.