In search of cherry blossoms

I've never really gone in search of the cherry blossoms before. I've happened upon them accidentally like one year when we hopped on and off the aqua bus at Granville Island. But never purposefully gone to see them. This year I was determined to do so.

But this day we were actually headed to Granville. As we were driving out there, I saw a picture of a street in Vancouver, alight with blossoms, so we went on a detour.

 We didn't find the blossoms, but I took these from the car.

We stopped at the beach, because there were supposed to be blossoms near there. But we didn't find them.

 It was soooo windy and really cold, but you could see for miles. Absolutely gorgeous.

 And wonder of wonders, their magnolia was in bloom. Ours wasn't even close yet at this point.

Then we arrived at Granville Island and, as is my custom, I took a picture of the old sailor.

It was really busy at the market, more so than it has been in a long time. Possibly because we've had a crazy wet spring (after a crazy snowy winter) and so everyone felt the need to get outside. Can you blame them?

But we ended up having to park quite far away, in the underground parking of a condo building around the corner.  And we'd intended to hop on and off the aqua buses again, but because we parked so far away, we ended up walking a long way around the marina just to get into the market.

 And by that time, it was lunch and ALL the children voted to stop and eat. 

We sat outside in the sunshine and ate, and then continued walking the perimeter of the island.

 The children insisted on ice cream.

 And then we headed towards the house boats.

 I bought myself a wide angle lens for my birthday, with money I made crafting, and decided to try it out.

 I love the perspective the wide angle gets me in places like this.

 I would have missed it, but the kids were mesmerized by all the fish in the water. We saw starfish too - you hardly see those anymore.

Then we rounded the marina and saw this tree filled with tea bag people.

 Larry was pretty impressed with this place as an idea for a date. Smart boy.

 We'd finally walked the whole perimeter of the island, and decided to leave rather than take a boat.

  But I saw some blossoms, so I insisted that we walk at least that far so I could take some pictures.

 Well, look at what a spectacular day it was, can you blame me?

After this, we drove down towards the olympic village.

 We were hoping to see some sea life, or something interesting, but really, it was pretty boring.