Canada Day 3: GM Place tour and Science World

Look! It's a giant Willie!!!

Today started off not so well, it was peeing it down with rain for a start, but Connor and I didn't care cos we were going on a tour of GM Place yeah!!!

Got there early, as is our habit with Canada and the time difference, so we had to wait outside in the downpour for a little while.

Then when the place opened up we were told that the tour today had been cancelled as they were doing a photo shoot of some sort inside.


Nooooooo - today was our only chance as they only run Wednesdays and Fridays and we fly out too early next Wednesday to fit in a tour. :( :( :(:(

So we indulged in a little retail therapy in the stadium shop, to ease our broken hearts - purely medicinal :)


Furry the racoon got a nice new hat, so did Connor. I got 2 sweatshirts and a bag, a t-shirt, a keyring and a pin badge. And Cons got a Fin hand puppet too. I managed to stop myself from getting a black and orange skate-logo Odjick jersey, but it was a close call!

And I am so glad we did faff around shopping for nearly an hour, because just as we got to the till to pay for our spoils, a little man emerged from a little door and quietly announced that the photo shoot was over and they could do the tour after all.

Yay!!!

Almost everyone else had given up so there were 5 people in total on the tour, which made it nice and cosy :)

It was really cool.

First of all we went right up to the 500-level, where the press boxes are, and the big corporate suites. That's me and Connor in one of the suites right there, so you can see the eagle's eye view they get of the action. They would really be able to see all the plays being set up and stuff, but on the other hand you are so far away I wonder if you really get the atmosphere and excitement of the game up there in the gods....

Then we went to see all the posh restaurants and more suites down on 200, and where the TV cameras go.

Out into the stands next - and I tried to get Connor to recreate Lu's famous Frozen Moment shot, but it doesn't really work without the stick :)



Next it was the dressing rooms (visitors not our boys', unfortunately), and then we got to sit on the players' bench! Connor was particularly pleased to learn that his bottom was touching something that Jarome Iginla's bottom had been touching :)



All in all we were in there a good hour and a half. Well worth the $15 it cost for the two of us. I would happily go round again. Oh yes, and we got pressies at the end - team photos and a trading card of our favourite Canuck. Cons chose Nazzy. I had to fight the other little boy on the tour for Kes. Luckily the tour guide had multiple Kesler cards, as I would have hated to have to make the little chap cry :)

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Next stop, Science World.

I could see the fantastic geodesic dome of Science World from GM Place, and it didn't look far, but given the weather, we decided to take the sky train (monorail, monorail, monorail..... as the Simpsons would say)... That was fun in itself.

Once inside, we explored all the interactive exhibits. It's all very worthy and educational in there, but manages to be tremendous fun at the same time.

Connor had a blast and so did I.




We had a scare at one point when Connor lost Furry, but thankfully an honest person handed him into Lost and Found, so we got him back. Connor was visibly delightedly relieved to be reunited with his new best pal.

The highlight of the visit for me was the IMAX presentation about dinosaurs:



Cons was suitably awed by his first IMAX experience :)

Then it was on to Subway for a sarnie,and back to the hotel for a chill and a swim.

Another great day, who needs sunshine to have fun? Not us!