Exploring Vancouver USA - History, Scares and Bouncy Water

Here I am on the Land Bridge

I had a great morning exploring Vancouver USA. We started at the Red Lion at the Quay right on the Columbia River. There was a jet excursion boat going by. I don't think I'd like all that spray!

So we headed out along the Waterfront Renaissance Trail, one of my favorites, but turned in toward the railroad tracks at the Old Apple Tree. We were going to explore the Land Bridge.

It is a bridge that took me from the present day back into the past. If you ask me, the person who made this bridge had to be a little, well... tipsy. It was kind of wavy, you see. I did like stopping at the sculptures and sniffing around them. I even jumped up on one of the walls and looked out to see the Columbia River. 

The Land Bridge was interesting and sniffable

Soon we saw the Fort! Fort Vancouver, a relic of the past, looked like a great place for ME! 

There were mowed fields, orchards and shade from very tall trees. We didn't go into the fort (I hear they don't like dogs hanging out in their heirloom garden) but we did walk around the fields and trees. I especially like the shade trees because by then it was getting warm. I wonder if they had dogs at that fort in the old days.  I know they had furs and pelts there and thought it would be great to have some for a bed!

Here I am at Fort Vancouver.
Soon we were under Shade Trees.

So then we headed up to Officer's Row and more shade trees. I got really excited because there were some squirrels in some of the trees. As we walked along the sidewalk with the huge houses, I imagined myself lying on one of those big porches on a hot day sipping mint juleps.  There's my southern heritage coming out!

But alas, we kept walking. Soon we were downtown. I had a bit of a scare as I walked across the street. There was a hot dog stand that smelled mighty good but something took me by surprise. A HUGE GIGANTIC HOT DOG SCULPTURE stood in front of the stand. I WAS SCARED and pulled toward the street... cars or not! But soon we left all that behind and kept walking on Main Street. 

I stopped to check out a huge heart. There are a lot of them downtown. They are called art. But I just thought I'd sniff them and keep walking. By then I was getting really interested in having some water.

Here's that heart. They are all over the place.

We wound our way through downtown and soon we came upon Esther Short Park. There were fountains there where I hoped to have a drink. It was a beautiful shady park and first I stopped at the fountain that looked like a creek. But the water was spraying and bouncing. Not for me! So then I spied the Salmon Clock fountain and thought there might be a pool of water there.  But NOOO! The water was bouncing and splashing there too. I pulled away. I don't like that type of water. I'd just wait 'til I got home.

Soon we were back down to the Red Lion parking lot. By then it was getting rather warm. My black coonie fur was soaking up the sun. I was happy to go home to my BIG BOWL OF WATER!

It was a good walk mainly because of all the shade trees. I think I'd like to do it again and skip the scary hot dog cart!

Thank you to the Vancouver Volkssporters Walking Club for the Great Walking Map.