Sendero Group Travel Blog

This morning nine of us went to have breakfast at one of the café Crepes on Granville Street before going to Stanley Park. Joleen was appointed to be our guide but her faulty GPS receiver (that apparently didn't know the difference between left and right) led us in the wrong direction. Angela had problems with her receiver too but managed to help us out by creating a pedestrian route in virtual mode. Go Angela!
The lady that we talked to first when we entered Café Crepe was a bit nervous about the dogs but her colleague nicely explained to her that these were not just regular pets but well-trained, well-behaved seeing eye dogs and then all was fine. We got a warm welcome and were seated at two tables. On second thought they decided to give us the private room where only important people were allowed to go. Along the walls around the entire room there were benches and they pulled up tables in front of us. Our waitress was Angie who said she feels like she's been naughty when people call her Angela whereas our Angela prefers to be called Angela.
Joleen's friend John joined us for the day which was very nice and helpful as he is sort of a local.

Together with Charles he made sure we didn't get lost or scratched as our GPSes guided us on our nice walk to Stanley Park. (I almost wrote that they led us to the park but Mike wouldn't approve of that).

After this bit of exercise we gave Newman and Howie some exercise by going on a carriage tour. Don't feel sorry for them though; these horses get a massage every day, we don't. Although Clydesdale Howie had a bit of a traumatic experience with a dog not too long ago he was okay with our dogs. Newman and some of his colleagues are movie stars actually. This was probably the best ride ever but then Charles, who could well be a travel agent, has his own strategy for making very sure his customers are really satisfied. Charles recorded the trip, here is an audio clip from the first part of the carriage ride.





Oh and something I learnt today from someone in our group and like to pass on to you fellow blind folks: if you're out with friends, relatives, colleagues or whoever and you want to make sure the one who drives you home is sober just say you'll be the designated driver. You could do it of course, having your GPS, but you know how sighted people are, the idea will still scare the craving for alcohol out of them.