Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in vancouver, CN

What's That Sound?

July 20, 2009

As this summer gets hotter most of our windows are open and I get most of my housework done in the evening after the boys are in bed. I am usually in the kitchen when I am startled by a muffled booming sound. Luckily I know where the sound is coming from. The nine o'clock gun in Stanley Park.

There are lots of interesting pieces of history around Vancouver, and one of the most heard (depending on the wind) is the Nine O'clock Gun in Stanley Park. It has been ringing out nine o'clock for one hundred and eight years since it was placed in Stanley Park. Unlike a lot of places that have a gun booming out the time, it goes off at nine rather than noon.

While the gun booms at nine o'clock, you can hear it 30 seconds later in Marpole, and in Mission (it has been heard there more than once) a full 3 minutes later. Since it is now fired electronically there is a set of red lights that flash to warn of its impending boom.

For more information on the history of the gun check out Vancouver History.

Vancouver History: The Nine O'clock Gun

by Gwendolyn Floyd

November 12, 2008

Have you ever heard a boom and don't know where it is coming from? Check the time, if it is around nine o'clock in the evening, it is probably the Nine O'clock Gun. There are lots of interesting pieces of  Read more...

Happy Thanksgiving

by Gwendolyn Floyd

October 13, 2008

Today's post will be short and sweet. I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend and is getting a little more sleep than I am. (I am not sure why pregnancy feels the need to give you insomnia in the few weeks before the baby is born.) Canadian Thanksgiving is a  Read more...

Vancouver's History and Landmarks

by Gwendolyn Floyd

June 24, 2008

There are so many landmarks in and around Greater Vancouver that it was very hard to narrow down my list. I decided to try to include a bit of the North Shore so we could have both the water and the mountains included. The water and the mountains are such a big part of Vancouver that they both needed to be included. The following activities are both fun and family friendly. Photo  Read more...