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Vancouver from Stanley Park.
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Bill and I met at
Vancouver airport then took the light rail to downtown. We walked to our Airbnb. at 1865 Alberni
Street right off of Denman. $1470 for 6
nights. All prices are in Canadian. The Airbnb was a one-bedroom so Bill got the
bedroom and I got the couch since I always awaken earlier. It was a great location on the third floor
and a balcony. It was lacking a coffee
maker – good thing I brought a Moka pot.
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The Airbnb courtyard. This was a GREAT location.
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Day 1: we rented
bikes at Jo-e’s ($32 per day) then headed into Stanley Park, biking slowly, and
spent most of the day there. We stopped
at a scenic overlook at a tea house on the north side for a drink. However,
the tea house was situated so far back from the water that it had no
view. So we exited and continued biking.
The bikes were returned due to sore butts. After cleanup at Airbnb, we walked up Denman
St for dinner at Kintaro Ramen. We were
the token Caucasians. Bill ordered a
cheese ramen that was advertised “The ladies love it.” It was too much
cheese even for Bill! Our restaurant
still had a long waiting line at 9:30p as we headed home.
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Ladies just lo-o-o-ve it!
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Day 2: today’s goal was
to bike to Granville Island and Olympic Village. Started the day by making a good decision of
renting comfortable Townie bikes with big seats and comfortable sitting
position from Spokes. $10 more per day,
but my butt said thank you. We were
shocked when the bike guy said he pumps up the tires to 110. It wasn’t
until much later that it dawned on us it might not be in PSI units but
something metric. Granville was much
closer than expected. It was a great
ride on the seashore on a dedicated bike path. We went over the cool
looking Burrard Bridge. At the top of
the bridge was a helpline telephone for those considering jumping plus nets
under the bridge. Across the bridge in
Kitsilano was a Lululemon headquarters building distinguished by the Lululemon
icon. Granville is an artistic enclave
with brewpubs, wineries and farmers market. We enjoyed an outdoor lunch
with food selected from the Market and watched a wood boat construction
demo. There was a wood boat festival going on including many old boats
docked to admire. After touring the wood
boats we wandered over to the Granville Island Brewery only to find a line
waiting to get in. Not worth the wait so off we went to another spot with
outdoor tables on a patio overlooking the harbor. Much better. Saw these funny-looking round orange Joes BBQ
boats going by. They had actual grills on board.
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Thank you for Spandex!
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Grandville Island has a working cement plant, with funky silos.
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I could watch this all day. Grandville Island.
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After lunch and early
happy hour, we mounted our bikes and continued down the path to the Olympic
Village. Cruised by this weird shaped
high rise on the way to the Olympic Village.
The Olympic Village is an open public square with 2 giant bird
sculptures, including one with a kid trying to climb up its tail. We had another happy hour beer on another
outdoor patio overlooking the water. We
ordered what we thought was the smaller pints, but got the larger Imperial
pints. Forgot where we were. A 16-ounce beer is called a “sleeve”. A light drizzle plus riding into the wind
made it chilly. (However, not chilly
enough to stop and put on my raincoat). We
again returned the bikes, cleaned up, and wandered Denman St again and stopped
for dinner at the same Kintaro Ramen place. Still great. Bill managed to eat only half this time. After dinner entertainment was walking to
English Beach and watching the crowd and sunset.
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Funky high rise on the way to the Olympic Village.
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Somehow we ordered the LARGE beer size...
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Day 3: today’s goal is
walking to Chinatown. No bikes today. We started the walk by going to Gastown. On the way next to the Convention Centre, we
passed the sculpture of a Digital Orca and the “Olympic Cauldron”. The Digital Orca was in cube pixels:
combining past form with future form, a past society with future society, the past
economy with future economy... Artists read a lot into things. We arrived at Gastown and the Steam Clock
just minutes before noon. The clock, formerly powered by steam, now puts
out a musical show using its 4 steam whistles.
One on each quarter of the hour and all 4 on the hour. A couple of blocks further were a sculpture
of “Gassy” Jack plus a beggar woman smoking hash at the foot of the sculpture. Gassy Jack was an early neighborhood
bartender that talked a lot. From Gastown,
we headed to Chinatown. On the way, we, unfortunately, wandered through a homeless “Missiontown”. The usual shopping carts of possessions,
sleeping anywhere on the sidewalk, doing and selling drugs. I was wondering where they all went. It was hard to believe Vancouver had none. 2 more blocks and we were in Chinatown. I had to walk under the China Gate. We
walked down the Historic Shanghai Alley (aka Chinatown Heritage Alley).
That was the original settlement area. Other
than an alley, all the old buildings were gone.
The first few blocks of Chinatown were surprisingly sketchy. Very dirty, trashy, bum filled, uncomfortable
environment. We were looking for a place
for lunch and didn’t feel good about the area.
Finally found a good feeling neighborhood with an all-day dim sum. Fat, dumb and happy, we toured the Chinese
Cultural Centre and the Sun Yat-Sen Gardens.
We decided to not return home via the path taken earlier (due to the sketchy
area) so we headed to walk up the shopping district of Robson St. At the
foot of the street was the BC stadium and a statue tribute to Terry Fox. It was 4 statues of him growing up running
next to a highway with his artificial leg.
Cool. Halfway up Robson, we required a beer break at the Irish pub
Lennox. More wandering and a detour
later we were back at the waterfront having today’s dirty martini at the Lift Bar Grill. We had a quick detour through the home to
drop off backpacks and headed down the usual Denman St. Dinner at Misaki Sushi
and wandered more of English Beach.
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Digital Orca.
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The "Steam" clock.
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Entrance to Chinatown.
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Day 4: today’s
goal is lunch in Stanley Park and maybe a harbor dinner cruise.
Yesterday Bill got money
changed to local currency so Randy could do our laundry early this morning. Bill only brought 4 days’ worth of socks and
underwear. We walked to Stanley Park. We had our picnic lunch and split a bottle of
Pinot noir while watching a cricket game. We need to learn the rules! Happy hour of a dirty martini at the usual
Lift Bar Grill. We watched the 2 cruise ships
depart at 4:30p. Skipped the Harbour
cruise.
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Required wine while watching the cricket match.
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Where is Vancouver???
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I still want the blue boathouse.
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Day 5: We headed to
Capilano Suspension Bridge: fun woodsy park!
We took a scheduled bus from the Convention Centre to get there. The main bridge sways a lot! The Treetop trail was fun. Same with cliff walk trail. For the afternoon we picked up a sandwich and
a bottle of wine which we enjoyed overlooking Coal Harbour Marina. When Randy tried to discretely open the wine
bottle in public, it made an extremely loud pop. People turned to look. After much walking, we stopped for our final
dirty martini at the usual Lift. Dinner
for the third time at Misaki Sushi on Denman St. The waitress knew
our order. Randy’s order was “Fat and
Rich”. Seems appropriate.
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Numerous bridges.
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And another bridge.
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A Craftsman-style office building.
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English Bay. We spent most sunsets here.
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Happy hour!
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Day 6: time to go home. 2p flight.
We went back to Safeway to buy a travel lunch and dinner. We enjoyed a 40-minute walk to the train stop
plus a 40-minute train ride to the airport.
Interesting was the fact that airport parking is 2 train stops away from
the airport. We cleared US customs in
Vancouver. Bill finally got to use his Global Entry fast pass. On
the far side of customs was the Duty-Free store. Since we already cleared
customs, there was no limit on the amount of booze one can buy. Tanqueray liters were 2 for $45 and get the
third one free. Bill now has a lifetime supply of gin.
