Vancouver: Brief, Wet and Beautiful

continuing on with our latest excursion...

We drove from Seattle to Vancouver along Chuckanut drive, a slight detour of the main highway. And yes, the name Chuckanut is exactly as it sounds. It didn't take much longer than being on the thoroughfare, principally because we didn't stop to distract ourselves with any of the sights. Torran had fallen asleep in the car and we didn't want to disturb him. However, we did stop at Fairhaven, the quaint little town just south of the Canada/US border which was supposed to be the thriving metropolis that Seattle turned into.

And, amusingly, held as many punch buggies for our beetle punchbuggy game in the town than in the entire trip between cities! (This was my second best victory day over Bruce, for those of you who know our wee obsession).

We stayed in downtown Vancouver, which is incredibly scenic despite its lack of family oriented food venues (where the *heck* can we go for breakfast other than McD's or Tim's????). However, it's a great central location for accessing the bigger attractions, as well as the Seabus ferry boat that gets you access to North and West Vancouver (so does the bus, of course but using the boat is cooler).

North Van and West Van are not suburbs of Vancouver, we learned. They are described as proudly independent and distinct by the local tour guide - which made me wonder why they keep the name Vancouver? shrug. Both are located on the north side of the Burrard inlet, north of Vancouver city.

Having arrived in the evening, we only had time to search about for a meal and found the lovely Salam Bombay Restaurant (look to the second floor) to suit our needs. Yes, having a man dressed up in costume outside to entice visitors upstairs was a bit cheesy, but the service was excellent (they *really* understood about little people at the table) and the food was yum yum yum!

Our first day started off with a bus tour of the city, originating from the Canada Place area, which is also adjacent to the tourist centre. Canada Place was built in 1986 for the World`s fair as the Canada Pavillion. The iconic design represents Canada`s maritime history and recognises BC as the gateway to the Pacific Ocean. It is now a public and private facility, cruise ship terminal, convention centre and hotel spanning over 4 blocks.

Adjacent to this building is the Vancouver Convention Centre with a living grass roof. Nearby, is the Olympic Cauldron , where the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Para-Olympic Flame was lit in tradition of the games, after making the longest relay route in one country in history (ours). A very impressive installation which was fenced off during the games and made people very unhappy. It would have been cool to see the fires lit up, however, now that the flame has made its way onwards for the upcoming 2012 summer olympics, we had to settle with electronic lighting.


The waterfront is a great place to watch ship and floatplane traffic along the Burrard inlet. Apparently, also the occassional roaming orca pod. The Vancouver Harbour Water Airport is the 8th busiest aerodrome in BC (32nd in Canada), one of the busiest water aerodromes in the world and one of the largest airfields in the world (technically). I had to use a mop to clean up after Bruce. The air traffic control tower houses two newspapers in its building and at 142m (466ft) is the tallest ATC in the world.

Using the hop-on-hop-off system of the tour bus company, we had an informative ride to gorgeous Stanley Park, a Vancouver eco tourism hot spot. The weather held out and we enjoyed a lovely stroll through the park to the Vancouver Aquarium and the famous totem poles.

Torran meets a Beluga whale

Bruce and I were very impressed with the aquarium design. Torran managed to sit still (mostly) through a teaching session about beluga whales, which are native to Canada. Now, every time he leaves a light on, I tell him that he`s infringing upon their survival. It seems to work better than nagging him about saving electricity. I still like to peek in on the animals with the beluga cam and sea otter cam from time to time (exhibits are larger than what you can see). Watch out for the crows at the outdoor exhibits, though - agressive lil fellas!


My biggest disappointment about this very short holiday was our lack of exploration about the Native peoples along the West Coast. We were only able to spend a short time at the site of the totem poles, which was once the site of a cultural midden from centuries of use by local natives (and is now trampled upon daily by throngs of tourists!). These huge carvings capture the imagination. I fantasized about creating one for Talfryn, my campîng group at Pennsic, then realized that I would then be the epitomy of a cultural tourist, diminishing the deeper meaning behind the symbols.

I suppose I`ll stick to my megaliths.

Using the tour bus, we ended our journey in Gastown in the northeast end of downtown.

I swear this trip was picked just to give Bruce reason to chuckle.

Vancouver was formed as groups of logging towns became bigger and merged together. Gastown was the foremost of these, founded by a man named Gassy Jack Deighton, well known at the time (mid-late 1880s) for being verbose and long winded. He opened a saloon in 1867 and coincidentally the logging town thrived until it was incorportated with adjacent Granville into the newly named city of Vancouver in 1886. Despite a fire two years later, this city centre recovered and retained much of its importance until the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the `60s the area was supposed to be bulldozed to make way for a freeway. However, concerned about its historical value and potential for revamping Gastown`s future, there was a public resistance (supported by local politicians) which eventually won out. Now its a tourist destination with places to spend money! And, probably, a highly desired place to live for downtowners as it retains the feel of cosy architecture lacking in downtown city centres (the city centre, of course, long since moved on).

Day two brought rain. Lots of rain. Not the greatest day to journey across the inlet and up the to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. However, the thrill and majesty of the bridge, the tree walk and the new cliff walk made it worth it. Not to mention the free and dry shuttle bus which also picked up at our hotel! Despite his vertigo, Bruce crossed the bridge, did 100ft high the tree walk amongst 2000 year old rainforest AND picked his way across the cliff walk (although he did avoid the jutting out parts with the glass floors). Torran was oblivious to any danger whatsoever and merrily hopped his way along every path, although he did say that the bridge was wobbly.

Just outside the Suspension Bridge is a public bus to take you further up Grouse Mountain to the so-called Peak of Vancouver (remember what I said before about the three fiercly independent cities with Vancouver in their name). But don't get stuck in the rain - there is no bus shelter!! Guess who got very very wet, despite the plastic tourist cheesey brigdge poncho?

However, the bus takes you to the gondola's doorstep. I swear that the gondola took us to the North Pole instead of the top of Grouse Mtn! The snow was heavy, wet and blanketed everything. Low lying snow clouds completely obliterated any view of the cities below. In fact, we couldn't see beyond a few hundred feet from the chalet windows. Except for the tourist shopping and snack bar at the top, it was a bit of a wasted trip for me. Bruce went outside to frolic in the snow but not for long. The wee man didn't have snow gear on, so he was verboten to play in the white stuff.

Once down the mountain, we hopped back on the bus, terminating at the ferry boat to Vancouver on the south side of the inlet. Shortly thereafter, we got the to hotel, changed into dry warm clothes and adventured for a child friendly dinner in the city. Part of that adventure took us past the Occupy Vancouver site which was getting a little lively with a rock concert in front of the tents and protesters standing in a main intersection in front of the Pacific Centre Mall (which has naught but shopping and a food court, despite its huge size - so that was a no go for dinner).

This protest piques my interest in my human watching hobby. Of the traffic blocking protesters, there were Marxist men in military garb waving a huge red flag with scythe and hammer on it, a young man cornering two pedestrians sharing with them his non-commericalist version of the movement ("We don't have to buy all the things that we see"), aboriginals calling for more native rights, grunge college students milling about and a young man dressed in a bunny costume. I wanted to take pictures of the action, but Bruce refused me, images of riots breaking out and me becoming a target running through his brain. Awww, how sweet.

We ended up at Mooses Down Under, an Australian restaurant. Bruce found it highly amusing that he had to travel all the way to Vancouver to sample Kangaroo meat (I had the Roo burger. Tastes like gamey beef). I am impressed how many retail and food establishments in the downtown decked themselves out for Hallowe'en, including Mooses. I almost felt bad that I was intentionally not decorating my house because we'd only be arriving back on the 30th. Hallowe'en is my favourite theme holiday.

Our last day in Vancouver started off with a struggle to find breakfast. Mooses Down Under is open for breakfast, but not on a Sunday, unbeknownst to us. Ironically, we ended up back at the Tim Hortons at the base of our hotel. At least they have oatmeal now, so Bruce was contented.

We spent much of the day in Granville Market on Granville Island. Where the Pike Place Market charmed us, Granville Market Wowed! us. I now want to move to Vancouver, just to live within walking distance of the market. The vibrancy of the Sunday morning energy carried into the afternoon, with throngs of people perusing the foods, munching on delicacies and watching buskers. Adjacent to the Granville Market is the Kid`s Market with toy shops, face painting, activities and a two storey climbing area. Sadly, we couldnt put Torran in the climbing zone because we would not be allowed to go in after him and I was not sure whether he would have an anxiety reaction to it, or just refuse to come out. He did get Thomas painted on his face, for which he was mostly sitting still.

A lovely stroll along the waterfront brings you to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vanier Park (also home to the Maritime Museum and the Vancouver Museum, neither of which we were able to visit this trip). Vanier park itself is lovely, with bike and foot trails, public art (yarn bombing!) and lots of room to enjoy the surrounding mountain scenery. The Space Centre was small, in my humble opinion, and I wish I could have enjoyed it more. However, the wee man and I did touch a moon rock! Bruce enjoyed crashing the space shuttle several times on a simulator. Torran found much entertainment in pressing buttons and wiggling joysticks without much purpose, much like any 3 year old boy I suppose. We watched a somewhat lame planetarium movie presentation on Galileo and the origin of the telescope. It is meant for a general audience, and likely not one trying to keep a busy 3 year old boy still and quiet. Not enough stars in the showing to keep him interested.

Vancouver is definately on our Do It Again list, particularly when Torran gets older and is able to better enjoy what the city has to offer (read: we are better able to entertain him with stuff we also like to do). Of course, the rest of B.C. remains for us to discover as well!

photos!