Vancouver, Canada Day 2
We woke up on our second day in Vancouver and the first thing we did is visit Tim Horton's! I have been there before when I was in Canada a few years ago, but Normer had never been there. I wasn't too impressed with the coffee but we had some pretty good donuts.
After breakfast we walked north along Robson Street. This is the most famous street in Vancouver with every store imaginable. There was also a Starbucks at every street corner. Sometimes there were even two Starbucks right across the street from each other! I've heard of that happening in New York City but I thought it a little strange in Vancouver! I'm not sure if the number of Starbucks is related to the fact that Vancouver is so close to the birthplace of Starbucks in Seattle. It did seem like everyone was walking around with a Starbucks cup though.
The plan for Sunday was to rent bicycles and ride along this bike path called the Seawall. The Seawall starts on the Northern tip of Vancouver in the huge Stanley Park and it goes along the bay for miles. We found a bicycle shop close to the end of Robson Street and rented bikes. They had several tandem bikes which I thought would be fun to rent but upon further thought I realized that would be asking for a lot of marital strife. Normer and I are pretty independent people and I could just see us having war over who was driving and which direction that bike was going to go. Haha.
After getting our (own) bikes we headed up to the Seawall and found it to be an excellent path. It was wide enough to hold pedestrians on one side and rollarblades/bikes on the other. It did get pretty narrow in some places and you would have to get out and walk your bike through several slow zones. Other than that, it was gorgeous!
This picture was taken at the beginning of the path and is looking towards the city from Stanley Park.
We were able to see a lot of sea planes taking off and it was pretty interesting to watch!!
This is the Lions Gate Bridge which connects the downtown area to North and West Vancouver. And here I am in my lovely bike helmet. Safety first!
The temperature there was very cool all weekend. If you were in the shade you got pretty cold but then if you were in the sun it was a little warm to have a jacket on. I was constantly taking my jacket on and off and could never figure out what to wear. I ended up wearing a short sleeve shirt and brought a long sleeve shirt and my thick fleece. That worked out pretty well except the part about taking my jacket on and off!
The view along the path was breathtaking!
After about 7 miles of biking we stopped for lunch south of Downtown at the Hurricane Grill. We were both starving and it was a great break from the bicycle.
After lunch we headed out on our final portion of the Seawall. This is Normer in front of Science World. Have no idea what it is, but it was neat looking.
This bridge was right in front of where they are building the Olympic Village. Even though it wasn't completed it was a really beautiful area .
Somewhere around mile 11 of biking I started to reach my breaking point. This is the point where Normer has taken me on some adventure and I just can't physically keep up anymore. We have had many of these on our trips it seems. Then at mile 11 and 12 my bicycle chain decided to fall off for the 2nd and 3rd time. It had already come off at mile 7 but I hadn't reached the breaking point yet so it was somewhat humorous. "Apparently" I wasn't shifting gears correctly but I digress. So the last mile of our trip was pretty frustrating for me but we finally made it back to the shop. We had biked a little over 13 miles! I know because I looked it up on Google maps. Here's the link if you want to check out where we biked. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2230333
It was only around 5pm when we turned in our bikes but we were so worn out that we didn't do much besides visit Dairy Queen and Subway the rest of the day. We did walk around in the Yaletown area of downtown but were just too worn out to enjoy it.
Our flight left out the next morning and we arrived back in Atlanta on Monday night.
Overall, we liked Vancouver and were glad to visit but it wasn't our favorite place. It is a very beautiful city and I'm sure they will do a great job of hosting the Olympics in 2 years. Here are some parting shots of the city.
After breakfast we walked north along Robson Street. This is the most famous street in Vancouver with every store imaginable. There was also a Starbucks at every street corner. Sometimes there were even two Starbucks right across the street from each other! I've heard of that happening in New York City but I thought it a little strange in Vancouver! I'm not sure if the number of Starbucks is related to the fact that Vancouver is so close to the birthplace of Starbucks in Seattle. It did seem like everyone was walking around with a Starbucks cup though.
The plan for Sunday was to rent bicycles and ride along this bike path called the Seawall. The Seawall starts on the Northern tip of Vancouver in the huge Stanley Park and it goes along the bay for miles. We found a bicycle shop close to the end of Robson Street and rented bikes. They had several tandem bikes which I thought would be fun to rent but upon further thought I realized that would be asking for a lot of marital strife. Normer and I are pretty independent people and I could just see us having war over who was driving and which direction that bike was going to go. Haha.
After getting our (own) bikes we headed up to the Seawall and found it to be an excellent path. It was wide enough to hold pedestrians on one side and rollarblades/bikes on the other. It did get pretty narrow in some places and you would have to get out and walk your bike through several slow zones. Other than that, it was gorgeous!
This picture was taken at the beginning of the path and is looking towards the city from Stanley Park.
We were able to see a lot of sea planes taking off and it was pretty interesting to watch!!
This is the Lions Gate Bridge which connects the downtown area to North and West Vancouver. And here I am in my lovely bike helmet. Safety first!
The temperature there was very cool all weekend. If you were in the shade you got pretty cold but then if you were in the sun it was a little warm to have a jacket on. I was constantly taking my jacket on and off and could never figure out what to wear. I ended up wearing a short sleeve shirt and brought a long sleeve shirt and my thick fleece. That worked out pretty well except the part about taking my jacket on and off!
The view along the path was breathtaking!
After about 7 miles of biking we stopped for lunch south of Downtown at the Hurricane Grill. We were both starving and it was a great break from the bicycle.
After lunch we headed out on our final portion of the Seawall. This is Normer in front of Science World. Have no idea what it is, but it was neat looking.
This bridge was right in front of where they are building the Olympic Village. Even though it wasn't completed it was a really beautiful area .
Somewhere around mile 11 of biking I started to reach my breaking point. This is the point where Normer has taken me on some adventure and I just can't physically keep up anymore. We have had many of these on our trips it seems. Then at mile 11 and 12 my bicycle chain decided to fall off for the 2nd and 3rd time. It had already come off at mile 7 but I hadn't reached the breaking point yet so it was somewhat humorous. "Apparently" I wasn't shifting gears correctly but I digress. So the last mile of our trip was pretty frustrating for me but we finally made it back to the shop. We had biked a little over 13 miles! I know because I looked it up on Google maps. Here's the link if you want to check out where we biked. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2230333
It was only around 5pm when we turned in our bikes but we were so worn out that we didn't do much besides visit Dairy Queen and Subway the rest of the day. We did walk around in the Yaletown area of downtown but were just too worn out to enjoy it.
Our flight left out the next morning and we arrived back in Atlanta on Monday night.
Overall, we liked Vancouver and were glad to visit but it wasn't our favorite place. It is a very beautiful city and I'm sure they will do a great job of hosting the Olympics in 2 years. Here are some parting shots of the city.
Thanks for sharing! It's fun to see all these exotic places you guys get to visit.
ReplyDeleteLooks pretty amazing to me! I love how you've been so many places now that somewhere as exotic as Vancouver is just so-so for you. Ha! :) For real though, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that's Mike that commented above. He forgot to log out of UpStreet's blog. ;)
LOVE that you guys never removed your helmets for pictures, hilarious! looks like a good time!
ReplyDeleteThe science bike pic makes me think of that place at Disney - I think it's a big white looking golf ball though, not silver. It was also about science and imaginagtion .... I think.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a nice visit and lots of sunshince :-)
There should be a place in Vancouver where you can stand and look out over the harbour and actually see Washington State, specifically Port Angeles, WA or the Olympic mountains. I've not been to Vancouver (yet) but I have stood on the shores of Port Angeles and looked over at Vancouver.
ReplyDelete