Vancouver, B.C. Day 3

Another beautiful day in Vancouver.  Sunny and low 70's.  We have been so lucky with this weather.  Today we caught the free shuttle to Capilano.  Capilano has a suspension bridge, nature walk on the floor of a rain forest, a canopy walk among the trees, and a cliff walk above the Capilano River.

View from the suspension bridge

 We had to cross on the suspension bridge to get to two of the hiking areas and then cross again.  Yikes! Actually, since I have such a fear of heights, I thought it would be very difficult to do, but it wasn't too bad.  When the bridge began swaying some from the people walking, I had a little bit of trouble, but had to complete the walk.  Then coming back was fairly easy.

Proof that I crossed the bridge.

Mike on the bridge.

This picture shows how high the bridge is.

After crossing the bridge we walked around the trail at the floor of the temperate rain forest.  It is very different from the forests of Arkansas.  Then we walked on the canopy trail, high above, between trees of the Capilano forest.  These trails were fairly high, but were short walks between platforms around a tree. It gave a very interesting view of the forest.

Canopy Trail

Mary on the canopy walk.

 When finished with the canopy walk, we crossed back over the suspension bridge and took the cliff walk above the Capilano River.

Mary on the cliff walk

Mike on the cliff walk

 The cliff walk was as high as the suspension bridge, and was narrow, but didn't sway.  Gave us a very good view of the Capilano River.  After leaving Capilano, Mike and I ate a late lunch in downtown Vancouver then took a walk back to the hotel.  We are staying in for the evening so that we will be ready to board our cruise ship tomorrow. Our stay in Vancouver has been very relaxing.  We are looking forward to the next stage of our journey.  Until next time, so long.

Vancouver, B.C. Day 2

July 29, 2013

Today Mike and I visited a couple of areas in downtown Vancouver.  We started the day by riding a ferry to Granville Island.  This island has a public market, several restaurants, water sport shops, and the Granville Brewing Company.

Mary on Granville Island

Mike in front of the Granville Public Market

The Public Market contains everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood, cheese, pastries, and food stalls with complete meals.  It was fun to go through but since we are staying in a hotel couldn't really take advantage of buying anything. We ate lunch at a seafood restaurant on the island - Fried fresh halibut, fresh smoked salmon pizza. 

After leaving Granville Island, we decided to walk on the sea wall for a while.  Vancouver  has biking and walking trails around the entire peninsula.  What is really cool about it is that the biking and hiking lanes are separated.  Makes walking a lot easier.

Mike on the sea wall.

While on the sea wall we came to a beach area.  I thought it was way too cool for swimming, but some people were laying in the sun and swimming.  The high only got to about 72.  We did touch the water since Mike has never been to the Pacific before. It was really pretty and the weather was great.

Mike on the beach

Mary looking at the Pacific

After resting at the hotel for a while, Mike and I took the hotel shuttle to Gastown area.  It is the area of the original Vancouver.  It gets a lot of hype, but we weren't really impressed.  There are a lot of homeless people in Vancouver, and many of them seemed to be on the streets of Gastown.  The steam clock was interesting, but the rest of the area didn't have the history we expected.  The steam clock whistles on each quarter hour.

The Steam Clock in Gastown

Overall, this was a good day.  Enjoying the weather and doing a lot of walking.  That is one of the neat things about Vancouver, if you are in okay shape, you can get about anywhere by walking.

The Journey Begins

Sunday, 7/28/2013

Mike and I got up bright and early this morning along with sister Jane who is dropping us off at the airport.  Early was 4:00 am.  Our flight left at 6:00 am.  We flew to Dallas then caught the flight to Vancouver, BC.  It was an uneventful flight.  We saw some awesome views of the mountains just before we landed in Vancouver.  We are staying on the top floor of the Best Western Plus.  It has a balcony which has some very interesting views.  The weather is so nice here that we can sit out any time other than the couple of hours when it is in full sunshine.  We will be in Vancouver until our cruise leaves on Wednesday so we have 2 full days to enjoy the city.

Canada Place - our cruise will leave from here in a couple of days.

City view from our balcony at night.

View of mountains from Canada Place.

Mike is enjoying the location.

Mary is enjoying the pretty flowers in Vancouver.

View from our balcony.

Mike relaxing on the balcony.

Pre-Trip Thoughts

Two nights before our next big vacation.  We are flying to Vancouver where we will spend three nights, then we will be on a cruise of the Alaska inner passage for three days, and will end with a land tour of the Yukon and Alaska.  We have been planning this for what seems forever and it is finally here.

As always, I am excited and nervous about the beginning of the trip.  There has been so much happening in our lives lately that I haven't had the time for the type of pre-trip planning that I usually do.  However, the day will come, we'll get on the plane and begin the journey.

I will keep things posted as much as possible in remote areas.  And I will catch up on blogging when I return.