THURSDAY, JULY 31

THURSDAY,  JULY 31:

     Gave ourselves a leisurely morning.  Actually, ideally, we would have just stayed “home” today and relaxed.  That’s our preferred rhythm – be actively exploring an area for a couple of days, then a quiet, restful day at home.  However, the weekend is coming up, and it’s a 3-day weekend here in Canada, and we’re assuming that any place you go then is going to be very, very crowded.  So, we wanted to get in the things we really wanted to see and do before the weekend. 

     So we made the drive in to Vancouver once again.  We’re becoming very familiar now with the Sea to Sky Hwy, as we are with a lot of the road system in the west end of the city.  Today the main thing we wanted to do was to take a Harbor (or Harbour, as our Canadian friends would spell it) cruise. 

     But first we took a little detour once off the LG bridge to a Stanley Park road which would lead to Prospect Point.  This is the highest point in the Park, and offers wonderful views of the bridge and North Vancouver.  The Point isn’t accessible from the Seawall (therefore not accessible by bike), and it’s a strenuous walk up the hiking trail, so this was a good opportunity to visit that spot.  Was a lovely morning to do that – not too crowded at all.

                                                                             

     Afterwards, we parked the truck down by the Seawall near the Info Center.  We’ve come to rely on Stanley Park parking, as the maximum for a day is only $11.00, as opposed to over $20 in some other parts of downtown.  And, at this point, we’re comfortable with how to get there – a BIG plus!  Then, we just walked along the Seawall to the embarking location of the harbor cruise boats.  We’d never ventured on the Seawall outside of the Park itself, although the paved path extends along Vancouver’s downtown waterfront in both directions from the Park – southeast along Burrard Inlet/Coal Harbour, towards Canada Place and the convention center for a couple of miles, and  also southwest for 5-6 miles skirting English Bay and  extending just a little past Granville Island .  (Had we known this a few days earlier, we may have just attempted riding our bikes to Granville Island.)  So today we’d explore the section which goes eastwards – along Burrard Inlet/Coal Harbor as we made our way towards the tour boat. 

     Was a wonderful walk – of course great harbor views, and some different perspectives of downtown, especially of Canada Place – the iconic 5-sailed  building built for Expo 86. It houses the Vancouver Convention Center, a big hotel, and is the main cruise ship terminal for ships heading towards Alaska. 

                                                        

 

     Then we boarded the boat for our 2:30 cruise. 

                                                 

 

   This was another splendid hour-long tour.  As we sailed by crystal clear views of the city skyscape, we learned more interesting things about the city, among them that Vancouver is the 4^th most densely populated city in North America (following NYC, San Francisco, and Mexico City) – hence all those skyscraping apartment & condo buildings.

 

And even though it gets, on average, 165 days of measurable rainfall a year, it still was voted the 2^nd  best place to live in the world (following Zurich Switzerland).  It might get my vote in the summer, but not those other 9 months if over half of their days are grey and sodden!

     We also passed by some scenes of the busy international harbor at work – loading shipping containers, for instance.

 

 

  And we saw some wildlife – harbor seals (including a couple of moms and their pups),

and even a bald eagle graced us with his presence.
                                                             

 

      We loved this little harbor cruise.  It was stimulating yet peaceful.  Totally relaxing.  Not crowded at all.   Perfect weather – warm sunshine, with a little nautical breeze.

 Lighthouse at Brockton Point in Stanley Park 

       After disembarking, we walked around a little more, looking for an inviting place for dinner.  Came across a place called Cactus Club.  The name intrigued us, we looked at a menu, and were convinced.  I was wanting something a little different and adventuresome, and the red curry lingcod with coconut almond rice seemed a perfect answer.   Bill had a soy-dijon salmon dish.  Both were fantastic.  We ate out on the patio, savoring the atmosphere, enjoying all the people walking by. 

     On our walk back to the Park, we passed a bike shop – actually, a bike rental place.  All throughout our walk today, as we passed bike racks, we looked to see how they were locked.  The majority had a U-lock.  So Bill stopped in to ask if they had any for sale.  They were all sold out, but he had a chain lock which he said was very effective.  So Bill got one.  Then he asked if he had any used bikes for sale.  He tested one out, wanted to think about it.  It would certainly be nice to have a regular bike to finish out our trip with, as well as when we get back home.  Even though we use our recumbents the vast majority of the time back home, in areas where there’s a lot of bike traffic, like here, regular bikes are easier to maneuver.  And we’re on and off of them so much that our backsides don’t really have a chance to get tired and sore.  The bike shop guy would sell one of his rentals to Bill for $200, which Bill thought a fair price.  I’m thinking that he’ll decide to get it tomorrow.

     And the ride home.  This was our last drive going north on the Sea to Sky road, as we’ll be changing RV parks tomorrow.  Our campground in Squamish was already totally booked for this long weekend.  We found one in Vancouver proper which had a space.  So we’ll be moving there tomorrow for 3 nights, until we leave on the ferry for Victoria on Monday.