Vancouver's Beaches

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Tried to wake up early today, but in vain. Left the house at 12 pm. I guess I'm just not a morning person. I'll try tomorrow.

So today we set out to explore the beaches in Vancouver. 18 km awaited us. The day was perfect, 24 degrees sunny. This is normal summer weather on the West Coast. When I first arrived here the area was going through an unprecedented heat wave with tempuratures in the 40s and all the air conditioners sold out in every Home Depot. I seem to have cooled the temperatures because the weather has suddenly become cooler upon my arrival...and here I was exctited about a hot vacation...just my luck.

We started off at Kitsilano Beach or Kits Beach which is easily accessable by public transit from Waterfront Station. A popular hangout for hippies in the 60s and a favourite of locals today, I had high expectations for the beach and was rather disappointed. The mountains and city in the distance are beautiful, but the water wasn't the cleanest and the beach was pretty small. There was a huge pool beside the beach, but really I'm not going in a pool when I have the ocean. 4th Avenue near the beach and where the bus will leave you is pretty nice to check out. Lots of small stores, but many of them expensive.

Next we headed to UBC to catch a bus to Spanish Banks. Although we didn't see much of UBC which is very large - "A city in itself," as my cousin says, it looked like a lot of concrete grey looking buildings. The UofT downtown campus still holds the number one spot for the most beautiful campus I have seen. There's supposed to be a clothing optional - nude- beach (Canada's first and largest) off of the UBC campus called Wreck Beach. My cousin said she saw a professor of hers there once. Don't want to imagine how awkward that experience must have been like.

Now Spanish Banks is what I imagined the beaches here would be like and it was spectacular. White sand, beautiful water, mountains, Stanley Park from a distance, lots of logs to relax by and pleny of beach sprawling out into the distance. I think that the farther you get away from the city the better, but its public transportation is still doable. The name comes from the Spanish fleet that came here in the early 1700s. In the morning, the tide is supposed to go out about half a km.

It was getting late so we saved the rest of the beaches for the tomorow...

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Photos

Kits Beach
Mountains and water :)

Kits Beach
Looks like autumn already

Spanish Banks
Much longer and more beautiful

Little sand dune
Spanish Banks