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Published: September 5th 2009
Travelling Canucks at Vancouver International Airport
Wait a minute.....Mama, Papa and Junior Canuck are staycationing! After taking all our 2009 vacation allotment earlier in the year to tour Egypt for four weeks, our family, aka The Travelling Canucks, decided to be tourists in our own hometown over this summer's weekends. On weekdays, we slaved at our desks looking out of our downtown office windows and counted the hours until our next weekend adventure!
Staycationing was definitely a trend this summer with the challenging economic times we have been facing. Although there are short trips we could have taken around our beautiful province, we decided to save our money for more exotic trips we are planning for the future. Weekend trips to Whistler and the Okanagan may still be in the works in the autumn, when it will be a great time to check out Winter Olympic preparations in Whistler and tour the Okanagan wineries and observe harvest-time in the vineyards.
With hot temperatures, a record-breaking year for forest fires, and lots to see and do in Vancouver, staycationing meant we could explore Vancouver and experience it like a tourist in the comfort of our own surroundings. We experienced restaurants that have enjoyed critical acclaim and some restaurants that often get
Downtown Vancouver
Downtown Vancouver not only is the business/financial centre and hotel district, it offers great shopping and dining experiences. overlooked, but are our favorite spots to eat. Watch out for our restaurant recommendations in our future blogs!
Because we sometimes forget about all the great things that our home cities have to offer when we are working 9 to 5 and have house chores to do on weekends, it's important for everyone to take the time to rediscover where they live and connect with fellow citizens. Granted our garden and home have suffered from a bit of neglect, taking the time to "smell the roses" and enjoy the scenery, which often is obscured by the rain and clouds that grey our city over the winter months, was well worth the sacrifice of not gardening and doing housework! Although summer is the most popular time of year to visit Vancouver, we're thrilled that autumn is fast approaching since that's our favorite time of year! "Indian Summers", as they are known, are always welcome on the "wetcoast" since the rainy season usually starts in late October and drags on through the winter months. Last year, we "enjoyed" record snowfalls in mid-December until early January when we experienced extremely cold weather. We will all be performing the "snow dance" come ski
Totems at Stanley Park
Stanley Park offers the option of riding or walking along the seawall or under the forest canopy on miles of trails, a world-class aquarium where a baby beluga was born this summer and great views of the city's skyline. season this year since predictions indicate this winter could be a wet and warm one!
What did we do over the Summer? Remember returning to school after summer holidays and having to write the obligatory “What I did over the Summer Holidays" confession? Well bad habits are hard to break, so here it goes....
Vancouverites experienced one of the best summers in memory. We enjoyed record sunshine and temperatures, which meant it was relatively dry and warm over the summer months. We experienced a heat wave in July that broke most records and tested our resilience since, like most Vancouverites, we don't have air-conditioning other than in our car! So spending our weekends out and about the city and capturing the sites on our cameras was a great escape!
Now that the end of summer approaches, we will be posting our blogs detailing our summer adventures with photographs taken by all three Travelling Canucks. Photographs being worth more than 1000 words, Mama Canuck will try to be brief!
Why do we live in Vancouver? Unlike most Vancouverites that have immigrated from all over the world, the Travelling Canucks were born and raised in
Vancouver at Dusk
The city's skyline is dominated by condominiums and offers a very pedestrian and bicyle-friendly city centre. Miles of waterfront walkways and bicycle lanes with spectacular views of the sea and mountains. Vancouver. Canuck Junior is a 13th generation Canadian, a rare breed indeed! We live in Kerrisdale, a Westside neighbourhood located half-way between downtown Vancouver and the Vancouver International Airport. A highlight for our summer was the opening of the Canada Line which connects the downtown with the Vancouver International Airport. We attended the grand-opening day with tens of thousands of other enthusiasts in mid-August, three months ahead of schedule! Other highlights of our summer were attending the many events and festivals that characterize westcoast living, as well as seeing the near completion of many infrastructure projects underway in the city in preparation for Vancouver welcoming the world in February 2010, when the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be seen by over 500 million television viewers around the world.
Despite being a relatively expensive city to live in as compared to other parts of the world, we cannot imagine living anywhere else than the place we call home. While the arts, culture and a sense of history abound in other parts of the world which we enjoy experiencing as travelers, Vancouver offers a quality of life that we enjoy.
Depending on where you live, traveling to Vancouver may
City Beaches
Beaches along the shores of English Bay where Vancouverites chill out. Check out English Bay, Kitsilano Beach, Spanish Banks and Wreck Beach, if you dare! As the only clothing-optional beach in the city, Wreck Beach makes for interesting sightseeing! offer a few surprises. Besides being an expensive place to visit, it has more coffee shops and restaurants per capita than most cities in North America, its westcoast lifestyle is laid-back and somewhat self-centered and Vancouverites can seem a bit aloof, or sometimes very friendly. The drug culture that has flourished in our year-round temperate climate means we have issues around substance abuse and the resulting street culture of homelessness and street disorder. Despite its warts, Vancouver is ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world with its multi-cultural vibe in one of the most spectacular natural settings. Our family loves living in Vancouver and we hope travelers will enjoy visiting our city!
Why Blog? The Travelling Canucks started travel blogging in 2007 and caught the blogging bug! With the Winter Olympics around the corner, we hope that by blogging the city that we know best, we can guide travelers so they get the most out of their westcoast experience. Warning, like our travels abroad, the Travelling Canucks like to enjoy the best that our city has to offer, so budgeting is usually not a priority. As always, our priority is enjoying ourselves and making
English Bay
Lots of visitors fall in love with the city and on the beaches at English Bay. Either start or end your seawall walk around Stanley Park and grab a coffee or snack on Denman Street with a great choice of cheap eats. the most out of our weekends!
You may be asking yourself what is in store when we finally get around to posting our blogs! Well, blogs on our favorite places to visit, shop and eat in Vancouver and surrounding areas. We will be blogging about Granville Island, Downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park and English Bay, Gastown, Vancouver's beaches and waterfront, funky and not-so-funky neighborhoods, the North Shore, and the Olympic sites in Richmond and Vancouver.
As the sunsets on one of Vancouver's best summers, we are hoping September and October will bring clear blue skies and crisp cool air to breathe as we continue on our weekend jaunts around the city and its surroundings. We hope visitors, our friends and family will enjoy seeing Vancouver through our camera lenses as the Travelling Canucks continue to capture our city's highlights for the benefit of travelers and Olympic enthusiasts!
The Travelling Canucks welcome Vancouverites to share their favorite spots and invite travelers to ask questions. As we approach winter, we will be offering tips to Vancouver-bound travelers on how to enjoy Vancouver over the winter months and sharing our Olympic experiences!
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