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Published: November 25th 2010
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Since we both had never visited Canada, we decided to go there sooner than later. We booked our tickets in September to Vancouver, after seeing it on the TV during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Here is an account of our adventure.
November 17, Wednesday We wake up at 4:30 am and get ready for our 7:30 am flight. We say bye to the boys, who will miss us for 5 days, and drive to the airport. We drive to the budget parking, but it is closed and so we reconcile ourselves to paying the higher fare at the long term parking. After an easy check-in and security check, we eat breakfast at the Dunkin Donuts and our flight leaves on time. We sleep for most of the trip and transfer flights at San Francisco. We eat another meal at San Francisco. We arrive at Vancouver at 2 pm and get to the hotel at 3 pm. Our reservation is under Amy's maiden name and the hotel clerk has some trouble finding our reservation. We finally get our room on the 9th floor of the nice Delta Suites. The hotel is near all the major downtown attractions. We leave
the hotel to get some dinner after an hour of resting and end up getting pizza on Robson Street in a small joint. We see that there are tons of pizza shops and sushi bars everywhere. We also see that Vancouverites love to put sweet ranch sauce on their pizzas. We have ice cream in a high-end mall and walk back to the hotel. The time is around 6 pm but it feels like 10 pm. We go to sleep early since our bodies still haven't gotten used to the 2 hr time zone difference.
November 18, Thursday We wake up around 7:30 am, take our showers and leave for breakfast. We end up at the Canada Place, a convention center next to the bay, and find a restaurant to eat. After a breakfast of eggs and toast, we board a hop-on/hop-off trolley and buy a two day pass. We plan to go the entire loop, which takes 2 hrs, to orient ourselves better. However, while passing through Stanley Park, a huge park that is even bigger than New York's central park, we decide to get off the trolley and explore the curious looking totem poles, which
are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. It is bitterly cold outside and after taking photos, we go into the gift shop and get a cup of hot chocolate. This warms us up real good. We take the next hop on trolley to the Sun Yat Sen Chinese gardens. The gardens and the Scholar's house were very pretty and we take several photos. We also have some chinese tea and Anand tries his hand at calligraphy in which he sucks. We get on the next hop on bus and stop at the Old Spaghetti Warehouse in the historic Gastown district. We have an all-inclusive meal at the spaghetti restaurant and end the day at the Vancouver Convention Center taking photos of the 2010 Winter Olympic games flame and the convention center which cost $700 million to build. We go to bed early and decide to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge the next day.
November 19, Friday We wake up around 7:30 am and leave the hotel room at around 8:15 am and head to the Canada place area
to eat our breakfast and to catch the free shuttle to the Capilano Suspension Bridge in the out skirts of Vancouver. The original suspension bridge was built in 1889 and today's bridge is made of reinforced steel safely anchored in 13 tons of concrete on either side of the canyon. Since Amy has a fear of heights, we are unsure if she would be able to make it across the bridge, but she surprises Anand and herself by slowly crossing the bridge. The views on either side are breath taking. On the other side of the bridge, Amy and Anand see Douglas Fir trees that are over 1300 years old and do the tree-top adventure, where visitors venture from one magnificent Douglas fir tree to another on a series of elevated suspension bridges, some reaching as high as 100 feet (30m) above the forest floor. After a cup of hot chocolate, we venture out to Prospect Point in the Stanley Park, which offers wonderful views of the city of Vancouver and the Lions gate bridge. It is bitterly cold but we still enjoy it. Anand takes an accidental fall (induced in part by Amy as we were having fun) but
all is well but for a few scratches. We catch the hop on Trolley and end up at the Granville island, which is a big and artsy public market in an island off of Vancouver. We eat our dinner there and walk around the market before catching the last hop on trolley to our hotel. We turn in early to bed since we will be starting early tomorrow for the provincial capital Victoria.
November 20, Saturday We wake up around 5:45 am, get ready and take the Sky Train to the Pacific Bus Terminal in Downtown Vancouver. There was a lot of snow from last night and the roads are slick and slushy and we walk very slowly to the bus station, since we do not want to take a tumble in the ice. Snow, we find out, is beautiful to look at, but is treacherous if there is ice underneath. We buy tickets to go to Victoria. We take a 1 hr ride in the bus to the Tsawassen ferry terminal. Our bus boards the huge ferry and we are able to get off the bus and get into the ferry. We eat a good breakfast
of eggs, toast and hash browns in the ferry and the 1.5 hour ride to Schwartz Bay ferry terminal in Victoria passes thru some beautiful snow covered islands off the British Columbia mainland. We board the bus, just as we approach the ferry terminal and we ride off the ferry to downtown Victoria. Once we get off the bus and walk into the Fairmont Empress hotel nearby. From there we walk to the Parliament building and take photos. From there we go to the Craigdaroch Castle. The wealthy Dunsmuir family saga and the mansion they built is a key piece of British Columbia's history. Designated as one of Canada's National Historic Sites, this Victorian Castle is a big tourist attraction. We catch a cab back to have high tea at the James Bay Tea House built in 1907. The high tea is an elaborate meal of sandwiches, scones, crumpets, tarts and fresh fruits along with tea and whipped cream. It was delicious and very filling. We spend the next two hours at the Royal British Columbia Museum, which has a wonderful Native American section. We catch the 5:45 pm bus back to Vancouver. We eat dinner on the ferry and
arrive back at our hotel at around 10 pm. We decide to pack our bags tomorrow morning.
November 21, Sunday We pack our bags and go out to explore the area around the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. We have a heavy breakfast at the White Spot, a happening breakfast place near our hotel. We take photos of the interesting Art Deco buildings in downtown Vancouver and arrive back at the hotel around 11 am, in time to check out. We check out around 11:45 am and take the Sky Train back to the airport. The ride is surprisingly very comfortable and we arrive at the airport at 12:30 pm. We check in, go through US immigration and customs and get some souvenirs for the family before boarding our flight to Denver. We transfer flights at Denver and land in San Antonio at 11 pm. Our checked in bag is damaged in transit and we drag it to the car with difficulty. We arrive home around 11:30 pm to be welcomed by two eager cats, who mill around us all night. Thus ends our little Canadian adventure.
To see more pictures, click on the link below:
Canada - Vancouver and Victoria Photos - November 2010
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