North Shore

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When you're from the prairies, having family to visit in Vancouver is an awesome thing. I've enjoyed several trips to Vancouver to visit my sister and her husband:

Calm Before the Storm
White Christmas on the West Coast
Football Frenzy and Canada Day, Part II
Christmas on the West Coast
Football Frenzy and Canada Day

Last year they moved to North Vancouver, where we'd been to watch the Canada Day fireworks one year. In April, at the end of a rather stressful semester at grad school, I decided to fly out for a weekend to visit them. I needed a break, my sister and I needed to find bridesmaid's dresses for our youngest sister's wedding, and I wanted to see my wee nephew and his parents.

After a quick (1hr 25min) flight over the mountains early on Saturday morning, I took the CanadaLine from the airport to downtown Vancouver and the SeaBus over to the North Shore where my brother-in-law picked me up. We had coffee while my nephew was getting up from his nap, and spent the day hanging out.

The sun was shining, so we were able to get out for a walk every day. On the longest walk, we took in a tiny part of the Spirit Trail where we enjoyed blooming trees, fresh air and greenery--normal for the west coast in April, but a novelty for a prairie gal like me.

One of the traditions of my visits to Vancouver has been going for sushi, and I told my sister months before her task was to find a new sushi place in her new community. She didn't disappoint, in fact I think the sushi was even better than at my/our favourite place on Broadway!

By Monday afternoon, when I took the SeaBus and the CanadaLine back to the airport to fly home to Calgary, I was fully refreshed. Not that I was ready to go, but I had to. I left a little earlier than I needed to, hoping to avoid the worst of the rush hour commute, and I arrived at the airport in time to have a relaxing dinner and beer by a sunny window before my evening flight.

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