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Published: September 29th 2012
Granville Island
It was a long, long walk...The cruise ended very much with a whimper as opposed to a roar...
The final night of the cruise seemed a lot noisier for no particular reason and as a result we were awake at midnight looking out over the coastline of Vancouver Island. Looks like we were passing Campbell River and the coastline heading south. We were so close that it was a little disappointing that again we were doing this sailing at night.
Docked at 7am, our luggage had all been collected at 10pm the previous night, did final packing of day packs, last breakfast at the Island Restaurant and then up to the main theatre to await our allocated disembarkation time. Done in stages so as to avoid a mad rush and a OAP riot. Those zimmers are solid.
Some of our travel companions have lost their loving feeling and now the cruise is over are aching and itching to get off the boat and many are not in the least patient. We left the boat at just after 9am and immigration, baggage collection and into a taxi within about 20 minutes and off at the Times Square Apartment, top of Robson Street, before 10
Muppets and Puppets...
The little stall where Caitlin bought her doll puppet...something different for the pictures in this blog. am.
Dumped our luggage, can't get into the apartment until 3pm, and straight back out again. And guess where we went? Here's a hint, brave Sandy had not seen a shopping mall during our entire time in Alaska. We dragged the kids the 8 blocks down to Burrard Street where we caught the Sky Train to - Metro-Town! Then we spent a few hours wandering around a shopping mall. Nothing else to say about that really.
Strange thing was all of us felt a little, almost jet lagged, which made no sense but that was the way it was. Reuben was having a bit of an issue finding his landlegs and kept thinking the floor was rolling. We checked - it wasn't!
Ended up back in the apartment around 4pm and that was the day. Got off a boat and caught a train to a shopping centre. That was it.
The apartment is very comfortable but we had a bit of an issue with trying to keep it cool through the night. Very warm in the whole apartment and this became uncomfortable. Could have put on the air conditioning but suspect we would have been served
Toy Ferry...
Cute little water taxis that run around doing short trips to docks within a few minutes of the island... with a noise abatement notice as that thing was loud. Anyway...
Second day in Vancouver we played real tourists. Kids did really well as we made them walk all day. We walked down Robson and onto Granville Street and over to Granville Island. This was quite a cool place and the kids spent an hour or so in the Kids Market where Caitlin bought a handmade puppet doll. Wandered around some more and later had lunch in the food hall. This is not a food court. The range and quality of the food was fantastic. Everything from fresh fruit, deli meats, cheeses to pastries and confectionary and all looked fantastic.
After lunch hopped on a ferry taxi for a short ride across to the waterfront on the other side so as to save the walk back over the very long Granville Street Bridge. Little taxis were very cool and cute.
Got back to around Sunset Beach and walked the beach walk all the way north to the bottom of Stanley Park and Denman Street. The weather was fantastic again and the view over the bay matched it. We ducked up Denman through a park with a strange
Brass Sculptures...
About 12 of these set in a circle at the bottom of Denman Street... but compelling sculpture park with a title about laughing, someone had taken half the sign so didnt get the whole name. Sculptures are about 3 metres high, there are around 12 or so of them and they are in brass and feature the same character displaying different ways or expressions of laughing. Sound weird. It wasn't. Kids loved it. Alright, it was a little weird...but we all still thought it was interesting.
Around 4pm we picked up some bikes from right next door to the apartments and cycled 2 blocks north and into Stanley Park. They have a one way system for cycling the track and we spent 2 hours riding through the park and cycled the entire perimeter of it. We could easily see why it is so popular. Stopped at the Totem Pole Park and then just casually cycled the remainder of the cycle way, stopping now and then to watch squirrels or take in different parts of the view as we rounded the point. Once we did round the point it was back into the last sun of the day.
Minor issue when some space cadet going full speed came flying around a blind bend
Stanley Park
Totem gathering in Stanley Park, very colourful... the wrong way and narrowly missed taking Caitlin out. Reuben was a 100 metres behind and was not so lucky. Not hurt in the end but he did get a bit of a fright. Dad had a meltdown moment with the space cadet but it didn't get to out of hand.
Back at the apartment well after 6 pm. Kids tired from a very active day.
It is easy to see why Vancouver is such a popular city for travellers. The friendliness of the Canadians is just a bonus to the grandeur of the cities natural setting and surround.
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