The great outdoors of Vancouver

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We loved our visit to Vancouver, a city that is surrounded by water, temperate rainforest and an abundance of outdoor activities. We were very fortunate to stay with friends who lived downtown and got a bit of an inside tour of the area including some great local bars.

We walked around town, checking out the various neighbourhoods as well as spotting a few film productions going on. Vancouver is actually the 3rd largest film production centre in North America after LA and NY.

We headed off to Granville Island, actually a peninsula south of downtown that used to be an industrial manufacturing area, but is now converted to a huge market area selling mostly food (including seafood straight off the boat) as well as containing the microbrewery Granville Island Brewery and also has a million boats docked in the harbour of the peninsula.

Just off the Island, we hired bikes and decided to ride around the sea wall which goes from the Canada Place waterfront area and seaplane terminal all the way around Stanley Park in an 8km circle. Stanley Park is a huge park (bigger than Central Park in NYC), and was created by Lord Stanley, the Governer General of Canada in the early 1900's. Highlights of Stanley Park include the massive native totem poles, the lost lagoon where we spotted several racoons, the 3 secluded beaches around the north side of the park and the massive Lions Gate bridge. Riding the sea wall is the best way to see Stanley Park.

We dropped the bikes back and headed to Granville Island Brewery to sample their great beers. Vancouver seems to have lots of great microbreweries. From there we headed for dinner at the Blue Water Cafe on Hamilton St which was one of the most amazing seafood restaurants that I have ever been to. The appetiser tower had jellyfish which I had never tried before and was great and my Haribut was fantastic. Vancouver does seafood really well.

The next day we headed to Lynn Canyon to walk off all the eating and drinking from the day before. Lynn Canyon is just a short drive from downtown Vancouver, but is incredibly tranquil and is a massive 617 acres, meaning there is plenty of walking or running to be done and there were many runners enjoying the fresh morning air.

Continuing the exercise and fresh air theme, we headed just up the road to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, supposedly Vancouver's oldest and most popular tourist attraction. The bridge is an impressive 136 metres long, but perhaps more impressive is that it is has been there since the 1890s and survived a 1,200 year old fir tree collapsing on it in 2006 unscathed. The attraction itself contains a few corny things to do, such as a treetop boardwalk where you can go accross bridges at the top of trees and get a birds eye view of the forest, as well as a glass clifftop walk where you can walk along the edge of the cliff on an enclosed boardwalk and see the massive drop below. More interesting was the nature tours given on sustainability of both the animals and the plant life in the temperate rain forest of the area.

After our morning walks, we spent the afternoon indulging in some shopping in Robson Street, with the wife taking a liking to yoga store Lulu Lemon, a Canadian insitution, in particular. I can understand why Vancouver is constantly ranked in the top "liveability" ratings as it has many great bars and restaurants and combined with the abundance of outdoor activities at its feet, it really is one of the cooler cities I have been to.

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