Vancouver

Saturday, May 14, 2011

We grabbed our passports and hit the road north. We are about 25 minutes from the Canadian border, which had a 5 minute wait at the border control. 

It was weird driving kilometers per hour. There were flashing green stop lights all over Canada. Apparently in Vancouver a flashing green light means the crossing road has stop signs, but in most parts of Canada using a flashing green means protected left turn. In Vancouver the light doesn’t turn red until a pedestrian presses the walk button. For breakfast we went to Sophie’s Cosmic Café. We parked on the street at a parking meter. The parking meters run anywhere from $1-6 an hour depending on the location in Vancouver. Of course we need Canadian change to pay them or use our cell phones out of the country to pay the meter. We stuck all the quarters we had in which only gave us 48 minutes. There were 4 groups in front of us at the café so we decided to drive to Chinatown to look for dim sum for brunch. We couldn’t find anything driving around aimlessly, even with the GPS. Chinatown in Vancouver is pretty big, the third largest in North America. We were extremely hungry by this point so we headed back the Sophies’s Cosmic Café. This time Joe found a side street without metered parking. It is an award-winning retro diner with “garage sale décor.” I had buttermilk pancakes with whip cream and Joe had huevos ranchos served with chips. It was just what we needed for a better start to the day.

After breakfast we drove over near Canada Place. The traffic was crazy with 2 large cruise ships of 19,000 embarking and disembarking passengers. We got out of this area as quickly as possible and drove on to Gastown, the historic core of Vancouver. It had a European feel with some cobblestone streets, restaurants with outdoor patios and many fun shops. We didn’t see any good parking spots, but I did quickly see the Gastown Steam Clock and Gassy Jack Statue. Maybe when we go back next time we’ll walk through this area more. We then drove down Robson Street which is the most popular street downtown for shopping. Knowing how pricey clothes were here we didn’t bother stopping.

Next we drove to Granville Island. It was a former industrial wasteland but now is an energetic area of restaurants, bars, live theaters, art college, brewery Kids Market and Public Market. I grabbed a map of Granville Island near where we parked which was a 2 hr parking zone without pay. We walked through the Public Market which sells produce, flowers, crafts and yummy take-out meals. It’s referred to at a foodie’s heaven. Everything looks wonderful, but quite pricey. It was around noon when we walked back out to the north shore of the island with great views of downtown Vancouver.  

We walked around a little more, but I was having trouble reading the map since it was in French. Joe was convinced I just grabbed the wrong map for it not to be in English. We went in a few shops along Rue Duranleau (Duranleau Street). 

We went into the Granville Island Brewing Taproom for some drinks. They only have a license to serve 12oz per person so we each decided to go with 3 4oz samplers of beers. They were out of the hefeweizen, one of their top award-winning beers. Joe doesn’t typically care for wheat beers so I was looking forward to having a chance to try it. I guess I’ll have to keep looking for it on tap elsewhere. I tried the English Bay Pale Ale, the Gastown Amber Ale, and the Cypress Honey Lager, my favorite. Joe had the Brockton IPA, the Island Lager, and the limited release nut brown or something which he really liked. While we were sitting Joe asked to see the map. I unfolded it. He quickly flipped it over and started laughing. The other side was English. My excuse was it was raining and I didn’t unfold it the other way outside. Maybe I just wanted to learn French. We’re still laughing about this one. Once we settled our bill, we acquired a nice 4oz taster glass.

We walked by a scuplturor’s studio where he was working on carving totem poles. We walked back to the north shore outside the Public Market where it was now packed with people enjoying lunch and people-watching. We then walked by the Bridges restaurant, which is a Vancouver landmark.

 On the drive back into downtown, it was great to see the view of mountains between the high-rise buildings. 

 We drove to Stanley Park, the largest urban park in North America of almost 1,000 acres of preserved rainforest in the heart of the city. From the southeast side, we had great views of downtown Vancouver. There were groups of high schoolers taking their prom pictures here. 

We drove further north to see Lions Gate Bridge. Since it was looking nicer out, we crossed over the bridge to North Vancouver.

There we journeyed over to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a swaying bridge over the chasm of the Capilano River. We paid $6 to park and went to the entrance. Thankfully we got $3 off for being AAA members, but it was still $26.96/person to enter which is pretty steep in our opinion, but I still think the experience is worth paying the fee. Since I love totem poles so much, Joe took my picture in one.

The bridge was built in 1889. The bridge is supported by 2 thick steel cables, which together can hold more than 200,000 lbs and sustain the weight of over 1300 people standing on it at the same time. The bridge is 450’ long, which is about as long as 2 Boeing 747 airplanes wingtip-to-wingtip. The bridge is 230’ above the Capilano River. If dinosaurs still ruled the earth, it would take a stack of 4 full-sized Tyrannosaurus Rex to reach the bridge from the river. Once on the bridge, it was actually hard to take pictures with all the swaying. 

We explored the temperate West Coast rainforest ecosystem. Joe was fascinated by the fungus growing on a tree. The skunk cabbage was a very different plant. It has big green leaves with bright yellow flowers. This plant is found in the wet rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. It got its name for its stinky odor that attracts flies, beetles and gnats which pollinate the plant. Bears eat the rots to clean out their system after hibernating. It would burn our throat and stomach if we ate it. There was a cute house for the park volunteer with a sign that says ‘Gone Birdwatching.’ Even the bathhouses were cute. Grandma Capilano is the tallest tree in the forest, over 250’ tall. At over 1300 years of age, she is also the oldest. The tallest tree in North America, a Douglas fir, was cut down in 1895 in this same area in North Vancouver. It was 417’ tall and a trunk that was 78 feet around the base.  

In November of 2006, Vancouver received more than double the amount of rain than normal. This caused the soil to be deeply saturated around the tree roots and the tree branches to be weighed down. After 7” of heavy, wet snow driven by 80 mph winds, a very large Douglas fir fell with the force and velocity of around 60 mph. The bridge’s cables remained undamaged and the bridge stayed in place. It’s crazy to think how strong this bridge is at 120 years old, with a 46 ton tree snapping in half when it fell on the bridge. It’s such a popular destination with breathtaking views and natural thrills. I took a video to try to capture the swaying of the bridge, but it doesn’t do it justice.

The treetop adventure was pretty cool. We climbed a tower that encircled a tree. There are 7 suspended bridges that were connected between secure tree supports. The largest support tree is a Douglas fir that has a circumference of 14’ and around 300 years old, standing over 250’ tall. We did a similar thing in Taiwan at Sitou Forest. I think this one was cooler since it was all suspension bridges and not just a catwalk. It wasn’t as tall as Taiwans, but still pretty cool to jump on the bridges.

I was sad to see the cliffwalk trail will not open until June. We could see the suspended walkways hanging off the side of the cliff. It looked like a cool spot. I guess the high admission price, helped to create additional trails and constantly improve the park for the next 120 years.

I was started to feel a little light-headed so we sat down to snack on a chocolate chip cookie. Before we sat I had seen signs to not to feed the squirrels. Before I even had a bite to eat, there was a small squirrel hopping our way. I quickly stomped my feet and moved our backpack on the ground and the squirrel scurried away. Joe got up to finish eating his half of the cookie. I heard a scratch noise on the bench next to me where Joe’s goretex jacket sat. I quickly jumped onto the next bench so the squirrel wouldn’t jump next into my lap for my cookie. Joe thought this squirrel was awesome, especially since it scared the crap out of me. Crazy squirrel.  

 We crossed back over the bridge, this time stopping for more photographs. 

This is how Joe greets Canadians. 

 Then he pees on Canada. I can’t take that guy anywhere.

On a clearer day in Vancouver, I hope to take the Grouse Mountain aerial tramway to get spectacular views of city. Or go skiing at Whistler. We then headed back to downtown to have an early dinner when the sushi place I picked out opens.

Parking here sucks. The parking garages (or parkades as they are called in Canada) are about $6 an hour. The most annoying part is you have to drive into a parking garage to find out how much that particular lot charges. Thankfully we found a parkade near Canada Place that cost $9 for only an hour and fifteen minutes. We had a few minutes to kill so we walked around Canada Place. The Vancouver Convention Center is a pretty cool building on the water. Canada Place has 5 giant tent-frames with dramatic “sails” resembling a giant sailing ship. We walked along the outside of Canada Place, envying the monster cruiseboat docked here at the terminal and beginning to board for departure.  

We then went to dinner at Miku. When you enter, you are greeted by a friendly Japanese greeting. Miku’s specialty is aburi sushi, which means roasted sushi. Aburi sushi, which consists of nigiri sushi with a fish topping that is lightly charcoal flame seared that is known to enhance the natural flavors of the fish and then infused with savory sauces. The concept here is sushi without soy sauce and wasabi, but their sauces make up for it. We chose 3 sushi rolls to share for dinner. They were brought to us one at a time so we could really enjoy and savor each individually. We had a Red Wave Roll which had snow crab & avocado wrapped in maguro (tuna) & topped with Masatake sauce, which contains ginger, onion, soy sauce, vinegar & sesame oil. It was our least favorite. Next was our favorite. The GTR Roll had bincho, maguro (tuna), avocado, asparagus & kaiware (radish sprouts), paired with wasabi sauce & topped with golden tobiko (fish roe). I was very tempted to lick the plate. If it wasn’t such a nice restaurant and Joe wasn’t there to stop me, I probably would have. Awesome wasabi sauce with mayonnaise. Our last roll, the Miku Roll, had salmon, uni (sea urchin), snow crab & cucumber rolled in tobiko (fish roe) & topped with Miku sauce (which looked like a fatty fish sitting on top of the roll but tasted good).

The drive home was beautiful. We could see Mount Baker, near Bellingham, WA from around Richmond, BC.

There were a lot more cameras and security measures at the border control into the United States. The lines on the other side for Canadians were really long for those going back home after shopping all day in the US. There is a cool art piece on the United States side.  Blackened and welded stainless steel rods were formed in the absence of a highway billboard. ‘Non-sign II’ was done by a Seattle art and architecture firm, Lead Pencil Studio. 

More of Mount Baker with a cool break in the clouds above letting down light.