Touring Vancouver -- Part 1 July 2004
Our travel
lifestyle means we often have time to explore an area -- weeks or months instead of
days. We try to get to know a place, its environs and a few of its people.
Naturally, we start with the tourist attractions. Below are some highlights
from our first month in Vancouver.
But first, let's review the terrain. Vancouver is surrounded by water, so living in Vancouver means you'll likely cross all 10 of the city's bridges eventually. The water on the north is Burrard Inlet, which can be traversed on either of two bridges or on the SeaBus, a passenger ferry that crosses to North Vancouver every 20 minutes. To the south and south east there's the Fraser River with its 4 bridges, and to the east yet another bridge, this one over the Pitt River. To the west there's only the Pacific Ocean -- no bridges; travel in this direction is by cruise ship, ferry or seaplane. Moreover, the downtown portion of Vancouver, where we live, is itself pretty much a peninsula,. So, when heading south -- which is where most of the suburbs and golf courses are -- one has to cross one of three additional bridges, or take the water taxi to Granville Island, one of the local hot spots.
Granville Island
is probably our favorite "tourist" destination, in part because it's really
for the locals. Granville Island is not an island; rather it's a small peninsula
between downtown and the rest of Vancouver proper to the south. The photo
on the left was taken from the Burrard Bridge, about 1/2 mile from our house.
The bridge in the background is the Granville Bridge.
The main draw, for us, is the Granville Public Market: an indoor foodie heaven, featuring fresh produce, meats, deli, fish and baked goods. International foods such as potato and onion perrogi, crisp latkes, and home-made tzatziki sauce are also available. Fruit at the Granville Market is the best around, and this year there's an abundance of fresh morel mushrooms, a bounty caused by last year's huge forest fires. Plentiful blueberries, due the great weather, are also priced right. Granville Island is home to several restaurants; Bridges, the yellow building above, has an inviting large waterfront patio. There are also several art galleries to explore, a couple of theaters and small museums and an art school. On summer weekends, there's sometimes a free concert in the afternoon.
Grouse Mountain,
5 miles north of downtown, is a pricey (Can$ 30/ per person) but
worthwhile place to visit. The hundred-passenger Grouse Mountain Skyride
takes you most of the way up to the 4,100 feet summit, where you'll enjoy views of the
entire Vancouver area, as well as Victoria Island and snow-covered Mount Baker in Washington.
Many of the locals hike up the mountain on a track named the Grouse Grind.
It's a steep climb with high steps and some rock-climbing (no, we did not do
it!) and the descent is even harder, so most folks take the Skyride down. In the winter, Grouse Mountain is a ski resort (soooo close to town!) but during
the summer there's family entertainment -- two different "shows" and some animals to see
-- all included with
admission. We enjoyed the somewhat hokey lumberjack show, but really loved
the Birds in Motion demonstration, where you can watch raptors fly free
through the mountain air and near you. They've also got
four wolves (see photo of one of them) and
two orphaned grizzly cubs in their Refuge for Endangered Wildlife; the young bears were really active,
roaming their compound for greenery and berries, and playing with each other in the water
portion of the enclosure. Cool.
Stanley Park,
North America's third largest urban park (almost 1000 acres) sits on the north end of downtown
Vancouver -- an evergreen oasis adjacent
to the skyscrapers of this glittering city.
The park includes coastal
views from a long man-made sea wall that guards the park's perimeter, forests of
100 year old western cedars, hemlock
and Douglas firs, an aquarium complete with dolphin shows, a pitch and putt golf course, a large public
swimming pool, tennis courts, two lakes and more. It's a 6
mile walk (or better yet, bike ride) around the outside, so we've been exploring it in sections, with
excursions into the forested interior to sample wild salmon berries, related to
raspberries and blackberries. There's also a collection of colorful First Nation totems
here. Once you've
paid for parking, stay in the park and enjoy a meal with
ambiance at the new
Sequoia Grill.
The food is excellent and not over-priced. Stanley Park is one of the
city's treasures.
Stanley Park Aquarium -- Everything is packed into a small area, so this place can get crowded. We went with Dave and Ellen Eggerding on a Sunday, and weren't able to see one of the shows. Still, there was plenty to do both inside and out, and we did see two other shows. Recommended!
Van Dusen Botanical Garden is one of four gardens in Vancouver, assuming you include Stanley Park with its occasional flower beds as a garden. The other two are at the University of BC and in Queen Elizabeth park. Van Dusen offers a free (with paid admission), daily, guided tour at 2 pm (lasting about an hour). It's a great way to get an overview of the parklands (this land was a golf course 25 years ago) and gardens. The guides are of course "plant" people and can readily name names. Early June is the best time to come. By late June, when we went, we'd already missed most of the best flower displays. After the tour, some coffee and dessert on the outdoor patio of the Shaughnessy restaurant will complete a satisfying afternoon.