Vancouver - Parks and Bays

We sadly left the Yukon on Wednesday April 2nd, flying on our new favorite airline Air North. For even a two hour flight you get an excellent sandwich and a hot cookie! At the request of a friend we confirmed the DC3 airplane windsock still works at Whitehorse airport. 

We saw more cars and people in the first two hours in Vancouver than over 11 days in Yukon - it was quite an adjustment!

Our house was beautify decorated with a rich history of the Squamish Nation. We enjoyed reading about the owner's late father Chief Knot-La-Cha and loved the totem pole in the living room. 

Our first day we drove north to Whistler stopping along the way at Brandywine falls park for a picnic lunch and a short hike, enjoying the scenery, the falls and the forest. We visited the 2010 Olympic Park venue to see the ski jump and biathlon areas, it was fun to be back on snow again. The day was finished with a stop at a local bar the Watershed in Squamish. We stuffed ourselves with delicious fish and chips and Canadian beer. We continued to be amazed by the friendly Canadians we met.

Friday April 4th we decided to explore a few of the 250 local parks in Vancouver. This time of the year the cherry blossom trees were blooming, along with daffodils and other spring flowers. We started with Stanley park, which is on the northwestern peninsula of Vancouver city.  At around 1,000 acres the park has a lot to offer, with trails, forest, gardens, beaches, a long seawall and marina for boats and float planes. We spent quite a bit of time in the area with First Nations Totem poles representing a number of indigenous nations and drove around the parameter of the park.

Our second stop was Queen Elizabeth park, in the center of the city. It had beautiful cherry blossom trees and spring flowers and we enjoyed a peaceful few hours in the early evening sun. We had planned to drive home for dinner, but it was rush hour and the traffic was terrible, so we stopped to eat instead. We started driving again once the congestion had died down and the bridges to north Vancouver had cleared. John was interested in ice cream, and we found a store on the route home. The ice cream was incredible and was made in the store by the owners who are originally from Mexico! Sometimes it is good to see where the day takes you. As we were heading home we decided explore for night views of Vancouver from the north shore and found a great spot at a place called the Shipyards. We were worn out when we got home, but it had been a great day. We were lucky our whole time in Vancouver to have such sunny days. 

On our last day in Vancouver we went to Capilano Park which is in a rainforest and has a long suspension bridge crossing a river. The park has several suspended walkways through the forest. It was a lovely few hours in peaceful nature after the city congestion the previous day. For our last lunch of the trip we had a great meal at the Olive and Anchor in Horseshoe Bay. We enjoyed the late afternoon hours in Whytecliff park experiencing fabulous views of the bay on a lovely sunny day.  It was a wonderful end to the trip.

We're back home now and getting ready for the Texas Burning Man event in Austin at the end of the month. Our trip to Canada was very memorable and we look forward to returning to Canada in our RV this summer.

Click here to see the photos!