Vancouver! We had the best time here even with getting lost at first. We started with missing our turn to our RV park which made us go across the Lionsgate Bridge into the city of Vancouver. We took the first turn right and ended up in Stanley Park which is a 1000 acre city park that is almost entirely surrounded by the Pacific Ocean(more details later in the post). As our big RV rubbed the branches of the big western red cedars, I dared not look at Scott. 🙂 Then we came out into downtown where the streets are narrow and I did not have a good map of Vancouver. God was looking out for us, because we ended up making a big circle and found our RV park pretty easily once we got back across the bridge. Did I mention that right before this we had been in bad traffic and it took us a hour to go a few miles?
I had read somewhere that after China and Hong Kong, Vancouver is third for the best Chinese food in the world. After doing some research we headed to Chongqing on Robson Street(this street is in the heart of downtown Vancouver and is known for its shopping and dining) for dinner. We shared pot stickers, mongolian beef and sweet and sour chicken(this was the best we have ever had). Afterwards, our kids wanted to go to the japanese store next door. Kat bought some Pockys(biscuit sticks coated with strawberry) and we bought some mango gummies and japanese “starburst” that were lemon with a crunch in the middle. Yummy!
Monday, we headed to the Aquarium in Stanley Park(a 1,000 acre peninsula of British Columbian rainforest with hiking and biking trails, beaches, and incredible ocean views on every side). Our friends, the Fites, gave us a book a few years ago called “500 Places to take Your Kids before they Grow Up.” Vancouver Aquarium is one of the 500! Our favorites were the Pacific white sided dolphins, the belugas and the jellyfish(they had over 15 types of jellyfish from around the world). We had seen the moon and lion’s mane jellyfish in Alaska, so our kids were excited to see them close up at the aquarium. We also enjoyed the Sponge Bob Great Jelly Rescue 4D Movie(it is like a 3D movie with motion, water squirting at us and smells released to correlate with the movie). I can’t imagine sitting through a regular movie in 4D. I would totally be over stimulated!
Tuesday, we headed to Gastown. Gastown was Vancouver’s first downtown core and was named after “Gassy” Jack Deighton who opened the first saloon in 1867. We enjoyed seeing Gastown’s most famous landmark which is the Steam Powered Clock(small replica of London’s Big Ben). It was cool to see it chime and blow steam on the hour(I unfortunately ran to the restroom and missed most of it 🙂 ). We headed to Chinatown after seeing the clock blow. Chinatown seemed a little sketchy and the lady at the RV park said don’t go past a certain street in Chinatown, because it is the East St. Louis of Vancouver. We walked a couple blocks then headed to the library. Yes, the library again! It is beautiful! It is shaped like the Colosseum in Rome(it was supposed to be representative of the Library of Alexandria). 4 architect designs were submitted to the public in 1990 and this is the one that won. We spent a hour in the children’s area reading. I love that our kids love books so much! It probably helps that their Nana Kane is a reading teacher and has been giving them books before they were born and we have been reading to them since they were in my belly.
Guess what we did for dinner? We headed back to Chongqing for more Chinese. I just loved our walk down Robson seeing all different types of people, stores, restaurants. It is hard explaining to Kane and Kat why someone is homeless and especially why the guy sleeping on the ground has a dog. “How can they have a dog?” they asked. Such a beautiful, clean city! It is amazing to see all the high rise apartments that actually look nice.
Yesterday, we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. It was originally built in 1889, so the man who owned the land could get to the other side of the river without having to hike 20 kilometers to get to the other side. Fortunately, they have updated it since the days of hemp rope, but it still swayed as we walked across. It is 450 feet across and 230 feet above the Capilano River. On the other side(which is a coastal rainforest), we got to venture from magnificent Douglas Fir to another on a series of elevated suspension bridges called the Treetops Adventure. The finally thrill was the Cliffwalk. The Cliffwalk was a cantilevered, suspended walkways jutting out from the granite cliff above the Capilano River. Kat was so excited that I totally had to pretend that I was too! I almost freaked out when I had to walk on the glass area where you could see down. Glad she didn’t notice! 🙂
Today, we headed back to Stanley Park for biking. Our friends, the Marings, were in Vancouver a few weeks ago and highly recommended going biking around Stanley Park. We had the best time biking today. The weather was so perfect: blue sky, sun, in the 50s. There is bike and walking path around Stanley Park. It runs along the Seawall. 90% of our bike ride was next to the ocean. We biked by the harbor, we saw 4 sea planes land, we had a picnic that overlooked Coal Harbour and Lionsgate Bridge, we watched men fishing, we sat and played on the beach, we played at the playground, we gave thanks to God for this incredible day! Truly, we feel so blessed!!
We planned on taking the Aquabus ferry to Granville Island to the Market, but ended up driving over since it was getting late in the day. The Public Market was filled with fruit and vegetable, seafood, sausage, and meat vendors. As well as a variety of hand crafts and artisan type food vendors. I just loved the energy in the air! We bought a few things then walked around the island a little bit. Lots of cute stores, selling lots of cute things(its weird not being able to buy something, we are on a tight budget). We walked down to the marina and checked out the yachts. Kat wants to live on one now. 🙂 Should we trade in our RV for a sailboat?
The last thing we did today was laundry and then I took our kids to the heated pool at our campground. They were so excited! Such a fun filled day with our kids!! Precious time. I just want to bottle days like this up and save them.
