Our second trip to Vancouver and we were just as lucky with the weather. The first day was spent getting there, checking out Gastown (and the old spaghetti factory) and walking round the waterfront with its local eagle.
The day ended with some alcoholic coffees and cable car cocktails in the hotel bar, followed swiftly by falling asleep in our rooms!
Day two started with sunshine and so, after a lovely breakfast, we set off up Grouse Mountain. Despite it being a weekday it was very busy with skiers and incredibly bright with the sun reflecting off the snow. I clearly wasn’t prepared as I didn’t have any sun glasses and spent the morning shielding my thin eyelids from the bright snow!
As the bears were still asleep for the winter – lazy bears – we took the cable car back down and went to see the wolves instead. After a brief stop off at the dam we then took a tour round Stanley Park. The buses weren’t running all that frequently so we took the car round and it was much easier – although it helped that it wasn’t so busy.
After the Park we retired to the hotel bar for a few more alcoholic coffees followed by dinner at the Cactus Cafe, where Tracy had the best fish taco’s ever. As we left there Tracy and Toby went to the loo and came back very excited. They had been to, what they both claimed, were the best toilets ever. What an evening this was turning into! Could it get any better? Well, the answer was yes because a few minutes later we were down on the waterfront again when Tracy saw the nicest looking car park she had ever seen! At this point things reached their pinnacle – there was nothing left to top the car park! It was too much excitement for everyone to take so it was back to the hotel for some sleep!
The next day was more yummy breakfast – the corn beef hash was scrummy – and then it was into the car and back across the border (after a brief stop at the duty free shopping where we stocked up with some Cadbury’s chocolate).
We took a brief detour on the journey back to enjoy Chuckanut Drive, which is a purpose built scenic drive along the coast with views across the San Juans. Unfortunately the views were a little hazy so we didn’t have the greatest photo opportunities – lucky for Tracy who didn’t enjoy Chuckanut at all – it had far too many steep cliff drops from the side of the road.
On the journey home the children watched DVDs until we were about 40 minutes from home. We decided they should look out the window instead of starting to watch anything else. What a mistake! They turned into monsters. Right, proper monsters! The only good thing is that they did have the odd interesting conversation. For example:
Harry … are we where I think we are?
Toby … where do you think we are?
Harry … none of your business
But that was the odd highlight, the rest of the time it was first class monsters! Thank goodness for TVs in cars!
So that was Vancouver for the second time. Each time the weather was fabulous, as was the food. A very nice city but who knows if we’ll go there again! All the photo’s are here…