Sea to Sky Highway and Vallea Lumina

Hi all,

We went out for dinner at a seafood restaurant called Papi's last night, and both had a delicious prawn and chorizo linguini. The restaurant was near English Bay and the beach was absolutely packed with people lapping up the sun. We dipped our feet in but this didn't last long as the water was very cold!

My pre game nap idea for the footy failed miserably last night. I lay in bed 9.30 - 10.30pm thinking about the game and eventually gave up, getting out of bed and watching the game when it started at 11.40pm. Staying up/losing sleep to watch was once again worthwhile, as we came back from playing terribly and being behind all game to kick a point with 21 seconds left to put us in front and win. It was such a thrilling win that I then couldn't sleep until 3.30am and ended up with just four hours sleep. But I went to sleep and woke up with a smile on my face!!

This morning we got up about 7.30am and got ready to depart Vancouver. Rob headed off to the station to catch the train to the airport and pick up our hire car, and I packed up our things and went on one final walk to Stanley Park to the tree where we scattered some of Nan and Pa's ashes on Wednesday when we arrived. This morning was cooler, but it was just nice. I walked briskly and sat on the bench by the tree for a while, listening to some of their favourite music. It was nice to have that solo reflection time to think of them and picture them enjoying Vancouver. As if on cue, a few buses of cruise ship passengers pulled up to see the totem poles, and a number of them walked over to where I was sitting. Some Aussies saw my Collingwood hat and chatted to me. I could picture Nan and Pa getting off of that bus and walking over together to sit on the bench and look out at the view I was enjoying.

I headed back eventually, and brought our suitcases downstairs to meet Rob in the street with our hire car. We drove across the Lionsgate Bridge and off towards Whistler along the Sea to Sky Highway with a few stops along the way. The first was Shannon Falls, a 335 m high waterfall which was quite impressive. The next stop a few minutes away was the Sea to Sky Gondola, which opened in 2014. Despite it being cloudy today, we were treated to dramatic views across the water and mountains and enjoyed the lookout, a suspension bridge and a short walk up here. There was still a fair amount of snow!

We continued on and then stopped at the Watershed Grill, a pub by the water outside the town of Squamish. For any fellow fans of the Netflix show 'Virgin River', the facade of this place is used as Jack's Bar in the show. I initially looked it up just out of interest, but saw the food looked good and it got good reviews. So we had lunch here, and Rob enjoyed a burger and a ginger beer while I had a chicken pot pie and a cider. The service and food was great!

After our late lunch, we stopped at beautiful Brohm Lake and then Brandywine Falls. This waterfall was a lovely surprise, jutting out off the edge of a cliff that had been formed by lava that looked as if it had been scooped out. We walked a small section of the railway track here to see where it cross the path of the falls too.

Around 4pm we arrived in Whistler and checked in to our hotel. It's really nice and we are looking forward to checking out the town tomorrow (but we are feeling a little nervous about bears with cubs emerging in the area...!). Tonight, we went to a walk through light show in the forest called 'Vallea Lumina'. It told a story of two lost hikers being transported by the stars. The lights and music were really beautiful.

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox

 

 

 

Bike riding around Vancouver

Hey everyone,

We’ve had a fabulous day riding around Vancouver. The bike paths here are fantastic, and we can see why Vancouver competes with Melbourne as one of the world’s most liveable cities as a result. It was 23 degrees and brilliant sunshine today, the warmest day for six months apparently.

We hired bikes for six hours and started off riding the Seawall at Stanley Park. The park is just over four square kilometres in area and opened in 1888, named after the Governor General at the time, Frederick Stanley. Prior to this the area was used for military purposes, and was again used as a lookout/base during the first and second world wars. Its Seawall is part of the world’s largest uninterrupted waterfront path of 28km, and spans 8.8km of this distance. It was built in different sections between 1914 and 1971, to stop the tides that were wearing away the peninsula. Today it is a lovely walk or bike ride. We enjoyed views of the harbour and Lionsgate Bridge (even saw two seals here!), as well as some beaches. Then we continued on over the Burrard Street Bridge towards Granville Island where we enjoyed another donut each at the same place as yesterday, before riding back over the bridge and heading down towards the stadiums and Science World.

We stopped for a drink on a patio of a pub, Rob enjoying a beer and myself a frozen Bellini. Then we rode west to Kitsilano Beach. It was lovely seeing so many people out on the bike paths and at the beaches. People were sunbathing and even swimming!

Finally we headed back to Stanley Park again where this time we took the path for the more serious cyclists. By this point in the day there were a lot of people around the Seawall that clearly had never ridden a bike before or not for a while. Many were pulling out onto the path without looking or stopping for no reason, so we got over it pretty quickly. The more serious path went up some pretty steep hills, and my favourite part of this section was when some obnoxious boys in their early 20s seemed to take great pleasure overtaking us on their electric scooters (our bikes weren’t electric). I think they got a big surprise when a 56kg/30 year old woman with a hip injury gunned it and sped past them soon after as their electric motors struggled once the hill steepened. I haven’t lost my competitive streak! We then looped back to the bike shop and dropped off our bikes. I would go as far as saying mine was the best hire bike I’ve ridden, the gears worked well and the bike was nice and light. We rode 43km in the end.

Tonight we are contemplating walking back to one of the beaches we passed to dip our legs in, and we will probably go out for dinner. Then I’m off to sleep early as I’ll be up at midnight to watch the pies play Adelaide before we set off for Whistler in a hire car tomorrow. We’ve really enjoyed Vancouver!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox