Recently, my sister June, our friend Lois, and I embarked on our annual “Girl’s Trip”. This year June picked Vancouver, a town she had never been to before. And, for the first time, Joel decided he wanted join us this year. So we booked our trip and all flew in on the same day.
Our tickets were a bit last minute, and not the best seats. But WestJet has a direct flight from Las Vegas to Vancouver so we decided to try this airline. The flight up was a bit rugged for both of us. For me, the flight was extremely warm since the air wasn’t working. More importantly to Joel, there was no in-flight entertainment (oh, the horror), so he was forced to watch his own movies on his iPad.
Once we got to the hotel things started to look up. We checked in and had a really nice room with a great view of the Vancouver Harbor, with the cruise port and convention center across the street.
June and Lois each had city views, which were also pretty great.
We finally met up with June and Lois the next morning at breakfast.
It was quite cool and rainy all weekend while we were there. On our first full day we had booked a walking food tour in historic Gastown in the afternoon. Because of the cold, we chose to do inside things that first morning. Lois suggested we start by checking out the Fly over Canada exibit across the street.
As we walked across the street to the exhibit we noticed that tulips were blooming everywhere. They were beautiful.
Fly over Canada is a unique exhibit. The seats are engineered to swoop, dip and turn — so you feel like you are flying over the landscape, all the while wind and mist blows in your face. The show is on a huge wraparound screen (similar to an IMAX theater or The Sphere in Las Vegas) so you can see the landscape all around you, and there is even the scent of trees! It was a great experience! You can learn more about this unique exhibit and buy tickets at this link.
The first thing you should know about our friend Lois is that she is Canadian, with a fairly strong accent (Eh). The second thing to know is that she and June have been great friends for years. They get along even while picking on each other in the way only close friends can do. So, when June saw this sign by the cruise port she couldn’t stop laughing.
She cropped the picture and said she will make sure to pull it up often as a reminder for Lois. Sigh, best friends and sisters are the worst. (insert your favorite eye roll GIF here)
The Fly over Canada exhibit hall is next door to the Vancouver Convention Center. Just inside was this large carved totem pole. “The carvings represent the legendary figures that form the origin story of the family from which Chief Sisaxolas derives his position. Figures include the Sea-Bear, Sea Otter, and Whale…Through the 1930’s to the 1970’s, the pole stood in Stanley Park,” – Vancouver Convention Center
Joel and I first visited Stanley Park in 2018 and had a chance to see the totem poles at Brockton Point. According to the City of Vancouver, “The nine totem poles at Brockton Point are BC’s most visited tourist attraction”.
In keeping with our “stay-out-of-the-cold-and-rain” plan, we all decided to walk over to the Vancouver Art Gallery after the Fly over Canada experience. Along the way we saw more Canadian geese, which just made June pull up her cropped picture and laugh some more. (sigh)
Eventually we went back to the hotel to people watch until it was time for our food tour. Our hotel had a huge wall of windows overlooking the Vancouver Convention Center.
“Gastown was Vancouver’s first neighbourhood and was named for “Gassy” Jack Deighton, a Yorkshire seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area’s first saloon. He was famous for his habit of talking at length (or “gassing”) and the area around his saloon came to be known as “Gassy’s town,” a nickname that evolved to “Gastown.” – Wikipedia
Our Gastown food tour began at Steam Works Brewing Company, where we sampled their best selling IPA brew.
Our tour guide mentioned the women’s bathroom includes a “friendship” stall. He said it was installed so friends could talk to each other over a short wall while they do, well, what people do in bathroom stalls.
It is only in the women’s bathroom so I took pictures for Joel. What do you think? Would you use this?
In addition to food and drink, our tour guide also took us by some of the historic buildings around Gastown. It was quite interesting to learn about the town this way.
“LE MAGASIN was constrücted in 1911 and originally known as “The Homer Arcade”; it housed offices and residential accommodations for the early settlers of Gastown. Later in 1954, it was renamed “The Cloth Hall” since it served as a central clearing house for textile manufacturers.” – sign in the Le Magasin building
There is a huge World Time Globe hanging from the ceiling in the back of the building. It was built by Ray Saunders who also designed the famous Gastown steam clock.
Our next stop was the Gastown Steam Clock. “Despite seeming like a remnant of the Victorian era and being located in Vancouver’s “Gastown” (which was the original townsite from which Vancouver grew in the 1870s), the Steam Clock is actually from a hundred years later, built in 1977”. – Atlas Obscura
Here is a link to a short (2 min) video of the famous Gastown Steam Clock. You can see how it works and hear it chime in this video.
Another interesting spot in Gastown is Blood Alley. “Blood Alley Square is adjacent to Trounce Alley, one of Vancouver’s original roads. Its narrow cobblestone lanes, historic streetlights, and brick buildings bring a unique sense of character unlike anywhere else in the city.” – City of Vancouver
While the name sounds ominous, no one is really sure how it came to be called Blood Alley. In fact, that isn’t even its’ proper name – it is actually Trounce Alley. But there was a unique mural on one of the buildings.
After learning some of the history of Gastown, and eating small bites at several delicious restaurants in the area, we moved on to dessert.
For our second full day we booked a wine tasting tour. We drove out to Frasier Valley, which is right on the border with Washington state. Michael Lawrence, our tour guide and the owner of the tour company, Lawrence Tours.com, did a fantastic job of taking us to some unique wineries, and also sharing great information about the area. If you come to Vancouver, we highly recommend him.
We had a great group and really enjoyed our time on this tour.
On the way home Joel played DJ and we all sang along to some great old songs.
Our flight didn’t leave until late afternoon on our last day. The sun finally came out and we decided to walk along the seawall along Vancouver Harbor on our way over to Stanley Park. “Vancouver has the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path. The 28 km (17.4 miles) Seaside Greenway is an uninterrupted pathway, including the Stanley Park Seawall, that extends from the Vancouver Convention Centre to Spanish Banks Park. Perfect for a walk, cycle, or jog, it is the most popular recreational spot in the city.” – City of Vancouver
There is great art all around the city and quite a few pieces can be found along the seawall.
It was interesting to see a gas station in the middle of the harbor. It is used by sea planes and boats which use the harbor. It can be seen near the Drop statue.
“Digital Orca is a 2009 sculpture of a killer whale by Douglas Coupland, installed next to the Vancouver Convention Centre…The sculpture depicts a killer whale created by black and white cubes, creating a visual effect as if it were a pixellated digital image.” – Wikipedia
I found it interesting, being a Gen Xer, to find out this artist is the same man whose first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. – Wikipedia
Before wandering too far we decided to get breakfast in one of the nearby coffee houses. Vancouver locals seem to like their coffee with one on almost every corner.
On with our walk over to Stanley Park.
The last time we were in Vancouver we spent more time exploring Stanley Park. It was fall and the trees were beautiful filled with fall colors. Here are a couple of pictures to give you a sense of how big the leaves are up there.
On our way back to the hotel we saw this little duckling quacking away hysterically on top of the seawall. It turned out that his mama and other ducklings had crossed the path and he was the last one to jump into the water.
It was a bit scary to watch him leap off the edge. He wasn’t too graceful, it was more of a plummet than a dive. But it all ended well and the duckling was quickly reunited with the whole family.
The last piece of art we saw was a bit confusing. We thought it was an actual shed but were confused by its location. I looked it up and this is all I could find: “LightShed is a 2004 sculpture by Liz Magor, located on the seawall of Harbour Green Park”. – Wikipedia
Sadly, our getaway ended far too soon. This is a great city with so much to do. I know we’ll be back at some point.
Love it! Miss you guys! Thanks for sharing.
Great photos and description of the city. Particularly liked seeing all your smiles, the digital orca, and Joel with that huge leaf!
Guten Morgen Lovebirds!
What an enjoyable and interesting Food Tour you all had in Vancouver! You definitely checked all the boxes…..city, scenery, Gastown, foodies delights, wine tour and Deja Vu at Stanley Park, etc….magic moments!