There’s a first for everything. Apparently, there was a marathon in the city that day. It was sponsored by Lululemon, a women’s exercise clothing company headquartered in Vancouver. We learned later that the race drew people from all over North America, and we saw people wearing their race numbers all over town.
But we were on vacation, and 7am was for suckers.
After a couple more hours of sleep, we went to the 19th story for the penthouse breakfast. If I had a dollar for every time I started my day with breakfast in a hotel penthouse…
We were very disappointed to find that they didn’t even leave out spagetti noodles for us to use in our coffee. What kind of place is this?
Full, well rested, and very happy we weren’t currently running a marathon, Aimee and I headed downstairs to ask the concierge for advice on where to visit. I was getting dangerously comfortable with luxury travel.
But it actually was great to have a concierge to talk with. Aimee and I had done a bit of research ahead of time, and we knew that Stanley Park was a must-see. It’s a city-defining space that dwarfs New York’s Central Park. Stanley Forrest may have been a better name.
But after chatting with concierge for a bit (and declining her offer to set us up with a private car, then a rental, then a taxi--“Do the city busses run there?”), I think the concierge started to understand who she was dealing with. And out of the blue, she said, “You know what, I like you. You look like my son,” and she handed us a pair of free passes on one of those open top tourist busses.
Yes, one of those. Aimee and I wouldn’t have signed up for one of these in a million years, especially once we found out what they normally cost. But a free pass to tour a city that was bankrupting us by the minute? Sign us up!
It was time to change into our birkenstocks, and hang some cameras around our necks. We were going on a bus tour!
But it actually was a lot of fun. Most of the Vancouver facts that I’ve been dropping into these stories came from listening to the bus driver as he took us around the city. We learned a ton.
The best part was that we could hop on and off the bus at several points around the city. First stop: Stanley Park.
I can’t believe that this was the only photo I took of the park. And this isn’t even the park; we’re looking out across the bay at one of the nicer neighborhoods in Vancouver. The park itself is a 1,001-acre urban green space with botanical gardens, miles (well, kilometers) of walking trails, and several cultural museums. We could have spent days there.
But there was more to see on the Big Bus Tour of Vancouver, and the next stop was Granville Island.
Now, I should point out that whenever we asked a local about Granville Island (even our concierge), they responded identically: “Yeah, well, um, I guess you should go there. The tourists always go there.” So we knew exactly what we were getting into, even before we saw this little gem of graffiti.
Canadians are so polite.
Granville “Island” is really just some repurposed space under a freeway. I have the distinct feeling that some developer bought the land in the 70s, and everyone thought he was crazy. Then he put up a bunch of cottages and retail space, and ran a few ferries to the docks. Now an urban blight was an urban gold mine.
The farmers market was the main draw, but it was the kind of market where farmers were really more of an abstract concept. But Artisan Cheese and Imported Dried Fruit Market doesn’t have the same ring to it.
So we hung around the island for about an hour, until we realized that we couldn’t afford anything. Then we took a ferry back to the mainland where we couldn’t afford anything.
Conveniently, the ferry dropped us off in the Davies District, which was another area that we wanted to check out. The Davies District is Vancouver’s version of San Francisco’s Castro District.
Gay districts are an under-appreciated gem on any traveler’s agenda. Plenty of cheap, healthy food, lots of alcohol, and an always-friendly crowd. This one was no exception, so we plopped down for lunch and a drink. But we couldn’t stay for long, since the last Big Bus Tour of Vancouver left at 5.
Don't tell anybody, but we had a pretty good time on that bus.
