Days 7 & 8 - Vancouver to Seattle and then home

May 4

Check out was at noon so we spent a lazy morning enjoying the beautiful hotel, the heated pool and hot tub, and the view.

After checking out, we still had a few hours before our train left for Seattle.  We went to Gastown (the original downtown Vancouver which is now full of shops and businesses) and did a little souvenir shopping for the kids, saw the historical steam clock and ate lunch.

I hate travel days because some of the day is invariably wasted.  Our friends all flew out of Vancouver that morning.  Matt and I both wished we were flying out of Vancouver instead of Seattle, but once the train pulled out of the station, the water came into view, and the sun started setting, we were happy.  It was beautiful.

We had to transfer to a bus in Everett, Washington because a freight train derailed earlier in the day.  Luckily, Everett is close to Seattle and it only added 20 minutes to the trip. We didn't get to our hotel until after 1 am and our flight left at 5:30 am.  So it was short night!

Day 8 - May 5

I was really excited to see Willa and Clark.  When we picked the kids up, Willa was excited to see us.  Clark was excited to see Matt and was angry at me.  He wouldn't come to me or smile at me for a good 30 minutes. Sorry, little guy!  

I'm not sure I've said it enough - Thank you! Thank you! Marcia and Brittany for watching our kids! I know they had such a good time while we were gone!

Day 6 - Vancouver

May 3

We spent our last full day in Vancouver with the Alvords.  They were also in town for the conference. We had so much fun.  We ended up spending the entire day with them.  I think we finally said our goodbyes after 11 pm.

We met Katie and Bryce at their hotel around 9 and set off for Granville Island.  It rained on us steadily all morning, but raincoats and an umbrella kept us dry.  We took the Aqua Bus (a little tiny ferry) across False Creek to Granville Island.

There is a giant public market on Granville Island.  We spent the morning and afternoon shopping and eating. 

We went from booth to booth and ate a little of this and a little of that.  We bought and/or sampled fresh bread, cheese, salmon jerky, a salmon pastry, homemade pizza, Indian food, nuts, honey, hot chocolate, a raspberry pastry, and more because I can't even remember what Matt had for "lunch".

(FYI- all of the pictures inside the market other than the ones we're in - we didn't take.  Thanks google!)

Katie and I fantasized about living there and buying a bunch of fresh food and cooking a huge feast.  The booths seemed to be endless.  There were booths with fresh seafood and meats, homemade pasta, cheeses, breads, and so much produce.  We all loved the market!

After our bellies were full, we wandered over to the part of the market with stores and art studios.  We shopped and watched the artists for several hours.

 Then we went back to the dock, waited for the ferry, and admired False Creek and the city yet again. 

Bryce and Katie hadn't been to Lynn Canyon yet and since it was so pretty, we went a second time.  It was quite a trek to get there from Granville Island, but well worth it.  So here we are on the suspension bridge for the second time.

After crossing the bridge, we took a different trail and saw a different part of the park.  We are a good match with the Alvords.  Katie and I talked and talked all day while Matt and Bryce took pictures galore.

The Stanfills, another couple in town for the conference, met up with us for dinner after Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver.  Thanks to Yelp! we found an AMAZING Greek restaurant.  Oh, wow.  It was so so yummy... my favorite meal of the trip.

Look at all of that food... It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Here are a few of Matt's before and after dinner pictures of the city skyline from North Vancouver.  I just can't say it enough, Vancouver is so pretty.  Go if you ever have the chance!

day 5 - Vancouver

May 2

Seattle was beautiful and the train ride was even prettier and then the Sea to Sky highway was even prettier.  And then Vancouver topped all of them!  Vancouver is MAR-VEL-OUS! GOR-GEOUS!  It is, FOR SURE, one of the prettiest cities we've ever been to.  The mountains... the ocean... the harbor... the sky... even the buildings... It was hard to pick my favorite pictures to post.  We have hundreds of beautiful pictures of Vancouver.  And I probably included way too many here.

I thought we'd sleep in every day of our trip, but we were up early, by 7 or 8 am, most of the days.  I think the two hour time change had something to do with it.  This day was no different.  We had pricelined our hotel - the Listel Hotel.  It was supposed to be 4 stars.  It was clean and nice enough, but not 4 stars.  I was disappointed so when I got up, I called priceline and asked if we could check out.  The priceline man didn't give me any trouble, said of course, and refunded our money.

We checked out, hopped in a cab, and moved across town to the Pan Pacific... possibly the nicest hotel in the city.  We got a super great last minute deal. The hotel was beautiful.  Right on the harbor.  This was more like it! (The Pan Pacific has the white "sails".  The rooms are in the white building right behind the sails.)

And this was the view from right outside the hotel.  Just a tad bit better than a busy street.

After checking in, we rented bright orange cruisers and rode the seawall around Stanley Park.  Downtown Vancouver is on a peninsula.  The tip of the peninsula is 1,000 acre Stanley Park.  It's crazy how you can be in the middle of a big city, then hop on a bike and be in the middle of a Pacific NW forest.  It was so beautiful.

We rode along the harbor and enjoyed views of downtown...

Then you go around a curve to a lighthouse and get views of Lions Gate Bridge and North Vancouver...

Around the point of the peninsula, you pass under Lions Gate bridge and downtown falls out of sight.  You really feel like you're out of the city and into nature.  There were mountain views and pebble beaches and we even saw a little otter.  The clouds had been threatening rain all day.  It finally rained on us for a few minutes, but we hardly got wet.

The other side of the Stanley Park runs along False Creek.  The pebble beaches give way to sandy beaches and you find yourself in a more laid back, beachy, residential part of the city.

We returned the bikes and asked the bike shop owner where we should eat dinner.  He recommended sushi down the street.  Vancouver is full of sushi restaurants.  I'm not very adventurous.  Matt is though.  He tried all sorts of authentic sushi.  I only had a few bites of real sushi.  I pretty much stuck to the spring rolls, california rolls and chicken skewers.  We started taking pictures of our meals because each one seemed better than the last.  We ate very well on our trip.

After dinner we took our time walking back to our hotel along the harbor.

We watched the float planes take off and land the whole time we were there.  I read Vancouver has the biggest fleet of float planes in the world.

The harbor is really busy... float planes, rowers, barges, tug boats, ferries...  We really enjoyed watching all the activity.

We weren't ready to call it a night so we decided to go to a comedy club.  We didn't know how raunchy it would be but we figured we could always walk out.  We're so glad we went.  We had so much fun.  There was a contest that night so 6 comedians battled to make it to the next round.  The jokes were witty and amazingly pretty clean.  We laughed and laughed and laughed and spent the rest of the trip quoting the comedians.