Day 15 – Lynn Canyon

Keen to get out of the city today we planned to explore some of the hills, woods and suspension bridges just to the north of Vancouver. Capilano suspension bridge is the famous and very spectacular bridge, but it looked very much on the coach trip/ cruise ship tourist trail. When I realised that Lynn Canyon also had a suspension bridge and it was free, we took the cheapskates’ option instead.

It was well worth it. The forest was absolutely beautiful.

The bridge was suitably wobbly, high up and Indiana Jones-like. I daren’t get my phone out to take a picture while crossing for fear of dropping it! The water was 50m below.
  

Further on we reached a lovely swimming spot. Next to the shallow pool was a 30ft deep pool in a small crack in the rocks. Guys were jumping from 30 ft up and doing back flips in from the lower rocks, barely missing the cliff face each time.

Further into the woods we found this odd structure, and reading the handy ‘interpretive’ display nearby, discovered that it was a replica of a log flume that was used to transport logs from the lake where they were stored down the the valley and on to the city. Locals used to ride the logs to save them a long walk down, inspiring the log flume theme park ride. Sadly the replica didn’t have any water in it, so wasn’t nearly as fun.

The lake didn’t have any fish in it either, but it was a good spot to soak up the sun.

Lake, river, mountain views, forest. I’m happy.

Day 14 – Granville Island

A sunny day for BC day (bank holiday Monday in Vancouver) so we headed for Granville Island, a former industrial area that’s now Covent Garden-ish with indoor markets, artisan shops and street performers. Being Vancouver, this is all on an island so the fun way to get there is on little ferries like this one. On the way we passed plenty of kayakers and stand up paddlers too.

Unfortunately arriving by ferry isn’t the popular choice – there’s a road bridge in and free parking (!), so it was packed with cars crawling around trying to find a space, which kind of spoiled it. The promised splash park with water slide was closed due to water shortages and that was a bit of a downer.

We stuck to eating and shopping instead. Iced coffees and an avocado & kale sandwich at Off The Tracks. Bought a hammock chair at The Hang Out. Practised resisting pester power in the Kids’ Market. Zoe tried on Heelys.

It was a great spot for admiring the action on the water. We spotted a pirate-themed boat trip for kids which dresses them up as pirates takes them out in a pirate ship and then sends out a baddie pirate in a dinghy for them to water cannon. Jack wants to be the baddie pirate when he grows up.

And there were street performers. This one was a contortionist from Hawaii.

Jack was quick to volunteer as her helper. He had to push her leg into a painful looking position but he was happy to assist.

Then we discovered the indoor market. Kind of a mega version of the Oxford covered market and casual version of Fortnum’s, it offered pretty much anything you could think of food-wise. Overwhelmed, I chose a crepe with nutella & banana and it was awesome. It was great to each be able to have whatever we wanted in one place.

Although the fireworks and Pride celebrations yesterday were fun, it wasn’t great planning to be in Vancouver on a holiday weekend as it’s hot and crowded and our hotel apartment is annoyingly small and airless. It’s hard to be in a city with kids in hot weather.

In the evening we ate (again!) by the water near where the float planes take off and land.  We sat outside at the Mill Marine Bistro and the kids ran around the grass afterwards. It was an ideal spot for a harbour view and a walk afterwards, but the food and service were pretty average. Much better to stick to market and food truck eating!

Day 13 – Stanley Park

Spent the morning in Stanley Park enjoying the splash park and playgrounds and catching up with an ex-colleague and now local Lisa and Ryan. It was great to hear all about their life here.

Later on we hired bikes and circled the sea wall admiring all the views, watching the float planes and marvelling at how great it is to have so many beaches in the middle of a city.
  

Today was also Vancouver’s Pride parade which routed right past our hotel, and everything in town is rainbow-themed:
  

In the evening we ate at a very Japanese izakaya called Guu with Garlic where everything was very Japanese and very yummy. Zoe tried sashimi for the first time and loved it – could be difficult to find as fresh back in London though!

Day 12 – on to Vancouver, via Fort Langley

Sad to leave Kelowna today, but our long drive to Vancouver went by much quicker than expected. Hard to get bored on a car journey with stunning scenery to look at and Radio 4 catch up to listen to (including possibly the best Desert Island Discs episode ever – with Freddie Flintoff).

We stopped at Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park for a picnic lunch. A pretty and busy spot among the trees. No wonder – there weren’t many other places to stop along the highway between there and Kelowna.

A little further on and we could see America and Mount Baker from the highway – the border was only a few km away.

For our next stop I spotted the Parks Canada logo on the map (a bit like the National Trust logo, but a beaver, obviously) meaning a historic site was close by, so we decided to call in there. It was Fort Langley, a former fur trading post and the birthplace of British Columbia, kind of appropriate given it was the BC bank holiday weekend. Being a special weekend, it was busy with enthusiasts recreating early colonial times with costumes, tents, panning for gold, blacksmith’s workshop and hog roast. Plenty of Union Jacks were flying but all the costumed characters were speaking French. It was the hottest place we’d been so far.  We were happy not to be wearing furs or manning the blacksmith shop, and the kids cooled down panning for gold.

The children storming the battlements:

The tents looked a lot like glamping:

Jack panning for gold:

We reached Vancouver in time to settle in and head out to watch the fireworks over English Bay. This was the last night of t 2 week Celebration of Light in which different countries compete with a different display each night. There were 400,000 people on the shore but we found somewhere to sit and watch and afterwards carried a sleeping Jack back to the hotel a 5 minute walk away.