Vancouver, British Columbia - 6 June 2016

Vancouver is not the capital of British Columbia but it is the biggest city in the province. Full of high tech companies, it has a relatively young population who apparently make good money, because the housing is incredibly expensive – on the order of $1,000 to $1,500 per square foot for small condos.
 
We planned on spending only one full day in Vancouver as we had previously toured it a few years ago on our travel trailer trip to Alaska.  We spent the day taking a tram ride to tour Grouse Mountain and then walking around a section of the city we had not visited before.
 
That last part was a rather serendipitous event. We were pondering our map outside our hotel, debating on whether we should turn right, passing through the downtown area to the harbor area where the we would be boarding the cruise ship the next day, or if we should turn left and go….we didn’t know where, when a man about our age came up to us and asked us if we needed any help with directions.  We were then treated to a very enlightening visit where he told us what it was like to live in Vancouver, as he has for 20 years, and what we might see if we turned left.  We also got political views on marijuana usage, the homeless in Vancouver and, of course, our American election process.  The people we spoke to up here in both Victoria and Vancouver, appear to be quite concerned that someone like Trump could possibly be elected; after all, we are supposed to be leaders of the world and he sure hasn’t demonstrated his talents in that area.
 

We did decide to turn left and walked down to a pathway that encircles the peninsula area where Vancouver is nestled.  The walk was wonderful – it was again a beautiful day and lots of folks were out playing in the many parks we passed, or walking, jogging or riding their bikes on the pathway. Our walk took us through an area known as Gastown which is a relatively newly renovated area, full of nice restaurants housed in what used to be the warehousing district. We had a delicious bistro meal and made our way back to our hotel.  Later, we went back out for a short walk west of our hotel to seek out a drugstore. What a difference a few blocks can make! This area was rundown, very few new buildings and the existing ones were not well maintained. The man who had given us such good advice on where to walk earlier in the day had warned us not to go too far west of our hotel because it was rundown and full of crime. We certainly would have come away with a much different view of Vancouver if we had taken that path earlier in the day.

Grouse Mountain is where the NBC Today team broadcast some of the Canadian Winter Olympics a few years ago. I was surprised at the number of activities available on the top. I thought we would take a nice tram ride, walk around the top looking at the views and then take the tram down (kind of like the Palm Springs Tram.)  We actually spent over 3 hours there and easily could have spent another couple of hours. Most everything was free. Several educational programs and films were available, as well as thrill adventures like mountain biking, hiking and zip lining. A good way to spend a nice day.

We left Victoria at Mile 0 of the Trans-Canadian Highway. The highway travels north to Nanaimo, where we caught a British Columbia ferry. The ferry continued on the highway to the mainland and into Vancouver.

The ferry was much larger than the one we took from Washington to Victoria. Our truck was wedged in on one side of the ferry on one of several car decks. When we got off the ferry, it felt like we were coming out of a tunnel on the 405 - multiple lanes of cars leaving at the same time.

The ferry backing out of the dock.

This is similar in size to the ferry we took, although I think this is one that travels up and down the Inside Passage.  You can put your car on and then enjoy a multi-day trip  staying in a room with bed and bath.  Not exactly a cruise ship and pretty expensive, but a fun way to see the Inside Passage.

A view of the Cascades as we start to travel across the channel.

After a 10 minutes tram ride to the top of Grouse Mountain (which is only a 20 minute ride out of downtown Vancouver), we are treated to several beautiful wood sculptures scattered around the top of the mountain.

The mountain was full of colorful wildflowers.

This sculpture was particularly interesting because, when we were at the British Columbia museum in Victoria, a docent described how the local tribes created the planks they used for their clan houses by splitting wood from living trees (they had no metal and, hence, no saws.). This was a depiction of that activity. The docent said that you can go out into some parts of the local forests and find living trees that had been used in this fashion. The trees generally survive the pruning.

Several zip lines provide adventure for those who choose.

Russ is smarter, but not bigger than the average bear!

There were several free shows on the mountain top, including this bird show showcasing predator birds.

A great horned owl.  The birds are rescues and cannot be reintroduced to the wild.

Another free show was a lumberjack demonstration.  I am always impressed with the physical skills of these guys.

The axe hit a bulls eye!

Up and down in less than 30 seconds.

Another rescue was this grizzly. The fence is electrified and the door into the enclosure had major iron hinges and multiple locks.

The view of the Vancouver area on the way down in the tram.

Several silos used for loading ships.  Very clever decorating.

Not as many houseboats as in Seattle or Victoria, but nicely done.  These are on Granville Island which houses a market very similar to Pike Market.

Here is one way to walk to work!

Many of the high rises had interesting and beautiful designs. Some, not so much. We saw one that looked just like a Jenga stack.



The high rises are replacing neighborhoods that were full of these type of homes. This set of four have managed to survive - they were beautifully restored. Remember the Jenga building?  You can see it just of the left of this pictures, a lovely shade of Jello green.