Vancouver Delivers!

Strolling the streets

     Walking the streets of Vancouver helped me understand two things about myself: 1. I love walking around 2. I am somewhat of a city girl. I love the hustle and bustle of city life, but when that gets overwhelming I can always find a nice coffee shop or book store around the corner where I can sit and collect my thoughts. The city can be for me, but I haven't really found one quite as great as Vancouver.  I loved that William and I could walk anywhere and didn't have to depend on a car. Now, if I lived in Vancouver I would still have a car, but I am ok with not having to use it often. William and I could totally survive with just one car in Vancouver, while that would not cut it in Texas. 


      Vancouver is amazing. I feel that everyone was so pretty in Vancouver, yet no one was pretentious. It seemed to have tons of young professionals, all whom were very polite and ready to lend a helping hand. Mostly, everyone just seemed very open-minded and fun. When we walked around Yaletown, people were very pleasant towards one another. Yaletown had tons of cute shops and stores with not such cute price tags, but most importantly, I felt more than welcome inside any store in Vancouver, and I like that. Now, even though I could totally see myself living in a city like Vancouver, I have been a resident of suburbia my whole life, therefore I would still need an escape every once in a while from any concrete jungle. But, that is why Vancouver is so awesome. Just a bus ride away and you are in the hills overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean, at a picturesque lighthouse, or in a beautiful, moss-draped fir tree forest.  Can you tell that I totally dig Vancouver?

Cute shop in Chinatown

      We started off our Vancouver trip with a stop in Chinatown. We were starved and were craving some dim sum, and that is what we got! The dim sum was good, but the buns were amazing. We had chicken, veggie, and bbq pork buns and they were delish! Chinatown is relatively the same in every city. This one was way more calm than any Chinatown we've ever seen. It was oddly calm. Everyone just carried on their regular lives and it wasn't very loud. It was a sleepy Chinatown for sure. However, the colorful food markets and trinket shops did not disappoint! One thing I did appreciate about this area was that they had lots of pretty murals depicting the journeys the Chinese population took to get to Vancouver. The street artwork was definitely a treat! 

Womanizer sax player

     One of the coolest things we came across was the Make Music Festival in Gastown. Just a few days before I left Houston, I was reading Vancouver's local news just to see what was going on and came across advertisement for the festival. I was happy to see that it was going on while we were there and in an area I really wanted to visit. Both William and I planned on staying for just a little bit and we ended up spending our entire evening there. The concept of this festival is really cool. Local artists can sign up for one hour blocks and after an hour you pack up your things and a new band/solo artist comes in. Some streets were crazy with all these loud bands playing at the same time and you would just go from crowd to another crowd. Other blocks were better about alternating songs. So, one band would play and then the band across the street would play. This would give the bands a time to take a break, and no one would have to compete for audiences. The variety of this festival was awesome. There were sax players, guitarists, trumpets, soloists, violinists, bongos, cellos, I mean you name it and that instrument was probably in one band or the other. The most eclectic group consisted of 10 people of all ages, but mostly older guys. They wore bright, bold colors and crazy patterns, but all were great at their craft. The sax player came up to me in the crowd and played his solo part right to me. It was very, very awkward. Everyone kept staring at me. William thought it was hilarious, but the old guy was really funny. The festival also allowed us to see Gastown at its best. This area of Vancouver is famous for it's industrial buildings and trendy night life. 

Outside Public Market in front of Granville Bridge and False Creek

     The next morning we slept in. Since there are 16 hours of sunlight during the summers, we weren't in any rush to sight see. We sipped on some coffee, took forever to get dressed, checked our email, and bam it was already 10 am! We grabbed a bus to the train station, took a train to the seabus, and took the seabus to head to Granville. The seabus was so cool! It's a giant boat that takes you across a huge bay to the northern part of Vancouver. Once we arrived we hiked on over to the Granville Public Market. I was immediately entranced by all the yummy food and smells everywhere. Everything was so fresh! Of course, William and I headed straight to the baked goods. I mean I would describe it, but I'd probably sound like a freak. So, just take my word for it: it was tasty. The public market has outdoor seating overlooking False Creek. You can see tons of kayakers, boaters, yachts and the Vancouver skyline. It's a great place to head to if you want to explore and relax, and eat of course. If the market is not your thing, there are tons of cute little shops on the same street. They have cute boutiques, specialty stores, and other fun shops. We walked around this for a bit, then we headed over to west 4th street. This area has more shops.

Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge

     Later, we made our way to the Lynn Canyon Park. I have always wanted to go on a suspension bridge (I am such a child). When we got there, I expected a long hike, but we were greeted with a refreshing river and a waterfall behind some trees. It was fun standing on the bridge. I mean it wasn't one of those roped ones like on Indiana Jones that swings left to right with every step. It swayed gently and it made me want to jump on it, but many girls on the bridge were holding onto the railing for their dear lives. So, I saved myself the evil glares and just admired the view. We hung out on the bridge before we started hiking around. This place looked like the shooting location for the Twilight movies (not a fan, just simply making a comparison). 


     The next morning we started the day with a morning stroll right outside our hotel...at Stanley Park! This sweet outdoor paradise was right next door and we were shocked to find some great views of the city from there. We first came across some totem poles, which William happened to find very fascinating. Though we did not participate in any outdoor activities, it is a great place to people watch, enjoy the weather, and see some gorgeous flora and fauna. It would be a great place to have a romantic picnic to view the sunset and Vancouver skyline. 

Delicious Ukrainian Food!

     We were in the mood for some serious people watching that day and headed on over to the annual Strawberry Festival. We looked around at some cute booths, listened to some live music and grabbed some strawberry shortcake. When we were done looking around, we took a long bus ride to the Lighthouse Park. We enjoyed a good afternoon hike there and returned back to the west end when alerted by our growling tummies. We walked around desperately trying to decide what (amazing) restaurant to try next. When we came in front of a cute Ukrainian restaurant, we decided to try something new. The inside was adorable. It was super tiny and had two levels. The restaurant had an orangey tint from the cute mosaic glass lamps which gave the whole restaurant a romantic glow. The simple, but charming place was decorated with tons of Ukrainian family pictures, trinkets, plants and ivy. The waitress had a thick Ukrainian accent and her mother, a large muscular woman, was the star chef of the restaurant. We ordered our food: paprika chicken and vegetable cabbage rolls and were pleasantly surprised to get very generous portions of these homemade treats! Every bite was fantastic and the owners of the restaurant were very proud and greatly appreciated all the compliments we had to give on our experience there. Before we left, we had to try the homemade apple streusel that was cut out of the pan and plated with a scoop of hand churned vanilla ice cream. We left with food babies and great satisfaction. After dinner we lazily walked back to our apartment and relaxed for a bit and went out for coffee at the best cafe ever, Milan. Our friend, the barista, created a yummy concoction for me and put tons of shaved dark chocolate on top. We all continued to (be sort of snobby and) bash the quality of crap coffee from Starbucks, while sipping macchiatos from our giant ceramic mugs. 


     The next day was our last and we decided we should end it doing the things we loved most in Vancouver all over again. We started off getting some good ole American breakfast and headed back to Granville Island to get some more pastries and enjoy the live music at the Vancouver Jazz Music Festival taking place there. Afterwards, we got ourselves some authentic ramen bowls! The art of Japanese ramen houses are fab! The bowls are beautifully put together with thoughtful details for presentation and taste just as good as they look! That night we headed to something I had been waiting for....the Chinatown Night Market!!! We saw tons of interesting things including: grilled whole squids, yummy Nutella filled waffles, and padded panties for the booty-less hehehe. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end our trip to the city of Vancouver. I will definitely be back!

Chinatown Night Market