We survived our first adventure with the bionic knee and absolutely loved our time in Vancouver. We lucked out with mild temperatures and sunshine for the first couple days and enjoyed every second we could before the rain came. This is always what happens when we go to Seattle, too. We bring the sun with us then it leaves as fast as it came.
I snapped thousands of photos but have not had time to upload and sort them yet. Isn't that always the case? I loved all the pops of color all over the city.
Thoughts and observations from our adventure:
*People in Canada are nice and generous. Everyone offers you help, even when you are not asking. Nobody seemed annoyed or anxious.
*Vancouver smells good, even at the airport. It smells like a combination of popcorn, honeysuckle and sunscreen, which sounds kind of gross in writing but was lovely in person.
*Like San Francisco, Vancouver is full of people wearing sensible shoes. Oh how I love this! We rarely saw people walking in parks wearing stilletos (unlike in Southern California). Lots of walkers, lots of bike riders, lots of appopriate shoes.
*Restaurants are skimpy with napkins. No matter where we ate, we were given only one paper napkin each. I did not notice a lot of people with sauce on their face or sticky hands (except for us), though. This was extra funny because their garbage cans are divided into multiple recycle types, which was kind of confusing. Good thing we only had one napkin each to throw out. Here, the garbage bins are divided in two. There it was four. I have never had to think so much about garbage.
*Vancouver has good food. They excel at every type of french fry. The best tea I have ever had was in Vancouver (sorry, England).
*Wifi in Vancouver is awful, even at Starbucks. The only place we had good wifi was at Urban Fare. We spent a long time lingering over our tea and bagels while screen shotting maps.
*Tourists were obsessed (OBSESSED) with Fly Over Canada. We did not succumb to the tourist pressure. We walked all over (part of) Canada instead.
*Vancouver really is the Hollywood of the North. Starbucks on every corner and movie/tv/commercial production right next to it. We felt right at home.
*Benches, benches, and more benches! One of my favorite things about Vancouver is there's always a clean place to sit and just be. Love that! I am so happy I got to just sit and be and enjoy amazing scenery.
*If you are in to walking 12 miles a day, Vancouver is perfect. You can walk everywhere. The concierge at our hotel kept trying to sell us city tours and gave us the look when we said we would rather walk. If you have a map, you can take yourself on a walking tour easily. We did take the Aquabus once which was fun (we had a good driver who told us where to visit in Yaletown) and we took the SkyTrain once. The SkyTrain was much easier to figure out than the metro in Paris.
Our quick trip was perfectly imperfect. It was exhausting and rejuvenating. It was a great escape from reality and exactly what we needed after the last few months. On to the next adventure!
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