Vancouver, You ROCK!

Vancouver was easily one of the coolest cities we've ever been to!  It literally had everything you could possibly want in a big city: gorgeous architecture, the ocean, miles and miles and miles of bike trails, a LARGE park, public markets... the list goes on and on.  It's considered one of the best cities in the world to live in, but it is also one of the most expensive.

We left the Zaandam (our cruise ship) for the final time and it was a little bitter sweet (though honestly I was ready to be done with the cruise).  We bought a "tour" through the Hop On Hop Off Bus, which takes your luggage to the airport for you so you don't have to lug it around, and it's also a great form of transportation to get you around the city.

We started our tour by walking over to the Olympic Torch from the 2010 Winter Olympics.  On the way we saw a beautiful Heron and some cute little Loons.

Kevin, this is for you. :)

Olympic Torch 

Vancouver has some of the coolest public sculptures and monuments.  This one was my favorite.

After the Torch, we hopped on the bus and went down to Gastown - a cute little shopping district.  While there, we must have taken a wrong turn, because we stumbled upon a "flea market" of sorts, that was basically a place where the homeless people and drug addicts got together to sell things they'd found on the street.  Or at least that was our guess.  It was so creepy, Ryan practically dragged me out of there.  (We don't have any pictures of that little gem. lol)

We hopped back on the bus, which took us on a tour through the city and dropped us off at Stanley Park.  Stanley Park has over 1000 acres and is almost entirely bordered by the Vancouver Harbor.   Bordering the park and much of Vancouver is the Vancouver Seawall, which is 14 miles of walking and bike paths.  We spent hours walking through the park and along the water.  It was SO pretty!

Ryan doing his funky moves on the trail.

Look mom!

There was an area off the Seawall with tons of these beautiful stacked rocks.  :)

When we got tired of walking, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Granville Island, which is a peninsula off Vancouver that's used for a shopping/art district and public market.  First thing Ryan noticed was the Cannabis.  We wanted to go in, but when we walked by, it just looked like a small empty room with a counter.  No way to poke around unnoticed!

Of course we had to check out the Granville Island Brewery!

 

The whole area was super cute and the Public Market was ah-MAZING!  We got the yummiest food for lunch!  It was also a very artsy area with local studio shops and lots of murals.

Vancouver was super great!  Ryan couldn't stop talking about how much he wanted to live there.  It's such an outdoorsy, environmentally friendly place.  Their Convention Center has a living roof, seawater heating and cooling, and on-site water treatment and fish habitat.  It's one of the greenest convention centers in the world!  Vancouver was the perfect ending to a most perfect vacation.  But, alas, we had to go home.  It's always good to be home, but this vacation will definitely be one for our history books.