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.

A Slug's Life: Ketchikan, Alaska!

Our main plan for Ketchikan was to go on a hike up Deer Mountain.  The hike was supposed to me amazing with a 3000 ft incline and awesome views.  It's so steep, the average person hikes about a mile an hour!  When we arrived to Ketchikan, it was pouring, but we weren't deterred. We had our rain coats and where ready to go.  The trail head was about 1.5 miles from the port and many reviewers suggested getting a taxi to take you there, because that walk is also steep and you don't want to be worn out before you even get to the trail.  Well, it was our luck that the road to the trail was closed to traffic!  Worse than that, it was only closed for a few hours, but it just happened to be the exact few hours that we needed to get there. So we walked the steep 1.5 miles to the trail.  Let's just call it a warm up.  :)

The trail was absolutely beautiful with luscious green trees and waterfalls everywhere!  Not to mention all the fancy slugs!  We had to stop about every 10 steps to take a picture.  The trail was strenuous and it continued to pour on us.  Unfortunately, my raincoat wasn't at waterproof as it was supposed to be and by the time we got to the halfway point lookout, I was soaked.  Apparently, there's supposed to be an amazing view overlooking the town, but it was SO foggy, we could barely see the trees in the opening.   Dripping wet and fogged out, we decided that rather than hike the rest of the way, we were going to head back down and explore the town more.

The entrance to the trail.

Fogged out.  Whomp whomp.  

I swear the towns in Alaska just keep getting cuter and cuter.  Ketchikan is yet another quintessential Alaskan mountain town with fishing boats everywhere and quaint little houses.  We spent hours exploring the town.  It had the feel of a college town, but without the college.  The craziest thing was there were NO coffee shops!  So THIS is where we need to open our coffee shop!  lol

Creek Street is a historic boardwalk area that was once a "red light" district.  During the heydays, police would often raid the brothels, and spouses would escape via the Married Man's Trail, which went up into the trees!  

Because these Alaskan towns are built on mountains, many of them have these "roads" that are actually just staircases. Houses need to have addresses even if they're practically built on top of each other!

We got to see many bald eagles while on vacation, but this was the first one we were able to get a decent photo of.  We stood and watched him for about 30 minutes!  There was another couple from the cruise that we past, and Ryan excitedly told them there was a bald eagle.  The guy said thanks and didn't even turn his head to look - and then walked away!  Heeelllooooo.  You're in A.L.A.S.K.A!  Look at the freakin eagle!

We also spent a decent amount of time watching these float planes take off and land.  We really wanted to take a float plane tours to see the brown bears, but it was $750 a person!  A little out of our price range.

Tunnel through the mountain

 We stopped for lunch at a small local fish place that looked a bit like a little shack.  But they had the BEST fish sandwiches and the biggest oysters we'd ever seen!

We were super sad that this was our last Alaskan port.  :(  We definitely plan to come back to this majestic state to explore some more!  And our vacation isn't over yet!  We still have Vancouver, Canada!

Awa'ahdahaanda'laxsa'a'ch'i

Eyak for "We are happy you are here with us!"