Vancouver and the Rockies July/August 2018 - Day 2 – Flyover, Vancouver Lookout & Yaletown

[jocat]

Index is here.

Day 2 - Tuesday 24th July 2018 – Vancouver – Flyover, Waterfront, Vancouver Lookout, Yaletown and Marinaside

I felt like I’d had hours of sleep when I first woke up and discovered my bedside lamp was still on. I’ve no idea what time it was, but I turned it off and promptly fell straight back to sleep. The next time I woke it was 4am. I grabbed some water from the fridge, and tried to get back to sleep. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen, but after about half an hour of tossing and turning, I managed to get back to sleep and woke again at 6:30 am. Result! Hopefully I’ve turned by body clock around now.

I spent half an hour answering some messages and emails, as well as a phone call from work, before thinking about getting up and ready for the day. Our plans for the day were to take it a bit easier - our stay in Vancouver was supposed to ease us into this trip, and we wanted to make sure we made it out to dinner tonight!

We took our time getting moving this morning, deciding to grab a take-out breakfast from Starbucks opposite. While I got ready, Martin went looking for a summer berries croissant I’d spotted online, to supplement the fruit that I’d bought yesterday. Unfortunately they didn’t have any so he came back with a blueberry muffin and a small fruit smoothie each. ($18)

Sorry about the angle - for the life of me I cannot get this photo to appear landscape.

We left the room at about 9:15 am and wandered towards the waterfront area.

We took a slow walk along Hamilton Street, which was opposite our hotel and found a lot of restaurants along that row. We were ideally located for food in the evenings, if we could manage to make it out.

At the end of that road, we turned left until we reached Granville Street, turning right to head towards the waterfront. We passed the Canadian Walk of Fame, but only recognised Michael Buble, Bryan Adams and Michael J Fox amongst the names.

We reached the Pacific Centre and turned left again one block until we reached Howe Street. We knew this road led straight to Canada Place.

We paused to take photos at Vancouver Art Gallery - it reminded me a bit of the library in New York.

We continued our walk and found the place we could buy our Flyover tickets by Canada Place. I’d read reviews where people had complained about long queues, but there was nobody there. I think you can book online for a bit of a saving, but we didn’t want to be tied to a time. It wasn’t necessary though as they gave us a timed entry slot for 15 minutes later.

They directed us to the Canadian Trail, which went to the left of Canada Place. There were a lot of people gathered there for a convention, with lots of camera crews - we noticed their lanyards said Assembly of First Nations. It turned out there was a 3 day convention for its AGM, where they’d elect their new chief.

We found the entrance to Flyover Canada and joined the queue for the next show. We can see the comparison to Soarin’ and thought it was very good. It makes you realise how vast Canada is, and the amount of different landscapes there is.

Once out, we took a few photos of the view and walked towards the Convention Centre West. We took photos of the Olympic Cauldron and the orca statue, then found an oasis called Tap and Barrell, with a patio overlooking the water.

We were soon seated and ordered a beer flight and a raspberry crush cocktail, plus I ordered a Diet Coke too to quench my thirst.

Having noticed the food being delivered around us, we chose to have lunch too - a fish and chips and a tuna salad. They were huge! Martin managed his, and helped me with a few of my fries, but we still left half of them. It didn’t seem bad value at $62, considering we’d both had alcohol too.

Once we’d finished, we walked back towards Vancouver Lookout and paid our entry to the viewing tower. There was no wait and we went straight up in the lift to the top. We had looked at the restaurant at the top, to see if it was worth us booking that instead, but there didn’t seem to be a ‘lighter’ lunch menu, which many of this type of restaurant usually have. Little did we know at that time that we wouldn’t end up eating a ‘light’ lunch that day!

We spent about 45 minutes at the top, which wasn’t bad considering it only cost about a tenner each. We also purchased a souvenir viewing guide for $1.95, which helped us at the top - like most of these things though, it was a little out of date due to new buildings going up in lots of cities.

We decided to walk back to the hotel for a while, as it was very hot again today. We planned to cool down for a bit, then go back out and explore Yaletown Marinaside. On the way back to the hotel, we passed a drugstore, similar to CVS. We popped in to get some water and noticed the prices were a lot better than the grocery market we’d been to yesterday. We picked up mainly drinks - some water, orange juice and Diet Pepsi, along with some breakfast bars and sun cream. We like the banana boat aerosol sunscreen, and the larger value size was on offer there for $9.99 - about £5.80. We don’t think we’ll need it for this holiday, but I’ll have some to take home now if the UK heatwave continues when we’re back home.

We rested for an hour or so, then headed back out, turning right out of the hotel and heading to Marinaside, just a couple of blocks away.
We spent a lovely hour or so walking up and down, overlooking the water, and wandering through the parks there. There were lots of locals out, enjoying the sunshine, either relaxing in the parks or cycling, rollerblading or walking along the paths.

We came back and showered, ready to go out to dinner. We chose to go to the Cactus Club Cafe, which was just across the road. There was a bit of a line, but the people there were waiting for patio seating - we were happy to sit inside so were seated straightaway.

Whilst we were looking at the menus, the waiter came to tell us that bottles of wine were half price on Tuesdays, so we quickly chose a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and very nice it was too! I was quick to notice though that the waiter had poured more in Martin’s glass than mine! No, no no!

We both chose chicken dishes to eat. I ordered hunters chicken, with mash and green beans, while Martin chose a blackened creole chicken with mash and asparagus. Both were lovely. We declined dessert, finished the wine and paid the bill. $100 inclusive of a tip and well worth it.

We crossed the road back to our hotel and did a bit of last minute research for tomorrow. We managed to stay up until 9:30 pm tonight!

[Gunna]

Well done on the later evening!

We also enjoyed Flying, reminded us of Soarin’ definitely but good in its own way.

I thought that orca looked like it was made from Lego.

Good to read your report as there where a few things we didn’t see but can pick these up on a return trip!

[parisdisneyfan]

Another great day, Yaletown looks lovely and I definitely want to do Flying over Canada as I think Soarin is my favourite ride! We are enjoying not having to worry about going out to eat but yours look delish

[jocat]

Originally Posted by Gunna

Well done on the later evening!

We also enjoyed Flying, reminded us of Soarin’ definitely but good in its own way.

I thought that orca looked like it was made from Lego.

Good to read your report as there where a few things we didn’t see but can pick these up on a return trip!

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The orca definitely looked like a Lego one to me too!

Today’s pace was much better for us, and I think the break in the afternoon, during the hottest time of the day helped too.

Can’t believe how happy I was at staying awake until 9:30 pm!

[jocat]

Originally Posted by parisdisneyfan

Another great day, Yaletown looks lovely and I definitely want to do Flying over Canada as I think Soarin is my favourite ride! We are enjoying not having to worry about going out to eat but yours look delish

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Yaletown is definitely a great area to stay.

That meal was probably in the top 3 or 4 meals we had, and obviously the half price wine was an added bonus.

[Princess Alison]

I loved Vancouver and it’s somewhere I could definitely se myself living. - with a second home on one of the islands and another in Jasper!

[jocat]

Originally Posted by Princess Alison

I loved Vancouver and it’s somewhere I could definitely se myself living. - with a second home on one of the islands and another in Jasper!

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Nice! We don’t want much do we with where we all want our holiday homes.

[Melbatb]

For a slower pace day you sure did fit an awful lot in!

Add me to the lego for the orca

Half price wine is always a good thing!

[jocat]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

For a slower pace day you sure did fit an awful lot in!

Add me to the lego for the orca

Half price wine is always a good thing!

See more...

It’s so hard to find the right balance of an easy pace and fitting in everything you want to see when you’re only in a place for a few days. It did feel a bit easier than yesterday though. We must have got out of the sun at the right time.

And half price wine is certainly a good thing.

[mrsdjh]

The area you stayed in looks very nice for walking around and eating places. Your meal looks delicious.