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Old 20 Jan 20, 07:35 PM  
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Scruffette
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O Can-aska - Day 3 - Vancouver & Granville Island

O Can-aska - Day 3

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Sunday 1st September 2019 - Vancouver, Granville Island and English Bay Beach

Still suffering with jet lag, Ollie was awake a bit during the night. I only woke up once to use the toilet, and was even brave enough to go by myself to the communal toilets on our floor. It was well lit at night, in fairness.

This morning’s plan was to head over to Granville Island. I love a food market!

We ate breakfast downstairs, and in fairness to the hotel they did even manage to vary the pastries a little bit day to day. I had a very nutritious breakfast of yoghurt, a croissant and a waffle with maple syrup (well we were in Canada). There was even a toaster for waffle-toasting.

Our plan was to get the bus over to Granville Island. I left the deciphering of the transport system to Ollie – he has a far better sense of direction than I do!

When we got on the bus, the bus driver realised we weren’t local and chatted to us.

He was helpful, but also kind of angry at the same time. I don’t think he was too impressed we were going to Granville Island, as apparently it’s a tourist trap. Well, we are tourists…. He did give helpful advice on bus drop off points though. Although we didn’t try out his recommendation that the best food in Vancouver was at the casino.

Anyway, we soon arrived and took the short walk over to Granville Island. There is a big public market, along with various shops and art galleries. We like food and a good souvenir, so this was right up our street.





We started with a browse of some of the shops, perused a few Christmas decorations (my weakness) and made a note to come back later.

It was then on to the food market! We were just enjoying wondering round, not necessarily with the intention of buying anything. I may have indulged in a sample or two.









The large displays of fruit and veg reminded me of the Boqueria in Barcelona, but with better food hygiene standards.

The lure of food was too strong, so we decided on an early lunch of Chinese. Very early in fact, it wasn’t even 11am yet! We chose two items with noodles – one orange chicken and one crispy beef ($11.49).







We took it outside to eat with this lovely view. We were very lucky again with the weather today and it was beautiful. Locals were in shorts, tourists from colder countries were still layered up!





After our second breakfast/early lunch we spent some time exploring the various food stalls. We were eyeing up some fish and chips style salmon, but surprisingly for us we weren’t hungry.

We did get a donut hole each from Lee’s donuts ($1.50 for both), as I’d read good things.







We also spent some time wondering the various art galleries.



I’m not a massive appreciator of art normally (anything modern is lost on me) but I loved this one shop with drawings of Vancouver. We picked up three postcards for $1 each, with the view to frame them (although this hasn’t quite happened yet).



We did also pop back to two shops from earlier to pick up a Vancouver Christmas ornament ($7.99) and a santa bear Christmas ornament ($12.95). (Annoying, I forgot to photograph these over Christmas and they are now packed away).

I loved these cement mixers!





After a few hours of general food admiration, we walked over to the bus stop for the return journey. There were some road closures which meant the buses weren’t following normal routes, but we got off near the main shopping area.



First stop was Hollister, where Ollie picked up a short sleeved shirt ($25.77 - he got a polo just like this last year in Orlando) and a long sleeve rugby style top ($12.99). As is always the way, they were cheaper when he reached the check out.





I picked up this super cosy jumper dress ($18.89), which is getting a lot of use back here this winter!



While Ollie was paying, I popped over to Bath and Body Works. I was devastated that I left my hand sanitiser in Manchester Airport, so the only way to console myself was to buy a new one. After lots of sniffing, I settled on Georgia Peach ($2). Lots of them smelt a bit too food-like to feel clean on my hands. This one smelt cleaner, if that makes sense? It also has sparkly bits, which is always a winner.

I also took a very restrained browse in Sephora but didn’t buy anything – their stock always looks great but they are always a bit loud and busy for me to enjoy the experience.

Last on the shopping tour was Urban Outfitters, as Ollie wanted to pick up the same tshirt he got yesterday for his brother for his birthday. I was adamant he wouldn’t like it, but he seemed pleased when he opened his gift. Still not a fan here…

It was pretty warm, so we thought another 7-11 large slurpee would go down well. We also picked up some bottles of water to take on the cruise.



With brunch now a distant memory, we fancied ticking off somewhere else on our list – Meet + Bread. There are a few in the city, but we stopped at the one near the hotel. I was thinking about one to share, but looking at them I know we had to try two! They do a small limited number of sandwiches and a couple of specials. We had a prochetta ($10.50) which had pork and crackling. I think the other was beef, but all I can remember is it was delicious. The sandwiches are well filled and they were freshly carving the meat. They were setting up inside for a food tour that was stopping by soon, which I thought was a good sign.





We did ask for them to cut the sandwiches in half, but they just gave us a plastic knife to take away. Have you seen the size of those sandwiches? Not an easy task.

We took the sandwiches back to the hotel and ate on the bed, being the classy people that we are. Both the sandwiches were great – we shared both 50/50 but I don’t know which I preferred.

While we were eating, I tried to move our 6.15pm dinner reservation back online. There was no other availability this evening until 9.30pm, so we stuck with the original plan. It was optimistic to think that there would be availability at a sea view restaurant on a sunny holiday weekend.

Annoyingly, while photographing our purchases for this report, I noticed the security tag was still on my dress. We’d have to stop by here on our way to dinner.

Ollie took a brief nap, I didn’t (unusual for me) and we were soon getting ready for the evening. Tonight we were eating at the Cactus Club Café on English Bay Beach. This is a chain in the area, but this branch has one of the nicest locations we saw.

I was actually recommended a different restaurant on this beach which has now closed down, so picked this restaurant purely based on the location. This was an excellent recommendation.

First we walked to Hollister. Annoyingly, I had to take a bag with me with a winter dress in. The guy behind the desk was a bit confused with what I was asking and thought I wanted a refund. He had to speak to his manager, who of course said that the tag just needed to be removed.

We then took a nice stroll across the beach, admiring the view on the way.











Lots of these around which were used in the Olympics. I nicknamed it Stone pret-enge (much to Ollie’s disappointment at my awful joke).

We checked in for our reservation and were taken upstairs to a lovely window view table overlooking the beach and sea. It was fairly warm, but not much you can do on such a beautiful day.





Even better, it was ‘happy hour’ all evening, with a range of cocktails on buy one get one free.

We started with a frosé (a frozen rosé) for $7 each.



To start, we got the Pesto chicken quesadilla - blended cheeses, basil pesto, sundried cranberries, honey lime dip -$15.25. This was actually a main, but our server advised it would be a good size for a starter to share.



We both enjoyed this. I hadn’t realised this came with tortilla chips, which was an added bonus.

For mains, we got two dishes to share.The first was Butternut squash ravioli with prawns - chef rob feenie’s signature butternut squash and mascarpone ravioli, truffle butter, sautéed jumbo prawns, pine nuts, crispy sage - $28.25.



Ollie’s starting to come round to prawns, so I was pleased he agreed to share this. The sauce was a good richness and the prawns were a good size. A great choice. Not sure I could have managed one by myself though.

We also shared a salmon dish ($28.75), which feels obligatory in this part of the world. The description has changed on the menu a bit, but I’m pretty sure it had a Dijon glaze.



I’m not normally the biggest fan of mustard, but this was very subtle. Again a good dish, but I think I preferred the ravioli.

Annoyingly, our mains came out before we had finished our starter. I’m always reluctant to ask them to take the dishes away at this point, as food tends to just get put under a lamp and can dry out a bit. This was my only pet hate with the meal, as the rest was excellent.

It would have been rude not to have another cocktail, so we went for a bellini - bacardi white rum, peach schnapps, sparkling wine, peach and sangria - $7



It wasn’t quite what I was expecting as it was frozen, but it was very refreshing.

We were enjoying our meal so much that we decided to get dessert.
We shared an Apple galette - flaky puff pastry, caramelized apples, tahitian vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce -$10



Apple and caramel is always good to me, so I really enjoyed this.

We also got a single shot of Caramel chocolate mousse - warm caramel foam, crunchy sponge toffee, velvety chocolate mousse -$3.50



At that price, it would have been rude not to!

The sunset really was beautiful tonight out the window-



Overall, we had a really lovely meal here and the location was perfect.

Near the beach is Amaze-ing laughter, so we took a look at the funny statues.







On the beach there were logs to sit on, so we took a seat to watch the sunset. The sky was such a beautiful orange colour





Instead of walking directly back to the hotel, we decided to take the scenic route again so we could go passed Canada Place.



I was keen to find the pixelated whale, which was eventually found after going up a few levels. I couldn’t get a shot without anyone in, so this will have to do!





Eventually we dragged ourselves away from the beautiful view and headed back to the hotel. I had to be well rested for the start of the cruise tomorrow!

Day 4 - Boarding the Disney Wonder

Edited at 08:04 PM.
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Old 21 Jan 20, 12:30 AM  
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Lovely day and Cactus Club Cafe is now on my list!
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Old 22 Jan 20, 01:18 AM  
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Another great day. I am loving this report it is making me even more excited for my holiday.
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Old 27 Jan 20, 07:30 PM  
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Originally Posted by anji View Post
Lovely day and Cactus Club Cafe is now on my list!
Thanks for reading There's also one at Coal Harbour near Canada Place, but I think the view is better at English Bay Beach.

Originally Posted by Vinniecat View Post
Another great day. I am loving this report it is making me even more excited for my holiday.
Thanks for reading Have an amazing trip!
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Old 6 Feb 20, 09:42 PM  
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Great day, looking forward to hearing all about the cruise 🚢
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Old 16 Feb 20, 05:41 PM  
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Originally Posted by Tinkermom View Post
Great day, looking forward to hearing all about the cruise 🚢
Thanks for reading
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Old 25 Mar 20, 01:07 PM  
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another great day
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Old 1 Apr 20, 08:24 PM  
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Originally Posted by disney owl View Post
another great day
Thanks for reading
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Old 21 Apr 20, 12:27 AM  
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What a great place - when we were there 13 years ago there was a wonderful brewery on Granville Island. We stayed in a high rise apartment opposite and your first photo has it in the shot. So many happy memories of the place.

The stone figures - as featured in the Canada Winter Olympics is an Inukshuk - Originally built to aide navigation and with spiritual significance to the Inuit community.
The Inukshuk are a symbol of the human spirit reminding us of our need to belong to something greater than ourselves.

Amazing stories to be read about them and just how powerful a load of rocks can be!

In these times I think we could all do with one!
Loved reading about a place I love so much and you managed to get so much into the day too.
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Old 28 Apr 20, 07:18 PM  
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Originally Posted by walt4it View Post
What a great place - when we were there 13 years ago there was a wonderful brewery on Granville Island. We stayed in a high rise apartment opposite and your first photo has it in the shot. So many happy memories of the place.

The stone figures - as featured in the Canada Winter Olympics is an Inukshuk - Originally built to aide navigation and with spiritual significance to the Inuit community.
The Inukshuk are a symbol of the human spirit reminding us of our need to belong to something greater than ourselves.

Amazing stories to be read about them and just how powerful a load of rocks can be!

In these times I think we could all do with one!
Loved reading about a place I love so much and you managed to get so much into the day too.
What a lovely message behind the Inukshuk. Staying near Granville Island sounds great - I would have been at the market constantly sampling the food! Thanks for reading
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