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| The Chinese Sculpture Garden near English Bay Beach. You were encouraged to interact with the sculptures. Beth is doing a nice job. I just hope that smile on his face isn't from gas! |
Saturday was no where close to the longest travel day we've ever had, but it was a long one. We were up around 5:00 AM EST, and in the car and headed to Tampa a little before 6:00. We got on the plane around 8:00. The most affordable way to get to Vancouver involved three flights so of course that's what we chose.
Our first flight was Tampa to Denver which was a little under four hours. In Denver we had a two hour layover which gave us time for lunch using our Priority Pass card. From Denver it was on to Seattle which was about a three hour flight. We had a little over a three hour layover in Seattle. Thankfully they also have a Priority Pass lounge so we were able to get a few snacks, a glass of wine and relax a bit away from the masses.
Our flight from Seattle to Vancouver was a short one, less than an hour. The interesting thing about it was that we were on an Alaska Airlines flight that was operated by Horizon Airlines. Horizon Airlines has been in the news a little bit lately. This was the airline that the ramp agent stole a plane and took on a joy ride before nosediving it into a remote area of one of the many islands near Seattle. The plane we were on was the same type of plane he stole. It seated around 80 passengers. That was quite a stunt he pulled off, getting that plane on the runway, up in the air and flying it around for a while. Thankfully no one on the ground was injured or killed.
Once in Vancouver we still had to go through customs, take the sky train from the airport to the city (the easiest and most affordable way if you ever visit Vancouver) and a short walk to our hotel in the Coal Harbor area of the city. Door to door from AMI to Vancouver, it was about an 18 hour travel day.
Was it worth it? Absolutely! We woke up refreshed and in the heart of one of our favorite cities, and check out the temperature comparison!
The clouds kept the temperature lower than predicted which made it a perfect day for what we like to do here, which is just roam around. We found a great breakfast spot called CORA and enjoyed eating at one of their outdoor tables. Our server was a friendly young lady named Alyshia. We told her a little bit of our Traveling Idiots story and may have picked up a new reader. After breakfast we set out on the waterfront taking the walk along the Vancouver Seawall around the perimeter of Stanley Park. We've done this walk a number of times and it never gets old. The lush green park with it's tall trees on one side and the chilly water of Burrard Inlet on the other side. It's creates a state of nirvana for us.
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| It was low tide yesterday. The rocks are actually a man made "fish trap" that is centuries old. Fish would swim into the area at high tide and get caught when the tide went out. It made for easy fishing but whoever moved all those rocks into position worked pretty hard. |
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| The rock formation with the tree on top is called Siwash Rock. It's along the Vancouver Seawall Trail. According to Indian Legend it is a 'forever monument" to an Indian brave named "Skalsh the Unselfish" who was turned into stone by" Q'uas the transformer" as a reward for his unselfishness. I would have liked to have been around to see that happen. I also have to wonder how Skalsh felt about being turned into stone! Maybe he wouldn't have been so unselfish! |
http://www.chezcora.com/en/breakfast-restaurants/british-columbia/Cora-Robson-Street
https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park-seawall.aspx
After lunch at Dinesty Dumpling House, a place we discovered on our last visit, we came back to the hotel for about an hours rest before setting out again. This time we took the waterfront route towards the Gastown area. Gastown is described as "Vancouver's most eccentric neighborhood". It's old buildings that have been repurposed and are now high end shops, tourist traps, restaurants, dive bars and everything in between. As we were making our way that direction we walked by Canada Place, which serves as the cruise terminal, just in time to watch a Celebrity and a Holland America ship set sail for Alaska. It's now Monday morning. We're looking forward to setting sail later today, after a little more roaming around this great city!
http://dinesty.ca/our-locations/vancouver-robson/
http://gastown.org/
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| A good days walk! |
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| An early morning stroll along the Vancouver Seawall. That's the Lions Gate Bridge in the background. |
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| High fiving my buddy! |
If you feel so moved, and want to follow along, the link below is to Sea Scanner. It will show the current position of the Norwegian Jewel along with a few web cam views. Beth and I use this site to follow along when we've got friends or family on cruises.
https://www.seascanner.com/ships-position-norwegian-jewel
