Vancouver in a Day

So, I mentioned earlier how strange it felt to be able to be able to jump into my car and drive to Seattle? It's even stranger to be able to be in Vancouver, British Columbia in a little over an hour (thank you, five minute wait at the Peace Arch crossing).

We didn't do all of Vancouver in one day, but we did a whole hell of a lot of walking. It was a gorgeous day. We could see the Canadian Rockies as we were leaving (it was too cloudy in the morning) and got a good view of Mount Baker in the US Cascades, too.

I didn't take as many pictures as I planned. I kept forgetting my camera was in my purse. I also didn't want to look like a tourist, and then at a certain point I decided I didn't care. The one thing I didn't take a picture of was the sign we saw just after going across the Canadian border: A big sign that said, "Canada" with a arrow. It was there because the border crossing is under construction (being made bigger for the Winter Olympics in 2010, so it can be a bit confusing how to get to the highway. But still. It was funny.

It's easy to forget you were in Canada until you saw a speed limit sign that said "100" (km per hour) or gas at $1.39 (per litre). Or Canadian flags. Or have you have to ask, "Do you take American [dollars]?"

What did we do? Shopped. We hit a couple of areas and lots of shoe stores. And did I buy a pair of shoes..... They are heals and pointy and very awesome.


They aren't nearly as uncomfortable as the look. I couldn't do a whole lotta walking in them, but they aren't so bad. There were more shoes than I knew what to do with and at a certain point I stopped going in the stores--I kept seeing all the same shoes.

Lots of various ethnic food. We settled on Indian and it was all kinds of yummy. After we ate I saw a Baskin Robbins. We didn't stop, but I noticed Baskin Robbins has 32 flavo[u]rs in Canada.


After we walked down Robson (one of the main shopping areas), we made our way to Chinatown, and to get there we had to walk through some sketchy neighborhoods. They seemed to be areas that were pre-gentrification. The old buildings (things like empty drug rehab buildings) with shuttered windows on one side of the street while new condo developments were being built on the other.

And then we got to Chinatown. Like most, there was a gate thingee:

We walked by the various Chinese stores: clothes, videos, trinkets, etc. We went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. There was Dr. Sun Yat-Sen statue, the Chinese years, (I'm the year of the Dog), Coy fish, more Chinese trinkets, and more tourists (like us).

Dr Sun Yat-Sen statue

Year of the Dog

We wandered farther into Chinatown, hit a Chinese Flea Market where we were the only non-Asians in the building. From there we wandered through an area of food markets. I don't know what half of that stuff was, but there was some weird-ass stuff. I think these were the weirdest:

I have no clue what you would do with these

We wandered back to the car with a stop off in a market where I said things like, "Hey, I could buy Canada Dry Ginger Ale in Canada." (I didn't.)

We drove to Stanley Park, a big-ass park just off downtown, where we stopped to wander a bit. It felt like half of Vancouver was in Stanley Park, but considering that it would be one of the few nice clear days before fall kicks in, I can understand why.

I don't know if there is a rush hour for ships, but if there is, it was about the time we were there. We saw two gigantic cruise ships and one cargo ship leave the port.

A Princess Cruise Lines ship--you know, like the Love Boat. And the hills in the background are not mountains, they are foothills. I know because I asked.


Do any of those cargo thingees ever fall off?

Other things:

A replica of the figurehead from the S.S. Empress of Japan.


The Girl in Wetsuit sculpture.


Me: Are those Canadian Geese? SB: Yes. [pause pause ....] Me: Oh, right.

By this time it was almost 6:00 pm, I was exhausted and more than ready to head back. Oh, the other nifty thing in Stanley Park, there was a little play area where they had big water-guns hooked up to a water line. They didn't seem to be working, but they looked like fun. Right across from that was this thing called a "Kid Dryer." It was shaped like a little cottage, and it did just what it said: It dried off the kids with hot air blown of out big air vents. Brilliant!

After that it was the short ride back across the border. The people at the US Border were doofuses. I don't know why, but they just sounded like they didn't believe anything you told them.

I was going to write a semi-snarky entry about how Canadians have better style--the clothing and furniture stores were full of nifty stuff. And how I saw all kinds of signs for So You Think You Can Dance Canada and walked by the CTV store (one of the Canadian channels I get). And so on and so forth, but y'all, I am completely exhausted.