Alaska 2018 - Day 12: Return home

Thankfully we had had the wisdom to stay near the train station, so it was an easy ride to the airport. 

We connected through Calgary, and it's only about a 90-minute flight between them. From there, on to Newark in another 5 hours or so.

We dropped Jason and Shannon off first, and then headed home. I think it was around midnight, with the timezone change, when we finally made it back.

Alaska 2018 - Day 11: Vancouver, Stanley Park

Sunday morning, we grabbed breakfast at Tim Horton's and then got on the Hop-On, Hop-Off tour bus.

We rode the bus around downtown for a bit, and then continued on foot once we got to Stanley Park.

It was overcast, with a chance of light rain all day.

As with almost every tourist attraction on this trip (seemingly), there is a totem pole collection in the park.

Farther along the seawall path, in the southeast corner of the park, we found the 9 O'Clock Gun. (Interesting bit of history there.)

In case anyone was wondering, the water in the harbor of an industrial port city isn't necessarily good to swim in. At least, not in Vancouver's harbor.

You can see the (infamous?) yellow sulfur pile in the background, top right.

Not much past the canon, we walked through the Brockton Point Lighthouse.

As we rounded Brockton Point, we were able to see the Lions Gate Bridge in the distance.

Other highlights along the seawall path include Girl in a Wetsuit...

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

A machine to blow-dry your kids, after they get wet playing in the fountain...

And the Lions Gate Bridge.

Just after crossing under the bridge, we found ourselves at Prospect Point Lighthouse.

It was at this point that we realized there are no paths/stairs from the seawall up to Prospect Point, so we doubled back to a switchback trail leading up the side of the hill.

At the top of the hill, we saw the bridge from a different angle on the way to the Prospect Point lookout.

It hadn't rained at all during the 2+ hours we had already spent walking around the park, but of course it started raining as soon as we got to the lookout.

Having had enough walking for the foreseeable future, we got back on the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus and continued around the perimited of Stanley Park, getting off at The Teahouse Restaurant for a late lunch.

It was after 4 PM when we left The Tea House and got back on the tour bus.

We stayed on the bus for the next hour or so, touring around and seeing the highlights of Vancouver. This included English Bay (Beach),  the Museum of Vancouver, BC Place (home of the Whitecaps), Science World, Granville Island, and everything in between.

We finished the tour in Gastown, home of the (one of the only) steam-powered clock.

Of course, we had to wait until the top of the hour to experience the chime.song.

Since I was the only one who had had a Belgian waffle at 3 PM, we were just about ready for dinner after experiencing the steam clock, so we spent some time researching our options.

Not finding many choices in the immediate vicinity, we hoofed it back to where we had first got on the tour bus, on Robson Street.

We settled on Thai food, at a casual noodle restaurant.

After dinner, Jason and I set out in search of a dark beer; it took a few tries, but we eventually found a gastropub with a decent beer menu (shout out to Timber).

It was after 8 PM when we left Timber, and we walked back to the apartment. Side note: Vancouver doesn't (as of June 2018, anyway) have Lyft or Uber.

We'll be up early tomorrow to take the train to the airport; our flight leaves around noon, and it's going to be a long day of travel.

Alaska 2018 - Day 10: Vancouver, Capilano, Granville Island

Saturday morning, we docked in Vancouver around sunrise (5:30 AM-ish).

We were scheduled to disembark around 9:30, so everyone was up early for breakfast. I opted to sleep in a bit, and then grab a light breakfast at the food court later.

But first, I went up to the top deck to see what I could see of the city. It was overcast and fairly cool.

We went through customs in Canada Place, and made arrangements for our bags to be delivered to the Airbnb later that afternoon (shout out to Porter Genie) ,

Outside of Canada Place, we found a shuttle to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.

The park's main attractions (that we were interested in) were the 460' suspension bridge, cliff walk, and treetops adventure.

On the way to the bridge, we walked through the totem park.

It was after 11 AM by the time we got to the bridge, which was fairly crowded (in my opinion).

The view of the river, 200+ feet below, was lovely.

Part of the cliff walk was also visible in the distance, from one end of the bridge.

On the far side of the bridge, we wandered around the nature walk trail as a light rain fell.

The small sign on the post says "Do you like your fingers? Don't climb the fence".

Next up was the treetops adventure.

This part of the park was also quite popular, and it took us a good 20 minutes to go from one end to the other.

This might have been my favorite part of our time in Vancouver.

After finishing the treetops tour, we followed the other half of the nature trail back to the bridge.

It was around noon as we crossed back over the bridge, so we stopped for lunch at the grill.

After lunch, we tackled the cliff walk. The weather had cleared up by then, and it turned into a beautiful afternoon.

Most of the cliff walk is bolted directly to the cliff face, but there's this one part that's cantilevered out over the void.

We took the opportunity to take some glamour shots.

The remainder of the cliff walk was more tame, despite being hundreds of feet above the ground.

There were several viewing platforms that made perfect photo ops.

It was after 1:30 by the time we left the park. We took the shuttle back to downtown and were dropped off at a hotel near our Airbnb.

We were a few minutes early to meet the guy to get keys, so we hung out in the park across the street for 15 or 20 minutes.

The apartment had great views, especially from the bedroom that was all glass.

It was well after 3 o'clock by the time we got settled and received our luggage delivery, which left plenty of time to grab a quick nap before venturing back out.

Around 5 PM, we headed out with a vague plan to go to Granville Island.

After evaluating our options, we chose The Aquabus for conveyance across False Creek.

They operate a fleet of small (some are tiny) boats that zigzag across the water to different locations.

The ride across the water lasted only a few minutes, despite the crazy boat traffic.

We walked around Granville Island for about an hour, including a few passes through the farmers' market.

There was a boardwalk or harborwalk that went partially around the island, so we followed that through a boatyard, passed the marina.

Eventually, we needed refreshments, and there happened to be a brewery on the island, so we made a pit stop.

Just after 7 PM, we again took the Aquabus across the... bay? over to David Lam Park.

We got an up-close look at The Giants, from the water side.

There was a community of "floating houses", similar to the ones in Seattle.

From the park, we walked through the roundhouse area and into Yaletown in search of dinner.

We ended up at Earl's Kitchen + Bar, on a Saturday night, during the Stanley Cup finals; it was interesting, and the food was quite good.

Tomorrow, we'll probably go to Stanley Park. Beyond that, I'm not sure.