Day in Vancouver

As I mentioned here we took a 4 day trip to the Pacific Northwest. 3 of those days we spent in Seattle and 1 day we took a day trip to Vancouver. We did this on our 2nd day. After hemming and hawing about whether to take a day trip to Portland or Vancouver we landed on our choice after hearing people say Portland was somewhat similar to Seattle. Someone on the plane tried to convince us to go to Victoria BC and claimed it was just an hour to get there by boat. Of course from doing research I knew this was incorrect so just goes to show you can't always believe what you hear even from locals.

We woke up early that Sunday morning and took the bus to downtown and walked a couple blocks to the Avis. I had pre-reserved a car for us for a 1 day rental which was actually very reasonably priced. It was a 2 hour 45 minute drive to Vancouver.

Going through the border control shortly before reaching Vancouver was pretty easy especially for a holiday weekend. They did not have a nice welcome to Canada sign like the USA side. Canada get on that.

We drove through the downtown yes I took this from a moving car.. mad skillz

and then went to Stanley park... this gigantic park only like 10 minutes outside of downtown.

We strolled around and encountered Sasquatch. They were doing some sort of Sasquatch exhibit believe it or not.

There there Sasquatch. It's not your fault you are big and hairy.

There was a lovely waterfront with benches and a nice view so we sat and had a picnic lunch we had packed.

A photo courtesy of the travel tripod we bought before the trip :)

 

We walked to a few of the other areas nearby with beautiful and huge trees and tons of flowers. The park was huge, more than you could even see in a day. I have a big love of hydrangeas.

There was a neat view of a marina with the downtown skyline in the background.

Next we went to an area of the city called Granville Island which is this little island close to downtown Vancouver. It has a big public market/farmers market although not as big as the Seattle one and a bunch of shops. It was fairly crowded and a bit touristy but we saw a few neat shops and a ton of produce and food.

View from Granville island back toward downtown. We shared some Maple gelato... when in Canada... and it was delicious. Just about as delicious as gelato in Italy.

Then we headed to the downtown area to walk around for awhile until dinner.

After reading some reviews we decided on an early dinner at the Twisted Fork Bistro. Turns out on Sundays before 6:30 they do a 3 course meal with several choices for $28 per person. It was a great value so we were easily sold on that. Prepare to be hungry after looking at these.

Grilled pesto sourdough, roasted tomatoes, goat cheese and basil oil - my appetizer

Gruyere and caramelized onion tart - Eric's appetizer

Trout with couscous and vegetables - my main dish

Lamb shank with gorgonzola polenta and vegetables in a buttery sauce - Eric's main dish

Amazingly moist chocolate cake with raspberry sorbet - my dessert. Best part of the meal.

Fancy cream sandwich type thing with caramel ice cream - Eric's dessert

As you can see the plate presentations were fantastic. We would definitely recommend the Twisted Fork. Everything was so fresh. The restaurant had a cozy feel and you could even see the chef and sous chefs prepping, cooking and plating dishes due to a somewhat open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant. We sat very close to it and enjoyed watching.

It was time to head back to the US of A. Border control getting back into the US was more involved and I swear the lady asked us at least 20 questions.

 

We made it back to Seattle and found on street parking for the rental car several blocks from the apartment. On Sundays Seattle has free on street parking which worked out perfect for us!

Great first time visit to Canada!