Vancouver
In August 2014, we embarked on a Pacific Northwest trip, visiting Portland, Seattle and, finally, Vancouver.
Getting from Seattle to Vancouver was super easy. We took the Amtrak train, making sure to sit on the left side of the train.
The train travels up the coast, and you get gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean.
Before I continue with details of the trip, I must make a strong point about avoiding Hastings St between Abbot and Columbia streets. There are a ton of homeless/druggie people in Vancouver. I was surprised at how aggressive they were – they aren’t angry/rude, but will come right up to you and ask for money. At night, they congregate on Hasting St and sell their ‘wares’, so I would recommend to avoid this area. It was very uncomfortable being there, worrying that they will accost you or fall on you, or vomit on you. So just avoid it.
Ok, back to our trip:
Once again, we stayed at an amazing airbnb apartment, right in the middle of Gastown – an ‘up-and-coming’ area of town with lots of bars and cute restaurants.
The building is a newly renovated historic building – Woodward’s Building, an old department store with a distinctive “W” sign.
We got in at noon, dropped our stuff off and walked around Gastown looking for lunch.
Kevin had read about this taco shop – La Taqueria Pinche Taco Shop, so this was our first stop.
The line was out the door and moving slowly, but that’s always a good sign and it gave us time to peruse the menu. We ended up getting 4 tacos to share (clockwise from the top): (1) Tinga de Pollo – chicken with chorizo in a chipotle tomato sauce, topped with mexican cheese + sour, (2) Pescado – zarandeado fish with chipotle mayo, radish and pepitas, (3) De Cachete – braised beef cheeks, (4) Pollo con Mole – free range chicken with chocolate mole sauce.
My favorite was the beef cheeks, but the chicken mole was very tasty too. I probably wouldn’t get the Tinga de Pollo again – it was a bit dry.
They have a salsa bar, along with multiple levels of hot sauce. Delicious!!
We then explored Gastown - named after a man (nickname – Gassy) who opened up a bar in 1867 and the town grew around it.
Gastown has a bunch of cute little bars and places to eat. They also have Happy Hour!! (a treat, since Boston does not have happy hours).
We grabbed a drink at Tuc -a well-reviewed place for cocktails and small dishes. I got the 3 dots and a dash, which was perfectly crafted and delicious.
We moved on to 6 Acres for a couple of beers. I ordered a grapefruit beer and Kevin got an IPA. When the beers arrived, mine was spot on, but the IPA tasted more like a saison than an IPA. We thought something was off and asked to taste 2 more beers from the list, both of which tasted differently than what we had ordered. We thought perhaps that the beer lines and taps were incorrectly marked, especially when we ordered a blonde and got a pilsner.
We asked the bartender to look over the beer lines. She returned with many apologizes and said that, indeed, the lines and taps were mixed up. She was astonished how no one had recognized this in days! I’m not a beer drinker, so I was so proud of myself for being able to tell beer varieties apart, I couldn’t stop smiling for hours!
On their menu, they describe in detail the tastes of a variety of aperitifs and digestifs. I loved this little addition as I have always wondered what the differences were.
We returned to our apartment, rested for a while, then headed out to dinner.
We went to Chinatown to a well-known place: Phnom Penh
There was a HUGE line and we ended up waiting for 45 min, but it was well worth it! They are known for their chicken wings (which we ordered) and 2 other dishes – Beef Lac Lac with egg and Butter Beef. However, we didn’t find out about the latter 2 dishes until after we ordered, so we will just have to go back to try them!
We ended up getting the chicken wings, dumplings and 2 noodle soups – Pork & Prawn soup and Beef soup with 2 types of noodles. It was a wonderful first meal in Vancouver
The following day, we took my friend’s advice and rented bikes to ride around Stanley Park.
There are many places to rent bikes from in Vancouver. We rented bikes from Bikes on Robson since we found a coupon on one of the city street maps. They are located very close to the Seawall and the entrance to Stanley Park. They were great and I highly recommend them.
The Seawall is a bike/foot path around most of the Downtown peninsula which takes you through Stanley Park. Along the path, there are many small seaplanes that take off and land, which is definitely a sight to see.
Stanely Park is a 400-hectacre park at the tip of downtown Vancouver. The Seawall wraps around it in an 8.8-km path and the park is criss-crossed by many bike-accessible trails. I am not great on the bike so I was a bit nervous (to say the least), but the bike path is one-way and is only for bikes, so I didn’t have to worry about weaving through people.
You get amazing views of the bay from the seawall.
The park is sprinkled with things to explore, including a Totem Pole collection, an aquarium (we didn’t visit, though I hear it’s pretty good), and little statues.
The path brings you to a few beaches, including Third Beach – which is one of the best places to watch the sunset and swim in the water. (the water was FREEZING, so I only dipped my toes in it)
From third beach, we headed into the park along Lovers Walk. It was amazing to ride among huge trees and no people! We felt we had the whole forest to ourselves.
always wear a helmet!
Since we did the park first thing in the morning, we were ready for lunch after that fantastic bike ride.
We returned our bikes, and took the bus to Granville Island - a little island with an indoor market for bread, cheeses, meats, produce and other goodies, multiple art galleries and a few breweries.
At the market, we grabbed some lunch from the many food stalls and picked up bread from Terra Breads and cheese and meat from Oyama Meats to have for lunch the following day.
After lunch, we walked around the island.
I have never been to a sake brewery, so I was very excited that there is one on the island – Artisan Sake Maker. We had a good chat with the shop keeper and went over the very complicated, multi-step process of making sake. Then we tasted their offerings – they were amazing! I was sad that we ended our trip in Vancouver since I couldn’t buy any to take with me.
Our favorite was the sparkling sake, though all of them were great!
We walked down to the dock to Dockside Brewery. The beers weren’t great, but we sat on the patio and had a lovely time enjoying the perfect weather.
We then headed back into the main part of the island to Granville Island Brewing and sat at the bar to get a beer flight. We struck up a conversation with a very nice retired man, who ended up buying us a beer! Their beers are much better and Kevin bought a ‘growlette’ (a mini growler) for the apartment.
We rode the bus back to downtown to relax and went up to the roof deck for some spectacular views of Vancouver.
That night, we ventured back into Chinatown for dinner. Vancouver is known for its fantastic Asian food, and we couldn’t get enough of it!
We started at Keefer Bar while we waited for a table at nearby Bao Bei. We sat outside and had a drink. I got the Hei Cha Pimms, which was lovely and refreshing
We then went to Bao Bei for dinner. I cannot express how wonderful the food was here. Everything we ate made us want to lick the plates. It is not your typical Chinese food restaurant; it is more upscale, similar to Boston’s Shojo (if you are familiar with it).
We ordered the (1) Shao Bing – sesame flatbread with cumin lamb sirloin, pickled red onion, green pepper, cilantro, and salted chilies. (2) Kick Ass House Fried Rice with a fried egg – Taiwanese spiced pork, lettuce stem, broccoli, garlic stem, pickled royal fern, smoked scallion soy, and (3) Mantou – steamed buns with pork belly, bean sprouts, preserved turnip, sugared peanuts. To drink I got the Girl with a Gun, which was delicious!
Their bathrooms had creepy doll heads signifying Mens or Womens
The next day we grabbed a shuttle from the convention center to Capliano Suspension Bridge. The shuttle leaves every 15 min and takes about 20 min to get to the bride.
The bridge is one of the highest and longest suspension bridges in the world. It definitely sways back and forth as people cross it. Apparently, it is very strong and a few years ago a huge tree fell on the bridge. The bridge didn’t snap, but the tree had to be removed piece by piece for fear that the bridge would catapult if the tree was removed intact.
Once you cross the bridge, there is a short nature walk that goes around the small park and there was even a visiting owl!
The other thing to do on the this side of bridge is the Treetops Adventure. A walkway 110-feet in the air, among the treetops! You literally get a birds-eye view and look down on these enormous trees.
you get to see just how high the suspension bridge really is from here
Crossing back over the bridge, we headed to the Cliffwalk – a path that is extended over the canyon below.
Afterwards, we took the shuttle back into town and went to Stanley park to eat our goodies from Granville Market in the grass, as well as tomatoes from my sister’s garden. I had brought along a small blanket from the apartment, so we had a proper picnic lunch!
After lunch, we walked by a very nice dog park then along seawall on the south side of downtown Vancouver to Yaletown. This area used to be all warehouses, but they were recently converted to tons of bars, restaurants and shops.
We started with a flight at Yaletown Brewing Company and sat outside, enjoying the sun.
We ventured over to Rodney’s Oyster House. There are 2 locations, one in Gastown and one in Yaletown (we went to both). They have a Low Tide happy hour with raw oysters, small bites and beer specials.
We got a bunch of different oysters (the selection changes as happy hour goes on) and tried their different oysters sauces.
Our favorite sauce was a banana pepper sauce that added the perfect amount of heat and flavor, without overpowering the subtle notes of the oysters
For dinner that night, we bounced around to a few places.
We started at Pidgin with the oyster shot with apple, horseradish. It was just ok. I’m not a huge fan of oyster shots to begin with so I wasn’t expecting much.
But, we had the best single dish we tasted all trip: a very simple mushroom dish with snap peas, egg, and soy yuzu brown butter. It was amazing! (once again, we wanted to lick the plate)
Afterwards, we went to Salt Tasting Room for cheese, meat and sherry
We returned to the apartment to see the sunset from the roof deck.
Our last day in Vancouver started with delicious egg sandwiches from Yolk’s food truck. Kevin got the bacon egg sandwich and I got the portobello egg sandwich.
After breakfast, we went on a Chinatown tour recommended in our tour book (Lonely Planet Vancouver). It starts at the Chinatown gate and winds through the area, hitting key locations like the Chinese Garden
The walking tour takes you down Main St and recommends that we try a pork bun (we couldn’t resist!)
The tour ends at the Jimi Hendrix shrine. The only way to describe this place is “creepy” – it is basically a shack, with random memorabilia of Jimi Hendrix. They even have a repilica of the garden patio set that Jimi sat in a few days before his death. It’s not the actual set – just a replica! It was so creepy and strange, I didn’t even take photos.
We continued to walk around downtown, finally ending back in Gastown at Alibi. Vancouver is not a beer city, but this place is the place for beer drinkers. They have an amazing list and they give you the opportunity to make your own tasting flight, or Frat Bat (as they call it). We also had a great dinner here – chicken wings, veggie burger and a cheesesteak.
We flew home the next morning and got an amazing view of Whistler!
It was a fantastic trip! I can’t wait to go back!!!
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