My sister Danielle and I made it to our hotel late Thursday night in the middle of a torrential downpour. That didn’t really didn’t matter so much since we were completely exhausted and planned to start an early day to walkabout.
Sadly, after checking my bank accounts in the next morning, I quickly realized that I needed to talk to my bank – STAT. So we spent a large chunk of the morning in our hotel room as I was on the phone. GAH! We started on our walk a little later than planned, but we still had about three hours to explore.
Granville Island
I’d read about Granville Island, and since it was a nice-ish day (50s and partly cloudy), we decided to hoof it over the Granville Avenue Bridge and check it out. It was a lovely, 20-minute walk from our downtown hotel to the island. On that walk, we noticed that the majority of the skyline consists of glass skyscrapers, many of which are condos. We also noticed that the sidewalks on the bridge could use a guardrail. I kept having flashes of myself tripping on the sidewalk and falling into oncoming traffic. Dismal, I know. Regardless, it was all really pretty.
To say that Granville Island is affluent is an understatement. It’s a cute area, tucked under the two bridges with high-end shops EVERYWHERE. Clearly a tourist destination. The market itself has a lot of neat shops, but really overpriced. Don’t go here expecting any deals. In fact, go here fully aware that you’ll be paying at least a 50% markup for almost everything. At least the American dollar was stronger to the Canadian dollar. Despite the major mark-up, we still opted to have brekky/lunch at the food market. There’s a lot to choose from: Indian, Mexican, Thai, and fresh seafood, produce, breads, meats, and cheeses. We’re seafood junkies and opted for salmon pate, baguette, clam chowder, and fried halibut. It was tasty…even the leering seagull got a bit too close for comfort, literally keeping one eye on us as we enjoyed our food.
Warning, this is not the place to go if you only use an AmEx. Because of said banking issues, my only payment option was my AmEx. I was shit outta luck on Granville Island. Luckily, my sister is great and she paid for lunch – and my souvenir.
Port of Vancouver
We boarded the cruise ship around 2:30 p.m., expecting to leave as scheduled at 4:00 p.m. After getting to our stateroom we grabbed a cocktail and a light snack and then nabbed a window seat in the cafe to soak in the views of Vancouver before we disembarked on our journey. There, we watched 20+ floatplanes take off and land right in front of our cruise ship. We’d been debating taking a floatplane in Ketchikan but were deterred by the cost. Well, after seeing the planes, we changed our minds.
We have lift off!
Our cruise officially set sail at 5:30 p.m. The first night onboard was relaxing. We enjoyed a comedy show and then dinner. I’m a relatively adventurous eater, so my sister was surprised when I admitted to not having tried escargot before. So of course, we ordered it. Garlicky, with a mushroom-like consistency. Given my affinity for mushrooms, this was very much up my alley!
The next day will be a cruising day, and we’re looking foward to the down time on the ship before making it to our first port: Ketchikan.
Cecilia the TravelGurl 