Day 8: U.S. and Canada West Coast Drive

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Vancouver

Vibrant flowers in Stanley Park (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

We started the day off with breakfast at our hotel, then took the bus to Lonsdale Quay Market and Food Hall. Their website says the Market & Food Hall is open 7 days a week from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. *individual hours may vary. We got there before 9 and walked around the outside area for a few minutes, admiring the adjacent marina and the view across the water of the Vancouver skyline.

We entered the Market & Food Hall at 9 a.m. and after walking around for a little while we realized that “individual hours may vary” turned out to mean that we shouldn’t have bothered showing up when they opened. Hardly any vendors were there, and the few who were there were just starting to set up for the day, so there really was no point in going there other than to see what the Market & Food Hall looks like and to take photos of it.

After checking out Lonsdale Quay Market and Food Hall we took the Lonsdale Quay SeaBus to Waterfront Station. Waterfront Station is a beautiful building that serves as a major point for public transportation in Vancouver.

Not only is the SeaBus a means of transportation between Downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver, it’s also a scenic journey. You get excellent views from the SeaBus and we found it to be a very steady journey across the water.

From Waterfront Station we walked to Coal Harbour. We mainly saw the marina, which is pleasant, but the walk on the Vancouver Seawall to the marina was also pleasant. (Click here for a printable map of the Seawall)

I was hoping there wouldn’t be cloudy skies when we were there because we would have gotten a better view of the North Shore Mountains across the water, but the views were great even with the cloudy skies.

From the Coal Harbour Marina we walked to Granville Street, and then walked part of Granville Street.

Granville Street is happening at night (later that day we walked on it again as the lights were starting to turn on), but during the day it’s not as happening. However we found that is was still bustling during the day with a lot of food places open, and some offering lunch deals. We grabbed a slice of pizza with a drink for a special lunch deal price from one place, and the pizza was decent. (There was a lot of road construction on Granville Street when we were there.)

We had planned to walk down Granville Street to the Granville Bridge, and then walk across the bridge to Granville Island, but after walking for a little while we decided to jump on the bus that takes people to Granville Island.

There are multiple ways to get to Granville Island from downtown Vancouver, including by boat, bus, car, bike, foot and with a tour bus. Click here for details about the various ways to get to Granville Island.

Our main reason for going to Granville Island was to visit Granville Island Public Market, which is one of the top recommended things to do when visiting Vancouver. My husband and I have been to several public markets in a few countries and we always enjoy them. Even though this one came highly recommended, I had low expectations for it. It isn’t the best public market we’ve been to, but we both liked it and feel we would have missed out if we hadn’t have gone to it.

There’s obviously more to Granville Island than its Public Market, and we liked what we saw of the Island, but for us the best part of what we experienced on the Island was the Public Market.

(A side note some may be interested in knowing about Granville Island – from this link, “You may bring your own alcohol, or purchase from merchants, and consume in the Public Market & Public Market Courtyard.”)

From Granville Island we took a bus over to Yaletown, a chic neighborhood with shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs and waterfront parks.

We spent a short while walking around the streets of Yaletown, then walked down Robson Street from BC Place Stadium to Stanley Park.

Robson Street has a wide variety of restaurants; there are restaurants all lined up next to each other with cuisines from all over the world as well as interesting fusion cuisines. The prices vary from low to higher. If we ever go back to Vancouver (and I hope we do because it’s a really cool city) we will definitely start our walk on Robson Street with empty tummies waiting to be filled with interesting foods.

Robson Street has more going for it than food. According this this link, Robson Street is famous for its shopping. The food is what we liked about it though.

We spent about an hour and fifteen minutes leisurely walking on Robson Street from BC Place Stadium to Stanley Park, which included stopping for a bánh mì to go (which took a surprisingly long time for them to make.)

The first thing we saw when we got to Stanley Park was Stanley Park Community Garden. It’s nothing spectacular, but I enjoyed spending a couple of minutes looking at the flowers.

Click here for downloadable and printable maps of Stanley Park.

Then we walked to the adjacent Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park.

From Lost Lagoon we walked to the Rose Garden. The route took us along a street and over a bridge near a Marina.

The Rose Garden had a couple of unique roses that I loved, and across the street from the rose garden was a striking floral display with vibrant dahlias and other vibrant flowers. We enjoyed the floral display much more than the rose garden.

Just below are two photo galleries of the flowers at the Rose Garden and the Floral Display. You can click on the right center of the current gallery photo to see the next photo in the gallery, or click on the left center of the current gallery photo to see the previous photo in the gallery. You can also click on the dots below the gallery photos to view different photos in each gallery. And you can also swipe on your phone or tablet to see photos in the galleries.

From the Rose Garden and floral display we walked a couple of minutes to the edge of the Shakespeare Garden.

My husband was done with walking in Stanley Park so we only saw the edge of the Shakespeare Garden. From the Shakespeare Garden we walked to West Georgia Street then made a right onto Denman Street (which I’ll talk a little more about shortly.)

In all we spent about an hour and twenty minutes in Stanley Park and we only saw a fraction of it. (However a few minutes of our time there was spent taking cover under a traffic bridge due to a heavy downpour.)

There are a few lookout points (Prospect Point being one we would have visited if we had the time) in Stanley Park that would have been nice to see, but we had only so much time during our visit to Vancouver.

Stanley Park is a gem in Vancouver that is definitely worth visiting. My husband liked it, but not as much as I did. If I lived there I would definitely go cycling around the park. The Vancouver Seawall has an optional loop that goes around the perimeter of Stanley Park called Seawall destination walk. The views at sunset must be so beautiful overlooking the water.

Click here for a downloadable and printable map of the Vancouver Seawall. (It’s just a short scroll down in the link.)

Finally on Denman Street, I was ready to eat. According to this link, “Whatever you’re hungry for, you’ll find it on Denman Street! While there are some exceptional high-end stand-outs, the spotlight falls on an incredibly diverse selection of great value restaurants offering cuisine from every part of the globe.”

I already knew months in advance where I was going to eat on Denman Street – Peaked Pies, a place that serves Australian Meat Pies and other Australian pies and desserts as well as artisan coffee and draft beers from craft breweries. Click here for their menus.

This was a place I was sure I was going to love. Unfortunately I set my expectations way too high. I was very disappointed. I think I ordered the Steak and Mushroom Pie, but whatever I ordered I didn’t enjoy it; the pie didn’t taste bad, it just didn’t have much taste to it.

There’s an extra charge to get your pie “peaked,” which means you have Mashed Potatoes and/or Mushy Green Peas and Gravy on top of the pie. I don’t like green peas, but I do like mashed potatoes, so I “peaked” mine with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. The Mashed Potatoes tasted like, and had the texture of, instant mashed potatoes (the boxed, dehydrated potatoes mixed with liquid.) Maybe they aren’t instant mashed potatoes, but they sure did seem like they were.

My husband wasn’t very hungry, so he had a bite of my pie and he didn’t like it nor did he like the mashed potatoes or the gravy. I didn’t like the gravy either. The beer was good though!

There was another couple in the dining area seated near us who each ordered a peaked pie and the man and woman each scarfed down their entire pie, so they seemed to like the peaked pies. And Peaked Pies does have good overall reviews on Google, so it looks like our dislike of their food is one of the few exceptions.

From Peaked Pies we continued walking southwest on Denman Street until we got to Beach Ave. We were then at English Bay, a beach that we ended up liking more than we thought we would.

Growing up in a beach city in Southern California, and having driven PCH up and down California’s coast many times, we’ve seen many beautiful beaches, and I didn’t expect to think much of English Bay, but there’s something about it that we both liked. It has its own charm to it, and we’re glad we took the time to stroll the English Bay section of the Vancouver Seawall. It would have been nice to stay for the sunset at English Bay, but my husband was ready to head to our next thing to see in Vancouver – more on that in a little bit.

From English Bay Beach we continued walking south on the Vancouver Seawall until we got to Granville Street (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

From the Vancouver Seawall we made a left onto Granville Street. In all it took us a little over an hour to leisurely walk the Vancouver Seawall from Denman Street to Granville Street.

Granville Street looked a bit more fun and interesting in the evening compared to when we walked on it earlier that day, but it was early still and the lights were just starting to come on. It started raining shortly after we started walking on Granville Street, so we didn’t stay until it got dark as we had planned to so that we could see the street fully lit up in the dark with the street really buzzing. But at least we got to see some of the lights reflecting in the wet street, which looked pretty cool. Always look on the bright side of life, right?

It took us a little over a half an hour to leisurely walk down Granville Street from near the Granville Street Bridge to West Cordova Street.

On West Cordova Street between Granville Street and Seymour Street is Waterfront Station, where we decided to go to to take the SeaBus to Lonsdale Quay. We could have taken a bus to our hotel from Waterfront Station, which would have been quicker, but we wanted to see the view of downtown Vancouver from the SeaBus at night.

Click here for the Waterfront Station SeaBus schedule.

It was a short wait for a bus to take us from Lonsdale Quay Station to our hotel. We found the Vancouver public transportation to be clean and efficient.

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