Day 0 – Stanley Park Sea Wall
It’s time for our next big trip! My Dad is turning 60 and to celebrate we had planned a big family trip to Alaska for his birthday. Unfortunately he had some health complications and can’t currently travel, so has to sit by in a fancy hotel in the Lake District while we explore without him (we miss you Dad, and Mum of course!). My brother and his fiancee flew in to Vancouver last night so we have today to show them some sights bfore we set sail for a week long cruise tomorrow. I’ve had a lot of fun planning everything I want to show my family about my new home so I’m super excited that they are finally here!
Last night we picked them up from the airport and walked down to Kits beach to have a picnic while the sunset, keeping it pretty chilled since they’d just had a 10 hour flight. We woke up early this morning and cooked up one of our weekend staples – Mexican breakfast. This consists of homemade corn tortillas, refried beans, salsa and eggs. I make the tortillas and Andrew does everything else and it’s a pretty great way to start the day.
We then embarked on today’s main adventure – cycling around the Stanley Park sea wall. It’s maybe around a 15km loop from our place all the way round the park and given that James and Ash haven’t been on bikes for 10-15 years, I was slightly worried that they would hate it! Fortunately it was a gorgeous day and they saw Stanley park at it’s best.
First we stopped at Canada Place, which is where we would be coming to board the cruise ship. It was pretty cool seeing the huge cruise ships in the port and knowing we would be on one the next day. We then proceeded to Stanley Park following the perimeter by the ocean the whole way. On route, we stopped at the Totem Poles where there are around half a dozen huge totem poles from around BC. We then continued a little further to some benches where we stopped for a picnic lunch and then made our way under Lions Gate Bridge, past the beaches to the statues on the corner at Denman where we had a quick rest before heading home.
Our final stop for today’s tour was Granville Island. James had read about a place called Liberty Distillery which makes various spirits using local ingredients so we stopped for a drink. Andrew and James both tried the gin sampler consisting of 4 different gins which was fun to try!
Day 1 – All aboard
We woke up early today, excited to be boarding the ship. We quickly did our last bits of packing and watered the plants (I’m hoping my baby mango tree survives the week) and then headed down to the cruise ship terminal at Canada Place. James and Ash stayed around there before boarding began but Andrew and I carried on to North Vancouver to have a quick breakfast with some of Andrew’s old school friends who were in town just for a couple of days before going back to get on the ship.
Boarding involved quite a lot of queuing. First to drop bags, then to check in and pick up our room key, and finally to go through US immigration and customs before boarding the ship. We made it on just in time for lunch (we actually only had a kombucha at breakfast to save ourselves for the unlimited buffet on the ship) so headed straight to the buffet area where we helped ourselves to the array of food on offer. It’s seriously easy to eat way to much. There’s everything from salad bars to Indian, Chinese and Thai sections, pizza, pasta, and most dangerous of all, the dessert and pastry section. We tried to get tiny portions of many different things so that we could try a lot without filling ourselves up too much.
We then set off to explore the ship. It’s massive, with 14 decks, around 10 different bars, restaurants, coffee shops, spa, gym, pools and a theatre. It took us quite some time to go through every bar looking at every menu to decide where we wanted to try throughout the week. Finally we set sail at around 4pm and we went out to watch on deck as the ship cruised beneath Lions Gate Bridge and out of Vancouver
One of the things we were most excited about was our dinner. Because we’re in a suite, we have access to a specialty restaurant called Blu which focuses on healthier food and it’s fancier than the normal restaurant. Andrew and I went there as soon as it was open for dinner to miss the queue and settled in to a seat by the window. For starters we had lobster salad, followed by short ribs for main and then I had a banana and blueberry crepe for dessert while Andrew opted for his go-to – chocolate cake.
Well and truly stuffed, we wandered up to the Sky Lounge – a cocktail bar right at the top of the ship – where we finished of the evening with a cocktail with James and Ash.