Once again, we started our day at the nice cafe between the bridges on False Creek.
The main job of the day was not tourism, but..... shopping. We needed provisions and some bits and pieces of camping equipment, ready for our trip east, which was to begin tomorrow. So first stop was Safeway, located efficiently by the otherwise horrible SatNav system in our rented Volvo XC90.
After Safeway, we headed off in search of camping equipment. Martin had acquired a couple of addresses off the internet. The first place didn't have much of what we wanted but the second was none other than Vancouver's Mountain Equipment Co-op, a massive store, complete with its own climbing wall. We got pretty much everything we needed there and a few things we didn't even know we needed such as bear sprays for each of us. Bear sprays are a restricted commodity in Canada and we had to sign agreements to be allowed to buy it. It's like a mace spray... an aerosol, complete with holster and trigger guard, designed to be sprayed directly into the eyes and nose of an attacking bear! Don't leave home without one ;-)
We dropped our purchases off at the hotel and had a quick bite to eat in our room. Whilst there we discussed our options for the afternoon. The choice was between heading up Grouse Mountain on a cable car or visiting a famous wooden suspension bridge called the Capilano Suspension Bridge, not far from Grouse Mountain. In either case we'd have to catch the Vancouver Sea Bus to North Vancouver and this was something recommended in our Canada guide book as worth doing in its own right. The visibility was poor though, it having rained for some of the morning, and the tops of the mountains were all shrouded in thick cloud, so we opted for the suspension bridge rather than the cable car.
We caught a bus from near the hotel up to the northern edge of downtown Vancouver, to Waterfront Station and caught the sea bus from there. The journey across to North Vancouver was.... underwhelming! But we got to our destination.... and from there we caught another bus to the park which contained the suspension bridge.
After parting with an outrageous amount of money to enter the park with its famous bridge and "tree-top adventure", our expectations were set high. We just knew we were in for an exciting and unforgetable afternoon. Yeah right! The whole thing turned out to be...lame! The bridge was OK.... a couple of hundred feet above a river and suitably wobbly, with hordes of tourists tramping across it. But the remainder of the park, basically a stroll along wooden walkways, with signs highlighting particular attractions like (gasp) a fallen tree or a ...pond.... didn't quite get our pulses racing. And as for the tree top adventure.... well forgive us, but we didn't find walking up a few steps much of an adventure!
After the thrill of North Vancouver, we caught the Sea Bus back to downtown Vancouver and walked through the Gas Town district, which has been restored and is kind of nice. Our plan was to head into Chinatown, the largest in North America bar San Francisco and have an evening meal there. But as we walked from Gas Town into China Town, the surroundings got more and more seedy... basically vagrant city! Marina didn't want to be there at night (and Martin put his camera away out of sight!) so we changed our plan and headed back to Granville Island by ferry.
Back at the hotel, we sorted out our stuff, ready for an early start.
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| Our first clue that the Capilano Suspension Bridge was going to be lame, lame and (in case you don't quite get this) LAME!! |
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| Oh the excitement. |
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| And more..... |
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| Gasp! A suspension bridge!! |
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| "Daddy, this is lame!" |
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| A river, seen from the (gasp!) suspension bridge. |
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| The (gasp!) suspension bridge from *the other side* :-) |
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| The suspension (gasp!) bridge (Oooooh!) seen from another angle. |
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| The steam clock in Gas Town. |
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| See? real steam! |