Friday in Vancouver

This morning Mom, Drew and Dad went to IHOP for breakfast. By the time Thom and I got up they were already done, so we just got McDonalds.  After breakfast, Thom and Drew went for a 7 miles jog around town while Mom, Dad, and I went to Shoppers Mart and the Liquor Store.  We can take 1 bottle of wine per person onto the cruise ship so we went to get it. Alcohol here is so much more expensive! For a 24 pack of Coors it is $48!! We tried to get wines that we had not seen in the US before.

Around 11, we took the hotel shuttle to Bridgeport (SkyTrain station).  Then we loaded the SkyTrain to Waterfront Station (which is right by the cruise port). On our way, Thom found a poster of a Drew-look-alike.  We decided to scope out where we would be traveling tomorrow. On our way to the port we stopped at a Mountaineers shop.  Dad met a retired mountain ranger who wrote a book about his years in the Yukon.  Dad bought a book that the man signed.  Then we headed to Canada Place (the port).

At Canada Place we saw where we would enter and go through security.  We also took a trail around the port.  There were many beautiful and fun things to see around the port. There was a public piano to play, two cruise boats, and a beautiful harbor.  Mom and I played the piano.

After the walk, we took a shuttle to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  It was great! When we first got there we got lunch. Thom, Mom, Dad, and I got  burgers and Drew got a grilled flalafel pita. There was a band playing while we ate lunch. Then we did the Cliff Walk which goes around a cliff.  Then we walked across the suspension bridge, which was VERY wobbly.  I felt safe, but it was freaky! Then we walked across the tree tops above the tree canopy. The entire park was amazing.  It was very beautiful, a little packed, but beautiful. The trees were interesting because they came out of the cliff sideways and then grew up.

After the park we took the shuttle back downtown.  We then chose to walk around downtown to find Chinatown (which was recommended to us), however Chinatown was not as great as we thought.  So we kept walking to Gastown.  This was much more enjoyable.  We stopped at a bar called The Blarney Stone for a quick drink. Thom, Drew, and Dad shared a "jug" (pitcher) of ShockTop and I had a Flirtini.

After we finished our drinks we made our way back to the SkyTrain station.  We then went back to Bridgeport because we were told there was a market that would be fun to go to.

SIDENOTE: the population of Vancouver is majority Asian. I'm not sure why, but it is.

Anyway we went to the market and the only food they had was very interesting Asian cuisine.  The most "normal" thing was chicken on a stick.  But even that was strange because there was chicken heart on a stick or chicken liver on a stick.  We had a curry chicken waffle, some sort of spring rolls, shrimp dumplings, noodles of some kind, a hot dog with a weird topping, and a pork sandwich with apple slaw. Mom and I shared a strange ice cream cone. It was like the cereal corn pops in a strange shape with ice cream.  They also had a lot of little retail vendors to look at.

We then made our way back to the hotel. I just finished doing a quick load of laundry before heading to bed. Tomorrow we go on the boat!!

Lynn-thanks for the texts! I can't text back, but wanted you to know I got them! I looked into the zoo-now I wish we would have gone!