Our summer has begun! Rob and I have pretty awesome summer schedules, working very part-time. But even before that we have some time off and just like last year, we decided to go on a roadtrip! We settled on Vancouver for 2 nights (that's where we are now), Manning Provincial Park for 2 nights, Osoyoos Park for one night, Chelan for one night, then home. After Vancouver we'll be camping each night. Here's the route pictured:
Fun, eh? We began planning a few months ago and we are pretty stoked about it. Deciding the route, committing to 4 nights of camping by ourselves, and then packing for the trip has all been very grown-up-feeling. Helping my parents pack for a long camping trip was always fun for me (unpacking is another story), but there's so much involved! We're keeping it pretty simple and I've pretty much realized that the only difference b/w camping for 2 nights, which we've done, and 4 nights is just the amount of food.
This trip feels a bit like 2 trips in one. I packed a Vancouver bag (cute clothes for the big city) and a camping bag (for when I won't care what I look like)! We're about to be done with the first leg of our trip and it has been great so far. See, I'll show you....
Rob's obligatory roadtrip hat. The great thing about this roadtrip is that there is only 2-3 hours of driving between each leg of the trip. Brilliant.
Switching to metric is a little strange. It just adds to the overall strange feeling I've had here in Vancouver - in that I know we're in another country, but there are only a handful of things that show that (metric system, Canadian $, road signs, not being able to watch Top Chef on Hulu... but that's about it). Oh, and I keep telling Rob to use up our coins - they're like fake money to me.
The first things we did once getting into town was head to Stanley Park. It was just so nice outside that we had to take the opportunity to ride our bikes on the
Seawall, which was the number one thing we wanted to do. My main recommendation for visiting Vancouver: bring or rent bikes! The Seawall at the park is amazing, and Vancouver is just a great cycling city.
Some shots of us at Stanley Park. It took just an hour to ride the 5.5 miles (stopping multiple times to take in the view and check out other parts of the park included).
We wanted to ride the Miniature Train at the park, but didn't end up doing it. Here's how bummed Rob was when I wouldn't even let him wait around until the train passed by us (the thing was S-L-O-W).
Stanley Park also has a awesome looking outdoor pool. It was so very unfortunate that we didn't have our swim gear with us when we discovered the pool at Second Beach. If you're visiting Vancouver in the future, don't make the same mistake we did.
After Stanley Park we dropped off our car at the hotel (west-end-ish of Robson) and started walking. Then we kept walking. We saw a lot of Vancouver on our walk and learned a few things: Robson is busy, Granville has an H&M, Davie has cheap food, Clothes are more expensive here, Sears is fancy, the streets are still crawling with people at 10pm, and Starbucks are everywhere.
Vancouver is a great
urban town and I really like the size and amount of "busy." As most great big cities there are also many impressive nature spaces. Here is a community garden on Davies. I loved it.
I love this picture of Rob, too. What a great travel buddy, a few things about Rob as a travel buddy: he has amazing sense of direction (I know this, and still I try to disagree about where things are or how to get somewhere... he's right, but I hold onto the hope that one of these days I'll be the one who's right), he loves the hunt for cheap and good food - that post coming later, he will rub my feet after hours of walking, and he will wait around for me while I'm browsing (never buying) through a store he has no interest in.
Japadog - a Vancouver must. They now have an actual storefront on the east end of Robson, but food is about 7x better from a cart.
We had the Okonomi (fried cabbage and Bonito flake - flakes of dried fish). Made even better with sweet chili sauce, honey mustard and wasabi mayo.
This is still the same day (I feel a little ashamed, but remember the hours of walking and riding bikes??). We ate at Steamrollers, it was probably 9pm. Just about every restaurant was crowded even this late. This town is a-live! I recommend the veggie deluxe, although we got chicken.
Second day: Lunch at Donair King. According to Yelp, this is the best donair place in the city. Check out this link for the difference b/w a donair/doner and a gyro (there isn't one). Except, this place grills the wraps. Smart/delicious!
Dinner was lots and lots of sushi rolls. Just check out that price:
We also ordered (cheap) gyoza, which was uncalled for. One of the 3 rolls that comes in the deal is a tempura-yam roll. If all 22 of the rolls had been this variety, we would have been a-okay. The other rolls were California and tuna, also good. But, oh, that sweet potato!
That was it - and we're probably leaving early tomorrow. We're a little sad about that - we'll have to miss out on eating more cheap+fantastic food.
