20 May 2023: Brisbane to Vancouver

 Here we go! USA trip 2! 

I’d recommend Air Canada. From checking in at Brisbane to getting off the plane in Vancouver, it’s been easy and quick. They’re streamlined and organised, so we’ll fly with them again. Nice new plane, good movies, but a couple of people who thought ipad movies without headphones was a good idea, so a little bit of a hinderance to sleep. All in all though - we’ve arrived in reasonable shape.

Grabbed a taxi from the airport to our hotel and passed some of biggest houses with the biggest hedges I’ve ever seen. They must spend all weekend tending to their 12ft hedges! Vancouver’s streets are so clean, with pretty tree lined streets. We’re staying at Hotel du Soleil and it’s a lovely, arty hotel. The telephones are very cool.

They let us check in early as we arrived at 6:00am and they had a spare room. So in we went, and then down to the attached cafe for some breakfast. People are very friendly, service has been a little slow in most places we’ve been to so far, but the food has been excellent (ok, brekkie may have left a little to be desired as one meal had to wait on the cook’s counter for the other to be cooked).

After breakfast as we were getting ready to head out, the hotel fire alarm went off. They sound a bit different to ours and there is no ‘alert’, just an ‘evacuate’ so we grabbed our passports and headed down with everyone else. The fire trucks were there very quickly, and firemen jumped out with their hose over their shoulders. Nothing else happened though (yay), false alarm. Fun first day!

We strolled down to the waterfront. An enormous cruise ship was in, I’ve never seen one that big before (there are lots of first bigs happening). There were big (!) mountains in the distance, snow capped mountains no less, and lots of sea planes landing and taking off. There were so many dandelions on the side of the street that I took advantage of the opportunity and blew some off into the breeze. I haven’t blown apart dandelions since I was a kid. It was a really good vibe down there, and so we walked a bit more until we got to a cafe. Right when we sat down, the lack of sleep hit. Coffee, walk back to the hotel, and then crash for a couple of hours. 

Once we were slightly more refreshed we decided to walk down to the other waterfront and catch a little ferry across to Granville Island to go to the market. The streets were alive with people and shops and music, and a couple of protests about Iran and then one about ‘right not to vaccinate’. We saw the Canadian version of a bin chicken as well. Walking behind people, all we could smell was pot - it’s legal here (obviously). We passed some ‘weed shops’ so decided to have a look in. The one we went in to was very flash. There were little glass bottles with a magnifying glass sides containing all types of weed, so you could look at it closely, and even smell it before purchasing. Lots of paraphernalia and then large glass tubes in a maze around the ceiling: the delivery system - which they showed us a ‘delivery demonstration’ and a little tube of pot went flying around the room.

We made it to the ferry stop and got across to Granville Island. The markets there were full and busy and there were all sorts of wonderful things for sale. We tried some chocolates - Nanaimo Bars (ganache, custard buttercream, with a chocolate biscuit and coconut base). Yep, we bought some. Looked at all the cheeses, the bagels, the fresh seafood and meats, brightly coloured vegetables, and then saw the biggest fruit ever (is everything in Vancouver big?). We bought a mixed box and the strawberries were twice the size of the ones we get at home. So we sat down on the boardwalk and had a few bits of fruit - we needed the sugar hit. 

A little further down the boardwalk was The Sandbar restaurant which had a fabulous personalised oyster shell display out the front. We ended up at a table on the corner, overlooking the river, underneath one bridge, and looking at the other, with the snow capped mountains beyond. It was so picturesque. We had a seafood platter, fresh oysters, poached prawns, half a dungaree crab (accompanied by a fondue pot of melted butter to pour over it) and the most delicious Ahi tuna stack. The tuna was the best - unbelievable. It had a wasabi sauce with sesame oil and was sprinkled with black poppy seeds. So fresh, so tasty. The cocktails weren’t bad either. A yummy chocolate truffle dessert and then that was it, we just wanted to go to sleep. 

We found a taxi just outside and jumped in for the ride back, but somehow, he misunderstood and took us on a half hour ride around Vancouver, who knows where he was going. It took twice as long to get home in a taxi than it did to walk down to the waterfront, let alone get a ferry across! He didn’t charge us full fare though, so faith restored.

Now, we’re both fading fast, so bed summons. Great views, great food, lovely people - it’s been a very good first day in Canada!

Check out the big photo album here.