22 May 2023: Vancouver day 3

It was a very slow start this morning after such a late night. I don’t think I’ve slept in until 8:00am for years. We had our included brekkie (we’re a bit over the cafe downstairs - they don’t have many choices, and they have… American pot coffee). We caught a bus down to Stanley Park. We’re getting good at this bus thing now (our second trip! Ha!). Stanley Park is huge, and like most tourists, we went to see the totem poles. They were magnificent, and there were plaques with the history and meanings of each pole. There are lots of repeated ‘faces’ as they represent the land/sea/air. I like the ones with grizzly bears hugging people. 

We wandered along the sea wall and into the forest paths. It was pretty cool in there, but so beautiful. Enormous trees, happy birds, the occasional black squirrel. It was peaceful and relatively quiet, so it was lovely to walk amongst. And cool. Did I mention cool?

We walked past Dead Man’s Island - the navy took over a native burial ground and we watched the geese dig around in low tide leftovers. Then we decided to head back onto the forest paths. There was also a horse and cart tour, but we’re reluctant these days as there are too many stories about horses not being treated very well. So we relied on our own hooves instead. They are tired hooves, already (it’s only day 3).

We bussed it back into town, had a little wander again and are now back at the hotel having a rest, packing up, getting ready to fly to Toronto tomorrow, and deciding where we’ll go for dinner. A nice mellow kind of day.

Dinner:

Mark found a very cool steak house, but he didn’t look at the prices first. So we had a somewhat expensive dinner - but what a lovely way to finish up our Vancouver leg of the trip. The waiter was great, he knew his stuff, he even suggested a very nice cocktail for us -  I heard gin, absinthe, lime and something else and something else again. It was really good, and the totally drunken cherry on a cocktail stick that had obviously been soaking for hours was really good too! 

The guy told us all about the different cuts of beef that they had, while we munched our way through cheese bread that was an ultra upmarket version of Sizzlers. So yummy. After he finished with all the steaks (he was really hard to interrupt) we had to get him to go again with a weight conversion so that we understood. We decided on the 32oz bone in rib fillet with cauliflower gratin and succotash. Ok, so the cauliflower was divine (has some nutmeg in the béchamel he said), the succotash was nice, but the steak was to die for. To. Die. For. Tender, flavoursome, just the right amount of char and seasoning. So so so good. I would thoroughly recommend this restaurant (check them out here). 

We wandered back to the hotel feeling like we’d had a marvellous time in Vancouver. What a great city to visit. So much to see and do with great restaurants and really friendly people. We’ll go back again, without a doubt. And in case you’re looking for a Vancouver hotel, we’d recommend where we stayed. 

Some more fabulous Stanley Park photos here.