Vancouver {Day One}

I researched the different ways to get to Vancouver from Seattle. Okay, I didn't really look into flying because I figured that would just be a lot to juggle and unnecessary. I did look into the ferry boats. They would take too long. I looked into driving. I read that the border crossing can take awhile. I looked into public transportation. I read about the trains and the buses. I decided that the train was the way to go for a few reasons. No one would have to worry about where we were going and navigating through unknown streets and territories. The views would be nice as the train goes along the water line and also it wasn't going to eat up too, too much of our trip. The train it was!

We booked an early train to get to Vancouver from Seattle. So we checked out of the hotel and actually just walked to the station as it wasn't that far. It was a bit of a process as you had to get there early to get your seat assignments and show passports, but once on the actual train, it was relaxing and low-key. We didn't have the great side of the train, but we just hung out, caught up on sleep, and enjoyed the down time. We did have to go through customs when we got into Canada.

Train station in Seattle

Since the weather was nice, we went with our first plan, which was to look into bike rentals and see the city. We walked to Cycle City Tours, which was a few blocks from the hotel and they hooked us up with a half day rental with an overnight fee, so we could return them first thing in the morning. We biked to a little ramen place I had read about, which had a bit of a line, but it was a great little meal!

After leaving lunch, we headed toward Stanley Park to bike the seawall. We did the path around the perimeter and stopped to see the totem poles, the girl in a wetsuit statue, and then took a little walking detour to Beaver Lake, which you can get to by a trail. We made it out to the tip of the park, where the bridge across the water is called Prospect Point. We tried to go up. It was a bad plan that I take full responsibility for bailing on. Super steep. Not an easy ride.

Beaver Lake, though we saw no actual beavers!

Prospect Point

There are three beaches along the water after the point. We stopped at Third Beach to put our feet in the sand. The water was cooooold but people were swimming! And not in wet suits... We rode by Second Beach, where there was an outdoor pool! We did not plan for that. They were also setting up for a movie. Looked like a fun place to go, but we didn't stick around. We stopped again at Sunset Beach to enjoy happy hour at a place called I think Cactus Cafe or something of the sorts... They had good happy hour drinks!

Inukshuk

From there, we found our way up and across a bridge to get across the water. It was a bit of work, I won't lie, but now that it's over I guess I'm glad we did it. We went over to Kitsilano Beach where there were tons of people playing sand volleyball! We headed back over the bridge and found a place along the waterfront to stop for dinner. We were able to make it back to Sunset Beach to watch the sunset, which was hard to see with clouds, so we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day's fun!

Knowing what I know now, I would probably come up with a different bike plan, but I would definitely recommend biking to anyone traveling to Vancouver. It is very pedestrian-friendly with lots of lanes specifically for bikes. I loved most of our biking experience!