Vancouver Vacay June 2019

There is a constant running list of places that Jon and I would like to travel. After being grounded for a year we were due an anniversary trip, and while it didn't feel like it was the right time for Italy, we have been thinking of cities in the Pacific Northwest for awhile. Vancouver became our 11th anniversary destination.  

Vancouver has been on this list for awhile because it has so much to offer. Mountains, cityscape, water, and while it is an international trip - it's as easy of a border crossing as you can get from the US. 

With the help of Gran and Poppa, we had a lovely waterview room where we could watch the sea plans take off and land all day long. I had no interest in riding in one of these teeny planes, but watching them was lots of fun. They were constant, one taking off or landing every 15 minutes. 

To take advantage of the lovely weather, and the fact that we didn't have anyone with training wheels, we rented bikes from Spokes to sightsee around Stanley Park. We took the seawall route and cut through the island instead of completing the entire island perimeter. There were so many interesting things to see! 

First of which, my biking partner. I'm a lucky lady to be married to this fellow for 11 years! And he continues to indulge me when I want to do silly things like...

At the entrance to the seawall route are these incredible totem poles, the ones pictured below are a part of the Children of the World grouping. Colorful, interesting, the more you inspect them, the more little surprises you can find. 

Watch seagulls on the beach! Not just any seagulls, these are EATING STARFISH! I watched bird after bird pick at and try to choke down these pointy, tough-skinned sea creatures. 

This determined bird attempted to swallow, gagged up and choked down the same starfish several times. The starfish has no defenses except his shape! The bird flew away, this tough sucker is safe for another day.

After having the worst year of our lives, this trip also felt like a retrospective of all of the strength and determination that it took to get through a trip to the ER, a serious diagnosis, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy. And just when I thought we won the determination prize for the year, our trip around Stanley Park shows us this. This tree. Who told it to grow there? Some seed embedded itself on a rock and decided to grow into a nice, leafy tree. No soil, just rock. Good on you tree, you've got a prime spot overlooking the water now.

And this pretty little flower, just growing on the side of a cliff. Not worried that there are no flower buddies around it, just standing on its own, reaching toward the sun, bringing a bright white bloom to the cold grey stone. It was a great bike ride indeed.

We also visited the Bloedel Conservatory, which was a picture-taking wonderland for this bird lover. The conservatory is built into Queen Elizabeth Park's Little Mountain, everywhere surrounding the conservatory dome is overlooking Queen Elizabeth Park.

It took me a long time to sort through my hundreds of photos of birds during this visit. Jon and I checked each bird type off of the scavenger hunt list given to us at the front (possibly intended for children). Here are a few of the brightest highlights. 

We had lunch at the Original Tap and Barrel which sits directly next to the Vancouver Olympic Torch. Took morning runs through the city and around the cruise ship terminal. Jon's cousins recommended their favorite restaurant, Bishops, for a special dinner and sent a lovely bottle of wine to the table. We took a tiny tugboat ferry to Granville Island and enjoyed the beauty of being on vacation. Vancouver was just the relaxing, friendly, outdoor location that we were looking for in a perfect anniversary trip.