August 21,2018
I like call Vancouver the San Francisco of Canada. They are both cities that have their origins in the Gold Rush of the 19th Century. They were both settled by their countries respective railroads expanding westward and they are both beautiful cities landscaped as mountains merged into the Pacific Ocean. Their housing cost have exploded and its now one of he most expensive housing markets in North America.
Now there are differences. The people in Vancouver are some of the nicest and most courtesies I ever encountered. If there is a downside to Vancouver, it would have to be their food. Oh there are plenty of walk up restaurants the problem is they are expensive and coming from a foodie city like Houston, I found the food very blasé. Its all Beer Pubs and bar food. Seafood you say? I probably ate at 10 different restaurants in the week and only found seafood on 2 menus, the sushi bar excluded. I did sample some Canadian oysters and I really liked them. They were not as brined as East Coast varieties.
I choose the Pan Pacific hotel for my stay. I have been here 2times before and really appreciate its location on the water, a few steps from the major transportation hub, the skytrain and the major bus routes. As you may recall, I purchase a pass to the public transportation system and ride all over town. Vancouver ‘s system is as good as any in the world. One can catch an A/C train at the airport and get off a 2 block walk to the Pan Pacific. The cost is 2.8CAD which is $2.20. Thats helpful because the BC government has not let Lfyt and Uber operate.
The trip started with Air traffic delays of an hour due to the visibility issues resulting from the fires on the West Coast. The haze on arrival was what I remembered from living in Los Angeles in the 70’s. It persisted for several days until a rainy system washed out the particulate matter. My last day was gorgeous.
There are great bicycle paths.If cycling is not your thing, one can take a seaplane from the harbour steps from the hotel and take a 20 “ site seeing flight or do what I did and fly to Victoria. On that island there is a beautiful private garden operated by the 3rd generation Butchart family.
On my last day, I took the ferry (aka “Sea Bus”) across the harbor and then a public bus up a 1000 feet to the base of a ski resort know as Grouse Mountain. There I headed into the woods for a very steep hike.
