I have my own B&B/holiday business, White Horse Walking Holidays. Our home is open to guests for the purpose of walking in beautiful Wiltshire. Take a look here.
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16th July After another fabulous breakfast we walked to False Creek Harbour and took a mini ferry across to Granville Island, home to a massive market. These markets are wonderful but frustrating as we couldn't take the food home. We then went to Vanier Park via 2 more little ferries. We had tickets for The Bard on the Beach that evening, so had decided to make a day of it and visit all 3 of the park's museums. First we went to the Maritime Museum and had a tour of the old ship, the St Roch. The museum was very interesting and extremely quiet. Then we went on to the Space Centre which was great fun - very hands-on, although we were disappointed with the show at the planetarium show, which was aimed at children, unbeknown to us before it started. Our final museum was the Vancouver Museum, which had particularly interesting exhibitions on the 1950s and the hippies and protest movement of the 1960s.
The weather was glorious by now so we had a rest in the sun before looking for somewhere to have dinner before the play. We were a bit stumped as it's mainly a residential area but a passer-by pointed us in the direction of a couple of places to eat. They weren't very exciting looking but we plumped for 'Truffles' which turned out to be a rather strange place. It wasn't too clean and had the most odd paraphernalia all over the walls etc - some of them falling to bits and very tatty. The food was OK but not as good as Zin! After dinner we headed back to the tents where we were to watch Love's Labour's Lost. There were no reserved seats - first come, first served, stick your name on the back of a chair! The queue was huge and we were near the back so were seated at the far side but it wasn't bad (except as the sun set, dazzling us!). It's not a play we knew and the plot was pretty daft, as many of the comedies are, but it was very well done and we enjoyed it. Our tent held around 550 people and was full. We had been assured by the booking office that we would be able to get a bus or taxi back to downtown but it proved impossible and we had to walk all the way. It took an hour and we were pretty tired by the time we got back at midnight. 17th July After another great breakfast we packed up and waited for the
bus to take us back to Seattle. It was a long time before we really got going,
having several other pick-up stops, but finally we were on our way and leaving
Canada. Customs was easy enough but took a while. There wasn't much to see en
route so I read a book.
18th July After a good light breakfast, we walked up to the University shopping mall, a lovely open air place with a good selection of shops. Martyn's suitcase had parted company with its second (and final) handle the day before so we needed a new one. This place sold everything but. We bought a few things and had a fabulous smoothie at Jamba. We should have been better prepared and found out where the bus stops were but hadn't - and couldn't find the right one, so then caught a cab downtown to the Pier, just in time to take the Argosy Lock Cruise, which lasted 2½ hours. The weather was gorgeous so we thought it would be cooler out on the water. It was a lovely way to spend the time and the guide was very informative. We could even see Mt Rainier, which is quite rare as it's often too hazy to get a good view. We saw lots of different districts, heard some history, and the Lost in Seattle houseboat again (we also saw it on the Duck tour in our first week). The Hiram Chittenden locks divide the salt water of Puget Sound to the freshwater of Lake Union and are a tourist attraction in themselves. It felt quite odd having everyone watching us.
Afterwards, we resumed our suitcase hunt and found a good one in the Macy's sale - along with a few other items in Nordstrom. In the latter we were recommended a good fish restaurant, Flying Fish, and headed there for an early dinner. Despite it only being 6.30pm, it was extremely busy, but the service and the food was fantastic. 19th July Our last day, and we had an early evening flight so stopped at the Museum of Flight on the way to the airport. This was another great museum and we found it very interesting, particularly the Heroes of WWI and WWII galleries. We also saw Concorde, an old Air Force One plane and many others from all eras of flying. There were also simulators for war planes but we decided hanging upside down wasn't a good idea when we had a flight to look forward to! After several enjoyable hours, we headed for the airport and were delighted to find we had been upgraded again. So we had a very comfortable flight home.
Conclusions This was a fantastic trip. We were very impressed with everywhere we visited and the high standard of everything, from the hotels to the museums to the food. The locals were all very friendly and helpful and there was so much to do. It's a shame Seattle is such a long way away as it's perfect for a short break. A lot of people visit Vancouver when holidaying in the Rockies, but Seattle is a bit far from any major US holiday areas. If you don't mind the extra few hours, it's every bit as good a destination as New York. I'd certainly recommend this sort of trip and would love to revisit Vancouver Island and explore it all. But that's a whole new holiday.
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