Vancouver

I just checked into my hostel. I am staying at the Hostelling International Whistler hostel for the next two nights. This place is sweet. It’s a bit outside of Whistler Village, about 4.2 miles, but they have regular buses to and from quite often. I also rented a bike so I can bike back and forth and check out all of their trails. They have some really neat looking biking trails all around the mountain and I will be sure to do many of them. They also have four mountain lakes in the area for me to check out. As far as the hostel goes I’ll have to take pictures for you because it’s much nicer than some hotels I’ve been in and is very affordable. I’m sitting in their lounge area right now and they have public computers and wifi, many brand new couches, a fireplace, pool table, and a coffee shop. This place was where athletes stayed for the winter Olympics in January and was built for that and then converted to a hostel.

It’s 2 pm my time so I have to get out and do a bunch of stuff but I’ll try to post an update later, probably quite late actually.

Tomorrow I’ll be going up the mountains on the gondolas and taking the Peak to Peak gondola between two peeks. I’m also trying to decide if I should do one of the following: a zipline that spans 2,000 feet and drops 20 stories, a 45 minute glider ride, or rafting (not sure if they call it whitewater rafting but it kinda looks like it.) Well that’s all for now, I’ll check back later. Peace.

Okay I should make this one quick but I wanted to get on as long as I was online because I’m not sure of my internet connection in Whistler tomorrow. So I did a LOT more walking tonight than I had originally planned on but it was well worth it. I pretty much walked all the way around the downtown seawall / seawalk path from GM Place all the way down to Burrard St then crossed the bay and came back on the other side. I was able to stop many times and explore some cool areas including Olympic Park and Granville Island. On Granville Island there is a brewery, Granville Island Brewery. They had a sampler deal where you could try small portions of all their beers, I had time, it was still plenty light out, and I didn’t have to drive so I naturally took them up on the offer. I then found a place to eat, at the Granville Public Market. If you’ve been to the Midtown Market in Minneapolis this was similar. One big difference is that it was bigger and it was a LOT busier. I think more people would go to the Midtown Global Market if it were closer to downtown and on the river like this one. Anyway my tacos were amazing, I found a good cup of coffee afterwards, and then I bought a donut and some fruit for my breakfast so I’m set.

The pictures above show some different settings from my walk. The one with the one building I like because it shows how green this city is. That one building is one of many that use a lot of natural light and green roofs so I thought it was very cool. The one with the path I took because this town is stinking active. I have never been anywhere where so many people are outside being active. It is so refreshing to see so many people using bikes, running, walking, kayaking, doing whatever to enjoy the outdoors. The one with the park I took because that is an off-leash, no fence dog park right by the river and the seawalk trail. So cool to see that. There were a couple of other dog areas I saw as well. The one with the pond was right by the dog park. The picture of the bridge is the Burrard St. bridge, the furthest point I walked tonight. The other two, of the boats and the bay, were taken on top of that bridge.

That’s all I have for now. I have an early morning wake up tomorrow as I have to catch the bus to Whistler at 7 am. Hopefully I’ll be able to post an update tomorrow but again I am not certain. Peace.

Well I it to Vancouver without too many glitches. Turns out my first flight departures time was moved back about a half hour and I didn’t double check the ticket last night after I printed it. I also forgot that I paid for the Premier VIP security line which would have been nice to remember because it was crazy on a Monday morning. I’m not going to overlook those details anymore on this trip. I had a slight scare on my way to Denver but only because I again was kinda flighty. About 40 minutes into the flight I noticed the middle engine on my wing looked very charred like it was on fire. The “char” look kept moving from the back of the engine up the engine slowly. I watched this for about two minutes starting think about telling a flight attendant. Thank goodness I didn’t because about a minute later I realized it was the shadow from the plane’s tail and not “char.” I felt really dumb and relieved all at the same time. I should have taken a picture so you would understand and likewise be deceived.

Speaking of pictures I did manage to take some towards the end of the flight. The Canadian Rockies and mountains around Banff and Vancouver are absolutely amazing. I’ve flown over the US Rockies a bunch of times and I always have thought they were cool, especially because I’ve visited Colorado so many times and love the mountains. Well, from the air the Canadian Rockies blow them away. They just seem so much bigger and more majestic and now I definitely need to visit them in person. The one picture you see, okay maybe it’s multiple pictures of the same mountain, literally just stuck out in the sky. It was massive. If I am remembering right I think it might be a volcano but I am not 100% sure. I seem to remember there being a volcano east of Vancouver and that’s where this one was.

I read a whole book during my traveling today and I couldn’t recommend it more. I could not put it down. It’s called Same Kind of Different as Me. It’s a story about a black man who’s homeless and a rich art dealer and how their lives came to intersect. Amazingly powerful. I had to put my hat on during my last flight because it kept bringing tears to my eyes. If anyone wants to borrow it I will lend it to you, if you aren’t patient enough for that then go buy the thing, you won’t be sorry. I have more to process about the book but it is one of those reads that seems like it will change your life.

I head out first thing in the morning for Whistler and I’m super pumped. After seeing those mountains I am excited to get up there and am looking forward to the whole ride. Right now I’m going to walk the seawall around Vancouver’s downtown area and Granville Island and find a place to eat. Then I’ll probably head to the hotel and chill out. It’s been a long day of travels. Peace.