Vancouver, BC
Friday
Aug 28
We woke up to a beautiful, clear day in Leavenworth. Had a nice breakfast at the hotel, then walked around town a bit more and picked up a few things before hitting the road.
Ronnie
It was about a three hour drive to Bellingham, where we stopped to pick up Maddie. Donovan and Wayne ended up skipping this trip.
The drive up was eventful. At the border we met Officer Singh, a grumpy Canadian official who held us up a while and put a dent in our plans for a rooftop stop at Parker House.
Traffic into Vancouver was rough. My first impression of the city: it's huge. There isn't just one downtown core, there are several, each packed with tall buildings. It's also really pretty, with dense trees and mountain views everywhere you look.
We drove around downtown for what felt like an hour trying to find parking and finally gave up. By then it was after 7pm, so we headed to our Airbnb in North Vancouver instead.
We were all starving, so we made a quick call and stopped at a place called Chelo on the way, which turned out to be Persian food. I don't think anyone loved their meal, but it was an interesting experience, so I'm glad we tried it.
The Airbnb, on the other hand, was gorgeous. It's a basement unit, but the big windows kept it from feeling closed in at all. Everything felt new and really well decorated. Long day in the car, but we're excited to explore more tomorrow.
Whistler Day Trip
Sat, Aug 29
Slow start today. We had a lazy wakeup, grabbed breakfast nearby, then hit the road for Whistler.
We drove the Sea to Sky Highway to get there, and it lives up to the name. The road follows Howe Sound out of Vancouver, hugging cliffs with the water on one side and thick forest climbing up the other. It started as a rough logging road in the early 1900s and wasn't fully paved until the mid 1960s, back when Whistler Mountain first opened. These days it's a wide, well built highway, largely upgraded ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics, but it still feels wild in places, with waterfalls and mountain overlooks around almost every bend.
We spent a few hours walking around Whistler Village. It's a massive resort, packed with mountain bikers and visitors of every kind, and the setting is just beautiful. Whistler and Blackcomb are two enormous mountains standing right next to each other, connected by a gondola that takes you between the two. Even without summer snow, the village had a great buzz to it, full of shops, patios, and people gearing up for a day on the trails.
The drive back was even prettier than the way up. We had better light this time, with clear views of distant peaks and glimpses of the ocean the whole way down.
Once we got back to the Airbnb, we cleaned up and took an Uber into downtown Vancouver for the rooftop we'd missed on our first night, Parker House. The setting was beautiful, with a killer view over the whole city. We had drinks and dinner there, more small plates than a full meal, and it hit the spot after a long day of driving.
Afterward we walked around downtown for a while. It's a really nice urban city, full of people and energy, with plenty to look at on every block. A great way to close out the day.
Heading Home
Aug 31
Sunday started with coffee at a little shop in Stanley Park. Afterward we rented e-bikes and rode the loop around the park, which took about an hour. It was such a fun ride, with great views of the city skyline, the mountains, and the water all along the way. Stanley Park has a long history too. It was originally home to First Nations villages for thousands of years before becoming a British military reserve, and it officially opened as a public park back in 1888, named after Lord Stanley, the same man the Stanley Cup is named after.
From there we headed over to Granville Island and spent some time exploring the vendors. So much good food. We wandered the market for a while, grazing as we went. Granville Island isn't even a natural island. It was built up in 1916 from mud dredged out of False Creek and spent decades as a gritty industrial zone before the city transformed it into the market and arts hub it is today back in the 1970s.
Then it was time to head back to Washington. The drive was uneventful, and the border crossing was way faster this time, only about 40 minutes. We dropped Maddie off in Bellingham, then continued on to Leavenworth to spend the night.
We got in pretty late, around 9pm, so we grabbed a quick bite at a pizza place before calling it a night. Stayed at the Blue Elk Inn again since we liked it so much the first time. A long day of driving, but a good end to a great trip.
