On Friday afternoon, I walked down to Sunset Park Beach, which was kind of nice - though I didn’t spent that much time as I wanted to get to the Whitecaps game. That was fun - Houston was leading 1-0 most of the way but Vancouver scored twice in the last few minutes (with the winner in stoppage time) to win it. It was a fairly easy walk to/from the stadium - just a straight shot down Davie to Pacific Blvd and the reverse.
On Saturday, I took the short Aquabus ferry ride to Granville Island, and got something to eat. The Public Market was interesting, albeit crowded. Saw a few cheese places, but didn’t see the exact cheese
@GAT was referencing at any of them. In any case, I may try to come back during the week when hopefully it will be less crowded. Walked around the rest of the island, which was interested - I did think it may be a more enjoyable experience if they didn’t have cars there, though.
After that, I went back to the hotel and made my way back to the BC Lions game. That was fun, though the game was a blowout (back won 46-14), and the entrance to watch on-field warmups for my club seats was difficult to find (meaning I lost a good chunk of time there). I also got some small cuts on my foot trying to enter my seat from the top. So it could have been better, but still managed to get in a game there.
On Sunday, I spent most of the early day doing laundry, and disposing of my Canadian change in the process since ideally I don’t want to have any left over. I had wanted to go dip my feet in the water, though the cuts made me hold off on that. Nevertheless, in the afternoon I still went for a walk towards Stanley Park along the shoreline - saw English Bay Beach, which looked a bit bigger than Sunset Park Beach, as well as Second Beach, following the Seawall. Saw the large pool next to the beach, as well as the concession stand (which despite Google saying closed at 6, actually seemed to stay open until at least 7). Might want to come back and check out the beach/pool a bit more - also may want to look at bike rentals to see the entire Seawall (seems like a similar length to the loop around Mackinac Island which I’ve done before). Ended up walking all the way back towards my hotel, with a stop at a grocery store and pharmacy.
One thing I still have yet to do is take transit - while the SkyTrain system looks good, I haven’t had to go anywhere where it is the best option to get there. As for the buses, for most of my trips (like up to Stanley Park) I’d have to walk at least half of the distance to/from the bus stops anyway. Guessing they’re more useful for people coming from outside downtown. Also may explain why they’re so big on bikes here, with all the protected bike lanes and bike paths. I do want to make a point of at least riding the SkyTrain - something I have tentatively penciled in for Wednesday when there’s a good chance of rain. Want to try and get the West Coast Express as well out of the old CP station along the Fraser River, though would have to return downtown via another means since it only runs inbound in morning and outbound in the evening. Could get off at the last shared station with SkyTrain and take that back, though I kind of want to do the whole thing (in which case I’d take buses back - doing the last WCE to Mission and the 701 express to SkyTrain in the evening seems like the best way to do that).
