Tag: Granville Island

On Granville Island in Vancouver, particularly if you have a group and enough time, there is the Foodie Tour. This is an opportunity for someone who actually knows what they’re doing to show you around Granville Island Market and tempt you with different foods offered by the many vendors. We started with A Bread Affair, which has sour dough bread variations that will make you happy.  Bread makes me happy. I also learned there more flavors of macaron than I thought were logically possible from Bon Macaron Patisserie.  E.g. Blackberry Hazelnut. The tour is undertaken in the midst of the […]

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It was a hazy day in Vancouver. Sadly it was not fog, it was smoke from horrible forest fires far north of the city. The air was smoky and I was in Yaletown for a mundane appointment and when I was done, the thought of regular transit back was unpleasant. Walking was my normal thought, but with the hot temps and bad air … why not ride the waves instead? Right at the foot of Davie Street is a small dock from which The Aquabus and False Creek Creek Ferries have tiny little boats that take you to Granville Island, […]

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A gorgeous late Friday afternoon in August in Vancouver provided me with enough time to take a 23 km ride around Stanley Park and False Creek in order to land me at Kits Beach. The route I take has very little actual road riding. I find dodging other bikes and pedestrians challenge enough without fun cars! I noted the time as 4:07 PM at West Georgia and Bute Streets, downtown, where I unlocked my bike and headed north on Bute. Bute Street ends just past Hastings Street. The traffic trying to get to the Lion’s Gate Bridge was insane, even […]

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In a good way, Granville Island in Vancouver is a peculiar place. There’s a fascinating intersection of the arts, retail and not-so-light industry. In other words, watch out for the Ocean Concrete trucks lumbering across roads people often don’t really think are roads. Given the brand-name-free nature of the shopping, it’s a pleasure to actually shop. I don’t understand the allure of Robson Street that has designer name brands you can find in any city’s high street. My reason for being on Granville Island was a child’s birthday where a bunch of kids boarded a barged-converted-to-pirate-ship and all dressed up […]

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I got in trouble for my last entry on grumpy Vancouverites, so I thought I’d give some practical suggestions for visitors.   I imagine someone involved in the Winter Olympics might only have a day or so to play in the city.  So I tried to think of my five favourite things that Vancouver has to offer. 1.  Walk the Stanley Park Sea Wall.  It’ll take a couple of hours, but even in the rain, the vistas of both nature and man-made facilities are unique. 2.  Go to Hamilton Street Grill for a steak.  It’s at 1009 Hamilton Street in […]

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One of the best parts about Vancouver in the summer is the number of places to go and things to do that are free, or very inexpensive. On a hot day, nothing beats a water park.  These are my favourites in or near downtown Vancouver: Variety Kids Water Park at Lumberman’s Arch in Stanley ParkThis water park is located just off the seawall along the north side of Stanley Park, across from an attraction known as Lumbermans’s Arch.  There are plenty of things to climb on and kids can run through water geysers and canons. The waterfall is lots of […]

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From the building where we stay in Yaletown it’s just a block walk to the Sea Wall, bordering False Creek on the south, to a ramp, then a pier with a shelter that makes a small boat dock. Usually the wait is from nothing to sometimes as much as 15 minutes for the what must be the niftiest public transportation in any city in the world. For soon enough up chugs what can best be described as a semi-ugly duckling, a small canopied boat with wooden bench seats lining both gunwales and prime seats for the kids in the bow […]

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