Oh, Canada!

We left Seattle the next morning, decided to make our cross country road trip into an international adventure and headed to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!! This would be my first time in Canada and I wasn't expecting much.  Honestly, is there any American who hasn't been to Canada and who thinks it's an awesome place?  Probably not.  Well, we Americans are dead wrong.  Vancouver was incredible and both Brianne and I wish we had gotten to spend several more days there.  As we approached the Canadian border, we had our passports ready and, after sitting in line at the border for awhile and being interrogated (not really) by the border guard, we entered Canada for the first time!  We drove to our hotel, rested up for a bit and then figured out what we were going to do with our time in Vancouver.  The first thing we decided to do was go to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.  If you're ever in Vancouver, go here because it's awesome!  Upon entering the park, which is actually a temperate rainforest (so cool!) you come across a bunch of exhibits about the history of the area and the bridge.  As you walk further in you encounter a bunch of totem poles! 

Totem poles in Capilano Suspension Bridge Park

After taking pictures with the totem poles we headed to the bridge.  Capilano Suspension Bridge was built in 1889 and is 450 feet long and sits 230 feet above the Capilano River.  After listening to the safety instructions (basically don't run or jump on the bridge), we proceeded to cross, taking a billion pictures along the way of course! 

Capilano Suspension Bridge

We made it!

Once we made it to the other side, we decided to do the Treetops Adventure which consists of a series of suspension bridges that run between the trees.  We also decided that, since we are clearly children and not 2 twenty-two year old's who had recently received their Masters degrees (oh wait...), we wanted to participate in the scavenger hunt that was associated with the Treetops Adventure.  It was so funny.  Along the route we had to find the answers to a variety of questions and it was actually pretty fun.  We also saw a 1500 year old Douglas Fir tree which was pretty awesome.  After finishing the course and acquiring our Treetop Adventurers pins (yes, I'm serious) we headed back over the bridge to head to the Cliff Walk.  The Cliff Walk was intense.  It consists of a series of cantilevered and suspended walkways that jut out from the face of the cliff that runs along the river.  At one point, the path juts out very far from the cliff in a half circle shape and is only attached to the cliff by a few cables.  It was a bit frightening and I'm not even afraid of heights.  The signs telling how the force of water continuously wears away the granite on the face of the cliff were probably not necessary.  There is even one spot when all that separates you from the canyon below is a glass platform.  It was really cool.  After we finished the Cliff Walk, we got our last stamp indicating we had completed all the adventure activities at the park and obtained our certificate of completion.  Then we headed to dinner and rested up for our next day of adventure.  

Treetop Adventure

Cliffwalk

On the Cliffwalk

On a glass platform jutting out above the river

Fun hat I tried on in the gift shop :-)

The next day we went sea kayaking!!  I've been kayaking a million times, mainly in Bonaire, but also in RI and probably elsewhere that I don't even remember, but Brianne had never been!!!  I didn't even know how that could be possible, but it's true.  So I decided that at some point on our trip we would have to go kayaking and Vancouver was a great choice.  We went with Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak and, since nobody else had signed up for our tour time, we had a private tour.  Despite going kayaking many times, I had never used a sea kayak so that was fun.  Unfortunately, it was suggested that I not bring my camera so there are few pictures from our excursion, but it was so much fun.  We kayaked out to a rocky little beach on the opposite shore, met some other kayakers, had really good donuts and bonded with our tour guide.  On the way back we learned more about all the beautiful houses that were right on the water.  The water was fairly cold, but not terribly so and I couldn't resist sticking my hand in several times.  Sadly, we didn't see any seals, but Brianne really enjoyed her first kayaking experience anyway.  This was also, technically, my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, but I don't really like to count it because it felt like we were more in an inlet than anything else.  In order to get out to the open ocean we would have had to kayak for awhile.

After our sea kayaking adventure, we headed to Stanley Park which is an urban park on the border of downtown Vancouver.  It has a bunch of different stuff in it, but we basically just drove through some of the forest, walked along the seawall and took more pictures with totem poles.  The park is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, but I also don't consider this as being the first time I saw the Pacific (I'll get to that soon enough though).  The park was really nice and had great views of downtown Vancouver, but we didn't get to stay there too long because we had about a 7 hour drive to our next stop in Oregon.   

Totem poles at Stanley Park

Floating gas station?

View of downtown Vancouver from Stanley Park