Alaska Trip - Day 1 Vancouver

The following series of posts will provide a pictorial review of our trip to Alaska.  Lori already did a great job of daily updates on Facebook which I have already shared and these posts will be a sampling of the 2000 photos that I took.  

We had heard from so many people that the Alaska cruise and land excursion was absolutely a fabulous experience and while we certainly did enjoy ourselves the dreary weather did dampen our enthusiasm just a bit.  Once we left Vancouver the sun only made sporadic appearances with plenty of rain and drizzle.  We had been warned about the probability of rain (the coast of Alaska is a temperate rain forest after all ) and we came prepared with plenty of rain gear.  However it is hard to be amazed by the scenery when everything is varying shades of grey and you can't see the mountain tops for the low clouds.  Nonetheless we soldiered on with rain gear and plenty of layers and none of our outings were cancelled because of the wet weather.      

One of the other challenges we faced was the realization that we aren't really cruise or organized tour people.  Most of our trips are driving vacations with us being in control of our schedule.  Putting ourselves totally in the hands of tour operators left us constantly with the feeling of waiting to be told what to do, when to do it and always in a lineup to get on or off the boat, bus, train or plane.  Given that Holland America has been doing Alaska Cruise and Land Excursions for 75 years they seemed just a bit disorganized and information that we should have had at the outset of our journey was being handed out piecemeal to us.  Throw in the inherent frustrations of air travel and another cruise may not be in our near future.  

Well enough of that.  

The first leg of our journey was from Winnipeg to Vancouver.   Our second time on a plane in the last 20 years.   Lori does not like turbulence and her ears tend to get plugged but we had an uneventful trip and Lori's ears were fine when we landed in Vancouver.  

The weather was in the low 20's with mostly sunny skies forecast for the next 2 days.   We checked into our B&B which was called O Canada House.  We didn't know it when we booked it but this house was the home of the person that penned the original words to O Canada.  It was a beautifully restored house that was built in 1897 and centrally located in the downtown area.  We were equal distance from Granville Island, Stanley Park and the waterfront.  Great location and I never felt any concern when walking the streets.  And only $500 a night.  Hotels ranged from $500 and on up into the stratosphere but that is Vancouver which one tour guide told us is now the most expensive city in the world to live in.  I can believe it.  

O Canada house.  2 1/2 stories with a suite on the 3rd floor and no elevator.  We were on the second floor and the only room with air conditioning.  The A/C was a floor unit with a 4" hose extending out an open window to vent the hot air.  No complaints though.  It worked.  Breakfast was included and with only 6 rooms it felt like we had a personal chef.  Was lots of fun and would definitely recommend it.  

After a 20 minute taxi ride we arrived at O Canada house, checked in, met one of the chefs who happened to originally be from Portage la Prairie, Mb.  His father was American and he lived for part of his life in Texas and then served in the military and was posted in the Middle East.  Now he is a chef in Vancouver.  He is just the first of many people we were to meet on our journey that has lived a very diverse life.  

To get to Granville Island it was a 20 minute walk to the water, then a short ferry ride to the Island.  Granville Island is much like The Forks in Winnipeg except much bigger, very busy, kind of chaotic and with a much nicer backdrop.  Lori liked it, I was glad get out of there and away from the masses.  

Taken from the patio of the restaurant where we had lunch.  Not a bad view. 

After Granville Island we decided to take a walk towards Stanley Park and English Bay.  It's a great walk with plenty of sights, lots of people out walking, riding bikes, skate boards and a variety of watercraft keeping pace with us as we walked.  

Even the lifeguard boat was manned.  Or rather, birded.  

We noticed that many of the skyscrapers have rooftop gardens.  One of the many perks of a more temperate climate than Winterpeg.  

Wonder what this guy does in his spare time.  At least he doesn't need a lawn mower. 

Once we got to English Bay we were getting a bit tired so we walked across to the other side where all the boats are docked.  

A great view with the skyscrapers in the background.   

 By the time we got back to our abode we had put on 11 km.  We would surpass that the next day.