Notes from BC - A collection of writings about life in British Columbia
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June 20, 2010
 

An Afternoon In Yaletown & Granville Island

On Friday after watching the horrendous England Vs Algeria World Cup game we drove down to the US border so that Lou could leave Canada and then re-enter (to renew her work permit). The border is only about 50 minutes away but going on a Friday afternoon meant we had to queue for over an hour to get through. We didn't stay on American soil for long. We literally drove in, went in the US Border office to get a form (to prove that we'd physically left Canada) and then drove back out, known as "flagpolling". I found the Americans to be super paranoid and abrupt with us but I guess they have to be super security conscious so I shouldn't be too critical. We'd have probably gone to an American town had it been earlier in the day and not on a Friday, we'll probably look at doing this soon now we know how easy it is. 

On Saturday the weather was great so we decided to check out Yaletown as we'd never been in that area of Downtown Vancouver before. We made a bad decision of eating and drinking before we went so when we arrived there wasn't actually much for us to do! As nice as it is, it basically seems like a commercialized residential area with plenty of coffee shops, pubs, restaurants and not a great deal else. It was cool to see it nonetheless and definitely a place we've earmarked for a night out in the future. We had to laugh whilst we were there because we found the stereotypes of people in that area to be totally true. It has a reputation for being a yuppy area and there was definitely no short of people that matched that criteria. There's basically 4 main types of people there - regular people, the early 30's ladies walking their fancy dogs (prominent), the mid to late 40's blokes in their sports cars trying to draw attention from said ladies (common), and fitness people (cyclists / rollerbladers). 

After a walk around Yaletown we hopped on an Aquabus (a water taxi) to Granville Island. I managed to get a good spot to take some photos and I enjoyed the cool sea breeze because it was a real scorcher. It only takes about 10 minutes but it's a nice trip and it has a quaint feel to it and it's definitely better than taking a bus, the SkyTrain or driving over there on a weekend. We had a quick look around and then went for a few drinks from the pub part of the Granville Island Brewery (like we've done twice previously!). We stayed for a few hours, had a look around the market and then got on the Aquabus early evening and then caught the SkyTrain home. 

 

                                               
Click here to download:
an-afternoon-in-yaletown-granville-island-rkIwdxffBoyjfpjzDIAw.zip (42674 KB)

 

Filed under  //   Granville Island   Yaletown  

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July 18, 2009
 

A Visit To Granville Island

On Thursday we went to Metrotown to find a place where Lou could get her nails done. She'd been looking for a place since we got here but she's had trouble finding a place that does acrylic ones. Finally after many unsuccessful calls to other places she found a place located inside Metropolis. I waited an hour and a half (because I'm patient like that!) whilst she had them done and by the time we left I felt a bit light headed from the smell! Lou said that they do it slightly different to how it's done in the UK (if you know about acrylics - they do the pink first and then the white instead of the other way round, it that makes any sense?). I just kept my head down and played on my iPhone whilst sitting in the waiting chair, thankfully nobody assumed I was there for any treatment myself so all awkward conversations were avoided! 

On Friday we wanted to go on a mini exploration so we headed downtown on the Skytrain and then took a bus near to Granville Island. We got slightly lost in South Granville for a little bit and ended up walking in the wrong direction for a while, though it wasn't too bad as the area seems really nice and it was good to have a look around. Lou was insisting she'd worked out the way but I felt dubious as we were walking uphill and didn't think it would be logical to walk uphill for an island - and I was right! It was another scorcher so we headed into Starbucks and had a Green Tea and Lemonade whilst we used Google Maps to figure out exactly where we were. Once we had finally worked out the way to go we left behind Starbucks and it's fantastic A/C and walked down towards our destination, walking through a nice pond area on the way. 

Since we've got here we've been drinking the local beer made by the Granville Island Brewery, which not surprisingly has it's original factory still on Granville Island. We did the tour of the factory in 2005 whilst on holiday here but decided since it was fun we'd do it again. By this point it was already 1:30pm and there was a tour running at 2pm so we didn't have to wait long. It cost us $9.75 each for the tour then afterwards we were given a taster session where we got to drink four different samples of their beer, including one limited edition - Raspberry Beer which was unique to say the least. We sat with some Canadians who had driven over from Kelowna and as they were driving back home they didn't want to drink - so we ended up having their share of beers too! We also got talking to two other Canadians who were originally from Alberta, one was here for the summer and the other was living in Victoria but had come over to visit her. We started chatting and after the taster session we went and got our own table and had some more beers, then another, then another....! Lou exchanged contact details and we have arranged to meet up again sometime in the future We finally left the brewery at 8pm, feeling slightly inebriated. We caught the bus back into downtown and then went for meal at a chain restaurant called White Spot before heading home on the Skytrain. 

Today has been a bit of a slow one, we didn't get up until late after the busy day yesterday. I needed slightly more recovery time than Lou. We headed to the shops briefly this afternoon (to get a refund for an item we purchased that was broken) and then quickly had a walk around the city before going home. I have also thankfully found a substitute for Sky Sports News, we get a channel called Fox Sportsworld Canada with our cable TV package and they do a comprehensive Soccer Report in the evening, brilliant!

Below are some photos that we took from yesterday.

             
Click here to download:
A_Visit_To_Granville_Island.zip (2689 KB)

Filed under  //   Granville Island  

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