Seeing A Whole Lot of Vancouver in Just Over 24 Hours

Since we took some time to download maps and files to our phones Sunday morning in Seattle and then spent almost 3 hours driving to Vancouver, British Columbia, we didn't arrive until mid-afternoon. 

Our first stop was the Hostel International Downtown to check into our private room and leave the car. We ended up getting the handicap accessible room on the main floor, right next to the courtyard.  Traveling with a mask and earplugs, we were not worried about the noise, but I would have preferred more privacy.  The worst part of the room was that the adjacent bathroom did not meet my standards for cleanliness. I will spare you all the details, but I was happy we only stayed one night.  I was sure to showered with my flip flops on (which I likely would have done anyway) and my shower was much quicker given the circumstances.  Thankfully, the bed ended up being comfortable and we did not experience loud people loitering in the courtyard.  The free continental breakfast was limited, and looking around me, it was because most of the backpackers had stacked their plates full leaving us late arrivals with slim pickings.  We had trouble finding an airbnb home in the downtown area for the night, which is why we tried the hostel at $100/nt.  

Our very basic room at Hostel International Downtown Vancouver

The location of the hostel was the most appealing feature. We were able to take a walking tour of the downtown area Sunday evening and didn't have to worry about the car. Before we set out, we needed food though.  Having heard sushi in Vancouver is really good, we found the closest restaurant with good reviews on yelp, which led us to the 4 star Kadoya Sushi restaurant.  We started with the unseasoned salmon sashimi as an appetizer and were delighted with our sushi selections. The names of our sushi choices now escape me, but both orders were delicious.

Salmon Sashimi

Our wonderful sushi at Kadoya

From Kadoya, we walked down Davie Street for a little bit, before heading farther into the downtown area and to the waterfront (north and slightly east).  Even though the skies were overcast, the temperature was mostly comfortable and with our fueled system, we were able to do a lot of walking.

,

Busy Davie Street

One of the many bike lanes in downtown Vancouver

A Latin Festival in downtown Vancouver

Adding some fuel to our system with yummy cheesecake from 

Trees Organic Coffee Shop and using their wifi to figure out our next stop

View to North Vancouver from 

Vancouver's national symbol Canada Place

Looking back on Canada Place and downtown

Vancouver's Olympic Torch

We walked all over the downtown area well into evening and were absolutely exhausted when we returned the the hostel.  My impression of Vancouver was that it appeared to have so many fewer homeless people on the streets (as compared to our recent visits in Seattle and Portland) and there seemed to be quite a bit of diversity in the people we saw and the shops we passed.  I wasn't overly impressed with the architecture or the "feel" I got in the city, and Colin shared that he was under-impressed with the city as a whole.

One of the best decisions we made on the trip was to rent bicycles for half a day in Vancouver. We were very lucky to have a nice day, and covered a lot of territory on the road bikes we got.  They were more expensive than the mountain bikes, but it was worth the price because we were able to cover over 20 miles in under 4 hours!  From downtown, we rode around Stanley Park (northwest of downtown), along the southwestern coast on English Bay, on the bike path around False Creek, into Granville Island for lunch, along English Bay in the neighborhood called Kitsilano, through Jericho Park, and all the way to The University of British Columbia.  After climbing the hill to campus, we were ready to make our way back, with a brief stop downtown to try a raw vegan restaurant. It felt great to get some exercise and see so much of the area. Bike riding is by far my favorite way to explore a new city!

A pineapple structure on the west side of Stanley Park

Getting my feet wet in the not-so-cold water of English Bay

Looking northwest to downtown Vancouver and BC Place Stadium 

(home of CFL's BC Lions) from Science World (the southeast corner of False Creek)

The Public Market at Granville Island

(and disappointing food options in our opinion)

Splitting an okay lunch in Granville Island - pastrami on a bagel

and glad we had Cliff Bars with us during the ride!

Riding through the Kitsilano neighborhood and 

enjoying all the greenery around the houses

Downtown Vancouver from Jericho Park

False Creek from Burrard Bridge

Raw vegan burger and lasagna from from Gorilla Food

Enjoying a guilt-free chocolate rum layer cake from Transylvania Traditions 

after turning in our bicycles and before leaving Vancouver

The weather forecast predicted better weather in Whistler on Tuesday than Wednesday, so we cut our time in Vancouver down to just 1 day and made our way up to the mountains via the well-traveled Sea-to-Sky Highway after our bike ride.  The hour and a half drive was beautiful, and enhanced by the clear blue skies.  In Whistler, we found out that there were great hikes and views of waterfalls in the mountains that we missed on the trip north, so we decided we'd check them out on our way back.

A beautiful view through a not-so-clean windshield

A pit stop to enjoy the view before leaving the "sea" for the "sky"

Stay tuned for the next post detailing our adventures at the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics!!

What is your favorite way to explore a new city?

Have you ever eaten raw vegan food?

We weren't huge fans of the taste, but felt pretty good about eating all those veggies! 

Food and Fun Adventures in Seattle

Beware! There are lots of food pictures in the post.  If you are already hungry, you may want to save reading this post until after you eat!  While in Seattle, we did a fair amount of eating. Thankfully, the weather was fantastic, so I justified all the eating because we did a lot of walking.

When we first arrived in Seattle late Friday night, after seeing Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier, we made our way to the area known as Capitol Hill.  We used yelp to find someplace to eat and found ourselves at a fast food diner called Dick's Drive-In. At 3.5 stars, it was the best we could find in that area late at night. The place was packed, but the burgers were extremely disappointing.  To me, they tasted a lot like fast food burgers you could find at any chain across the country

Unsatisfied with our burgers, we decided to get a vegetarian meal at HoneyHole, a 4 star restaurant on yelp.  We had never heard of Tomato Field Roast, a meat alternative, and decided to order the vegetarian Emilio Pestovez made up of that ingredient.  Our second sandwich was the vegetable-only sandwich, El Guapo. We were both pleasantly surprised at the Tomato Field Roast, which after investigating the product on the internet, I found to not be made of soy.  I like vegetarian meals, but don't like that most vegetarian meals seem to include a soy-based meat alternative. It's nice to see other products out there that taste good.  After our disappointing burger at Dick's, we were so happy to have a delicious meal at HoneyHole.  If you were wondering, we didn't actually eat our entire meal after each having a burger. We each took half of our sandwiches back "home" with us and ate them for breakfast the next morning.

Our HoneyHole sandwiches, salad, and bean soup.

Our first stop Saturday morning was to the farmers' market in the area of Seattle known as the University District.  There, we gorged on some local berries, and stocked up on a lot of fruit for breakfast and snacks for the upcoming days.  The market was packed with shoppers and musicians, and most vendors still had a lot to choose from at 11am.  

University District Farmers' Market

In the University District, I was also inspired to try a vegetable smoothie, aka "juice."  I recently saw the movie, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, where an Australian guy does a juice fast for 60 days to cure a skin condition and lose weight. He is successful in his endeavor and manages to get others to join him on his journey.  While I don't think juice fasting is a long term solution to an obesity problem and I do think there are other more effective (and enjoyable) ways to get healthy, I like the idea of juicing raw fruits and vegetables into a smoothie as a way to increase intakes of these wonderful foods.  I have tried making two juice recipes at home and neither tasted very good. So, I thought I would try a juice bar in the University District of one of the hippest cities in the country.  The Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe had good reviews on yelp, and the atmosphere was inviting as we approached, so we stopped in.  Unfortunately, the most popular "green cleanse" juice (cucumber, celery, kale, parsley, spinach, and lemon) tasted awful! I really struggled to finish the $6.50 6-oz beverage.

From the University District, we made our way by car to the Queen Anne District, where we could park on the streets for free and make our way downtown by car.  The first stop on our journey was through the Seattle Center, the area that boasts Seattle's most visible feature, the 605-foot-high Seattle Space Needle.  It was a great day to go to the top, and we inquired about buying the City Pass to see several museums and go to the top of the Needle, but with the gorgeous weather, we decided to stay outside and continue exploring.

The Seattle Space Needle on a clear day

We had a little trouble making our way down to the waterfront, but once we arrived, the views were fantastic.  The area reminded me of the West Side Highway and Hudson River in NYC, except that instead of looking across to more city buildings in NJ, we were looking out onto mountains and more expansive waterways.

Looking north on the waterfront, near Sculpture Park

The views reminded me of NYC's West Side Highway

By the time we reached Pike Place Market, we were ready to eat.  Colin found a place called Pike Place Chowder that had over 1000 reviews claiming that the very small restaurant deserved 4.5 stars.  We miraculously secured a seat in the restaurant, and enjoyed an award-winning clam chowder in a sourdough bowl.  The chowder was really good and I was very impressed that the restaurant won Newport's (RI) chowder festival almost every year in the past 10 years!

Clam Chowder at Pike Place Chowder

We took lots of photos in the market, but let me just hit on the highlights of our experience.

Several people bought fish at the famous Pike Place Fish Market

so we got to see fish being tossed and caught a few times!

The line was too long to go inside the very first Starbucks Coffee

but we did catch a glimpse inside

For dessert, we had a divine brownie at 

Three Girls Bakery

Colin got a kick out of comparing his height

to that of the World's Tallest Man

Once we had enough of the crowds in the market, we decided to get out on the water. The least expensive way ($7.70 r/t each) that we found to do that was to take the commuter ferry across Puget Sound.  We opted for the longest ride, to Bremerton, in the hopes we might see some pods of Orca.  We were not lucky enough to see any whales, but we did enjoy 2 lovely hours on the boat, alternating between being out on the windy, cool deck and enjoying the warmer comforts inside.  The views of Seattle and Mt. Rainier were pretty awesome.

One of the many beautiful views of Mt. Rainier from the boat

Experiencing fantastic views of downtown Seattle from the boat

Of course it was time to have another snack when we got off the boat, so we made our way through downtown to The Chocolate Box for a rich cup of drinking chocolate.  Last winter, my friend in NYC introduced me to The City Bakery in NYC and I in turn introduced the chocolate shop to Colin.  Since that time, he's been obsessed with finding rich drinking chocolate.  We were rewarded in our search at The Chocolate Box with a 4-oz cup of chocolate, split in two cups. I enjoyed mine with whipped cream, while Colin drank his straight.  It was delicious, but not quite as good as The City Bakery.

A 4-oz cup of drinking chocolate for two from The Chocolate Box

From downtown, we tried catching the free bus back towards Seattle Center.  After waiting 15 minutes and not seeing a bus, we decided to walk the mile and a half back through Seattle Center and to our car.  It was nearing sunset, so we rushed to get to the top of one of Seattle's hills to catch a view.

Seattle sunset from atop a Queen Anne hill

Since it was after 8pm, and metered parking no longer required payment, we made our way back into downtown with the car and parked near Pioneer Square, the city's oldest neighborhood.  Here, we decided to find dinner (yes, I told you this post included a lot of food!!).  It was challenging to find a variety of options, but we settled first on a Mediterranean deli to split a falafal and then to Calozzi's for a huge Italian cheese-steak.  A few bites into the cheese-steak and I was done eating for the day! 

Falafal from Mediterranean Mix

Cheese-steak from Calozzi's

Nearing 10pm, we decided that after our full day of exploring, it was time to get back to our airbnb accommodations  located 15 minutes south of downtown in an area called Columbia City.  The "room" we rented was actually a furnished basement with a bedroom, sitting area, and huge bathroom.  The shower was probably the largest I have ever used in my life.  We had tried to stay on east coast time, going to bed early and getting up early, but it proved to be impossible once we were in the cities and had so much we wanted to see!

Sunday morning, we took our time getting up, packing up and getting out the door.  Because Seattle is known for its coffee and coffee shops, I knew I needed to get a cup before we left.  We took the advice from our airbnb host (which was also confirmed by yelp), and went to the Empire Expresso Bar in Columbia City.  As I enjoyed the most beautiful coffee I've ever had, we planned out some things we wanted to do in Vancouver, and used the free wifi to download maps and articles to our phones.  Leaving the U.S., we were unsure what cell phone charges we might incur, so we decided to restrict data on our phones as we neared the border.

My fancy coffee in Seattle

Stay tuned for the next post on our experiences in and around Vancouver!

What is your impression of the meat alternative Tomato Field Roast? 

Was it a mistake to not go to the top of the Space Needle on a clear Seattle day?

Tell me what you think!

Exploring Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier on a Beautiful Summer Day

After our packed day of exploration in Portland, we were ready to see more natural beauty in the Pacific Northwest, so we decided to take the scenic route to Seattle by way of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier.

Our first stop, however, was to exchange our San Jose-to-Portland rental car for a Portland-to-Portland rental.  If you have ever rented a car, you probably are aware that one-way rentals cost more than roundtrip rentals.  We ended up getting a Subaru Forester for 11 days out of Portland for less than the Chevy Sonic we had for the first 7 days from San Jose to Portland.  We had planned for a compact car, and when Budget didn't have one we lucked out with the Subaru Forester upgrade (and thankfully were not stuck keeping the Chevy Sonic).

From the Portland airport, it was a quick ride up to the main visitor center at Mt. St. Helens.  Thinking we would be better off driving to the visitor center on the back side of the volcano, we ended up driving almost 2 hours for a view we could have seen in about 30 minutes.  It was the only real mistake we made on our journey, and the day still turned out just fine, even though we would have preferred more time on our hiking expedition later in the day.

If you ever go to Mt. St. Helens, I recommend driving the main route to the Johnston Ridge Observatory on route 504 and not going to the entrance on route 99, unless you don't mind driving a long time on very curvy roads.  We actually got so sick of driving (and thankfully did not get motion sickness), that we didn't even go all the way to the end of the road.  We still managed to get a good look at the volcano and the damage it caused back in 1980.  There are many trees that have fallen or remain barren from the damaging lava and ash the volcano emitted more than 30 years ago.

Mt. St. Helens from the northwest (rt 99)

Tree damage visible on the right side of the picture

After our long detour to Mt. St. Helens, we were anxious to get to Mt. Rainier so we could get out of the car and enjoy some hiking.  We were rewarded with beautiful views of the mountain all the way up to the hiking point.  The road climbed to 6,000 feet, where many hiking trails started from the Sunrise visitor center.  From there, we were able to hike the moderate 1.5 mile trail to Mt. Freemont with plenty of time to explore other trails on our way back down.

View of Mt. Rainer as we drove to 6,000 feet

The starting point for many trails in the area at Sunrise Visitor Center

Looking back down on glacial water and mountains
from almost 7,000 feet after climbing 1 mile

We literally felt like Mt. Rainier was at our fingertips

Look closely - can you see the little cabin that is our destination

at the top of the second peak on the right side of the picture.

The rocky trail as we approach the ranger's cabin

The former ranger station and stunning views north of Rainier

A nice view of Rainier through the ranger station on a nice day

Mt. Rainier from Mt. Freemont

Looking out to the Northern Cascades

As it approached evening, we decided to take a different route down the mountain and had some fun with photography.  People told us about several photography contests going on, so we kept trying to get photos that would be contest-worthy.  It was actually a lot of fun until we came upon a group hiking into the woods that told us that a family had been scared away from their dinner by a bear not long before.  Once we heard that, we continued photographing, but maintained a heightened sense of awareness of our surroundings.  I had a whistle in one of my first aid kits that I kept close at hand just in case.  Thankfully, we did not see any bears, and made it safely back to our car with a tad bit of daylight left.

Some of the many wildflowers at Mt. Rainier National Park

Sun setting on our path back down from our hike

As we exited the park, we caught a glimpse 

of the last bit of daylight on Mt. Rainier

The full day of driving and hiking left us tired as we approached Seattle, but since we are not ones to rest much while on a sight-seeing vacation, we managed to get downtown for a bite to eat after checking in to our airbnb room rental.  

Stay tuned to hear all about our fun adventures in Seattle, the non-rainy city during our trip!

If you've ever been to Mt. St. Helens, where did you see the best view?

If you've been to Mt. Rainier, what hike did you do?

The 14,000 ft high Mt. Rainier still towered above us at 7,000 feet. What's the highest you've ever hiked or climbed?