Hello 2016, Hello Vancouver

Hours after toasting to a better year for 2016, I hoped in the car and drove up though the Peace Tunnel to Vancouver BC. If you’re unfamiliar with this side of the states, that’s okay! Vancouver is about a 2 hour drive up from Seattle with a LOT of shopping outlets on the way. Conveniently we told ourselves that we would stop on the way home but had so much fun that we left well after open store hours.
Vancouver is gorgeous! I can’t begin to tell you how delightful and unexpected the trip was. It was freezing, around 39 degrees, but stunning in the afternoon and evening light. It’s not a big city but its surprisingly not small town either. There are darling little homes in between the parks around Yorktown and adorable little shops that were closed to celebrate the New Year.

Even though Vancouver is super close, it’s still a foreign country so when we crossed boarder patrol/customs we set our phones to airplane mode and turned on wifi. The first thing we did was panic because we realized that the speed limit is in kilos but then quickly realized that all cars have a kilo meter on them… Momentary silly heart attack. We ended up driving to a Park and Ride to take public transportation into the city. We figured it would be easier and less expensive. Plus, we wouldn’t have to worry about parking meters all afternoon.

As you can see, upon arrival from the train, I took a photo of the map in the tunnel. I learned this trick in London on our second day because we can’t use GPS on our phones and we were trying not to look like tourist. It works great every time. Super easy to figure out where you are by streets and the train tracks show stops for when we didn’t want to walk. Both R and I are walkers so we walked the whole bit.

I truly wish I had taken a picture but our first stop was to a little itty bitty Sushi Restaurant that, no joke, had some of the BEST sushi I’ve ever had. That says a lot. I’ve had sushi all over. Orlando, Portland, Seattle, Virginia, DC… this was amazing. I will happily take a trip up there just for this grub again. SO GOOD.

After eating our weight in raw fish, we began the walking. We walked from Yorktown to the Harbor Green Park, Waterfront to Granville. It was so lovely. I really really adored the Waterfront. I love water and the boats! So many of them with that amazing backdrop! Haha.

The last photo I took was of the airplanes landing on the water. I want to post a video to instagram so if you don’t follow me, maybe you should. 😉 There was a Cheveron station, literally, floating out in the middle of the water for the planes to fill up. It was so weird! Haha.

I will definitely return soon because it was such a spontaneous short adventure and just how I want to begin the new year. All and all, a great day! I love trips. ♥