Day 1 (August 19, 2022): Vancouver

On July 25th, we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, so, to end the summer, we decided to celebrate the occasion with a trip to Hawaii.  It’s a long haul involving three flights, but with a full week to spend there, we felt it would be worth the trek.  

Our cab was in the driveway at 5:30AM for our 7:20AM Westjet flight #1 to Calgary.  Although the inbound plane slid into the gate on time, just after the sun had risen, the refuelling process resulted in a jet fuel spill on the tarmac, setting off a barrage of remediation measures that delayed us an hour.  And that led us to miss our Calgary-Vancouver connection, which led to a rebooking on another flight, which led to us being unknowingly ‘off-loaded’ by the Westjet computer from the Vancouver-Honolulu flight.  And that led to our up-front seats being given to someone else and us having to sit in the back row next to the loos for six hours, because those were the only seats left on the entire aircraft. There is nothing like sitting on the aisle in row #30 for six hours as a non-stop queue of people waits to relieve themselves and brush up against you with their rear-ends on the way to or from the toilet. Oh, and did I also mention that the seats don’t recline in the last row??  As Pam said to me, “We’re going to Hawaii. Do you expect anyone to be empathetic?”

The good thing about today was our stop in Vancouver.  We rented a car and drove from the airport in Richmond to Stanley Park, adjacent to downtown Vancouver.  It was great to get some fresh air and to see some of the many sights of the park, which we hadn’t seen much of before.

Having left the driveway at 5:30AM, it was just over 24 hours later when we arrived at our hotel in Waikiki:  the flight landed 5AM Halifax time (10PM local), we got a Lyft (similar to Uber), and arrived at the hotel 6AM Halifax time (11PM local). We’re pretty wiped out, but at least we have safely arrived in The Fabulous Fiftieth State!  Aloha. 

Westjet Boeing 737-800 pulling up to the gate at 6:45AM, inbound from Calgary.  Everything was looking good — too good, in fact — until a jet fuel spill led to an hour delay that had ripple effects on our next two flights.

Westjet’s new breakfast entree from its buy-on-board menu. My advice? Save yourself $9.49 and don’t bother. 

Flying over the prairies of this country never ceases to amaze me, in terms of the flatness, the patchwork quilt likeness, and the sheer extent of Canada’s “bread basket”.  Forest fire pollution (from where, I’m not sure) hung over much of the prairies on our way west.

Our transit in Calgary was short, but we still got an amazing view of the downtown core as we zoomed past. That’s the Bow River in the bottom right of the photo. 

Depite it being late August, the Rockies were still showing quite a snow pack as we flew over. 

We submitted a bid upgrade to Premium Class from Calgary to Vancouver, and the bid was successful. But honestly, it’s a bit of a rip-off. You do get larger 2-2 seating (versus 3-3 in economy) and you do get a Westjet snack box. But that’s about it. 

 

Downtown Vancouver, with Stanley Park being the green space mid-left in the picture and North Vancouver in the top of the picture. 

This peninsula is Point Grey, the tip of which houses the University of British Columbia, where I lived and studied from 1989-1991.  Notice the massive wooded area.  That space is known as the Endowment Lands and is a fairly unspoiled forest separating UBC from the rest of Vancouver.

The mighty Fraser River, just before it empties into the Pacific adjacent to Vancouver Airport, is filled with logging booms.

The last time we walked the Sea Wall in Stanley Park was in 1990.  Today we walked a loop of a couple of kilometres, from the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club to the Brockton Point Lighthouse and back.

The view of Coal Harbour in downtown Vancouver, from Stanley Park.  The building with the white sails is the Canada Pavilion of Expo ‘86, which is now the Vancouver Cruise Ship Dock. (Incidentally, it was the hotel attached to the Canada Pavilion where I did my federal government interview in February 1991!) 

Harbour Air runs a seemingly endless number of flights from Coal Harbour to/from Victoria and Nanaimo.

The Brockton Point Lighthouse, with North Vancouver in the background.

There is a a great collection of totem poles in Stanley Park.

 

Yes, I’m smiling, because I started my vacation today, after all!

Copenhagen’s famous “Little Mermaid” statue has been replicated just off the north shore of Stanley Park.

The Lion’s Gate Bridge, connecting Stanley Park with North Vancouver.

The western shore of the peninsula containing downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park is lined with beaches.  This one is called Third Beach.

Stanley Park’s coyote problem has gotten national attention over the last few years.  The sign contains good advice, if you ever meet a coyote.

“The Hollow Tree” (the name says it all) in Stanley Park.

Over a dozen freighters and cargo ships were anchored in English Bay.  My dorm room at UBC back in 1989-1991 looked out over English Bay, so I would often sit at my window and look at the ships anchored there (instead of studying!).

Amid the amazing modern architecture which now typifies downtown Vancouver, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s gothic design stands out as a wonderful example of the old amidst the new.