Vacation Blogging Vancouver - Day 1

As detailed in my last Seattle post, we actually arrived in Vancouver on Wednesday night (8/17) , but for the purposes of something or other, I'll just start counting Vancouver days from Thursday (8/18).  We spent a little time the night before on Robson Street, which is downtown Vancouver's main shopping district and was teeming with people, even on a Wednesday night.  As I mentioned previously, we ate at Milestones, a local chain whose food was excellent.   We even walked the 10 blocks or so back to the hotel at 10:30 PM, which I wouldn't do in most Sacramento's or San Francisco's downtown.

We woke up to a blue-skied view of Vancouver's glimmering downtown. Vancouver got urbanism right, and as evidenced by their progress, they got it a long time ago.  There is what looks to be a brand new condo tower or three on every block, and they all seem to have a view of the water, the mountains, Stanley Park, or all three.  Vancouver's compact downtown, large residential population and big tourist industry combine to make the streets thick with pedestrians.  Walking feeds on itself.  If no one else is on the street (Sacramento's K Street after dark), no one wants to walk around.  The more people walk, the more others do the same.  Downtown Vancouver also has a ton of open space and public art.  Sculpture, artificial waterfalls, benches and mini parks are everywhere: on the waterfront, at the library, outside shops and around government buildings.  The wife and I really enjoy the walking, unique urban lifestyle.  We're tired of the incessant sameness of suburbs: endless freeways, generic big-boxes, identical houses and countless chain stores.  If Sacramento can create the urban lifestyle half as well as Vancouver and Portland have, (which is a better model for our size city) we'll have greatly increased the stature and livability of our city.  Vancouver is another place (along with Portland and Maui) where I could definitely see myself living.

My first priority in Vancouver was to see Stanley Park, and it quickly became one of my favorite places anywhere.  Stanley Park's 1,000 forested acres are an interesting contrast to Vancouver's ultramodern, gleaming downtown.  The park is surrounded on three sides by water; if you think about it, the park is probably a better piece of real estate than the downtown area and somehow, it's still a park.  I really wanted to ride a bicycle around the park's 6.5 mile seawall, but the wife was having knee and hip problems, so she agreed to check out the city for a few hours while I made the ride.  I rented a bike from Spokes Bicycle Rentals, who were fast and efficient at renting their dozen or so varieties of bikes.  (I spent less than 10 total minutes renting and returning my bike).  I ended up with a Giant mountain bike, which was comfortable to ride and shifted very easily.

The ride around Stanley Park was a succession of amazing vistas. Riding away from downtown reveals a stunning view of the city's high-rises, marina and the sails of Canada Place, where our hotel was located.   I turned the corner at Brockton Point to see the mountains of North Vancouver fill the sky, (including Grouse Mountain, which we visited later in the trip).  I rode a little further and saw the Lion's Gate Bridge framed against those mountains on my right and disappearing into the park above me.  Riding past the bridge, a panoramic view of the sea (or is it a bay?) opens to distant views of Vancouver Island.  The other side of the park contains several beaches as well as views across English Bay to the peninsula that houses the University of British Columbia.  I think it's amazing that anyone ever dedicated that much space to a park, especially a park so close to the downtown of a major city.  I just can't see this type of thing happening today.  Stanley Park is an absolute treasure.  Riding around the seawall had an amazing "wow" factor for me, and like the Road to Hana in Maui, Yosemite Valley and the Marin Headlands near Sausalito, it's a place I'll know forever and I'll always enjoy revisiting.  I wish I had more time to spend there.

Wifey and I met up after my ride and took the free shuttle to explore more of the park.  There is an area of Stanley Park, called Painters Corner, where local artists (painters, primarily) display and sell their work.  Some of the two dozen or so painters in the area were actually working on new paintings when we walked through.  I'm not sure you could even think up something more cool than having all of these talented painters meet up, paint and sell their work at a huge forest oasis in the middle of a major city.  After leaving the artists, we hopped on and off the free park shuttle for several hours, saw the totem poles, walked on the seawall a little and ran into three racoons at wonderous Prospect Point, which is the highest point in the park.

We eventually completed the shuttle route at the Vancouver Aquarium, which is unique in that it has the traditional indoor tanks, but also has outdoor tanks for dolphins, beluga whales, seals, otters and so on.  I've been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium as well as the Steinhardt in San Francisco, and I'd say Vancouver's aquarium is in the same league as those two.  I would recommend a visit if you're in the area.

We ended the night at CinCin on Robson, which is supposed to be Vancouver's best Italian restaurant.  The restaurant itself was lovely.  Dim lighting, nice wall textures and colorful paintings made CinCin the best LOOKING restaurant on our trip.  Unfortunately, the food was not up to snuff.  I'm not much of a food snob, so take my opinion for what you paid for it - but CinCin serves food for restaurant critics, not for people.  Our bruschetta had some mystery ingredient that just didn't taste very good.  Wifey wouldn't eat it, and she eats FISH, so that should tell you something.  My beef tenderloin was quite good and the side potatoes were cooked absolutely perfectly (usually potatoes are too firm, too mushy or firm on the inside and mushy on the outside.  These were cooked consistently all the way through).  However, wifey's rigatoni with Italian sausage was, to put it plainly, BAD.  The sausage was nearly tasteless and the ragu sauce tasted like it came from a can (and I LIKE the Ragu-brand tomato sauce).  CinCin has great atmosphere and the service is fine, but it's expensive and two of our three dishes weren't very good, so I'm not recommending it.

All told, we spent an excellent first day in Vancouver.  We went to Victoria on Friday, so that post is still to come.