Vancouver

7-11

Vacation has began for the Horns! We arrived in Vancouver at about 2:00 yesterday quickly realizing that our phones may not work the same in Canada, and the prices were all listed about 25% higher in Canadian dollars. Haha, why this didn't cross our minds in planning, I don't know. We were able to find free wifi to contact our Air BnB host and have a cute little 8th floor apartment in the middle of downtown Couv! We're not used to seeing high rises and mountains out of the windows which is really neat.

After a little post travel snooze (shout out to mom and dad for picking us up at 5:00 am TX time, which is 3:00 am BC time today), we hit the city on foot.We at a "Craft" and enjoyed local eats and drinks. It was a neat restaurant located in a big red barn in the middle of Olympic Village. We realized that we ordered two Texas dishes (BBQ sliders and fish tacos) promising to be more adventurous tomorrow!

After dinner, we walked the seawall and enjoyed watching people row, many many bikers, joggers, small dogs, and beautiful 65 degree weather. I'm wearing boots in JULY you guys! We explored Broadway street and then decided we were ready to get some sleep. We ended the night with a laugh as there are two towers in our apartment complex. Our fob would not work in the elevator like everyone else, so we rode up to floor 23 and a man nicely told us that our fob we different and we were in the wrong tower...

A Portion of the Vancouver Skyline across the Seawall

7-12

Wow I wish I was wearing a Fitbit today, because we have covered some ground! We started the day with a long, but beautiful walk along False Creek to get to Granville Island. Coffee shops, artisan EVERYTHING, bakeries, boutiques pack the island. We hadn't had our coffee to fuel us for the day, so we stopped in to a local coffee chop for a cup and a muffin (pre-bfast). Sipping warm coffee in the cool drizzle felt great. The best attraction on the island, however, is the Granville Public Market. This Foodie loves to see the colored produce, yummy sweets, tons of cheeses, honey, the list goes on. It was hard choosing breakfast...Tom and I split a smoked salmon breakfast sandwich. Lucky for Britt, we don't live near the market or Tom would have picked up a rabbit from the meat section....eeek.

After purousing the nearby shopes, we took a water taxi to "stop 7 - City of Nations" to get to Gas Town. Fast forward a few miles of walking later... Gas Town is a really neat area with the main attraction being the world's oldest steam clock that we heard go off right at 1:00 this afternoon.

The Warehouse caught our "Bargain Betty" selves attention for lunch as everything is $4.95. We enjoyed burgers and a chance to sit for a bit before walking to China Town and exploring more of the city.

We walked through Eastside which is a rougher part of town realizing how real the homeless population is. It's hard to know how to help and you know that each person has a different story. We're fortunate and definitely take too many things for granted.

7-12 Evening

Tony's Oyster Bar for Cod, Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, Scallops, and fries to share. Due to past experience, we weren't sure about navigating the buses, but we found our way to Robson street for Fro Yo and a stroll with ease.

7-13

We're just a small part of God's beautiful creation! Today we explored nature at the Capilano Suspension Bridge and then hiked Grouse Grind.

He created it all. "Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:3)

"In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him..." (Psalm 95:4)

Capilano Suspension Bridge (right before walking across)

They call the Grouse Grind "Mother's Stair Stepper." We now know why! The hike is 1.8 miles up to the top of Grouse Mountain (app. 2,183 stairs), who counted? I'm not sure because I was definitely huffing too much air to count. It was tough, but beautiful. We started the hike with a woman from London and met several encouraging hikers on the way. I kept thinking of the P90X saying, "You'll love it, and you'll hate it."

2, 183 steps later...drumroll please:

The view was a little anticlimactic as we were up in the fog of the mountain, but feeling the cool sweat and breathing in the fresh air at the top itself was worth it. Plus, lucky for us, there is no hiking down this mountain, the only choice is taking the Gondola down. 1 hr 15 min to get up and 4 min to get down ha. We joked, they could have charged us $100 to get down and we would have paid.

The foggy outlook point...The man in the picture is the best view (I think...)

I feel like this pic could be a poster. Slap PERSERVERE right underneath. We won't tell anyone it was the beginning of the hike...

Time for a big lunch, shower, and short snooze!

7-13 Evening

We ended the night with a bike ride around beautiful Stanley park. The ride was 6 miles and we learned that Stanley Park is one of the largest city parks in the world. Britt is not great at biking, so luckily it was a nice leisurely ride around the seawall. We saw boats, beaches, ducks, roller bladers, joggers, and one too many runners in tiny spandex. The sun was shining and I was reminded why my favorite places in the world are green, luscious parks where people are just enjoying the day. 

After biking, we returned our rental and walked Robson street looking for dinner. We ended up at Earl's where we sat on a second floor patio and enjoyed pizza, salad, and drinks just recapping the day and talking about life.

7-14

Wake up...COFFEE! Today at a cute place called "Small Victories" where Tom enjoyed drip coffee and a breakfast sandwich and Britt enjoyed an Americano and oatmeal. We then walked back, packed up, and found the train station. We quickly realized that taking the bus was going to be both quicker and more affordable, so we bought tickets and loaded up. We should be arriving in Seattle later this afternoon. 

Local coffee stops: One Stop Coffee, The Buzz, and Small Victories)

It's been real Couver