Vancouver, British Columbia, Day 2 – May 10, 2015

This morning, we slept in a little more, we were just tired from being on the go for three days, and having the early wake up yesterday.  The weather was nice again today in Vancouver, although it was not as sunny as yesterday, nor as warm.  There was a high thin layer of clouds blocking some of the sunshine.

We had decided that today we would use the Hop On, Hop Off Shuttle to go around Vancouver, and get off at some of the stops where there were sight we wanted to see.  We walked about four blocks from our hotel to the closest Hop On stop and purchased two tickets for the day.  We waited about fifteen minutes and boarded the next available bus.  It was crowded, but luckily, there were two seats available.  They do not allow anyone to stand, so if the bus that stops happens to be full, you have to wait on the next one to arrive, and hopefully, it has open seats.  the buses were supposed to run about every 20 minutes according to the lady selling tickets, but it only took us one stop to figure out that 20 minutes was very optimistic.

Luckily, we boarded at one of the lesser popular stops, and when we went to the very next stop near the cruise pier, there were a lot of people waiting, but our bus was full, and no one could get on.  There were a lot of unhappy hoppers.  We were glad we had not picked this stop to board.

We stayed on the bus until it went to Stanley Park, which is a very large park located to the northwest of the city core.  There were several stops in Stanley Park, and we opted to get of at one where some native Indian totem poles were located.  It was also close to the seawall walk, so we could visit both.  We took some photos of the large colorful totem poles, and then strolled along the sea walk.

After a while, we headed back into the interior of the park to try and visit the rose garden area.  Unfortunately, we did not have a detailed map of Stanley Park, so we just guessed at the general direction.  There were not a lot of signs on the roads and trails to let you know the direction to the various park locations.

We ended up at the Aquarium, and then made it to the Stanley Pavilion, hoping to get a bite of lunch there.  Unfortunately, there was a private party going on and the restaurant was closed to the general public.

We found the closest Hop On Bus stop, and waited about 20 minutes for the next bus to arrive.  We were heading to another park location called the Prospect Point overlook, a high area overlooking the Lions Gate Bridge and waterway. We got off here to go to the overlook for some photos, monitoring are watch to try and stay less than the 20 minute time frame before the next bus arrival.

We took some photos, and then purchased a sandwich at the sandwich shop.  We were able to finish all of that within the 20 minutes we had scheduled, and headed over to the bus stop.  Unfortunately. it was another 20 minutes for the next bus arrived, and there were just enough seats for us and the several other passengers waiting.

We had planned to just go ahead and ride the entire bus route since we seemed to be wasting a lot of time every time we got off and tried to board another bus.  On our earlier short ride to Prospect Point, we were seated to a lady who could not stop coughing, and it did not sound good, she was obviously sick, and we had been glad we were not riding far that time.

It was not long after we got on this bus that we realized the lady sitting in front of us was not well at all.  She was not talking to her husband or the other couple they were traveling with, and she was also coughing a lot, and did not look like she was enjoying the ride next to the open window at all.

We only stayed on the bus a couple of more stops and we got off, trying to avoid anymore time by another sick person.  We surmised that the reason the buses were really crowded, and no one was ever getting off was because they had come from the Holland America Cruise Ship that was in port.  The Hop On Hop Off is popular with cruisers because you can tour the city quickly during a port stop.  We think that some of the sick riders we were seeing may have come from the ship.

We stopped at an area called Sunset Beach.  It was famous for having been popular area to visit by movie stars in the 40’s and 50’s.  Apparently, Errol Flynn often visited a Hotel there called the Sylvia Hotel, which was still there, and still covered with ivy, as had been the case in the heyday of the movie star visits.

All of Stanly Park had been full of walkers, and lots of bicycle riders, and Sunset Beach was no different.  It was a nice weather day, and also Mother’s Day, so everyone was outside enjoying both.

We headed back to the bus station to get the very next bus, and waited about 35 minutes at the stop before the next bus arrived.  There were quite a few open seats on this bus, so we decided to stay on for a while and just ride around and see Vancouver from the bus.

We headed to an area called Granville Island, which had once been an industrial area where several steel mills had been located during and after World War II.  After the steel mills had shut down, the area remained vacant until it was cleaned up and developed and a large market area.  This was supposed to be one of the best sights to visit in Vancouver, and although there were about 25 people waiting to board our bus, meaning it was a crowded stop, where we may have to wait on several buses to board when we were finished looking around and returned to the bus stop, we got off anyway to visit.

There were many store and restaurants there, and one large building containing a lot of venders selling various foods, cheeses, vegetables, and other items.  It was a very interesting area and we walked around for about an hour, and then got a scoop of gelato to share.

On the way out to Granville, at a previous stop, we had been told by the bus driver that our ticket entitled us to take a water taxi over to Granville Island from the other side of the waterway.  We decided to use this in the opposite direction after visiting Granville Island, using the water taxi boats to go back across and get on the hop on bus before it got to Granville Island, which seems opposite, but was the way the route goes.

We rode the small water taxi boats across the narrow channel of the waterway.  The  boats were similar to the ones we had ridden in Victoria.  Once across, we headed to the bus stop and waited and waited, at least 25 minutes.  Another couple came to the stop, they had done the exact same thing to try to avoid the crowds at Granville Island.  When the bus arrived there were three seats available for the four of us.  Stephanie and I had gotten there first, so we got two of the seats in the front.  The other couple squeezed into the very rear where there was a full width bench seat.

We retraced the route to Granville Island, and along the way, several people got off at the four stops before we got over to the island.  By that time, not only were there more seats open, but the crowd at the Granville Island stop was not even enough to fill the seats available.  So much for that plan…..it was still probably better, you just never know.

We went ahead and rode all the way to the end of the line, the buses were quitting for the day.  the last stop was in Gastown, near the port.  We had to walk back to our hotel from there, but decided to go to the waterfront area again, it was much less crowded than the day before.  We took a few photos and then headed for the hotel, trying to locate a place for dinner.  We looked at a few menus, but nothing appealed to us.  We just ended up eating at a sandwich shop, nothing was appealing to us in any of the restaurants, probably because we were tired.

After our quick dinner, we headed back to the room to relax and pack for tomorrow’s journey to Seattle.  We had some refreshments, and got caught up with the exciting finish to The Player’s Golf Tournament at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida by watching the Golf Channel.

Tomorrow will be another early wake up call at 5:30 AM so we can get ready, finish the last packing, and leave the hotel at 6:25 AM for our 15 minute walk to the shuttle bus stop.