Our last Days of Canada and Back to the Real World.

We have made it back to Texas in one piece from our amazing one week vacation to the great north! While everyone was sweating bullets and melting in San Antonio, we were enjoying the nice highs of 70 degrees.
 We spent our last two days of the trip in Vancouver(mainland) to do this we took an air boat instead of the ferry due to the price drop a few days before we left Vancouver Island.

There were about 8 people total on this little plane. No door to protect the pilot, so if I really wanted to I could have totally tried to take over the plane and fly it on my own. Instead  I was glued to my seat and Holland and I had our eyes stuck on the pilot giving us the safety procedures because seriously... if there was a time that we would need to know how to evacuate a plane and put on some flotation devices THIS WAS IT!  Last time we were in a plane this small, we jumped out of it and I had no intentions of getting out of the plane until it landed safely into the next harbor.
After take off the view was lovely. I know every post I have said I love how green everything is but wow. I. Love. How. Green. EVERYTHING. IS!

Footage of Greenery from float plane!

We flew over in the late afternoon, so we just walked around downtown Vancouver and found a brew pub to go to. YaleTown is a very popular neighborhood in Vancouver and it was just a few blocks away from our hotel. We really enjoyed the atmosphere of this place. Everywhere we went to eat Holland was insistent that we eat outside because the weather was so nice and we would not want to eat outside anywhere in San Antonio for at least another 5 months.  It even started to drizzle a little bit but we did not care. I got a raspberry beer(which by the way was the only beer I really ordered since we have no raspberry beers in TX! It is going to be Hollands next brew and he said I have to help him with the entire process!) Holland got his usual IPA-he likes the hoppy stuff!

I liked the logo for YaleTown. a "Y" with an upside down "T"

On our last full day in Canada, we went to the Capilano suspended bridge. This bridge is OLD Y'ALL! It was first built in 1889 and of course since then it has been made stronger and can hold up to around 30 elephants? CRAZY. It sways a bit but not too bad. Would have been a little more stable if there weren't 20 kids running on it all at once. I would HIGHLY recommend going to this place if you are ever in the area. Holland and I found a free shuttle bus from a hotel in town to drive us the 30 minutes there and the tickets were around 32.00 each. We spent about three hours of our morning here which makes the price completely worth it. This is an awesome place for kids. They had so many things for them to interact with and explore. The park also shows ways that we can take care of the earth and the beauty that it holds.

** You cannot take strollers on the bridge and the rest of the park does require a lot of climbing stairs and walking**

Once you cross the bridge there is an entire forest of other little bridges to go on. They had some birds of prey in a section and they let them loose in the forest to go fly and they come back for their dinner.

I never get creeped out by heights. I have been sky diving, bungee jumping and I did the king swing at the wild play zone on this trip! I really enjoy roller coasters and that feeling of your stomach being higher than your body is BUT I get really creeped out walking over stuff like sewer access points, those breezy Marilyn Monroe vents in streets and the worst is by far this glass ledge I am standing over in this picture above. Holland forced me and I was like looking at him with a huge frown saying I did not want to do it. Then this couple was like "Oh, do you want us to take your picture?" and here we are above 5 seconds later. I know I look happy and totally content, but inside I was freaking out. I don't know what it is.... lack of stability? I just like stuff under my feet where I am standing/walking. Glad I went out there though!

After our adventures in Northern Vancouver we shuttled back to gas town to go to SteamWords Brew Pub. WE WERE STARVING. I truly believe the food was fantastic but I really was hungry and everything hit the spot for us. I totally embarrassed Holland by taking pictures of our food but I wanted to remember it! We got Poutin which I pronounce "poo-teen" Deanne informed me it is supposed to be pronounced like "powtin"? Either way it is french fries soaked in gravy and cheese-cannot get much better pub grub than that! Holland got a lamb burger and I got lobster ravioli. 

Deanne and Karl-this is the next best thing to Cafe Capri!

We were unsure of what to do with the rest of our day so we asked our waitress what we should go do. She suggested Granville Park which I was hesitant about but Holland talked me into catching the buses to there and THANK goodness he did! We spent the rest of our day there. There is a fresh farmers market with the prettiest fruits you have ever seen. They have bakeries, meat markets and people making things to sell right in front you. That is the best crafter-the one who can make things while people are hovering and watching. 

One of the last things we did here before leaving was a brewery tour of Granville Island Brewery. Holland was so interested in watching how things worked at this brewery and I don't think our tour guide ever got so many questions. Holland asked stuff like "How many liters do y'all produce each week?, "Do you always use this machine to blah blah your beer?", How much more blah blah blah do you use for this beer vs. that beer?". She kept having to run back into the brewery to ask the brewers and I told Holland he was being a bit too GT for our group! After we had some tasting in a small glass room in the brewery we got to talking with the rest of the people on our tour. We met a couple honeymooning from England  and a mother and son traveling from Germany. We had a great chat about beer and about our travels on the island. We told them we were from Texas and they gave us consoling faces because they knew the heat stroke we were going to have the next day when we returned home. Holland gave them his business cards and they were very excited and said if they were ever in Texas they would definitely come by. It was neat seeing people from different walks of life, all together at the same time enjoying the same thing- beer and company. 

Although we really could have stayed in Canada forever with the beautiful weather and sites we were enjoying, we were so anxious to get back to Texas to see our beloved pups. We quickly got back into the swing of things and Holland returned to work the next morning at 7 am to brew. I have been wanting to just stay at home since getting back. It is funny how you all of the sudden love to do things when you return from a trip-definately shows how much you missed your home. I did laundry, went to the grocery store, made holland lunch then took it to him at work, cleaned the house, played with puppies and never resented any of it.

I am looking forward to our next adventure. We will definitely make a trip back up to Canada. I loved it sooo much the first time and I feel like I just fell deeper in love with it this second visit. Make it in your plans to go there! If you go to seattle I hear you can take a bus over for 50 dollars! Make it happen- make some memories and take a jacket with you because it is that chilly in the summer time ;).

***HUGE shout out to our neighbors Linda and Mike for watching our puppies and our garden while we were gone! Thanks to y'all our garden is still thriving!***