Arthur and Melissa's Notes on Everything

For our Victoria Day outing, we headed toward Lynn Canyon. We were sidetracked along the way by the need for lunch, and we decided to try the Japadog cart on Burrard at Pender. Japadog is mostly hot dog carts (although there is one store that we found), and each cart serves a different variety of hot dogs with Japanese-inspired toppings. Melissa ordered the Okonomi, a pork sausage with cabbage, Japanese BBQ sauce, and Bonito flakes. I chose the Kobe dog, a Kobe beef sausage topped with Japanese BBQ sauce and Maple leaf wasabi flakes. Both were very good, and as with dinner last night, not for everyone.

We detoured around the Vancouver Convention Center to have a look around the harbor, and to see the cauldron from the 2010 Olympics. There were two cauldrons — the one in the arena that malfunctioned in the opening ceremony, and this one which burned for the duration of the games. This one is much smaller than I expected. It is a pretty neat piece of sculpture, but there’s no way it could rain down Olympic spirit over the whole city; it is not very tall and it is at ground level. I was standing at the end of this open area, on a platform overlooking the harbor which is about the same height as the base of the sculpture. You can see that the whole area is surrounded by skyscrapers and other buildings. However, it is a cool work of art. There is a pool underneath (and a laser fence to detect miscreants jumping in) to reflect the undersides of the translucent arms rising up. The arms are lit internally by a blue spotlight at each base. We didn’t come back to see it at night, but I do remember the very cool glow it gave off in the TV footage last year.

As we walked around the harbor, we watched perhaps a dozen or so floatplanes take off and land from the old terminal next to the convention center. Behind the convention center is a new terminal under construction, with a number of signs along the walking path describing how this will be the newest, greenest, safest, and a few other superlatives, floatplane terminal in the world. They serve a ton of flights to and from Alaska. We saw a number of these planes later during our cruise, running the passages between the mountains to get to and from the various coastal towns. The harbor itself is a busy place, with planes buzzing around in and over the water, ships underway from the industrial ports, recreational boats, and the Seabus ferry all navigating around each other.

Speaking of the Seabus, it is a large pedestrian ferry that carries people from the Vancouver waterfront station adjacent to the convention center, across to the major transit hub in North Vancouver. We crossed and connected to the local bus that runs up to the Lynn Canyon park. It’s claim to fame is the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, which according to most reviews and locals, is a better sight than the commercial tourist trap at the Capilano suspension bridge, crossing another canyon located a mile or two west of Lynn Canyon. As an added bonus, the Lynn Canyon park is free admission!

At the trailhead is a very nice cafe, serving real food and snacks. It also has an observation level, which we didn’t go up to. Across from the cafe is a picnic area with a big map, educational displays, and safety displays. They are very emphatic that you need to stay on the paths and behind any fences. There are several horror stories on the sign of people doing stupid things and dying because of it in this canyon. One of them was some guy that got trapped in the pool under a waterfall, and according to the sign, couldn’t be retrieved, not rescued, for several days until the flow let up. It didn’t have a picture to show what was left of the guy after churning against the rocks all that time.

The suspension bridge is modern and sturdy. Even with big crowds and kids hopping across, it’s pretty stable. The view is fabulous (see below), and everywhere in the park you can hear the sound of rushing water across the many waterfalls in the canyon.

We walked the shorter loop around the south end of the canyon. Most of the park is a tropical rainforest; the tree canopy is thick, the air cool and still. Shortly after crossing the suspension bridge, we found this huge tree stump that wasn’t quite dead yet — that’s a much younger branch growing out of the top of the stump.

Periodically, the trail crosses a smaller trickle of water coming down the mountain. In most of these spots, a small wooden bridge crosses the stream, sparing you from navigating across any treacherous algae-covered rocks. Here we stopped at one of the larger streams, and you can make out the water flowing through the rocks with some careful study. There were a number of places where you could see the trail washing out, or where the trail was relocated after washing out.

The southern end of the loop we took crossed back over the main creek on a much narrower bridge closer to the ground. While not as dramatic as the suspension bridge high in the air, the landscape here was more interesting. The water flows down into this large pool on one side of the bridge and out through more rapids on the other side.

By the time we finished wandering around Lynn Canyon and hitched a ride on the bus, seabus, and skytrain over to Chinatown, it was already in to the evening hours. Everything had closed up shop early due to the holiday, so we couldn’t see much beyond a bunch of non-English storefronts.

Today’s touristing started with a walk down to Granville Island. The island is most famous for its public market. We went in expecting fresh groceries, but that’s only the beginning. Among the food stalls is a flower market; from there you move on to a variety of cooked & packaged food vendors. In the back, facing the waterfront, is a seating area with various art vendors around it. We spent a while chatting with one of the artists who steered us to the Sandbar restaurant for lunch. The market was packed, with narrow passages and people everywhere. We didn’t ask if this was a normal crowd, but I would guess it was a little busier than normal since this is a holiday weekend.

After lunch, we wandered through many of the shops. We looked in a few and said, hmmm, that’s expensive. On our way out, we stopped at the Granville Island gelato shop for a snack, staffed by a pair of squeaky Asian girls. It was like a stereotype lifted straight out of a Japanese video game. While we ate a cup of gelato, Melissa noticed the “London Fog” on the drink menu. Unlike the alcoholic drink, this one is Earl Grey tea, milk, and almond syrup. It’s great.

Dinner was at Guu, a brief walk behind our hotel. It’s a cross between a busy diner and a Japanese restaurant — the menu is completely Asian, but the place is loud, incredibly busy, and very good. It’s also not for boring old American palates; picky eaters need not apply here. The interior of this location is a long, narrow area with an open kitchen on one side. We were seated at the kitchen bar, and had a great view of the chefs cooking up a storm. The restaurant was packed the whole time we were there, so we were able to get a good look at all the food being served. Everything looked great.