Saturday 10/5 was our first full day in Vancouver. We had big plans! When we first looked at the weather for Vancouver a week before our trip, it forecasted rain for every single day we were there. Fortunately, the only day it rained on us was on Monday 10/7. So Saturday was clear and we decided to visit Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in North Vancouver. But first, we had to pay a visit to Tim Hortons for breakfast since we were in Canada! We walked down the street from our hotel and there was practically one in every corner. I got a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. Todd got pumpkin spice muffins and a latte.
The pumpkin spice muffins had cream cheese on the inside and were so good that we went back twice during our trip for more, ha ha!
Capilano Suspension Bridge Park has free shuttles from several locations in downtown Vancouver, so we walked about 10 minutes to the nearest pickup location and got on the shuttle bus to the attraction. The ride was only about 15 minutes. We arrived by about 10:15 AM, which was still early for a Saturday, so the line for the ticket booth was not long at all. Took us about 5 minutes to get our tickets and go inside.
We decided to do the Cliffwalk first, since there really wasn’t anyone in line for it.
Neither Todd nor I are afraid of heights. If you are, it could be nerve-racking!
Of course, the views were spectacular! I don’t get to see large green trees in San Diego, so I really loved being amongst them in Vancouver.
Looking back from the Cliffwalk, you could see the suspension bridge and people on it. It gives a good perspective as far as how high up it is.
The Cliffwalk circled around a large rock and we took photos of each other.
There were also several lookout points too.
In this photo, a bald eagle landed in the tree right above us!
The Cliffwalk was awesome, we totally loved it!
Then it was on to the actual suspension bridge.
While the Cliffwalk was totally secure and didn’t sway at all, the suspension bridge swayed side to side and bounced up and down a lot! You need to use your “sea legs” and you may start to feel dizzy. I did a little bit.
Once we were on the bridge, we could see the Cliffwalk on the edge of the cliffs.
The views from the suspension bridge were spectacular on both sides!
On the other side of the bridge, there’s a rainforest and Treetops Adventure, where you walk along a series of high up walkways around the trees. We loved this part as well.
At the beginning of Treetops Adventure, you get the statistics for the day.
Then it was lots of walking amongst the treetops! Can you spot Todd in his red Ohio State sweatshirt?
There was also an area where they put up globes of LED lights and it just looked so magical!
We saw some docents with some wildlife too. It was so cool.
We visited the Capilano Trading Post store and bought some maple chocolate fudge and maple taffy!
After that it was lunch time and we were hungry from all the walking! They actually have some nice dining options at the park. We were just interested in a bite to share, so we visited Logger’s Grill and got a hamburger and french fries.
Then at 1:00 PM, we went on a guided history tour, which was part of the regular park admission price. We learned about the history of this area of Vancouver, and how the suspension bridge and park came about. We also learned about the local First Nations: the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh.
After that we took the shuttle bus back to Vancouver downtown.
We rested at the hotel for like an hour. We stayed at the Holiday Inn downtown Vancouver. The room as not big, but it had nice views.
The reason we had a small lunch was because we had to eat dinner early! We got takeout pizza from Firecrust Pizza down the street, and watched the Ohio State vs Michigan State game.
We only had time for the first half of the game, because we booked a tour called “Forbidden Vancouver” at 7pm. We walked for 25 minutes to Cathedral Square, the tour’s meetup location.
Our tour guide’s name was Glenn. He dressed up in 1920's clothing to get in character, since the tour was about Vancouver’s prohibition period.
We found out lots of fun and not-so-fun things about Vancouver’s prohibition past, including saloons, back alley “blind pigs” (similar to Speakeasies of US prohibition times), opium dens, and brothels! We ended up in the center of Gastown, where the tour ended.
After a 30 minute walk back to the hotel, we were pooped from our exciting day! Stay tuned for two more full days of Vancouver fun coming up!
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