Wednesday night my Mom, Dad, and Sister arrived in Vancouver for a 5 day visit. Upon arrival it was time to celebrate Rachel’s 20th birthday.
Thursday after a quick half day of work, we took the False Creek Ferry over to Granville Island. Everyone found a fun treat in the public market for lunch. We took the ferry back to downtown and made our way up to Stanley Park. We took a long walk through the park and saw the Heron Nesting grounds, Rhododendron Garden in bloom, and some friendly squirrels.
Friday we had breakfast at the famous Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe. Everyone agreed the food was amazing. From there we spent most of the day shopping around various neighborhoods in the city. Friday night after dinner my sister and I met a group of my coworkers down in Yaletown for some drinks. Rachel can drink legally here so it was a lot of fun to have her out with everyone. We wandered into a cocktail lounge named George at one point, and though we didn’t stay long, it seems like a neat place and I’d like to head back at some point.
Saturday we were up early to head to catch the 9am ferry to the capital of British Columbia – Victoria – which is located at the most southern tip of Vancouver Island. It was our first experience driving onto a vehicle ferry, and we had a lot of fun, not to mention the hour and a half journey is beautiful.
Once on the island, we first drove to Saanich to see the Butchart Gardens. We were all skeptical at first if the trip was worth our time, but within 5 minutes on the grounds, we all agreed it was time well spent. The gardens are gorgeous, and not so massive that you feel overwhelmed.
We drove down into Victoria that afternoon and walked around town and took in the sites. We had drinks and some food, and then toured the ‘Underseas Gardens’ . It’s a small place, but very cool. We got to see live Octopus, the largest breed of starfish, wolf eels, and we also got to pet a bunch of different starfish varieties. We were all impressed!
Sunday for Mother’s Day we drove around the Frasier Valley region and toured a few wineries. To our surprise most wineries in this region are fruit wineries with table wines such as Gooseberry, Blueberry, White-Cran Apple and much more. Our tour eventually led us out to the Fort Langleyarea. It’s a really quaint small town historic area. We found a great cafe where some locals sit around and play music while you can eat really tasty homemade food (served on a mish mash of fine china), old fashioned thick milkshakes (they’ll make it for you in any flavor of ice cream they serve), and coffee served in glasses that look more like beer pints. The atmosphere was very cozy, and very small town. In fact when I tried to look the place up online, I think it might be one of the only businesses in Fort Langley not listed on the webiste. There are guitars on the wall, all for sale, pottery, etc. We all were really excited to have stumbled in there.
There are many more pictures to come. I am going to make one big album tomorrow evening and I’ll post it to the blog then. It has been a great time having my family here.
Here is the link to the full photo album of the long weekend. They aren’t in order sorry!
