planetrumsey: West Coast Travels: Day 8

After seven full days of exploring British Columbia we have finally made it to our final day. Early tomorrow morning e will be boarding a plane back to Ottawa. I am not one to take my foot off the gas however so made sure we had a full day of exploring Vancouver by foot.

With a beautiful blue sky to greet us we started our walk with a stop at Rocanini Coffee Roasters. With a drink in hand it was only a couple more minutes to reach the Plaza of Nations ferry dock where we hopped on a False Creek Ferry to take us to Granville Island Granville Island began its transformation from an industrial wasteland into a cultural and artistic hub since the 1970’s. While there we explored the public market, found some gifts, ate lunch, and were entertained by several buskers. After a few hours we hopped back on the ferry and headed to English Bay. From there we began our long walk to Canada Place.. Along the way we were greeted by the views of English Bay and shopping along Denman Street and Robson Avenue. We passed by a Marble Slab ice cream shop so we had to stop for some ice cream creations. Our goal was to reach Canada Place by 5:00 pm since we had a fun reservation at an attraction called FlyOver Canada. FlyOver Canada utilizes state-of-the-art technology to reveal some of Canada’s most awe-inspiring sights as you have never seen them before. You hang suspended, feet dangling, before a 20-metre spherical screen while the film whisks you away on an exhilarating 8-minute journey across Canada. It was also interesting visiting Canada Place again. When Canada Place first opened it was used as the Canada Pavilion during the 1986 World Exposition that took place in Vancouver. The Canada Pavilion has been acknowledged as one of the best-ever host nation pavilions at a world exposition. It was during Expo 86 that the Vancouver SkyTrain also opened. My Dad was involved in the implementation of the SelTrac communications based moving block system to provide the functions of automatic train operation used by the Vancouver SkyTrain. Today the system is the oldest and one of the longest fully-automated, driverless, rapid transit systems in the world. Due to this involvement our entire family travelled to Vancouver to attend Expo 86 and the Canada Pavilion with its iconic sails was indeed one of the highlights of my trip as a young child.

With the day and our vacation coming to a close we ordered some takeout sushi online which we picked up on the way back to the hotel. We have an early 6:00 am departure from our hotel in the morning in order to catch our 8:30 am flight back to Ottawa.