Weekends in Vancouver

It is the last day of 2016 and like the previous year, I have a backlog of blogs that I planned to write but never did. This year it is the blog series on my 6 week Vancouver trip. So just like my past blog series, I will cover the highlights in this post and go into details in my future blog posts in January.

Last year (2015) I visited Vancouver in July and I had got 2 weekends there. One of those weekends I spent exploring the key locations near the downtown and another weekend I crossed the US border and visited Seattle. This year my trip was longer. However it was winter which meant the places to visit near the city were different. The temperature when I landed on Nov 6th was 12 degree Celsius which gradually dropped to 0 degrees when I left Vancouver on Dec 13th. It drizzled most of the time with occasional heavy showers. The first week of December had snow storms in the city. I felt like Jaadoo of Koi Mil Gaya waiting for Dhoop (Not kidding).

I got 5 weekends in this trip, of which the first weekend was a long weekend. This time I went further south into the US to visit my friends in Portland. During this trip I got to ride the train (As Sheldon Cooper would say - oh goodie oh goodie oh goodie)

View from the train

Multnomah Falls

Columbia River

The second weekend was all about hiking (or as we call it - trekking). On Saturday I hiked up to Quarry Rock. Sunday I did the Capilano & Pacific trail covering the Capilano suspension bridge, the hike along the Capilano river to reach the bay and then went exploring the Lighthouse park.

Quarry Rock

Capilano Suspension Bridge

 

Light house

The third weekend was entirely hiking in rain. Visited the Lynn Headwaters Park and Cypress falls. Accidentally ended up at Horseshoe bay which offered the scenic view of islands that lead up to the Vancouver BC Islands.

The fourth weekend was dedicated to mountains and snow. Tried hiking in snow at the Grouse mountain since I could not enroll for the Ski lessons. On Sunday visited the famous Whistler mountain and did guided hiking + Zip-line tour. Also went on the world's longest Peak to Peak Gondola ride.

Grouse grind hike

Whistler Mountain

Gondola

The final weekend in Vancouver was about new experiences. On Saturday I enrolled for Ski School in Cypress mountain and on Sunday I took a sea place to the Vancouver island.

Ski Lessons

View from Sea Plane

Ferry ride

Well that summarizes my trip to Vancouver this year. Oh wait, the food I had was amazing too. Not posting pics here but will post them when I write detailed blogs about all the places I visited :)

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