Travel Tips

It was a Saturday afternoon on a rare humid day in Vancouver. My boyfriend and I decided we'd go for a walk, but we didn't have any idea where we'd go.

We started to walk down Davie Street to English Bay. Davie Street, home of Vancouver's gay community, was preparing for its largest event the next day: the Gay Pride Parade. However, the crowds on Davie were larger than usual, and the majority of them were headed to English Bay as well. Even though it was 4pm, many people were making their way to the beach to set up a base for the Celebration of Light international fireworks competition. This is an annual event that happens on consecutive Wednesdays and Saturdays, on the last week of July and the first week of August. That night it was Sweden's turn, and as you can see from this photo, hundreds of people had already started to gather for a prime viewing spot, even though the fireworks wouldn't start until 10pm!

From English Bay we decided to follow the sea wall north-west to Second Beach. Second Beach is technically in Stanley Park. While the beach is sandy and great for swimming, there's also a public swimming pool right next to it, as well as a children's playground, and a huge field for picnics. It's an ideal family destination and there were definitely many families there that day.

As we strolled the sea wall, I was busy taking pictures. I rather liked the way this picture came out. We tweaked the colours a bit, but the composition turned out beautifully.

The photo shows the western side of the sea wall north of Second Beach, in Stanley Park. The steps lead down to the beach, however, since it was becoming high tide, the beach had disappeared and the steps were leading directly into the water.

Further along the sea wall, we saw that someone had stacked up some of the rocks on the beach into vertical sculptures. There were dozens of these sculptures, including one that looked like an inukshuk (an Inuit stone sculpture resembling a human being).

There's one man who is responsible for these temporary sculptures. He goes to the beaches along the English Bay sea wall every day and stacks these often-jagged rocks on top of eachother at odd angles, practically defying gravity. The sculptures, I find, have a spiritual element to them, and suit the natural environment of Stanley Park and sea wall well. However, as the tide comes in, the sculptures get knocked over and are lost until new sculptures are built at low tide.

As we turned one of many corners along the sea wall, we saw an Alaska-bound cruise leaving Burrard Inlet. It had just travelled beneath the Lions Gate Bridge out from downtown Vancouver and was going to start its route along the "Inside Passage", through the Strait of Georgia, between Vancouver Island and the BC Mainland.

The majority of cruises that leave Vancouver are headed to Alaska and often return back in Vancouver as well. As a result, there are many tourists who come to Vancouver simply because it's where they have to catch their cruise. Many seem to have little expectations for Vancouver, and leave little time to explore the city. However, many upon seeing Vancouver, wish they had left more days to explore the city. More often than not, cruise passengers become return visitors to Vancouver.

A few minutes later we were arriving at Third Beach, my favourite beach at Stanley Park. Tired from all the walking, we decided to have a hot dog at the concession stand up the stairs, up the hill from the beach. We snacked on our hotdogs will sitting down at the very scenic picnic table decks. There were tropical flowers adding a beautiful splash of colour. We overlooked the beach as we ate and watched the crows flying in the trees above.

After our hotdogs, we walked over to the beach and relaxed. The beach was incredibly soft and relatively clean. What I mean by relatively cleasn is that the only debris found in the sand were dried seaweed, broken clam shells, mussel shells, and one miniature crab claw.

After sitting at Third Beach for a good hour or so, watching the boats drive by, seagulls cry, and waves crash in, we decided we'd go for a walk through the forest in Stanley Park, back to downtown.

From Third Beach, we walked along the "Lovers Trail" which took us through some beautiful coastal rainforest. The smell of the cedars and douglas firs in the air was sublime. It's along this trail that we saw some gigantic trees. Just look at this photo - there would have to be at least 8 of me to circle the base of the trunk!

From the Lovers Trail, we connected onto the Seven Sisters landmark which led us to the "Bridle Trail". This trail took us back to Second Beach - the family beach. Rather than walk along the crowds at the beach (who were, remember, waiting for the fireworks), we opted again to cut through Stanley Park, this time by the Stanley Park Pitch & Putt golf course. This eventually brought us out to the Fish House restaurant, at the foot of Nelson Street - the beginning of the West End's residential streets.

From Nelson we walked east toward Denman. The closer we got to Denman, the more the crowds seemed to grow. They were all headed the opposite way - they were going to the beach! When we reached Denman Street, the crowds were streaming by. Denman Street was closed to traffic and was open to pedestrians. It was surreal to see so many people walking down toward the beach. It was around 8:30pm.

We got home at 9pm that night and were happy to relax. At 10pm we could hear the booms of the fireworks across the city.