FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Salmon 16 Ways

It was a good morning. The children all slept right through until 730am (other than Elliot sleep walking, running around the room yelling out "where's the plane? Where's the plane?"). We thought we'd make use of the blue skies to visit both Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain. As any good Asian would appreciate, there was a free shuttle bus to our first destination! Fortunately the bus stop to Capilano was a short walk from our hotel and easy to find. By the time the bus left the last pick up point, the bus was full. The ride was quick. We went over the Lion's Gate Bridge and before we knew it we had arrived.

Our 2 destinations for the day

Is free. Is good!

As the name implies, Capilano is a suspension bridge which goes over a deep ravine amidst the rainforest. If you are afraid of heights, this might not an attraction for you as the bridge sways...noticeably! If you do manage to get across, then there are a serious of attractions to see and do including the treetop adventures, a series of suspended walkways which takes you from tree to tree. Visualise an Ewok village without the houses and the Ewoks. Jonah managed to convince himself that he could speak Ewok but that is a separate story altogether...

Totem poles totem poles everywhere

Said bridge

Views from the bridge

Tree top adventures

The Cliff top walk, a narrow walk by the cliff face anchored to the cliff by only 16 points!

Literally just outside the entrance to the Capilano Suspension Bridge is the bus stop for bus 236 which takes you up to the base of Grouse Mountain. Unfortunately this bus did cost. However, Vancouver public transport is affordable compared to Sydney. Buying a set of faresaver tickets not only saved us money but also saved us from having the correct amount as the buses do not give you back change. From the base of the mountain, the Skyride takes you up in 4 minutes to the top where once again, multiple attractions can be experienced. The last time Malcolm and I came here was to ski and that was nearly 20 years ago!

Our first mission was to feed ourselves lunch. We took the opportunity to try some poutine, essentially fries topped with cheese curd and gravy. It was a winner! It sustained us until the next food pit stop of Beavertails, deep fried dough pastry shaped like a beavertail and topped with your choice of goodies. We went for maple syrup and it didn't last for more than a minute...The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying various shows before heading back down the mountain to take the free shuttle bus downtown. We had some shopping to do. The camera was put away for this serious activity. After multiple purchases and a near "go to jail" miss by young Jonah for shoplifting, we started to look for food. Vancouver is reknowned to be a foodie city and we were excited to try some good sashimi at good price. Unfortunately we were misled and couldn't find the restaurant we were after. Malcolm insisted it was the fault of Tripadvisor...Everyone was exhausted and so we popped into the nearest Japanese restaurant on the way back to the hotel. As the prices were so low, we mistakenly assumed they were entree sized and Malcolm ordered salmon of every kind imaginable. We were mistaken! The portions were HUGE. We rolled home. The salmon that we bought earlier will have to wait for another day.