After a fairly good night, we were both awake at 4:30. There was no way I would go back to sleep. I continued to work on my trip report. Graham was also awake but went back to sleep. We got up just before 7:00 and took turns having a shower. Then we headed out. Now that we had worked out the direction route to the Skytrain station, it did not take us long. A train was just pulling in when we got to the platform. We arrived at Waterfront station about 20 minutes later.
We still had plenty of time to grab some breakfast before we needed to go to the seaplane terminal to check in. There are two coffee shops near Canada Place. We picked Blenz Coffee over Starbucks. I figured that Blenz Coffee was Canadian. I found out since that it was founded right in Vancouver. Graham had an Americano and a warm cinnamon roll. I had a maple latte macchiato and a courgette, carrot, and nut muffin. Everything tasted lovely and hit the spot. The coffee was a lot hotter than what we are used to. Fortunately, it came in take away cups. Once we had finished our food, we decided to head over to the seaplane terminal taking our coffees with us.
That morning the area around the seaplane terminal was a lot busier than the day before. There is ferry that leaves from this area as well and they were getting ready to board when we arrived. Check in however was quiet. We walked straight up to the counter. They checked our passports, and we were given laminated boarding passes. We were told to listen out for announcements for pink boarding passes and once called, we would board through gate 2. We were also given an envelope with a voucher for the second part of our adventure and a timetable for the shuttle.
With the formalities out of the way, we went to sit down in the waiting area. We were chatting with a lady who was flying on a scheduled service to Victoria. She was departing about an hour after us, but she had got there very early as she had been nervous about taking the Skytrain. As people that use public transport everywhere, we find this hard to understand especially if a public transport system is as easy to use as the Skytrain. Still, I suppose it is what you are used to.
While our companion had gone to get some coffee, our boarding pass was called. We headed towards gate 2 as instructed and were introduced to our pilot, who took us down to the plane. I had my big handbag with me, and he asked if they were OK to put it into the hold. I was fine with this as all I needed was my phone to take photos. We then got on the plane; a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. This is the smallest type of plane they have in their fleet with six seats in the back plus one passenger seat next to the pilot. I had been a little bit nervous about getting in and out of the plane as there are all kinds of disclaimers on their website, but with the plane being so small, it was just one small step up. It was only when we actually got on the plane, that I noticed that there was nobody else. I asked our pilot if it was just us, which he confirmed. Apparently, there were some other people booked, but they had failed to show up. Having a private flight made this even more special. What was different from a flight on a normal plane is that we had to strap on a flotation device before putting the normal seat belt on. The pilot advised us that there were earplugs in the seat pocket in front of us. He recommended that we put those in as the plane is quite loud. We both got them out but figured that we would see how we go. In the end, we never put them in.
Once we were all strapped in, we headed out into the harbour. Soon we were airborne. I had been a little bit concerned when we left the guesthouse, and it was quite overcast. However, the clouds did not affect the flight at all. We flew over the Lions Gate Bridge and then headed out over the countryside. After enjoying those views for a while, we headed back towards the city for some amazing arial views of Vancouver including Canada Place. It was an absolutely amazing experience. Having watched the float planes the previous day, the landing looked like a bit of a thrill ride. In the end, it was really smooth. We both agreed that we were glad that we had done this. Once the plane was tied up to the dock, we got out. Our pilot over to take some photos of us with the plane. We took him up on the offer.
We quickly used the bathroom inside their terminal and then we headed back towards Canada Place for the next part of our adventure. We stopped at the ticket booth for Fly Over Canada. We were planning to do this in the afternoon. As we had no precise idea when we would be back, we were advised to just get tickets when we were ready or to get them online.
We went to look for the shuttle to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, but there was no indication where it would go from. On the voucher and the timetable, we had been given, it just said Canada Place. I went to speak to the people at the ticket kiosk where we had bought tickets for Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in 2013. They advised that the shuttle was actually leaving from the next cross street. They pointed us in the right direction and advised us to look out for people in red jackets. As soon as we came out of the alley that we walked through, there was somebody with a red jacket. The shuttle arrived about 5 minutes after we got there. As this was the first stop, there was plenty of space. We had two more stops on the way. Graham worked out that one of the stops is quite close to one of the things on our to do list. We decided to get off there on the way back.
Once we had picked up the last people, we got a bit of a guided tour. Our driver was knowledgeable and informative. We drove through some of Stanley Park and across the Lions Gate Bridge. Once we arrived at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, we were given some instructions for the return. Then we were free to explore.
When we arrived at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, we were directed to the group check in. This worked out well as there was quite a long line for the ticket windows, but there was only one person in front of us at the group check in. we had a little surprise. We knew that one of the attractions at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, the Treetop Adventure, was closed for refurbishment during our visit. We were not bothered about this in the slightest. We did not do this in 2013 and had no intention to do it this time. Treetop is a series of narrow suspension bridges and platforms that are attached to tree some 110 feet above the forest floor. That is just a little bit too thrilling for both of us. To make up for the closure, we were given a 15 Canadian Dollars food voucher each. We accepted this gratefully even though it was not necessary.
We had a quick look at an exhibit that showcased the history of the park. We used the bathroom and then we headed towards the centre piece and main attraction of the park. On the way to the suspension bridge is an area with totem poles. I took a few photos. Shortly after we arrived, a big tour group did. We left the area and carried on towards the suspension bridge.
Neither of us is particularly good with heights. Therefore, going somewhere where a suspension bridge is the main attraction is not an obvious choice. I have the added complication that I have always had issues with my balance and things that move a lot are not my friends. However, we both enjoyed our time there in 2013 and there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to go back. In the end, it was OK. It was a bit quieter than it had been in 2013 meaning that the suspension bridge did swing as much. The worst part was actually at either end where one would assume it would be the most stable. However, even that was entirely manageable. I was even brave enough to stop pretty much in the middle and take my hand of the rope to take some photos of the beautiful valley below.
At the other end, we decided to check out the boardwalk through the rainforest. Not only was this a beautiful walk, but there were a lot of interpretive signs explaining what we were looking at. The boardwalk led to Raptor Ridge. This was a lovely surprise. According to their website, this was only supposed to be open on weekends in May and we were there on Tuesday. However, it was definitely open that day. It is my understanding that they have different birds here on different days. When we were there, they had a Harris’s hawk and a great horned owl and their respective handlers. We spent a fair while there watching those beautiful birds and talking to their handlers. The Harris’s hawk is a working bird as well as an animal ambassador. He is used in best control acting as a deterrent to other birds making a nuisance of themselves. Over a period of time, they fly him at different times of the day so that the birds that are targeted cannot work out a pattern. Eventually they leave to find a saver territory. I was absolutely fascinated by this, especially as I have come across the same concept previously in Dubai where some of the luxury resorts use falcons for the same purpose.
Eventually the time came to say goodbye to the birds and their handlers. We saw a loop trail signposted. We decided to check this out. We got as far as a pond with salamanders and then the trail was blogged off with construction fences. I suppose this was affected by the work they did to the Treetop Adventure, which is in that general area. We spoke to one of the volunteers that had set up a table with information about the animals that can be found in the area. Some of them, I already knew about, but others were new to me.
We slowly made our way back towards the bridge looking at various educational displays on the way. They have also added a lot of lights. I had noticed earlier that there are coloured fairy lights on thebridge itself, but there are also lights on trees and above ponds. It does look rather pretty. It probably looks even prettier at night. They have seasonal events where the whole of Capilano Suspension Bridge Park is lit up during the Halloween and holiday seasons as well as around Valentine’s Day. Part of me would love to see this, but part of me also wonders if this is really a good fit for what is essentially an easily accessible way to experience a rainforest.
We slowly made our way back across the bridge. Graham wanted to check out the cliff walk. We had done this together in 2013 and this is not half as thrilling as it sounds. It does however offer some spectacular view. I decided to sit this out. To access the cliff walk, you have to go down a spiral staircase. My knee was still giving me trouble and it particularly did not appreciate going down a large number of stairs. While Graham went to do the cliff walk, I checked out the gift shop and also a viewing platform above the cliff walk, which still had some great views. I had hoped that I would see Graham come round, but I thought that he had already passed the viewpoint. Instead, I went to sit on a bench near the exit. I had underestimated how long it would take Graham to get round, but I was more than happy to sit.
When Graham materialised, we decided to get some lunch. Back in 2015, Graham took a trip to the east coast of Canada and New England while I went to spend some time with friends in Southern California. During this trip, he developed a taste for poutine. I had been curious about this as although Graham eats pretty much anything, he hardly ever gets as enthusiastic about a particular kind of food. I tried Disney‘s take on poutine in November. I really liked it, but Graham said that what we had was just loaded fries and not poutine. I was keen to try the real thing. When we had been given the food vouchers, I checked what was on offer. I noticed that one of the outlets had two different kinds of poutine. We decided to check this out. Graham went with the Southern poutine. I followed his lead. This was a classic poutine, which consists of fries, cheese curds and gravy and was topped with pulled pork and barbecue sauce. The food was covered by our vouchers, and we just paid for our drinks. Graham had a bottled Starbucks vanilla latte, and I had an orange soda. I did enjoy the food. However, as much as I love pulled pork and barbecue sauce, it has no business on poutine. I knew I would get another chance to have some poutine this trip and I was excited for it. I was delighted that they don’t seem to have tampered with the recipe of orange soda in Canada. This still tasted like the orange soda I used to love in the USA.
Once we had finished our lunch, we used the bathroom and then headed to the exit. We must have hit one of the gaps in the shuttle service as we had a bit of a wait. However, this was no hardship. The sun had come out and it was actually lovely. We were directed to some benches to wait for the next shuttle. When the shuttle arrived, we were called. The drive back into Vancouver did not take very long.
As planned, we got off at the first stop. Graham’s gut feeling had been right and what we wanted to see was right at the next intersection. If you have followed my trip reports for a while, you will probably know that I am a huge fan of the Washington state-based glass artist Dale Chihuly. I have been to admire his creations in various parts of the world. When I was looking at what Vancouver has to offer, I found out that there is a fountain caller Flower Pool outside a residential building that features a glass case with glass flowers that Dale Chihuly calls Persians. Although I have yet to see any of his work I do not like, the installations using Persians are my favourite. As installations go, this is one of the smaller examples, but it is very pretty. The only slight drawback was that there is a tree right by the glass case that was pollinating up a storm, which means that the top of the case was covered in pollen. This distracted from its beauty a little bit. We sat down on a bench right by the Flower Pool fountain and enjoyed this. Then I took some photos before we moved on.
We headed in the general direction of the waterfront. This was a long stretch that went quite steeply downhill. I was glad that we had to go down this hill and not up. I was also glad that we did this in the order we had chosen. I think if I had to go up that hill, I may well have come to the conclusion that I am not quite as big of a fan of Dale Chihuly that I always thought I was. That would have been a shame. Near the waterfront, we walked through a lovely little park and that then brought us out round the back of the seaplane terminal. They say that all roads lead to Rome, but in Vancouver I got the distinct feeling that all roads lead to Canada Place. This is just as well as this is where we needed to go. On the way, we came across some amazing street art. There is also a history trail in this area. We had already seen some of this the previous day, but we finished this off on our way to Canada Place.
Apart from the fact that I never need an excuse to see cruise ships, there was a reason why we returned to Canada Place. When we were there in 2013, they were just getting ready to open a new attraction called Fly Over Canada. I always hoped that I would get a chance to try this out. My favourite Disney ride was Soarin over California and I rather like the new version of this, too. However, sometimes the original is really the best. Because I love Soarin over California so much, I had started to look out for flying theatre rides on my travels. In 2022, we did Wings over Washington in Seattle. This uses a different kind of flying theatre technology from Soarin over California, but it was still very enjoyable. As soon as I knew we were sailing out of Vancouver this year, Fly Over Canada was top of my list. When we arrived back at Canada Place, we headed straight to their ticket booth. They are showing two films at any given time, and we decided to do them both.
Graham has always joked about Soarin over California in Epcot that you are soaring over a place that is not Florida. Well, at Flyover Canada, you are not necessarily flying over Canada either. We were just a few days too late for a film showcasing Hawaii, which I would have loved to see. When we were there, the options were Legendary Iceland: Landscapes & Lore and Windborne: Call Of The Canadian Rockies. One of them at least had something to do with Canada and the other acted as a preparation for a trip we are taking next year. We had a few minutes until Legendary Iceland: Landscapes & Lore was due to start. We headed straight from the ticket booth to the entrance. Pretty much as soon as we got in line, we were invited to have some photos taken and then we went to a holding area. The doors to the preshow opened a couple of minutes after this. The preshow was quite cute giving an overview of some of the myths and legends of Iceland. However, I would rather just have gone straight to the ride.
Once we reached the loading area, things got very familiar. I could have done the safety briefing almost word for word even though I had never been to this attraction before. It followed the exact script of Soarin apart from the Mickey ears. The only other thing that was missing was Patrick the flight attendant. When we entered the theatre, we were on very familiar ground as well. They use the same kind of hang glider technology that Soarin uses. Apparently, they had to modify this slightly due to some unique challenges this location presents. I did not notice anything obvious though.
Legendary Iceland: Landscapes & Lore was definitely inspired by Soarin over California. A lot of the dramatic elements right down to the fireworks were the same although of course the scenery was very different. It kind of felt like a deluxe version of Soarin. To start with, at just over 20 minutes it was a lot longer. It also added “sea spray” at strategic points during the film. I enjoyed this very much.
From the theatre, we had to go downstairs, through the gift shop and back up the stairs to get back in line for the second film. We waited in the first line for a bit, before we were sent to have our photo taken and were then directed to a second line. We had not noticed this earlier as we had essentially just passed through, but there were headlamps blasting out heat in this area. Sure, it was not a hot day, but it was not cold either and standing in the direct heat was very uncomfortable. I was very relieved when it was finally time to go inside the airconditioned room for the pre-show. Like Legendary Iceland: Landscapes & Lore, the pre-show for Windborne: Call Of The Canadian Rockies gave an introduction to the culture of the people that live in in the Canadian Rockies. In this case, it was about the First Nation people. This part was actually pretty interesting. We then went back to the theatre. This is where for me this fell down. Yes, there was still some pretty scenery, scents and sea spray, but the bulk of the film centred about the stories and culture of the First Nation people. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that this is of no interest to me. If this had been a static IMAX presentation, I would have lapped this up. However, I don’t think it was a suitable presentation for a flying theatre attraction. There is a time and a place for everything, and this was not it. The whole concept of a flying theatre attraction to me is that it stimulates all the senses. It is a bit of escapism. I do not expect to be educated on this kind of attraction. We had been advised by a member of staff that directed us towards the exit after the first film that if we liked this, we would love Windborne: Call Of The Canadian Rockies. However, both of us agreed that we much preferred Legendary Iceland: Landscapes & Lore. We did not regret that we did both, but whereas I would not rule out doing Legendary Iceland: Landscapes & Lore again, Windborne: Call Of The Canadian Rockies is definitely a once and done for me.
When we came out again, I had a quick look at the gift shop and particularly the photos. However, I was no tempted to part with any money. When we came outside, something caught Graham’s eye. There was a large flog of black birds in the water in front of us. We went downstairs to get a closer look. Graham did not have his telescope with him. I zoomed in as much as I could on my iPhone. The resulting photo will not win any awards, but we could see the shape and colouring well enough to determine that they were tufted puffins. They are quite common in Washington state and British Columbia during the summer months, but they like steep cliffs. A busy port is not really their natural habitat. We stayed for a while to watch them in the hope that they may come a little closer. They did not do us the favour. Eventually they moved further away, and we figured it was time for us to move on, too.
We were both thirsty. This time round, we decided to give Starbucks ago. We both had mango and dragon fruit Refresher. They had options for this to be made with either lemonade or coconut drink. I went with the coconut drink option. I am still not entirely sure what coconut drink is supposed to be. However, I do love everything coconut and this was both refreshing and delicious.
We had hoped that there would be a bathroom inside Starbucks. We were out of luck. There was however a bathroom in the adjacent convention centre. There was also access to the Skytrain station from there. This also solved a mystery. We had struggled to find somewhere to eat near Canada Place in 2013 and again the previous day. It turned out that a lot of the buildings in that area have food courts and restaurants in the basement. We never thought to look there. We walked past a shop that had a two for one offer on fruit bubble teas. We had every intention to come back, but never got around to it.
We had enough adventure for one day. We headed back to Burnaby. We stopped off at the shopping centre. There was a Bath and Body Works shop there. I have to admit my enthusiasm for hunting down Bath and Body Works shops on holiday has diminished a little since their products have been available in my hometown. However, their shower steamers are no longer available in the UK, but they are still sold in the USA and Canada. Shower steamers are part of their aromatherapy range. They are discs made of bicarbonate of soda that are designed to put in the bottom of your shower and they then release their scent while you shower. We also find that the send lingers for a long time. I was hoping to get them in the vanilla and lavender scent. This reminds me of the first perfume I had as a teenager. I was out of luck, but they did have an orange and ginger scent. I bought a tub and thought they would be useful on the cruise. Inside cabins sometimes have a slightly musty smell. In the end, this was not the case, and I brought my shower steamers home.
As we were there, I figured that we may as well get some dinner. Graham was still full from lunch, but I figured if I do not eat anything, I would just wake up hungry in the middle of the night. After having a look at the various options, I went back to Bourbon Street Grill. I had the kid’s meal with fried noodles and crispy honey chicken. Even then I did not quite finish it.
Part of the shopping centre complex is a Walmart. We did some shopping on the way back to guesthouse. Graham needed some antihistamine tablets and we both stocked up on drinks. Graham got two different flavours of Vitamin Water and I got a bottle of fruit punch Powerade and a bottle of melon and pineapple Powerade. Somehow, I had got myself dehydrated, and although I was drinking plenty of water, this did not help. I figured maybe Powerade would do the trick, and this definitely worked. Once we finished our shopping, he headed back to the guesthouse. We had some of our drinks and then we got ready for bed.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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