Today was a day of Vancouver Must-Do Adventures. These are days of vacation I look forward to. I love exploring and finding new adventures.

Our first adventure of the day was the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver. While this is a whole park area, it is most known for the 460′ long 230′ high Suspension Bridge. Also, there were treetop bridges and other trails to walk along. I wish these pictures would capture the woody Christmas smell of the Cypress and Douglas Fir trees. It is my favorite smell. The Park also had an activity book for young kids to complete.

Next, our tour guide took us to a salmon hatchery, but it didn’t really offer an experience for people who grow up around fishing.

After the quick stop at the salmon hatchery, we headed to the next stop of the day, Grouse Mountain. Grouse Mountain stands high above the harbor and offers skiing in the winter, and rides in the Sky Tram up the mountain the summer. There are many free and not-free activities at the top of the mountain. The tram to the top of the mountain was very crowded and hard to get a good view. It takes about 7 minutes to get up the mountain and the same to go back down. We were not interested in any of the purchase activities, but they have a bear habitat. We missed the Lumberjack show, but would have enjoyed seeing it, as the reviews are good. We decided to try the sit down restaurant however it was too busy so we just enjoyed a drink before heading back down the mountain. It is hard to appreciate the view from these pictures.

After our visit to Grouse Mountain, our tour had come to an end. We asked our driver to takes us to Chinatown so that we could eat lunch. I loved visiting San Francisco’s China Town as a kid and thought that the kid would enjoy all the fun shops, colors, and food. Our tour guide suggested he drive us through the area and let us decide if we wanted to go there or Gas Town. It didn’t help that it was a Sunday, but Chinatown appeared very depressed. It was not at all what I pictured or remembered a Chinatown to be. Our tour guide told us it had gone downhill and the homeless population of Vancouver was growing into it. The homeless population lives between Chinatown and Gas Town. The amount of homeless people and tents make the sidewalks impassable. We were not totally confident that we would get from one neighborhood to another, even though they were only a few streets apart, so we passed on Chinatown. Our guide dropped us off at Gas Town. Gas Town is a vibrant and hip. It is the oldest neighborhood in Vancouver.

After a late lunch at Gas Town, we returned to our hotel to rest and swim. Our tour guide recommended we go see FlyOver Canada, which was conveniently connected to our hotel. FlyOver Canada is eerily similar to Walt Disney World’s Soarin’ except the movie is of Canada scenery. We love Soarin’ so we enjoyed it. We also bought the add-on that specifically featured the Colorado Rockies. It was expensive and not a must-do, but was a low key way to spend the evening.