This past weekend we took a quick trip up to Vancouver, BC. Rotchana had been asking about going up to Canada and a long 3 day weekend provided the opportunity to finally take her up to Vancouver.
We made arrangements to stay in a condo near downtown using Airbnb. It was the first time we’d used the service so we weren’t sure what to expect. The photos looked good and the description of the condo sounded nice, but we were a little unsure of how easy using the service would be. The rate was about one third of staying in a hotel so it was worth trying it out.
On our way up to Vancouver we took a little detour to visit Multnomah Falls. We hadn’t been in a while and the girls wanted to see a waterfall. Luckily, we arrived early in the day and it wasn’t very crowded. The girls even took some time to hike about half a mile up the trail before reconsidering putting in the effort. After about an hour we hopped back in the car and headed north.
It took about 5 hours to make the drive up to Vancouver. Rotchana got excited when we reached the border and had to provide our documents. She had anticipated a big ordeal considering the effort she went through to get a visa to travel to the US, but with her green card, it was a snap. We spent a total of 30 seconds talking to a border patrol officer and off we went.
We arrived at the condo around 4:00pm after stopping for a bite to eat nearby. The owner of the condo met us and provided us with keys and remotes for the private parking. When we entered the condo we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it actually was. We were staying on the 31st floor so the views from the balcony were really nice. Everything was new inside and the owner had every possible need taken care of. We felt like we were staying in a 5 star hotel.
As nice as the condo was we didn’t come up to Vancouver to sit around inside. The first night we went downtown around Robson street to walk around and then we grabbed some dinner at a seafood restaurant down by the marina.
The next day we went over to Capilano Suspension Bridge and spent several hours wandering around the park on the other side of the bridge. Rotchana and Victoria didn’t think walking across the bridge was all that fun, but they seemed to enjoy the walk back across when we left. The girls had a fun time walking up above on the suspended walkways between the big trees, and taking photos of all the plants.
On our last day we drove around Stanley Park. We had a long drive ahead of us so we didn’t spend a lot of time getting out of the car, but it was fun taking our time driving around and sightseeing.
It was a nice, relaxing weekend. We’ll definitely go back again to visit again.
