post cruise: 36 hours in vancouver

we survived the cruise! six people in two small rooms, i was a bit worried.

when our cruise ended in vancouver we decided to use our extra time to explore there a bit.

it is so different traveling with your family vs. caitlin or other girls that i work with.

and so much harder.

side note: we did celebrate my birthday on the cruise---

my sister decorated the door

we ate a lot of cruise ship desserts!

in vancouver, we explored the harbor area and stanley park.

we walked a long way there in hopes of using the shuttle to get around the park.

only to discover that the only shuttle is the city's hop on/off buses.

that you pay for.

drat.

it was such a gorgeous day!

so then we had to walk some more to the aquarium where we were able to call for a taxi to take us to lunch.

and after that, we were done.

it was pizza at the hotel for dinner and then the fam left at the crack of dawn the next morning for an early flight.

i was smart and booked a flight for late the following evening so that i would have an extra day in vancouver.

i walked around, tried the water ferries out and explored granville island public market.

there is so much amazing food there! i wanted to eat it all!

the area was super cute and i would highly recommend it if you're headed to vancouver.

then i took a shuttle out to capilano suspension bridge park.

this park would be cool with kids, but as an adult, i was underwhelmed.

especially for the BIG price of $43 canadian dollars- roughly $35 us dollars.

they have a suspension bridge that is 450 feet long. you basically have to stay to one side to allow tourists to continue to move both ways...and there seems to be no monitoring of people who can not walk well enough to be on the bridge. it does shake and sway, which i did not like!

but worse, coming back across, there was a woman about 50 people in front of me who could not do stairs and was trying to climb up and off the bridge, with little success. she should not have been allowed on the bridge in the first place.

end rant.

so, i would not go to this park again, but...i did try all of their raised walks and bridges!

have you been to vancouver? fave spots or recommendations? i'd love to go back!