My Trip to Vancouver BC
From dense city streets to Michelin stars and tap-to-ride buses.
There are two Vancouvers close to me, one in Washington State and one in BC Canada. Interestingly the one in a different country is actually the closer one, but only by about 30 minutes. Another interesting fact is Vancouver, WA, the lesser known and lesser populated of the two is the original founded in 1825 (exactly 200 years ago at the time of this blog), while Vancouver BC is established in 1886.
There’s also a Vancouver Peninsula in Australia, and Vancouver Corner in Antarctica. All of these places were named after George Vancouver who mapped the entire Pacific Northwest coastline, explored parts of Australia, Hawaii, and the Pacific. He didn’t go to Antarctica but had Vancouver Corner named after him because someone just thought he was cool I guess.
Vancouver feels like a big city, bigger than Seattle even though it has a lower population, the population is much more dense. It reminds me most of Chicago. It’s a very clean city, and has typical PNW weather, nice in the summer, dark cold and rainy from late fall to late spring. One big difference between Seattle and Vancouver is almost everyone uses an umbrella in Vancouver, while in Seattle it is, for some unknown reason, not cool to use umbrellas. I am not cool, as I use an umbrella in Seattle all the time and was happy to see nearly everyone in Vancouver also embracing the umbrella lifestyle.
Because of the weather, exploring the city by foot wasn’t desirable so I looked into the public transportation system in Vancouver which is very good. The bus system has one of the best things I’ve seen in any public transportation system, it’s credit card tapable. Every other public transportation system I’ve used required me to download an app, or fill a card or pay for a bus/train pass. In Vancouver you just tap your credit card when you get on the bus and you’re on your way, easy, peasy. I never had to walk more than 4 or 5 blocks to get to where I wanted to go.
Random things I noticed in Vancouver: everybody has the heat cranked way up, the bus, the restaurants, the hotel room when we first walked in. Also there is a real bakery culture there. It seems like every block has a bakery, two of which we tried and they were both fantastic. They also have a diverse array of restaurants, Asian, French, Middle Eastern, a ton of pizza places, sushi, and many more. You can find almost anything you’re looking for.
It’s also the home to 12 Michelin Starred restaurants, including Burdock & Co which I went to. I’ve been to many nice restaurants before but this was the first actual Michelin starred one. Owned and run by Andrea Carlson, the first female in Canada to earn a star, the sous chef Katy Cheung who competed in Top Chef Canada. One of her dishes from the show is available at the restaurant and was very good. I wont go over every dish, but one of the main things that stood out at this restaurant was the depth of flavor. Everything was very complex, and tasty of course. After taking a bite it was like one of those candies in Willy Wonka that keeps changing flavors in your mouth.
Another famous attraction there is the Granville Island Public Market which if full of cool shops. We visited a haberdashery, a bead shop, a gift shop and a bakery and had a few bites to eat at the food court.
Overall it’s one of my favorite cities, and I plan to go back many times. If you are a foodie, there’s so much to try there at all levels. I also just like the feel of being surrounded by tall buildings. I think it reminds me of when I used to visit downtown Miami when I was a kid to visit my grandfather’s eye glass store. There were so many people, so many restaurants and shops, it seemed like the most exciting place to be.