Vancouver (Part 4: Stanley Park, Heading Home)

I am hosting/teaching a dance camp all week this week and now Vancouver feels like it was so long ago...we were just there 2 days ago :) We are craving being back on vacation. It's so nice to have time to spend solely on each other. 

Here are the last photos from our trip.

We decided to just drive around Stanley Park on this trip because it was raining and I had to get home because I had camp in the morning.

Lions Gate Bridge

Such a good weekend together!! 

I still feel like newlyweds :) When does that title not exist for us anymore? 

Officially on US soil...immediately got a bajillion text messages about camp and my teachers subbing. Crossed the border and had to start working. Lame. This was me texting lesson plans to my sub for that next morning lol.

The Peace Arch between Canada and the US.

Our ride home was looonnnggg. What should have been a 3 hour ride turned into a 6 hour drive. We took a "detour" on hwy 99A instead of hwy 99...oops. Canada is sucky at having signs on their roads. We couldn't find signs anywhere. We waited at the border for about an hour and a half and then Matt almost got arrested. Well, not really. You're supposed stop when the car ahead pulls up to the interrogator...Matt didn't stop lol. We were talking about all the crazy technology and didn't see the stop sign...oops. We got scolded and told that normally she would have to pull our car to the side and keep us for 2 hours while they inspected every square inch of us and our car....awesome. I'm so glad we didnt' have to do that. #1 we were starting and #2 I was completely ADD focused on prepping camp. 

We had an amazing trip!!!! I can't wait for our next one :)

Vancouver (Part 3: Dinner & Aquarium)

(Ok, dinner's in the oven...I can write this last post before it's done)

We really had the best time on our trip. I'm already excited to start planning our next trip together! 

After a long morning of driving, the Capilano Suspension Bridge, lunch, walking around town and hanging out in our awesome room...it was time to go out again!

We walked around Burrard St. and had fun window shopping. We bought an awesome bath bomb for me at Lush because our hotel room had a huge bathtub and cozy robe that was calling my name for when we got home :) I liked Vancouver a lot but definitely appreciate Seattle even more now. I love where we live so so much. I love our city. I love the feeling I have walking around Seattle. Vancouver wasn't bad, just different. Not as busy or exciting. 

We walked around for a good hour debating back and forth between a few restaurants. We knew we definitely wanted to eat somewhere we hadn't before. We decided on a steakhouse called, The Keg. We were both extremely happy with our decision! I'm not a steak fan, I actually don't like it at all. I don't really like meat that much. I'm not a vegetarian, but I just would rather eat pasta :) I wanted Matt to be happy because he always lets me pick, so...steak it was.

The Keg has now forever changed my mind on steak and from now on, if Matt makes steak, just bring out the goat cheese and pecans and I'll be a happy girl. O.M.G. Best dinner ever. My mouth is watering just thinking about our dinner. Matt said his steak just melted in his mouth. Mmmm!! So good. The restaurant was really dark and romantic. I had wine and Matt enjoyed a beer. We were seated in a booth which happened to be next to a drunk guy that had just gotten dumped. He was so loud and obnoxious that by the time it was time to order, we knew his whole life story lol...our waiter was amazing and moved us :) We got free drinks! We had a great time talking and just sat there for a long time enjoying our food and each other. It was perfect.

(mine)

(Matt's)

After dinner we headed back to our hotel. I've been having some insane weeks teaching all these classes so as a treat, Matt said that I had to take a bath and read my Kindle by myself for a while :) It didn't last long because I wanted to spend time with Matt but after I got to curl up in the hotel robe and felt like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" :) I loved it! 

The next morning we slept in until like 9 or 10 and got out around 11. I had Starbucks for breakfast and Matt...he had The Works :) (fries covered in um...well, everything) LOL. I got some new shoes and a scarf at H & M too. We then wanted to head to Stanley Park. When we got there, we parked and then saw signs for the Aquarium. We thought, "why not?" and bought our tickets! We were so glad we did! The Vancouver Aquarium is great! We did so much there! There was a dolphin show, Beluga Whales!, a fun 4D Planet Earth show, otters, seals, & some awesome fish. We ate lunch there too.

We definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Vancouver!

(I'll post a video of the dolphin show later too for my baby sister, Cirrah!)

"Baby beluga in the deep blue sea, you swim so wild..." oh wait.........sad :(

I loved the Beluga Whales!!!

4D Planet Earth show! ... we always take pictures like this when we have 3D glasses on lol.

Awesome, awesome day! (dinner's done now though) To be continued.....................

Vancouver (Part 2: Out on the Town)

After we had a blast at the suspension bridge, we decided to go explore the city. We couldn't check in until 4pm so we still had a good 3 hours. We parked in the middle and the first thing we discovered was the Olympic Cauldron. Matt really thought that was neat. 

There was also an awesome orca whale statue and that is our power animal. 

(Ha, anyone watch Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory?)

It was beautiful seeing the ocean. It was a crummy day, but that's to be expected around here :)

We then found ourselves heading to the historic Gastown area of Vancouver. It was neat. Gas lamps lined the streets. I was a little disappointed in the shops (very touristy) but I have a feeling we just weren't in the right place. Before we left for our trip Katie & Chris told us about an Irish pub that they used to eat at for dinner/drinks and dancing, "The Blarney Stone". We walked right next to it, so decided to eat there for lunch...Chicken Strips & Fries of course. The Pepsi was nasty. I forgot that it would taste different...so weird.

After lunch we were officially exhuasted. Remember, the day before was my girls competition that we were up at 5am for...then up at 6am to leave for Vancouver followed by a long drive...we were done.

We headed back to find our hotel. We had to go to a visitors center to find the address. (We weren't thinking and completely forgot we couldn't use our phones once we crossed the border). 

We loved our hotel so much! It was beautiful! We got there around 4pm and then just hung out there until dinner. 

View from our window. 16th floor.

If I keep going, this post is going to be never ending...I'll follow up with dinner and Monday later. Time to go make dinner for Matt before he leaves for school :)

Vancouver (Part 1: Arriving & Capilano)

I've decided to split our Vancouver trip up into a few different blog posts. We were just there for 2 days but we did so much stuff and I took an insane amount of pictures. It was our first time out of the country together and we did fabulous. No map (no phones with maps) and no agenda. Just us, in Vancouver exploring. It was amazing. We had the best weekend together. I love when we have little getaways, it's so great to reconnect.

So...I'm just going to let the pictures do most of the talking. I won't be able to help adding captions, but if I really journaled about everything...it would take forever to read.

So...

We left on Sunday morning at 7:30am. I did not sleep in the car (I promised Matt I wouldn't). Getting in through the border to Canada was pretty quick, 20-25 minutes. It was neat seeing the slight changes. For instance, we went from our speedometer reading 65 to it reading 100. That was weird to get used to. 

The first thing we did when we got into Vancouver was to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It was the one thing I really wanted to do on our trip and I am so glad we did it. It was so beautiful and scary and just a really fun thing to do together. We went there even before checking in to our hotel. We arrived around 10:30/11:00am. I couldn't believe how brave I was. I thought I was going to be a little scared, but I did it without even hesitating. Matt was freaked out and was so annoyed that I wanted him to take pictures of me on the bridge because that meant stopping. That thing moves! I mean like you feel sometimes like it could flip. It was so awesome! 

My goofball husband :)

No pictures of me on the way across...Matt wouldn't take any and wouldn't let me hold his phone on the bridge lol.

We're alive!

Once you get over the bride, there is the Capilano Treetop Adventure. You go on bridges from the tops of the trees. We felt like we were at Disneyland in Tarzan's treehouse, except real. So awesome!

This photo doesn't look scary, but I'm actually up on a bridge at the tops of huge Douglas Fur trees!

Disneyland?

View of the bridge from a walk we took around on the tree bridges.

Then, it was time to head back across! Remember...there are tons of pictures of me because Matt wouldn't let me hold his iPhone. I'm laughing here because Matt was freaking out when guests in front of us were shaking it and I thought it was fun.

There was yet one more adventure before it was time to leave. If you have a fear of heights, this trip is not for you :)

Walking along the side of the cliff. It kind of looks like it in this picture, but there is no ground under me.

See :)

Chillin' off the edge of the cliff :)

So handsome...

View of the bridge from the cliff.

And then we were done. We were there for probably an hour and a half. It was just $30 each and it was an awesome experience. It's super peaceful and quiet. We loved it!

And that was our Sunday morning. 

We had such a blast together...and that was only the very beginning of our trip. 

To be continued...