Two days in Vancouver- a Seaplane and a Polo Club
One of the great parts of my job is not just that I get to visit many places, but I get to visit cities unexpectedly. I have always loved to travel and explore new cities, but my traveling is always somewhat planned out, or I hear about a place or have a friend living somewhere and choose to go there. But being a flight attendant I sometimes go to places I had never expected to go or planned on my own.
Last week we had a trip come up out of the blue (to be honest most of our flights as a private jet come out of the blue) and we were heading to Vancouver. I had never been there before and it wasn’t exactly on my bucket list (mostly because it is just so far away and I knew nothing about the city) but now it is most definitely on my “must go back for longer” list.
A quick search online and we had made a short list of areas to explore. We started our day going in to Vancouver Downtown at the end station of the sky train: Waterfront and a tour up to the Vancouver Lookout for a great view of the entire city from 168 meters.
Next thing on our list was Stanley Park and we decided to walk the scenic route by the harbor and there we spotted the seaplanes, being all aviation geeks we immediately decided that this was a must and booked a flight for 30 minutes later. I had actually never been on such a small plane before and it was awesome, we did a 20 minute flight around all of Vancouver and got to see the entire city from above. I can definitely recommend doing this when visiting Vancouver (or other places, that little plane was so much fun).
Vancouver Skyline from the harbor before our flight
Ducks in a row, I mean De Havilland Beaver Planes in a row
Super excited with our Barbie pink boarding passes, all boarding passes should look like this
Stanley Park
Lion’s Gate Bridge
Granville Street from above
False Creek
Obligatory selfie inside the plane
And then we turned
#Crewfie
Did we get hypoxic at only 1,600 feet? Nah this is us being normal
After the flight the weather went from ok to stormy, so we just had lunch for a few hours and then got lost inside the Pacific Centre mall and took advantage of the low Canadian dollar (or actually just used it as an excuse to go shopping).
I am obsessed with sweet potato friends, later on I realized I should have gone for the traditional ‘Poutine’ well if that’s not a reason to go back I don’t know what is.
A few months ago I received an e-mail from Ben, he had found my blog and appreciated my love for polo and he said: If you are ever in Vancouver let me know. So I was in Vancouver and I let him know and I am so glad that I did. He showed me the polo club, their stick and ball field, I met one of the founders Claudia, made some new polo pony friends and became completely infatuated with the Southlands of Vancouver and all of the amazing equestrian houses. It is truly horse country, where people have small barns with a few horses in their backyards, I really can’t imagine anything cooler than that.
The arena and the stick and ball field at the Vancouver Polo Club
New friends!
After the tour of the Southlands we drove in to Granville Island for lunch, a place I had heard a lot about and was keen to visit. It is such a quaint and cute little area of Vancouver. Basically a little island underneath the bridge with a market offering everything from fresh fruit to delicious pastries and a the area boasts some very interesting art in all forms, truly a special place to visit and a great place to have lunch with a view.
Granville Island entrance
I have a huge sweet tooth and this was a sight for sore eyes.
Lunch with a view
Unfortunately my trip was very short and I didn’t have time for more exploring, but Ben told me about all the fun activities him and his family get up to in and around Vancouver, from sailing to skiing and everything in between, the possibilities are endless. Vancouver as a town and community has a great feel to it; people are so nice, friendly and polite (Yeah I know, the Canadian stereotype, but seriously they are very polite), the streets are clean and everyone seems very active and outdoorsy even in the city center. So Vancouver is definitely on my “must go back for longer” list and I hope it can be soon.
As you guys know I love recommendations, so let me know in the comments field below if you have some favorite places or activities in this beautiful city. Or tell me about your city, maybe I will show up there one day 🙂
