Day 36 - Getting to Vancouver

Hello friends, today I finally made it to the West coast as Vanessa and I got to Vancouver, but it wasn't without its challenges. We hit the road at around 7 am (which was a feat in and of itself), and we decided that we wanted to take the significantly more scenic route through the mountains on Highway 99 through Whistler and Squamish, and that was both wonderful and terrible at the same time. It was wonderful because the mountains and the scenery were incredible; the landscape was very unique and there were so many different mountain formations. On the other hand, it was terrible because it resulted in over 10 hours of driving to Vancouver, and it was probably the most terrifying drive I've ever done (especially taking into account the fluctuating weather conditions today). However, after we got out of the mountains, we made it to the part of Highway 99 called the "Sea to Sky Highway", which is a ridiculously scenic route between Whistler and Vancouver, which made it all worth it. 

We were originally planning on visiting the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but after we got there and saw how expensive it was just to go inside and see it, I decided it just wasn't worth it. But funny enough, I was in my covies walking back to my car, and a 1985 Civil Engineering grad from Waterloo came up to me and commented on how he immediately recognized the EngSoc logo on the back. That was a pretty cool experience, Waterloo Engineering is just so far reaching. We then went to the place we'd be staying for the night, which was at the house of one of Vanessa's friend's, Jean-Michel. Vanessa spent some time catching up with him while I went and visited Jericho Beach. At most beaches I've visited, when you look out at the water that's pretty much all you can see... water. At Jericho Beach, on one side you see downtown Vancouver with all of the skyscrapers, and on the other there mountains as far as the eye can see. It was truly a breathtaking spectacle. A cool thing that happened at the beach was that there was a couple taking their wedding photos at the beach, which I thought was adorable. 

I met up with Vanessa at a bus stop and we made our way to Gastown, which is a part of DT Vancouver known for its trendy food & drink scene, and its iconic steam clock. I even got to see the Vancouver Lookout tower (kinda the equivalent of the CN Tower) from the outside. We met up with some great friends while we were there, shout out to Ian Lung, Hannah McPhee and Emily Lim, and had dinner at Tacofino (great Tacos, would recommend). We had a lot of fun hanging out and chatting, and then 4 of us crammed into the back of Jean-Michel's car as he drove us home. Tomorrow I get to explore more of Vancouver, and then we're taking a ferry down to Victoria!

Getting to Vancouver: www.instagram.com/p/BjoqevoFtG7