We enjoyed another lovely sleep, slow waking and relaxed coffees and a hearty breakfast made by John for our anniversary morning. Then we grabbed ourselves a day pass transport ticket so we could take any buses or trains all day, and headed off to hike at Lynn Canyon park.
This park has a small suspension bridge that crosses over glorious falls and gives a wiggly but impressive view of the canyon. On the other side of the bridge is the most incredible park I think I’ve ever been in! All wild spaces are beautiful in my opinion, but this one…I’ve never smelled a park so wonderfully aromatic! It smelled like all the richest botanicals concentrated into a wondrous feast for the senses. I kept saying that I want a shampoo or body wash that smells like that forest! There were cedars as impossibly huge as the ones we saw in Inverness in Scotland, and massive pines, loads of blooming spring plants, giant fiddleheads and moss covered everything. It looked like the forest in Endor in Return of the Jedi!
We had such a wonderful hike, but holy cats, we must’ve did 8000 stairs! It looked like they replaced or installed new wooden walking paths and stairs in 2020, and we were grateful for them because the paths would have been a lot more challenging without them. They had also installed lots of high fencing to deter thrill seekers from diving or slipping into the raging falls, and there were signs everywhere saying that these dangerous cliffs have claimed many lives. I cannot even fathom the notion of wanting to jump off a cliff into swirling rapids! However, there were still pools along the path that looked so clear and beautiful that they would be a delight to wade in!
At one resting point, we decided to sit for a little since there was a bench and I was huffing and puffing pretty good, and we chatted with an Aussie couple for a while. We then made our way up the last steeeeep climb and had a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and bananas that we had packed. After checking out the gift shop, we set off on the rest of the hike and oh my, so many more steep stairs! That path then led us straight to the bus stop we needed to head back into town. (John is such a great navigator of maps and public transportation !)
After that vigorous hike, and because the day was quite hot, we decided to go see Return of the Jedi that was playing in one of the theaters here. It was great to hang out in the dark, cool theater and rest our feet!. Then we decided to head back to the Airbnb for a little rest and decided where we wanted to eat for our anniversary dinner. We also opened our anniversary cards to each other and they were very sweet.
We jumped back on the little water taxi to Granville Island and ate at a fancy seafood place called The Sandbar overlooking the bay. They had a live piano player that set the mood very nicely. Because it was later and I didn’t want to eat too much, and because I had a craving for it, I had the clam chowder, and John had the cedar plank baked salmon with a sweet lemon soy glaze, roasted Chinese broccoli and peppers with rice. Both were delicious and we had a lovely time celebrating 25 years of marriage as we watched the sun setting over the bay and all the lights of the city aglow.
Then we hopped onto another water taxi, the last one of the evening that we just caught by a few minutes, and enjoyed a ride of the darkening waters to our stop. I would have liked to have shot some night photos, but we wanted to catch the ferry and then by the time we made it to our dock, I had to pee so we hustled off home. We relaxed a bit watching our favorite anniversary movie “So I Married an Axe Murderer” and then I was so pooped I went to bed while John stayed up a bit to watch the Shania Twain concert let out across the street.
What a lovely 25th anniversary!
