Vancouver

Anya's friend Sarinya was in town visiting us from Denver this past week. We had a fun time showing her around Seattle and eating copious amounts of sushi (which will probably be a recurring thing with visitors from non-coastal areas).

The three of us also took a weekend trip to Vancouver, BC. It's one of those cities that's kind of like San Francisco: you go there expecting to like it because of all the good things you've heard. It's been named one of the top three cities in the world in which to live by several different sources; when you mention to Seattlites that you're going there the most common response is "Oh, Vancouver is so cool!"

Most of the hype is justified.

First off, Vancouver is in an incredible location. The downtown area is on a peninsula that sits between a bay and two large inlets; except for a narrow strip it's surrounded entirely by water. At the tip of the peninsula is the huge Stanley Park (yes, it's the same Stanley whose Cup all Canadians seem to covet), which has wonderful views and stands of old-growth forest. Directly across the inlet to the north lie towering mountains. To the west across the Strait of Georgia you can see Vancouver Island, which the city of Vancouver is confusingly not on.

Secondly, Vancouver is a very modern city. It's grown tremendously in the last 20 or 30 years, which is evident by its innumerable glass-and-steel office and condo buildings. It's also a very diverse city, not least because of hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Hong Kong that moved there before that city passed from the control of the British. This density, verticality, and diversity has lead to a very walkable city with lots of activity even on the cold, rainy days we were there.

We stayed in Yaletown, a former industrial area now filled with new residential towers. At the heart of Yaletown are about a dozen square blocks of converted old warehouses that are Vancouver's hot spot for restaurants and bars. This is where real Vancouverites hang out; it's fun to see those neighborhoods rather than the typical tourist areas.

And that brings me to my real point: Vancouver's biggest attraction should be the city itself. My sense is that most of the beaten-path tourist areas (the waterfront, the public market, the zoo, the museums) that you read about in travel books are pretty standard. They're the kind of thing you could find in most cities. Vancouver is best enjoyed by avoiding those areas and exploring on your own. Almost all of the downtown peninsula, with the exception of Gastown and Chinatown is a pleasant example of what a modern city can and should be: green, walkable, lively, safe.

You get the sense that Vancouver is probably a better place to live than to visit. Most of its appeal is in the everyday things rather than the flashy sightseeing attractions. I suppose that's why I liked it so much.

Some random facts that I found interesting:
- Vancouver has only 2 million people in the metro area; half the size of Seattle and about the same size as Portland
- Vancouver gets 48" of rain per year compared to Seattle's 34"
- In 2010 Vancouver will become the first coastal city to host the Winter Olympics, and will also be the warmest city ever to host the winter games (it rarely gets cold enough to snow)