After spending time on Sunday in the beach town of White Rock, Monday was our day to explore North Vancouver. North Vancouver is a separate city from Vancouver. People often refer to it as the North Shore since it is on the north side of Vancouver Harbor. It is also right next to the mountains so there are a number of activities related to the outdoors here as well.
We split our day into two parts. For the first part we went down to the harbor area. This is an area that the city seems to be trying to develop as a tourist attraction. Along the shore area there is a walk named the Spirit Walk that visitors can follow. It goes farther than just the North Vancouver area, but it is a well marked area near the water here. Visitors will see red dashes on the sidewalks to indicate the route of the walk.
After parking in a parking garage, we found the Spirit Trail. It first took us to the Waterfront Park. This is a nice park with wonderful views across the harbor. Unfortunately a large container ship had parked in the middle of the harbor preventing us from getting a clear view of the Vancouver skyline. We could see part of the skyline and then move down and see other parts of it. The ship was not moving so we just had to deal with the fact that it interrupted the view.
On entering the park one can’t help but notice the unusual metal sculpture. The curves in the top represent mountains. Beside a walkway of the park I noted another interesting statue. It immediately reminded me of some of the unusual statues that I had seen in South Korea. Sure enough, as I got close to it, I saw a sign indicating it was a gift from the people of South Korea. The park had one other statue of sorts that looks like an old buoy.
Nearby we found a tribute to sailors in a compass formation and some First Nations statues in a native looking dwelling. The park also contains a place to walk out to a viewpoint higher up than the park land.
From the park we walked east past the entrance for the Seabus. The Seabus crosses the harbor to Vancouver. It takes about 12 minutes. This is not really a tourist attraction. Commuters use this daily to get back and forth across the harbor. There is a major bus station here allowing commuters to catch a bus to take them back and forth to their neighborhoods.
The next spot we came to was the Quay. This is a place for small businesses and restaurants to share their products. There are two aisles on the main floor and then there is an upstairs area. Upstairs is more stores while the main floor has most of the small restaurants. Downstairs the areas are pretty open like a food court. It seemed to be a pretty busy place, especially as it got closer to lunch time.
Right next to the Quay they have developed an area that used to be a shipbuilding space. The company that built ships at Wallace Shipyards was there since before World War I. Now a large yellow crane stands in the middle of the area. There is also a long dock one can walk out on which gives more views of Vancouver and the other parts of the harbor. East of Vancouver it seems to be a lot of industrial activity along the harbor’s edge as cranes dominate the skyline.
Next to the long dock is an active ship repair business so the work on ships in the area does continue.
Overlooking the water are three very large condo or apartment complexes. What makes them unusual is that all the walls appear to be made of glass. Some of the glass is green and opaque so I wasn’t entirely sure if it was glass. Either way with all the windows and views over the water, this would be quite the place to live.
As we wandered back we found a large covered area with seating and what looked like small mountains for children to play on. There also seemed to be a stage area here as well with a sign saying Shipbuilders’ Square. It seems the city really is trying to make this a gathering place for the community and not just a tourist attraction.
After wandering around the waterfront for a few hours we got some lunch and did the old folks thing; we took a nap. Later we would check out the nature side of North Vancouver. Check out that adventure next Wednesday and don’t forget to let your friends know what they are missing. One way to do that is to tap the star “like” button at the bottom of the post. See you next week.