Vancouver Day 2, Tandem Biking

After our return from Grouse Mountain (read about our trip here) we wandered around town for a bit trying to decide what to do next. Stanley Park had come highly recommended. We had our big day trip to Whistler planned for the next day and we weren't sure if we'd make it to Stanley then.
So I came up with a BRILLIANT idea. We were headed over to Stanley Park and TANDEM BIKE!! I know, you're wishing you had come up with this yourself aren't you?

Remember earlier on Day 2 I told you it was 4/20. Well, at this point in the day it
had become total chaos. It's probably a good thing we escaped to the mountain for the day.
Several streets were shut down, bus routes were extra confusing (over all it's a great public transit system). We waited a while for a bus that flew right by us to stay on schedule.
We ended up walking a bit to catch a bus at another stop and came across this police shop. I wish we had known and would have taken a patch! There were lots of local patches on the wall but not ours!

We made it to the bike shop and hopped right on to my (not so) brilliant idea.
Let's just say it was good for team building and we laughed our heads off (until we started arguing).
It was absolutely an experience I will never forget!

Here's the thing about tandem. The bigger guy goes up front. Do you see how much bigger he is than me? I didn't go to Stanley Park to stare at his ginormous backpack in my face! I was in tears laughing within minutes of getting on the bike. We both realized really fast it was a bad idea. Not to mention he tells me that the bike was awful. He rides a nice mountain bike at home though so I'm not sure our rental had any chance of holding up!

We stopped to snap a few pics along the way. But, it was getting cold and rainy.
Stanley Park is huge and we didn't want to get stuck on the wrong side or in the middle of it
when it was time to turn the bike back in. We didn't have a lot of time.

We rode along the coastline and stopped for some awesome pictures.
This is one of my favorites by far.

In an effort to save time The Officer decided to cut through the middle of the park.
Aka: the trails. It would have been a whole lot more fun on two bikes. For two people
who are relatively the same size it would probably be more enjoyable.

(Did I mention that every time we went down a hill I started to panic and
beg him to slow down? I don't like hills on a bike when I'm in control,
much less behind the big black backpack with no frontal view!)

Luckily the trails we went on were nice and flat. It was serene and peaceful
(other than our two bad moods that had started to set in, we were getting tired and frustrated).
At this point we were pretty much walking the bike so I had time to take some pictures.

I really wish we had more time in Stanley Park. Back in the park was just beautiful and relaxing.
I loved it. I know why it was so highly recommended.
We saw an owl up close and some amazing trees. There I am, tiny at the bottom.

I wandered off for a few minutes to try to find some seashells but I didn't have much luck. Shortly after hopping back on the bike we saw a biker get hit by a car. Ok, to be fair, the biker really hit the car and not the other way around. Nobody was hurt, but it was scary still! I felt so bad for the little old man she hit. He must have been 90 years old and it took him quite some time to get back down the street to her. We hung around for a few minutes to make sure everything was under control.
I wasn't super excited about navigating the roads on our bike after that! But, The Officer was done at this point and found the quickest route back to the bike shop.

After turning in our awesome bike we started to look for a place to eat.
We walked, and walked, and walked. We just kept walking. We weren't all that close to
our place but we ended up just a few blocks away! We kept looking for the perfect place
to eat but couldn't decide on anything. We finally ended up at Earl's Steakhouse.
We were in such a daze at this point we just picked a place that looked interesting!

It had been an expensive day so we agreed upon sharing a meal. I think we had a burger. It was kind of a forgettable place. It was a nice restaurant and we enjoyed the food. However, there are too many amazing places in Vancouver to eat for me to recommend this over some of the other ones.

Overall, Day 2 was a success. We enjoyed beautiful scenery and made memories we'll never forget. Isn't that what vacation is all about?

Day 3 was our best day yet. I have lots of beautiful pictures to share with you from our drive to Whistler! Keep looking!