1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (135 page)

Tow Hill in the Naikoon Provincial Park is a prominent landmark in the northern part of the archipelago.

W
HERE
: 80 miles/129 km west of Prince Rupert. Sandspit (Moresby Island) is a 2-hour flight north of Vancouver.
Visitor info:
Tel 250-559-8316;
www.qcinfo.ca
.
H
OW
: BC Ferries, tel 250-386-3431;
www.bcferries.com
.
G
WAII
H
AANAS
N
ATIONAL
P
ARK
: Tel 250-559-8818;
www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/gwaiihaanas
.
B
UTTERFLY
T
OURS
: Sandspit. Tel 866-568-3770 or 604-740-7018;
www.butterflytours.bc.ca
.
Cost:
8-day kayak and tenting tours to Gwaii Haanas from US$1,595/C$1,790.
When:
July–Aug.
Cost:
8-day Mothership Cruise from US$2,904/C$3,260.
When:
June.
B
EST TIMES
: July–Sept for weather; mid-July for the Edge of the World Music Festival in Tlell (
www.edgefestival.com
).

The Culinary Crossroads of Vancouver

Vancouver, British Columbia

Like a maze of plenty, the Granville Island Public Market is the epicenter of Vancouver’s burgeoning food scene. This warehouselike structure, located on the waters of False Creek in a redeveloped former industrial
area and tucked away beneath the Granville Street Bridge as if an afterthought, is a veritable cornucopia of the Northwest’s best. Stalls sell local fruit, vegetables, flowers, just-caught fresh fish and seafood, local meats and sausages, farm-made cheeses, pastries and still warm baked goods, and wines from the province’s vineyards—the cream of British Columbia’s crop. Come early and catch the city’s top chefs working the market to secure the freshest produce and sweetest fruits. Part of the palpable excitement of the
market is its bustling ethnic diversity—better than anywhere, the market’s food court reflects the cross-pollination of Canada’s most ethnically diverse city. Like Vancouver writ small, the market’s buyers and sellers resemble a culinary League of Nations, with chefs and farmers gathered here to share the incredible bounty of local land and sea. It’s hard to imagine the existence of Vancouver’s flourishing food scene without the passion of those who fill this 50,000-square-foot marketplace.

Granville Island Public Market is a great place to provision a picnic, find a unique food or gift, rediscover culinary curiosity, or assail your senses. At the very least, grab a coffee and a croissant and step out onto the docks fronting the market. Here, musicians strum and buskers perform, while the young and athletic zip by on bikes and Rollerblades. From the waterfront, the urban core of Vancouver rises across the narrow bay, and water taxis zip to and from various downtown stations.

With no chain stores allowed, this public market is a showcase of the region’s bounty.

Granville Island, technically a peninsula, offers much more than the public market. Next door is Emily Carr Institute, British Columbia’s top school of art, design, and media. Visit its student gallery or any of the dozens of artists’ studios and galleries that fill warehouses around the institute. Not surprisingly, with the market close at hand, a number of fine small restaurants have also crowded onto the island, along with theaters and nightclubs. And in the midst of this arty bohemia has arrived a small offbeat boutique hotel on the water’s edge—the Granville Island Hotel, an enjoyable False Creek ferry ride away from downtown.

P
UBLIC
M
ARKET
: 1689 Johnston St. (under the south end of the Granville St. Bridge). Tel 604-666-5784;
www.granvilleisland.com
.
G
RANVILLE
I
SLAND
H
OTEL
: Tel 800-663-1840 or 604-683-7373;
www.granvilleislandhotel.com
.
Cost:
from US$109/C$125 (off-peak), from US$189/C$215 (peak).
B
EST TIMES
: Weekends can be very busy, a scene you’ll either want to experience or to avoid.

Northwest Native Art and Modern Architecture

Vancouver, British Columbia

Rising from a cliffside meadow above the Strait of Georgia’s churning waters, the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia houses one of North America’s leading collections of Northwest
Native art. The focus of the museum is the phantasmagorical carvings of British Columbia First Nation artists: towering totem poles; squat tree-trunk sculptures of ravens, whales, and bears; and intricately colored masks of cedar and feathers. The haunting
figures and artifacts are both historical—many of the carvings formerly served as house poles at remote coastal villages—and contemporary, as traditional wood carving remains an active art form in many Native communities.

The Pacific Northwest was a rich homeland for precontact Native North Americans, allowing for the growth of highly developed cultural and artistic traditions. Native artists created sophisticated carvings to represent clan myths, relate creation stories, and portray the supernatural creatures of Native religion.

The cliff-top building created to house the MOA is as dramatic as the art it holds. Designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson, the award-winning museum is a soaring, light-filled space that seems less a storehouse of artifacts than a brooding house of spirits. From the 50-foot windows of the Great Hall, carved creatures and totem poles stare out across the forests and waters like waiting deities, while in the Rotunda, the massive yellow cedar sculpture
Raven and the First Men
by the late Haida artist Bill Reid is a potent expression of pagan wonder.

A Musqueam house post from one of the Northwest Coast First Nations.

Adjacent to the museum is an outdoor sculpture garden, including a number of memorial and mortuary poles, plus re-creations of 19th-century Haida village structures that blend perfectly into the woodland setting.

W
HERE
: 11 miles/18 km west of downtown Vancouver on the campus of the University of British Columbia. Tel 604-822-5087;
www.moa.ubc.ca
.
W
HEN
: daily, mid-May–Sept; closed Mon, Oct–mid-May.
B
EST TIME
: Tues evenings for free admission.

An Urban Oasis—a Rarity and a Treasure

Vancouver, British Columbia

One of Vancouver’s true glories and North America’s third-largest urban park, the 1,000 green acres of Stanley Park occupy the northern edge of downtown Vancouver, on a wooded peninsula extending into
Burrard Inlet. The parklands were set aside in 1886 and dedicated by Lord Stanley, governor general of Canada, preserving this vast stretch of dense cedars, Douglas firs, and lakes, all linked by shaded trails and quiet drives. Stanley Park is just moments from the core of busy Vancouver, making it an idyllic retreat on sunny summer days, when joggers, bikers, skateboarders, and picnickers take to the park for fresh air and time with the great outdoors.

For the best first impression, take the Seawall Promenade, a 5.5-mile paved walking and biking path along the circumference of the park. Walking briskly, it’s easy to circumnavigate the park in two hours (less if you rent a bike from a park concessionaire), though if you build in time to leisurely visit various sites, stop for coffee or a picnic, or simply relax and take in the extraordinary views, it’s best to allow a full afternoon (free Stanley Park shuttle buses also make a circuit of the park on Stanley Park Drive).

The southern part of the park, nearest downtown, is the most developed. Trails lead to alfresco theater spaces, the city’s formal rose gardens, public art, a visitors center, and incredible vistas of downtown Vancouver over a busy yacht-filled marina. Toward the eastern edge of the park is a grouping of totem poles, carved in the late 1900s by Squamish artists whose ancestors once occupied these lands. The park’s northernmost tip is Prospect Point, with views of North Vancouver, Coast Range peaks, and the soaring Lions Gate Bridge. The west side of the park provides stunning sunset views over Vancouver Island, and between Third Beach and Second Beach—both popular with children and sunbathers—is the Sequoia Grill, a lovely spot for lunch or dinner.

Established in 1886, Stanley Park was Vancouver’s first park; more than 120 years later it remains a place of respite minutes from downtown.

The Vancouver Aquarium, the largest in Canada, occupies a shady corner of Stanley Park. With more than 160 separate aquatic displays spread over 90,000 square feet, this vast underwater zoo houses more than 70,000 aquatic animals in re-created habitats. For many, the highlight of a visit is the acrobatic demonstrations of the marine mammals, including dolphins, sea lions, and beluga whales.

W
HERE
: just north of downtown Vancouver.
Park info:
Tel 604-257-8400;
www.vancoverparks.ca
.
S
EQUOIA
G
RILL
: Tel 604-669-3281;
www.vancouverdine.com
.
Cost:
dinner US$40/C$45.
V
ANCOUVER
A
QUARIUM
: Tel 604-659-3474;
www.vanaqua.com
.
B
EST TIMES
: mid- to late May for rhododendrons; Jul–Sept for weather; Dec for Bright Nights, when a million twinkling lights transform the park.

Eastern Roots in Canada’s West

Vancouver, British Columbia

Canada prides itself on its multiculturalism, a fascinating mosaic of peoples and customs that finds its apogee in Vancouver, home to the largest Chinese population of any city outside Asia. The first Chinese immigrants
arrived to work the 1858 gold rush and later the railroads, and as their numbers grew, the Chinese created and settled into their own Vancouver community. The massive influx of Hong Kong Chinese in the 1980s and ’90s only underscored what had been apparent for over a century—the great affinity that exists between China and Vancouver. Its ever-expanding Chinatown is one of the largest and most vibrant Asian enclaves in North America. Just east of downtown Vancouver is a real Chinese market and business district; nearly all signs are in Chinese, and storefronts are filled with hanging ducks, bales of dried fish, exotic fruits, and unlikely looking medicinal potions.