A Walk in the Vancouver Rain

In case you hadn't picked up on it yet, we really enjoy going for walks. If a destination is within 2-3 miles of our home, there's a solid chance we'll opt to walk to it rather than drive. I'd add "weather permitting" to the end of that last sentence, but I'd be lying to you. Even when weather is not permitting, we'll still usually walk. Case in point:  we once casually walked from our apartment in Falmouth down to the beach... during 2011's Hurricane Irene, with tree limbs large and small ominously scattered EVERYWHERE and wind whipping tiny pieces of who-knows-what into my eyes and face.

Well that was all quite a lot of build up to get to, "We went for a walk in the rain the other day." Sorry.

This past weekend was so rainy but it seems like a waste to not go for a walk in our new awesome neighborhood. We live right next to the beach and a great bike/walking path that conveniently takes us right to the popular Granville Island, so how could we resist taking a stroll along the oceanside walkway?

Even in the fog and rain, our tree trunk-lined beach and the large ships in the English Bay are a sight to see.

.  dark spots in the water in the background are ships  .

As I've mentioned before, Vancouver is very well set up for getting around on foot or bike, with special bike lanes on the roads and drivers who appear to be very respectful of giving pedestrians and bikers the right of way, when appropriate. They also have this great bike path that goes along the beaches - the aptly named Seaside Bike Path.  Here's part of it, where you can see it's split in half and demarcated for bikers and walkers:

.  very little room for confusion  .

Here are some things we saw from the path:

.   Downtown Vancouvzie  .

.   bitches be sailin'  .

.   let's get dangerous  .

Granville Island is a popular market area beneath the Granville Bridge. It's sort of a cross between Disney World and Pike Place Market in Seattle - lots of vendors of all different kinds of food, goods, shops, fishing boats, and what-have-you. I'd imagine it's pretty bumpin' on a sunny day.

.  Canadian Epcot  .

Our walk was about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) round trip:

.  professional map-doodler by evening  . 

Everything seems so very walkable here - look how freaking close we are to the city! It reminds me of living in Brookline, when we'd take walks from our apartment in Coolidge Corner all the way down through Boston to the harbor. Here in Vancouver, we're even closer to the city - with the bonus of also being right next to beaches and mountains and bike paths and big bridges. Not. Too. Shabs.

Eventually we'll put our walking to even better use and hike some of these mountains!