Vancouver, B.C is a place where we've been: The not-quite-Vancouver and DEFINITELY not Santa Barbara Edition

The last thing we did, right before we crossed the border back to the US, is visit White Rock, B.C., which really isn't Vancouver (though it is close), but is definitely not Santa Barbara, CA, even though it is the shooting location of one of my favorite shows, "Psych," which supposedly takes place in Santa Barbara. One of the main locations of the show is the Psych office, and the exterior of that office is right on the coast in White Rock and is actually a museum.

The best exterior/comparison photo I could find, 
stolen from this person

For shooting, they put a false bay window and put up some barriers. When not shooting, the location looks like this:

The building is actually right next to a superlong pier that I didn't even have the energy to walk down, but we did get some pictures:

The entrance to the pier

The view of the coastline from the pier

 The sidewalk in front of the "office"

White Rock is named after a literal white rock, which is just randomly on the shoreline and apparently was used as a navigation marker back in the day (i.e. "three clicks past the white rock" or however naval navigation is described). 

This picture does not adequately capture my entire lack of enthusiasm

From the pier

We're never going back, but it was fun for five minutes.

Vancouver, B.C. is a place where we've been: Harbor Cruise edition

We also went on a harbor cruise because Josh found a Groupon for it. Vancouver is gorgeous. I told Josh that I wish I could justify a move there, but they probably have enough psychologists as it is. 

Our ship:

 I kept annoying Josh by jumping into his pictures at the last second

 The view:

By the way, this is Canada (in case you weren't sure)

We saw some cool things, like a cruise ship, docked for a day trip:

And the skyline:

Various seaplanes took off and landed:

It was also really windy:

Josh went on his own adventure later and took pictures of some things we saw on the shore during the cruise, such as:

The Digital Orca

And:

The Olympic torch

I recommend a harbor cruise if you're into that kind of thing, which we are (clearly):

Vancouver, B.C. is a place where we've been: Capilano Bridge Edition

One of our goals before moving to ND was to visit the Vancouver, B.C. temple, so Josh got a Living Social deal for the Metropolitan Hotel downtown. We neglected to get pictures, but I highly recommend it. We're definitely going back some day. I always love a place that serves a good eggs benny. 

We didn't really know what else to do, aside from the temple, so we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, VBC's top attraction. 

I went there in 2004, but all I remember is this:

Either the son was named after the dog or the dog after the kid. It shows an alarming lack of originality, but is all-day awesome.

We went across the bridge:

And found the Treetop Adventure:

Which is kind of like the Ewok Village, so Josh geeked out because he was wearing this shirt:

I was less impressed, so I entertained myself by reading:

Waiting until kids were on the bridges, then making them extra shaky:

And photobombing Josh's pictures:

It was very pretty:

And, really, I only got cranky toward the end:

They also have this cool walkway along the side of the cliff (called the "Cliff Walk," duh), which had beautiful views:

And looked like this:

We also saw:

The suspension bridge from the side

Multiple signs warning against graffiti

A very large Canadian Mounty Bear

An old-timey band singing "Big Rock Candy Mountain"

 An eagle totem

And a totem that looked like our cat Mercury, folding into her fat (which I am emulating)

We highly recommend it, especially since there is a free shuttle from some of the hotels in the area. It's great for kids, I guess, but it was also fun for us childless adults too.

Oh, Canada!

After Palmyra, we spent the night in Niagara Falls. My only knowledge of NF comes from my favorite tv show and a Marilyn Monroe movie, I was surprised to find that it is so full of douchebags and casinos. They (the nefarious Canadian government, I assume) shine lights on the falls at night, which, if there wasn't so much Niagaramist might be beautiful.

Two decades too late for a Stephen King thriller (and, yes, I know it's a different kind of mist-- don't be such a literalist)

The view from our room was uh-mazing. 

The next morning we drove to Toronto. Josh kept saying things like, "Wow! They have Home Depot in Canada?!" I thought he was kidding, but apparently his mind was truly blown. On our way to the temple we got extra-special lost because our cellphones roam outside of the country and we didn't want to pay more for the GPS. But once we found ourselves at the CN tower we knew we had gone too far. 

The Toronto temple is surprisingly plain. I got lost (of course) and almost ended up in someone's office before a temple worker stopped me. We also almost headed toward the baptistry, which is in the basement, before someone said, "Are you really going to the baptistry?" 

This temple is not one of my favorites, but I like that the writing on the temple is also in French.

Later that night we got to have dinner with our BNAT friend Heidi. She took us on a walking tour and showed us all the things we missed about Toronto by only staying less than 24 hours.

Although we drove past it, and although Josh talked about it nearly non-stop before our trip, we did not go to the CN Tower. Oh well. Next time....