Blustery Day on the Seawall

Dramatic windy scenes along the west side of the Seawall

Today was a long day that started with breakfast with an ex-colleague who is in Vancouver for Christmas. We loaded up on brunch at White Spot and then headed downtown to walk around the Seawall at Stanley Park. 

Construction of the Seawall began back in 1917, overseen by master stone mason James Cunningham. But it wasn't until 1980 when the entire loop of the Seawall was declared completed.  

Lions Gate Bridge with busy traffic

Thankfully it wasn't raining in the early afternoon, and by the time we got to the start of the Seawall, the sun came out, along with gorgeous blue skies and fluffy white clouds. The 13km walk started off well, though once we got to the north side of the park it was chilly because the sun wasn't shining in this area. 

By the time we reached underneath Lions Gate Bridge, the temperature became chilly, and powered on to keep warm. Towards the mouth of Burrard Inlet, the wind picked up and I was bent forward as the wind blasted us head on. Even the water crashed onto the walkway, spewing onto the asphalt. We thought we had avoided it and then splash! We were sprayed with seawater. Luckily it wasn't a lot, but it was such a surprise!

From walking around the Seawall we didn't see too much of the trees taken down. About 25 percent of 160,000 of the trees need to be chopped down because they were infested by the hemlock looper moths, a native species. The problem was further exacerbated by drought this summer. Removing the dead and dying trees will cost taxpayers C$4.4 million, but it needs to be done, and other, more resistant trees need to be planted.

Looking out to the Pacific Ocean and the sun

After over two hours, we reached the end of the Seawall at David Street and made the hike up to Burrard to get back to the hotel again.

Needless to say we were exhausted by the time we got back and I promptly closed my eyes for a light nap on a chair! We had walked 16km in total, over 22,000 steps and 1,000 calories spent.