10 Things to Do in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada

As you know, one of my goals this year to to purge the majority of the 4,000+ photos from my phone. Well, last night as I was scrolling through the images, I came across the time The Girl and I traveled to Vancouver back in 2017. I remember being blown away by its beauty, and all the fun things there was to do and see there. I took a million pictures so I could come back and share them with you. And well, I’m finally getting around to doing that now.  Better late than never, right?
Bottom line: If you saw every one of the pics I snapped, you’d want to hop a plane to Vancouver today. It’s gorgeous and such a great city to visit. Here are some of the fun things we saw:

VanDusen Botanical Garden: It’s a 55 acre outdoor oasis with over 7,500 plant species and varieties, the VanDusen Botanical Garden is a serene setting located right in the heart of Vancouver. It’s the perfect spot for a picnic, to explore the hedge maze with your kids, or to check out the local wildlife. They also have a really cool visitor center we loved!

Kitsilano Beach: This beach has something for everyone! Sunbathers, volleyball players, sandcastle makers and families alike will love this beach. Kits Beach as the locals call it, is a great beach to swim at, too, because the water is calm and there’s a pool called, Kits Pool, which is Canada’s longest pool and part of the beach’s extended park.



Stanley Park: The city’s largest urban park is a national historic site right in the center of the city. With 405-hectares that border downtown Vancouver. Stanley Park is almost entirely surrounded by the waters of Vancouver Harbor and English Bay and, and is one of the top Vancouver attractions. Mountains, rain forest, and sea wall, one walk through the park and you’ll hit all 3!

Granville Island: I was going to try to sum up Granville Island in my own words, but when I was researching places to go at the time, I found this quote and it immediately made me want to stop by.

“This former industrial site is now one of Vancouver’s most beloved neighborhoods. Practically its own mini-city, Granville Island’s former factories now house trendy restaurants, galleries and theaters. But the main draw here is the Granville Island Public Market, often described as one of the best open-air markets in North America. Among the seemingly endless aisles of fresh produce and local crafts, you’ll find a variety of food stalls selling everything from baked goods to ethnic snacks.”

We were both so glad we went there! That public market was unlike anything I’ve seen. Awwe-some.

Vancouver Aquarium: The Vancouver Aquarium is Canada’s largest aquarium and home to more than 70,000 animals including eels, dolphins, anacondas, sea otters, sloths, and more. Visitors can learn all about the region’s marine life through their educational “encounters” program, which allows visitors to go behind the scenes and get up close and personal with the animals and the people who train them. So you can help “train” and feed dolphins, otters, turtles, sea lions, and more!

Neverland Tea Salon – Everyone has to eat, right? Neverland Tea Salon is hands down, the best place The Girl and I have ever stopped for afternoon tea. Everything from the nibbles to the tea blends were spot on. You simply can’t visit Vancouver without stopping here. Butter Baked Goods was pretty amazing too.

Vancouver Art Gallery: This gallery was awesome! It included artwork by all sorts of artists: indigenous, super world-famous, and Canadian alike. They also had a lot of art of the Asia Pacific region at the gallery’s Institute of Asian Art. Oh and if you’re hungry, they have a cool rooftop patio cafe.

Capilano Suspension Bridge: Experience Vancouver the way the birds do by dangling high above North Vancouver on the Capilano Suspension Bridge {unless you’re scared of heights…then RUN away!}. Constructed in 1889, it’s the oldest tourist attraction in the city! It’s 450-feet long, and 230-feet high and offers awesome views of the Capilano River below. And when you reach the other side of the canyon you’ll find more suspension bridges and more fun at the Treetops Adventure.

Queen Elizabeth Park: This 128-acre park is the highest point in the city and located at Vancouver’s geographic center. It’s full of gorgeousness like quarry gardens, amazing city and mountain views, an arboretum, a cool rose garden that’ll blow you away and a place they call Painters’ Corner, where local artists display and sell their work. It really is a lovely park with a lovely name to boot!

Bloedel Floral Conservatory: Located at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park, the conservatory houses an aviary filled with all sorts of exotic feathered friends big and small and is worth every penny of the $6.75 admission fee. Side note: I may have quoted Billy from Dumb and Dumber a few times while we were there.

UBC Farm Farmers’ Market: If you’ll be in the Vancouver area during the growing season {June – October} be sure and stop by the one of the University of British Columbia’s farmer’s markets not only for fresh vegetables, but for locally produced food as well {Watch out for the Kombucha though, it’s a little on the potent side}. The Girl and I happened upon one of their Saturday markets and ended up going home with a cooler filled with goodness.

So what did I miss? What are some awesome Vancouver hot spots? Have you been? Did you love it as much as we did?

Have a wonderful Thursday everyone,

~Mavis



This content was original published at One Hundred Dollars a Month and is copyrighted material. If you are reading this on another website it is being published without consent.


        


10 Cool Ways To Improve Your Home With a DIY Radiator Cover


The radiator is never the best feature in a room no matter how you look at it and since under-floor heating is not always an option we’re usually stuck with what we have. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Why conform yourself to looking at an ugly radiator when there are plenty of cheap radiator covers ready that can change all that. Not just this, but there’s also always the option of a DIY radiator cover which can actually turn to be a pretty fun and interesting project. If you’re curious, we have some cool ideas that we’d like to share with you today.

Not all radiators look bad but few are actually aesthetically pleasing so a cover is a nice way to change the decor and to do something cool that others can take note of. At the same time, a radiator cover can also be useful. For example, you can use it as a little shelf on which you can keep some decorations, a few potted plants or, if the radiator sits below a window, your cat might enjoy climbing on it every once in a while. The design featured on jakandjil looks really nice. Check out the DIY project to find out more about it.

The radiator cover shouldn’t block the heat, otherwise it does more harm than good. It shouldn’t sit too tight around the radiator either so make sure you leave a bit of space on all sides for good air flow. As for the design, that’s entirely up to you to pick something that suits your needs and your home’s overall decor and style. If you want something simple and modern with a little bit of Scandinavian charm, check out the tutorial on christinasadventures which explains how to build a cover just like the one in this picture.

The cover doesn’t necessarily have to match the radiator’s proportions. In fact, a cool idea can be to make it stretch along the entire wall or at least to be considerably wider than the radiator. This way it will completely disguise the radiator and it will look like a standalone piece with its own separate function. A design that perfectly suits this idea can be found on styleroom.

In many ways a radiator cover is similar to a console table and this is a design that reflects this perfectly. The radiator is still visible so the goal here is not to conceal it but to let you make the most of that little space it occupies by bringing more functionality to the table, quite literally. If you like this design, you can find out more about this radiator cover on daeneryfurniture.

Another cool idea is to build a radiator cover that lets you create a window nook. If you plan on using it as a window seat make sure it’s strong and sturdy. Alternatively you can simply choose to extend the windowsill to go over the radiator, with matching supports attached to the floor. Perhaps you’d like to use this stylish radiator cover from design-milk as a source of inspiration for your project.

Knowing how incredibly versatile wooden pallets are it’s not surprising to see one being converted into a radiator cover. It’s a very simple and cost-effective way of making your radiator more aesthetically-pleasing and more practical at the same time. Of course, this is not a look for everyone or for every type of room. Check out lantliv for more details about this design and about this house in general.

Putting a cover over a radiator can be a decision based primarily on adding more functionality to a space and taking full advantage of a small area by using the cover as an extra shelf, console table or storage surface. The fact that it will also make the radiator look nicer is a nice plus. Find more smart design solutions for small spaces on apartmenttherapy.

Building a radiator cover can be a very cheap and simple project, especially if you can use leftover materials from previous projects. Check out for example this radiator cover featured on instructables which was made using reclaimed fireplace wood, timber cladding and off cuts. You could definitely make adjustments to this project and use different materials, based on what’s available to you.

If your primary goal is not to hide the radiator but to put it to good use there’s no point in concealing it completely. You can just add a shelf above the radiator, as shown in this instructables project. This is an approach which could work for spaces like the entryway, the mudroom or a hallway. If you plan on building something similar, look for ways to customize the shelf cover so it best suits your radiator, storage needs and design preferences.

In this case the radiator itself looks a lot like a bench so adding a wooden top was a rather natural thing to do. The positioning of the radiator right in front of the window actually works out great here. Instead of being in the way, the radiator actually looks like it belongs there now. Check out the details of this project on averageinspired.