The View from Above

When you are going back and forth on buses to venues, you get to meet all sorts of interesting people from all over the place. I met a group of Czech-Canadian locals who on the bus back from Whistler who were great tour guides and pointed out islands and landmarks that we passed coming down from the mountains (the trip to and from Whistler is incredibly beautiful with mountains, fjords, and islands). They also gave us some tips on things to see and do while we were out and about the city. They highly recommended going up in one of the float planes that take off from Coal Harbor for an aerial tour of the city. Dina and I figured it was probably a long shot to try to get a seat on one of those tours, but figured one of the other afternoons if we got back early enough from an event we'd look into it.

I am so glad they recommended the planes! Dina and I got back from Cypress mountain on Saturday afternoon and the entire city of Vancouver was out and about enjoying the sunshine and the Olympic spirit that had infected just about everyone. It was incredibly crowded on the streets near the Olympic Flame and the Canada Place, so to escape Dina and I decided to go check out the waterfront. The float planes were right there so we hiked down to the small office that was on the dock next to the float planes. There were no crowds and no lines there so we figured we probably needed reservations, but thought we'd go ask for the availability of a small tour.

They had room on the very next flight and we only had to wait 10 minutes till it was time to board! We felt so lucky to have eluded the crowds and finally gotten to do some non-Olympic related sight-seeing. I was extra lucky and got to ride in the front seat of the airplane next to the pilot!

The views from above were amazing! Vancouver is such a beautiful city and the surrounding mountains and inlets compliment the glass skyscrapers. If you had those views you'd want to see it all the time too!