Vancouver, British Columbia {May 12-13}

Several months ago some friends reached out to us and asked if we’d be interested in going up to Vancouver, BC for the U2 concert.  The band was beginning their Joshua Tree tour in Vancouver and would be coming to Seattle two days later, but the Seattle concert was on a Sunday.  We of course said, Yes!  Several other couples ended up purchasing tickets to the concert – all of varying degrees of expensive. 

I originally thought that we’d go up with at least one of the couples, but the Olsen’s, who we had tickets with, couldn’t head up until Friday afternoon and need to head back home early on Saturday so we decided we’d drive up on our own and not be limited or tied to anyone else’s schedule. 

We stopped in Blaine, just shy of the Canadian border to enjoy some inexpensive monster-sized ice-cream cones.  Perfect breakfast!

We checked into our hotel – the Westin Bayshore (courtesy of SPG points) and relaxed for just a moment before heading out to eat lunch and bike Stanley Park.

Dude, your feet are ginormous!

We ate at little café across the street from the hotel where they served smaller sized entrees.

The Westin had courtesy bikes available for guests so we snagged a couple of those and off we went.  Stanley Park is a beautiful, easy ride.  We stopped a few times to take in the views and take some selfies.

It started to sprinkle just as we finished.  We cleaned up and then headed down to the lobby where we were ran into three other couples (who we didn’t realize were staying at the same hotel as us) and the eight of us split up into two cabs and were off to dinner.  Getting a dinner reservation for 18 people when U2 is in town wasn’t easy, but the Vernon’s were able to make arrangements for all of us to eat at The Keg.  We were super impressed when they led us downstairs to the private dining room, with our private restroom, lounge area and serving staff.

I can’t say that the food was AMAZING, but the company and experience was top notch.

We were close enough to the arena to walk over to the concert and arrived with oodles of time to wander around and get pumped up for the concert.

Mumford & Sons was the opening act and I was pleasantly surprised by how familiar I was with their music.  It was great!

U2 on the other hand was honestly a bit disappointing.  Besides saying “Hi” to Vancouver they never tried to engage or connect with the audience and when they did speak it was much too politically heavy for my tastes.  I suppose I should have expected as much.  I’d much rather just be entertained than preached to. 

The end of the concert was another major disappointment.  They closed with a song they’d never preformed before then walked off stage.  People got up and started to leave.  I was like; no this is when we cheer for them to come back out for an encore.  Where we hold our lighters (ie cell phone flashlights) up in the air and they come running out and show us why they are famous around the world.  Nope, no encore.  Just the end.  Apparently, they did perform an encore in Seattle just days later AND they sung WITH Mumford & Sons, which would have been awesome.

Anyhow… absolutely no regrets about going.  They sang many of their classic songs and it was enjoyable.  Just won’t rank as one of my favorites – which is crazy cause it was U2?!?

We woke up Saturday morning at 9am with a text from our friends that they were planning to be at Granville Island at 9:30am.  We decided we would pass on trying to meet up with everyone and just do our own thing.  Capilano Suspension Bridge Park was first on our agenda.  It was a bit pricey so it was a good thing for us to do without paying for five additional kiddos.

The Bridge is 460 feet long and 230 feet above the Capilano River.

The Treetop Adventure features multiple footbridges suspended in the trees.  Pretty cool.

We found out Justin has the wingspan of a Canadian Goose with only a 10% hunting accuracy – I have the wingspan of Great Horned Owl, which we learned has 90% success.  Sounds about right ;)

The Cliff Walk was also very cool.

We picked up some Canadian goodies at Costco before heading to Granville Island for lunch/dinner – fresh pastries, macrons, etc…  Then it was homeward bound with a quick stop for another round of ice-cream cones at the border and then Winco.  Cause it just isn’t a date without a trip to a grocery store.  A wonderful fun-filled weekend!  This was the first time we’ve left the kids overnight and everything went so perfectly at home that we had zero concerns leaving them the following weekend as well.  So grateful for such great kids!