Sendero Group Travel Blog

This morning, nine of us headed out to visit Granville Island. The island is a small island and shopping district in Vancouver with loads of Food, art, history, culture and entertainment. There is a causeway that connects the island to the mainland but we decided to catch the Aquabus at the south end of Hornby Street. From the hotel, we calculated the route and walked about two-thirds of a mile before arriving at the ferry landing. As we neared the landing, Payton and Anthony zoomed right over to an archway where a ramp led down to the dock. Who needs vision when you have Seeing Eye dogs and a GPS!

Apparently these rainbow-colored Aquabus ferries continuously criss-cross False Creek so it didn’t take long before we found ourselves boarding the water taxi. Five minutes later, the Aquabus dropped us off on Granville Island at a dock beside the Arts Club Theatre. We walked up the ramp into the Public Market where our party split into two smaller groups. Our group decided to start by hunting for tea. Jim typed “tea” into the POI search and found one nearby shop. We set the destination to the Granville Island Tea Company and off we went. Since there were very few defined streets and many open plazas, we could not follow a specific route to the tea shop. Rather, we repeatedly asked the GPS for “clock” direction and distance to the shop since it was but one of dozens of businesses in the midst of the public market.

The service at the Granville Island Tea Company shop was excellent. There were dozens of teas to choose from and the sales lady passed large tins of tea around so we could experience the wonderful aromas. She said aroma was an essential part of enjoying a fine cup of tea. I bought 50 grams of some fabulous herbal vanilla tea that I’d never heard of.

By now our group was getting hungry so we headed over to The Sandbar restaurant located directly under the Granville Street Bridge. Apparently Granville Island was once known as the “Great Sandbar” where local tribes came over to enjoy fish and serenity. The restaurant is perched over the waterfront and serves fresh fish and seafood. After we ate, we went back over to the public market to finish our shopping extravaganza.

The market features over 50 permanent specialty businesses and about the same number of “day” tables and stalls. We found a really cool soap table where I purchased a bar of spearmint eucalyptus soap and another that smelled like orange mint. We browsed a bit longer and then decided to go back to the hotel for a short break before heading out for the next adventure. We fired up the GPS units and we were off again!