A Busy Weekend in the City - Fun in Vancouver and Squamish

After spending most weekends on Galiano, we had a weekend in the city (sort of) that we made the most of. Friday night I hung out with my friend Dave at the breweries in Port Moody. Saturday was all Vancouver as we started the day at the Khatsailano Street Festival, followed by a wander looking for a place to watch the England game, a stop at a beach volleyball tournament and then Symphony at Sunset. Sunday we headed up to Squamish to do a hike on the Sea to Sky Gondola, followed by hanging out with our friends Nicole and Anthony. I’m tired just thinking about it all!

Khatsailano Street Festival

Our day started out on Saturday morning, making the shortish walk across 6th, past Burrard ands out to West 4th Avenue, which was having it’s annual transformation into the vibrant Khatsahlano Street Party. This year, it was embracing a whimsical "Alice in Wonderland" theme, as this massive, free 10-block celebration captured the ultimate spirit of West Coast community and the first real blast of summer. Over 50 local bands filled the air with music, while thousands of people connected over bustling food trucks, lively outdoor beer gardens, and hundreds of artisan stalls. We had a slice of pizza close to our end, and walked the full length of the festivities, checking everything out.

The start of the madness.

The far end was more of the “kids zone”. We thought that this big colouring board was a fun touch.

It was a pretty good turn out at a fun community event.

The map of our walk through Katsailano, thena cross Kits Beach to where we grabbed some scooters to head over to Granville Island.

Our “plan” had been to walk the length of the festival and check everything out, then walk back to where we started and go to the pub nearest to home to watch the England game in the World Cup. We did not really think that through. Everyone else had the same plan and they made reservations. Us, not so much and they were completed sold out.

That theme continued as we headed over to Kits Beach and tried a couple of other places, all already at capacity more than an hour before the game. So much for spontaneity. There was a big beach volleyball tournament, the Vancouver Open, happening at Kits Beach. We walked by to check it out, but the main viewing area required a ticket, and we really wanted to watch the soccer. So we looked on for a few minutes then continued on our way.

Close to the beach we were able to grab a couple of Lime scooters to get us over to Granville Island more quickly. We thought we’d have one last try at finding a place to watch the game, before giving up to head home. We started with the formal FIFA Watch Party site, but not a surprise, it was overflowing. And the restaurants all looked jammed so we gave up, grabbed some food for our later adventure from the market and headed home to watch the game. We arrived just as the match was kicking off, so it all worked out - and England won!

Symphony at Sunset

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Our walk and AquaBus over to the park. It’s literally across False Creek from home, but still a bit of a pain to get to!

After watching the game, we did not have a lot of time before we needed to pack up our picnic dinner and head out to David Lam park for Symphony at Sunset. One of Vancouver’s most beloved, but recent summer traditions, Symphony at Sunset, was returning for its seventh annual event.

We walked along the seawall over to Stamp’s Landing where we grabbed a water taxi across False Creek. It dropped us off at the edge of the park where it was a quick walk over to David Lam Park to find a place to set up.

Historically, the event was held at Sunset Beach Park (where we watched last year from a friend’s place overlooking the park), this year’s free, open-air performance temporarily moved to David Lam Park in Yaletown due to construction.

Led by Maestro Otto Tausk, the full Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) put on amazing show under the open sky. The performance featured a gorgeous blend of classical masterworks and iconic Hollywood film scores as the sun set over the city.

We had planned to be there about 2 hours before the show, and still barely had room to lay out a blanket! The place was jammed and people just kept trying to stuff themselves into every little piece of available ground. And the ground was like concrete as we haven’t had rain in foreverWe were pretty far away, and the crowd was a distraction and certianly made the event much less enjoyable.

We were quite a distance away from the stage when we finally found a patch of lawn to set our blanket down on.

The less zoomed in view shows you how far we were. Still, we had brought a nice picnic dinner and had almost 2 hours to kill before the show.

The wide angle view shows how many people were already there, hours before us!

And looking back, all the people that filled in even further back than us.

The 2026 Setlist:

Classical Favorites:

• O Canada by Calixa Lavallée

• The Coast Salish Anthem (Arr. William Rowson)

• Symphony No. 5, Op. 67, I. Allegro con brio by Ludwig van Beethoven

• Enigma Variations: Nimrod by Edward Elgar

• Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28 by Camille Saint-Saëns

• Letter from the Afterlife by Dinuk Wijeratne

• Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, II. Allegretto by Ludwig van Beethoven

• Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, IV. Finale by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Blockbuster Film Scores (John Williams):

• Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Theme

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Witches, Wands, and Wizards & Aunt Marge's Waltz

• Hook: The Flight to Neverland

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: Flying Theme

The music was great, but sitting on the concrete-like lawn in the park was painful! We did not bring our camp chairs (huge mistake on my part) and there were so many people all jammed in around us that it really wasn’t that much fun. We were not unhappy when it was over and it was time to wander home.

To get home, we once again took the AquaBus, this time back to Granville Island. While we had to wait for the water taxi for a decent amount of time, it was much faster than walking all the way around False Creek, and the walk home through a much quieter Granville Island is a quick one. We were home by 10ish, which was good as we had another big day planned for Sunday.

As we were walking home, we went past the now-empty Granville Island FIFA Watch Party venue. It was empty but the screen was still lit up and you could see how it was organized. It always looked fun, but you had to be there hours before it opened to get a seat. A friend told me that people were lined up at 6:00 am for a 1:00 Canada game earlier in the World Cup. That’s crazy to me.

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Driving through downtown to head over the Lion’s Gate Bridge to head to Squamish. Justine snapped this photo out of the truck window.

A Day in Squamish

It had been ages since we had done anything active - hiking, biking (OK we did one ride last weekend) and such, so we decided that Sunday we would head up to Squamish and take advantage of our passes for the Sea to Sky Gondola.

Originally we had thought about going mountain biking, but our friend Nicole rolled her ankle the day previous, and so wasn’t joining us for any activities. So we decided on hiking one of the trails at the top of the Gondola instead.

There are a lot of options for trails at the top. We’ve done most (but not all) of them and decided to tackle the hardest of the bunch - Al’s Habrich, plus part of Neverland Loop. It ended up being almost more than we were bargaining for.

We had a bit of a late start, not really getting off until close to 9:30. Normally we try for more like 8ish, but Saturday had been a pretty busy one and we needed some relaxing in the morning. It was busy, but not crazy when we got to the base of the Gondola just south of Squamish, after an uneventful drive up the glorious Sea to Sky Highway. As you will see from some of the photos, Howe Sound was looking spectacular, almost tropical on this sunny day.

Shannon Falls had more water in it than I was expecting. And the number of tour buses and cars going into the parking area was insane - no way we’d go near that!

Near the gondola base, ready to head out on our hike. First one in a while.

This was our choice of trail. We’ve done the first section of it in the past. It’s marked as the only Black Diamond (expert) trail, which we didn’t really understand. After doing the full circuit, it is now much more clear as to why it’s rated this way.

The trail starts of from fairly close to the top of the gondola, as easy walk from the main lodge. When we did this hike in the past it was more in the winter, and the trail actually starts in a different spot. So this was the first time we’d done this part of the trail, and it is a way nicer start to the hike than the other route.

This area is full of huge stretches of massive granite outcroppings - the nearby Chief being the most famous, but you can see how we are working along the edge of another such outcrop as the trail initially climbs.

There were a ton of mountain blueberries along this stretch of the trail.

We were feeling good, ready to tackle the hike!

The first stretch of the trail was really nice - much better than the winter router. Eventually we ended up at the river (which was dry already!) and linked back up with the trail we remembered. From here, it was a climb all the way to the top!

This part of the trail can be impassable at certain times of the year. Others you need the rope. It’s concerning that it’s completely dry already.

As we climbed, there were nice views to be had along the way.

Eventually we started to get high enough that you could start to see Howe Sound off in the distance.

There’s always times for selfies along the way.

From the top of this section of the trail there are amazing view out to Howe Sound. On this day, the water looked amazing, almost tropical. I assume it’s mostly just the silt and runoff from the glaciers, but it looked spectacular. There’s a lot of area at the top to explore, this huge expanse of exposed rock that you can basically go wherever you like to check out different views.

A great pano of the view - click on it to see it at a larger size.

A few shots of the amazing view looking out to Howe Sound.

Looking down to the Squamish Spit, where the Squamish River empties into Howe Sound. This is a big wind sports area.

Looking out across the town of Squamish and up into Squamish and Paradise Valleys.

The LNG project under construction - they brought in a second cruise ship to house workers.

It’s an amazing view!

Sadly, the only wildlife we saw all day.

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Once you get to the first peak, the trail drops down off the rock face and back into the forest. This is a lovely part of the trail, especially after all the climbing.

The trail then meaners up and down, gradually gaining elevation again. If you look at the map to the right, it’s the red trail on the the map. The first viewpoint is pretty much under the purple marker. That’s where we dove back down and into the forest.

We were not sure how far we were planning on going. We didn’t think we wanted to do the full red loop, but we started out that way to see where it lead us. We had hoped that the pinch point in the middle of the loop might have a separate trail that would let us cut it off, shortening the trail.

Just before the pinch point, there was another lookout point where we had more amazing views back down to the water. This was where most people headed to, and then turned around and went back the way they came.

This seemed odd to us - why wouldn’t you just continue on and do the loop, rather than the less interesting out-and-back? It seemed a bit strange. But we were going to find out soon enough.

We had passed a few people on the trail, but not a lot. The trail was generally well marked on the way up, but there were spots where wayfinding was a bit of a challenge. More on that later.

We stopped for a bit at the viewpoint to catch our breath, enjoy the view and check the map to see if we could figure out the path that we wanted to follow.

This was a pretty good idea of what the trail was like. Not many flat stretches, mostly up and down.

As we were now a bit higher up, the views just kept getting better and better.

There were succulents growing on the rock face.

Looking out to the Sound.

One of my favorite photos from the day. I love this one lone tree growing out of the rock outcrop, sitting high above the river and the sound.

We figured out that the pinch point in the trail was just a couple of hundred meters past the view point. As we walked out along the trail, it became clear that we had to navigate down the rock face to reconnect with the trail much further down. It was a bit challenging, but we made it with no real issues.

We discovered that this was where the trail earned it’s black diamond status. Up to this point it had not been too bad.

In descending the rock face to cut off the trail, it got a bit more challenging, but there was some assistance provided.

At this point, as we were navigating down the unofficial trail, we ran into this older couple. Maye mid-to-late 60s? They seemed a little lost, but the older guy was grumpy and didn’t want our help or advice, so we continued on - only to find them a little further down the trail, where they obviously had gone the wrong way for a bit. Stubbornness.

We continued on our way, and the trail descended quite rapidly. And got harder as we went along. It really earned its rating in this section as we looped back around to connect back with the main trail that we had started on.

Remember when I said the trail was well marked? We’ll we missed this one entirely! We walked by it - because it drops you straight over the edge of a cliff! We had passed it, walked until the trail ended in a small lookout then had to double back. The trail marker over the void was the clue.

It was a sort, but steep drop off the top.

I’m not sure how that’s a trail!

But it got even crazier. There was a long stretch where we had to use these chains to drop you down this long, steep stretch of the trail.

But down would be way better than up!

It just seemed to go on forever.

From the bottom, looking up through all the sections of chain. It was kind of fun!

After getting back down to the main trail, we headed back out to the main viewpoint where we had started the loop. From there we made our way back down the trail. The top part was just about navigating down the exposed rocky area. As mentioned before, it’s not really one trail, you just make your way down however you feel like. Eventually it all funnels back to the main trail and you continue on your way.

Eventually we made our way back to the main lodge. We had decided we were meeting Nicole and Anthony at a local brewery (and farm?) for a late lunch, so we just had a beer on the patio and had a quick snack to rest our legs, enjoy the view and soak up some sunshine.

There’s a pretty cool suspension bridge from the deck on the main lodge.

The view never gets tiresome. The colour was just so great!

Skypilot even peaked out from under the clouds for a bit.

The map of our hike on Al’s Halbrich Trail

After finishing up our beers on the patio, we took the gondola back down. We decided on the “private car” line, which was quite short, and so had the car to ourselves, which is always nicer. After getting changed and organized back at the truck, we headed into Squamish to meet up with Nicole and Anthony. They had suggested we meet at a newish brewery (about a year old as I understand it) called Hop Creek, just off the river near Brackendale. The place is quite unique - in addition to being a brewery, there’s also a farm shop, burger shack and a petting farm with some animals. It’s quite the set-up!

The main trailer where they were serving the beer from.

The farm market - we went in afterwards, but the prices were a little bit crazy.

We all had a drink and it was nice to catch up. We hadn’t seen them for a while (well I hadn’t - Jus and Nicole hang out a fair bit)

One of the miniature donkeys!

And some of their highland cows. Justine was quite excited about these guys.

The Squamish River drifts buy on the other side of the road. Sadly, no eagles this time.

We ordered burgers (which were delicious!) and fries (also delicious) to go along with our beers. We chatted and got caught up on all the going’s on. It was nice. We eventually had some ice cream and wandered around to see the animals. Honestly, I’m not a fan of that part. While they have cows and donkeys and sheep and goats, their little pens don’t look super great and they all seem a bit lethargic. Maybe it was just the heat?

Eventually it was time to head back to the city. As we headed home, the traffic was not looking great, so we decided to make a stop in Britannia Beach. Over the last 5 years or so, they’ve built it up as this cool little community. We’ve never really stopped to see what’s there, and this seemed like a good occasion to do so.

If we hadn’t just eaten, we might have stopped at the pub - it’s supposed ot be quite good. Where we did stop was at the amazing, if oddly placed, Kawartha Dairy! Now being from Ontario, Kawartha Dairy is a mainstay with the best ice cream. Seeing it hear on the west coast is just odd…

We walked around the little town, through the public gardens and down onto a path that led to the river. There was this old metal bridge that we went out onto.

The river was looking very much like the Sound.

It just seems so out of place, but the ice cream is fantastic!

As part of setting up the little town, they brought in 7 or 9 old historic buildings to help give the place a unique vibe. I think it works well. The Dairy is in an old church, and the other buildings are all being given a second lease on life. I like it - we’ll need to stop more often.

After our ice cream stop, it was back on the road for the drive home. The traffic had settled a bit, and so it was not too bad. It had been a fabulous day trip to Squamish, rounding out a very fun weekend.