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Coal Harbour

Posted by Ray

Coal Harbour is a Vancouver neighbourhood with a character all its own, despite being just adjacent northwest of the city’s downtown. Visitors of Coal Harbour can at once be captivated by its nearly six-mile-long Seawall Water Walk providing awesome views of the neighbourhood’s namesake harbour. Interesting public art pieces and interpretive plaques along the path also provide a glance at Coal Harbour’s fascinating industrial history as a former shipyard.

Bike rentals are available in this neighbourhood, allowing easy access to various points of interest along the sea walk. Biking or strolling by the seafront offer leisurely stops at the lush greenbelt of Cardero Park, Harbour Green Park, and Marina Square where condo towers provide an impressive backdrop to myriads of boats moored on the water.

In addition, Coal Harbour is home to the Vancouver Convention Center, the city’s flagship events venue featuring nearly 30,000 square metres of exhibition space good for six exhibit halls indoors. The center, which also boasts outdoor gathering spaces, hosts more than 500 events a year, including trade shows and concerts.

Several major hotels are located in Coal Harbour, among them Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront with 442 guest rooms and its adjacent 438-room Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel. The Westin Bayshore Hotel offering 499 rooms is another five-star lodging choice in the neighbourhood, with the casual but upscale H2 Kitchen + Bar one of the hotel’s popular attractions.

For even more laid-back dining options, some great choices are available along Coal Harbour’s seawall. The choices of larger restaurants can be found towards the convention centre where the picks likewise include some cafes. For a convenient mix of in-store shopping and take-out dining, drop by Urban Fare near Harbour Green Park. Here, you can pick up a takeaway roast lamb after loading on-shelf items from its grocery store.

Harbourfront too is the way to go for pub-style drinking, particularly around the convention centre. One local favourite here comes in Tap & Barrel where visitors can enjoy their food and drinks on its scenic waterfront patios. Boasting as one of Canada’s best-managed companies, this Coal Harbour attraction exclusively serves beer on tap to do away with bottles and offers wine from an extensive menu list.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Downtown Vancouver—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver in Canada.

West End

Posted by Ray

West End is an upscale Vancouver neighbourhood and one of the city’s oldest residential communities. It is tucked in the peninsula northwest of the Vancouver’s downtown districts, with the sprawling Stanley Park bordering the neighbourhood to the north and English Bay to the west.

The neighbourhood is known for its heritage mansions built during the late 1890s. West End is also noted for its luxury rental apartment buildings, as well as a haven for the LGBTQ community particularly the area around Davie Village.

A glance at the neighbourhood’s history can be quickly enjoyed with a visit to the Roedde House Museum on Barclay Street. This museum is housed in a restored Queen Anne revival-style home filled with antiques showcasing the 19th-century lifestyle of its former residents.

The home’s next-door neighbour, the Barclay Manor heritage home turned into a community centre, is another point of interest worth a visit in West End. Other community centres in the neighbourhood include the Vancouver Aquatic Centre and West End Community Centre featuring a wide selection of amenities.

West End’s commercial district orbits around Robson Street and its surrounding corridors that collectively earned the reputation as “Vancouver Luxury Zone,” as this area hosts the city’s most expensive, upscale brand-name chain stores and high-end restaurants.

The neighbourhood’s superb parks and beaches have also contributed much to West End’s lofty reputation. The 406-hectare Stanley Park adjacent to West End banners an astonishing range of attractions including historic artifacts, monuments, artworks, and gardens. A Canadian National Historic Site, this park also features a seawall with a scenic promenade extending to the added attractions of Ceperly Park.

English Bay Beach, which stretches over 18 kilometres on West End’s seaward border, provides yet another natural attraction for the neighbourhood. The park on this beach is a popular jump-off point for kayakers and paddle boarders on the waters of English Bay.

The beach is also home to one of Vancouver’s famed art installations, the inukshuk rock monument. This striking artwork is a rendition of the symbol associated with the Inuit people of northern Canada. It eventually became the inspiration for the logo for the 2010 Winter Games hosted by Canada.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Coal Harbour—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver City.

Sunset

Posted by Ray

Sunset is primarily a residential neighbourhood that is home to the most ethnically diverse residents in Vancouver. Located in the southeast quadrant of the city, this working-class community was first settled in the 1860s when the area was still part of the District of South Vancouver.

The neighbourhood’s commercial areas are located on Main Street and Fraser Street, both lined with many independently owned stores and restaurants. Main Street is noted for its Punjabi Market, also known as Little India, a result of the influx of Sikh immigrants from South Asia’s Punjab region starting from the 1950s up to the 1970s.

Along the Main Street corridor are eateries like the Himalaya Restaurant offering authentic Indian dishes. At Fraser Street, shoppers have access to commercial establishments in the mould of Dhaka Bazar Plus, a supermarket with Bangladeshi grocery items on its shelves, and Proud Pinoy, a retailer of goodies from the Philippines.

The social activities of the neighbourhood’s residents, on the other hand, gravitate to the Sunset Community Centre on Main Street. The centre provides fitness facilities, a dance studio, and a playground, plus childcare services and preschool classes.

For sports activities, the place to go in the Sunset neighbourhood is the 13.6-acre Memorial South Park on Ross Street. The park features a synthetic turf field equipped with lighting and can be booked by residents and outside teams for games of soccer, field hockey, or lacrosse.

Runners are also welcome to this park which boasts a track oval upgraded in mid-2011 from a cinder path to a six-lane rubberized surface. Cricket players and ultimate teams can also use the park’s track facility.

Memorial South Park is as inviting for simple relaxation, as it features a tree-lined walkway along its entry as well as a serene pond with ducks to keep visitors company.

Neighbourhood schools serve Sunset families with kids, one of which is the South Hill Education Centre on Fraser Street near the Vancouver Public Library, South Hill. The neighbourhood’s other schools include the John Oliver Secondary School on East 41st Avenue. Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary School on Knight Street is also just on the eastern periphery of Sunset.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about West End—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver in BC.

Downtown Eastside

Posted by Ray

The Downtown Eastside, centred on the junction of Main Street and Hastings Street, is one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods. As such, many historical and cultural points of interest are located here. One of these, the Carnegie Community Centre, is located in the former Carnegie Public Library built in 1903 near the Main-Hastings intersection.

The community centre opened in 1980 and provides residents with social, educational, cultural and recreational activities, and services. Its facilities include a theatre, a gymnasium, a weight room, a cafeteria, a seniors’ lounge and a pool room.

It is also home to an adult learning centre and a computer lab. In addition, the Carnegie Community Centre regularly holds events, such as the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.

Another cultural source of pride for Downtown Eastside comes in the Firehall Arts Centre located on East Cordova Street. This centre, housed in a circa 1906 former fire station, banners a 156-seat theatre serving as a stage for three theatre companies. A prime advocate of experimental theatre, Firehall stages dance, dramas, and new plays, as well as the yearly, two-week dance festival called “Dancing on the Edge”.

Right next to the centre is another Downtown Eastside cultural icon—the Vancouver Police and Museum Archives. The museum was established in 1986 in commemoration of the Vancouver Police Department and the City of Vancouver’s centennial. It occupies the top floor of a municipally designated class “A” heritage building constructed in 1932.

The museum is a repository of about 30,000 objects including confiscated firearms and other weapons, counterfeit money, and photographs. It conducts educational forensic investigation programs for young visitors and also maintains a bookstore.

Downtown Eastside history lives on too at Oppenheimer Park on Powell Street, which opened in 1902 and was originally called the Powell Street Grounds. It was later renamed after Vancouver Mayor David Oppenheimer who inaugurated the park. The park’s location is also notably within the area of the city’s former Japantown, where Japanese immigrants settled before World War II. The facilities of the park include a children’s playground, a basketball court, a softball field, and a community centre with meeting space, public computer access, and bathrooms.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Sunset—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver british columbia.

Yaletown

Posted by Ray

Yaletown is one of Vancouver’s smaller neighbourhoods, tucked north of the False Creek inlet and bordered by Robson and Homer Streets. This neighbourhood was formerly a warehouse district that emerged following the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s, serving as the railroad’s western terminus. Its name originated from the transfer of the railway’s shops and equipment to the neighbourhood from Yale in Fraser Canyon.

The heavy industrial character of Yaletown changed dramatically starting in 1986, following the Vancouver waterfront’s revitalization for the city’s hosting of the World’s Fair that year.
Henceforth, Yaletown developed a trendy flair especially between Nelson and Drake Streets where a mix of retail stores, restaurants, bars, art galleries, office and residential developments are now located.

The exterior loading platforms of the old redbrick warehouses in Yaletown have been repurposed into charming patios of bars and restaurants where patrons can enjoy summertime dinners and afternoon drinks. One favourite in the area comes in Yaletown Brewing Company on Mainland Street, a hangout for enjoying house-brewed beers and an option for a weekly small-batch tasting.

The award-winning restaurant MeeT in Yaletown on Mainland Street is another popular dining destination in the neighbourhood. Repeat customers come back to enjoy crafty cocktails plus comfort food in its wrap-around bar or at a covered patio heated year-round.

Yaletown is also known for its waterfront parks, with two of them connected by the city’s seawall. One of this pair, David Lam Park offers a mix of passive and active recreational options amidst the backdrop of False Creek and views of the Vancouver skyline. The park’s facilities include playgrounds and sports courts buffered by lush plantings. Visitors can also enjoy the park’s large open space where outdoor festivals are often held.

From here following the seawall adorned with public art, visitors can walk, bike, or skate to the 2.5-acre George Wainborn Park. A 40-foot-tall wind sculpture entitled “Khenko” is a standout in this park. It celebrates to the return of the heron (khenko in Coast Salis dialect) in the once-industrialized False Creek. On a similar celebratory and historical note, Yaletown’s Roundhouse Community Centre near the David Lam Park displays of Engine 374, which powered the first transcontinental passenger train into Vancouver in 1887.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Downtown Eastside—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver bc.

East Vancouver

Posted by Ray

The waters of Vancouver Harbour border East Vancouver to the north, with the city’s downtown area in the northwest. Kingsway, a former aboriginal footpath developed as a major thoroughfare, cuts diagonally from northwest to southeast across this neighbourhood to further help create its strong geographic identity.

East Vancouver’s Kingsway corridor, which connects Vancouver to Burnaby and New Westminster, has emerged as a commercial artery in the neighbourhood. The concentrations of commercial establishments in the area include the Kensington-Cedar Cottage locality from Fraser to Nanaimo Streets. “Little Saigon” is how some locals refer to this place because many Vietnamese restaurants and shops are located here.

South Main Street or SoMa radiating around the street’s intersection with 16th Avenue is another major commercial center in East Vancouver. Structured as the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Area, it hosts the Centrepoint Mall anchored on Save on Foods.

This East Vancouver jurisdiction also hosts several open spaces for the enjoyment of visitors and locals alike. One of these, Mount Pleasant Park is a neighbourhood hangout offering a playground, picnic tables, a skate plaza and a community garden.

Robson Park, just off Kingsway, is another family-oriented destination in East Vancouver, providing a spacious ground for soccer, ball hockey, and basketball plus a seasonal wading pool and a playground.

More recreational space can be enjoyed ln the 10-hectare New Brighton Park at the northern waterfront edge of East Vancouver. This park provides extensive walking trails offering marvellous views of the North Shore and Burrard Inlet. It also has a beach area and a heated outdoor pool open from Victoria Day weekend to Labour Day.

The 62-acre Hastings Park complex adjacent south of these facilities further expands the leisure activities in East Vancouver. This park is home to the Pacific Coliseum, its largest building that hosts various events, such as circuses, ice shows, concerts, boxing, basketball, hockey, and trade and consumer exhibitions.

Cultural and trade events are regularly held too at the Pacific National Exhibition of the complex where the Playland Amusement Park is likewise located.

In addition, Hastings Park boasts a horse racing track operating since the 1800s. Bars, restaurants, and a gaming floor are included in the frills of this facility open free to the public on live race days between April and October.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Yaletown—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver Canada.

Kitsilano

Posted by Ray

The Kitsilano neighbourhood is one of the prime home-buying destinations in Vancouver because of its ideal location on the south shore of English Bay. Only about 7.5 kilometres of road travel to the west of the city’s downtown district, the 5.46-square-kilometre area of Kitsilano is home to some 45,000 residents.

Named after Squamish chief August Jack Khatsahlano and nicknamed “Kits” by locals, this neighbourhood is truly a delightful place to live in. Kitsilano boasts 17 parks, featuring six playgrounds and the popular Kitsilano Beach Park.

The beach park is known for Kitsilano Pool, an outdoor saltwater public pool right by the beach. Also nearby is a franchise restaurant and the open-air amphitheatre Kitsilano Showboat. Opened in 1935, this event venue provides free music and dance performances amidst inspiring ocean and mountain views.

Vanier Park, accessible from Burrard Bridge, is another large waterfront greenspace in Kitsilano. This park offers some of the top family-friendly attractions in Vancouver, such as the Museum of Vancouver, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, and the Vancouver Maritime Museum. The Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival is also held annually from June to September at Vanier Park.

Kitsilano is mostly a residential area, with most of the neighbourhood’s commercial activity along West 4th Avenue and West Broadway where retail stores and restaurants abound.

The West 4th Avenue corridor is particularly popular for its stores selling fashionable clothes, outdoor gear, and yoga wear. The famed global yoga brand, lululemon athletica, notably originated from a Kitsilano-based entrepreneur, a reminder of the 1960s when Kitsilano was known as Vancouver’s hippy hangout.

This hip character of Kitsilano remains today in West 4th Avenue’s The Naam, reputed as Vancouver’s oldest vegetarian restaurant. Patrons troop to this 24-hour restaurant for its farm-to-table servings of healthy, organic food like yam fries with miso gravy. Fine dining venues with plenty of multicultural options are also available along West 4th.

On West Broadway, Mediterranean cuisine dominates the restaurants’ menu, as many of Vancouver’s Greek immigrants originally settled in this part of Kitsilano. A night out in the neighbourhood can be as fulfilling in the bars and restaurants on the waterfront along Yew Street and Cornwall. The atmosphere here is casual and the offerings of wine of cocktails have excellent seafood choices to match.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about East Vancouver—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver, BC.

Chinatown

Posted by Ray

Vancouver’s Chinatown centers along just a 1.1-kilometre stretch of Pender Street, yet it has emerged as one of Canada’s popular tourist destinations. Counting amongst the largest of North America’s Chinatowns, this neighbourhood has also been declared a historic district. The historic character can be appreciated in the architecture of Chinatown’s buildings featuring unique recessed balconies, decorative parapets, and cornices.

The neighbourhood asserts its identity even more in the impressive architecture of its Millennium Gate. This Chinatown entrance straddles West Pender Street near its intersection with Taylor Street and is immediately striking with its four-pillar, three-story-tall structure built in 2002 to mark the new millennium.

More than this symbolism, the gate pays tribute to Vancouver’s early Chinese settlers who came in during the late 19th century. It depicts a combination of traditional and modern art forms to commemorate Chinatown’s journey in time. The gate’s features include ornate representations of various Chinese folks on top and two stone foo lions below.

The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden is another source of pride for the neighbourhood’s residents. A registered museum, the Ming Dynasty-style home garden is a venue for cultural programs and events, including concerts, exhibits, festivals, and educational programs.

Just across the south of this garden, visitors and locals can also enjoy the wide range of facilities of Andy Livingstone Park. The park’s features include serene trails along lush gardens and a stream, a seating area near a pond, a waterfall, and an open field with lighting and artificial turf suited for soccer, hockey or softball.

Vancouver’s Chinatown is also home to the International Village Mall offering more than 60 retail stores, a convenient underground parking lot, a food court and fascinating LED displays. The mall, previously known as “Tinseltown”, hosts the Cineplex Odeon theatres on its third floor and has been home to several local film festivals.

On the eastern edge of Chinatown, Vancouverites offer a memorial to the First World War in the
0.36-hectare park Victory Square. Its landmark is a 9.14-metre high Cenotaph obelisk of Nelson Island granite with war memorial inscriptions. Vancouver has been holding Remembrance Day ceremonies at this park since 1924.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Kitsilano—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Vancouver in British Columbia.

Gastown

Posted by Ray

Located just west of Downtown Vancouver, Gastown was the city’s first neighbourhood and was named after “Gassy” John Deighton, a Yorkshire seaman and steamboat captain. Also a barkeep, Deighton settled in the area in 1867 and opened its first saloon at what is now Maple Tree Square.

The early Gastown settlement became the nucleus for Vancouver’s establishment, and the neighbourhood has been declared a National Historic Site. The neighbourhood takes pride in its collection of 19th-century buildings and early 20th-century warehouses, which have become the peg for the Gastown Architectural Walk popular amongst tourists.

This interesting tour mainly covers the streets of Cambie and Cordova where the points of interest revolve around the two-to-six-storey of buildings with stone and brick construction along the way. The neighbourhood’s setting adjacent to the 19th-century Canadian Pacific Railways railyard further bolstesr the historic ambiance.

Besides vintage Victorian buildings, the walking tour’s attractions also include Gastown’s whistling steam clock. The clock was installed in 1977 to cover a steam grate to prevent street vagrants from sleeping on the spot during cold weather.

The historic street tour likewise opens access to many of Gastown’s souvenir shops, décor stores, and indie art galleries. The walk, particularly the corridor of Water Street, offers places to go for those looking for trendy food and drink destinations with nightclubs and restaurants in the mix.

Touring Gastown on foot will likewise preview the upscale housing, professional offices for the likes of architects and lawyers, acting and film schools, as well as high-tech businesses that the neighbourhood has drawn. Among the new media that Gastown has attracted included Zaui Software, SEOinVancouver, BootUp Labs Entrepreneurial Society, and Idea Rebel.

The charming cobblestone streets of Gastown notably host many popular events, such as the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix international bicycle race.

For outdoor lovers, the western periphery of Gastown unlocks access to Vancouver’s Crab Park at Portside. Located atop a grassy knoll jutting into Burrard Inlet, this park offers a good vantage point for a close look at the city’s working port and its rows of SeaBuses, container ships, cruise liners, and heliport.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Chinatown—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in Canada Vancouver.

Downtown Vancouver

Posted by Ray

Downtown Vancouver can hands-down lead the itinerary of anyone visiting the city, as it is one of Canada’s primary centers of business, arts, culture, sports, and entertainment. The downtown area spreads on a peninsula aptly serving as a gateway to the city via a cruise liner terminal with a design mimicking a ship located at Canada Place.

Originally built as an exhibit pavilion for the Canada Expo 86, this downtown gem also features a picturesque promenade and the multi-sensory theatre FlyOver Canada. Many blue-ribbon events are hosted at Canada Place, such as the International Festival Tastings of the Vancouver International Wine Festival typically held around April each year.

For 360-degree views of Vancouver, the Lookout at Harbour Centre invites for a visit. It is located atop a 168-metre high office building, the city’s sixth tallest structure, with access via a glass-walled elevator upwards to an observation deck.

Cultural delights in the downtown are showcased at the city’s Vancouver Art Gallery popular for its touring exhibits and photo collection. Local artists also display their works at downtown’s Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art Space.

Another downtown cultural landmark comes in the Orpheum, which stands out as the home of world- famous Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Western Canada’s largest performing arts organization. Some of the city’s finest choirs and international performing artists also perform at Orpheum’s stage.

Sports grabs much of the limelight in Downtown Vancouver through the BC Place built for the Expo 86 world fair, providing a capacity of about 54,500 people. This stadium was renovated for the 2010 Olympics and remained a choice venue for premier live events in British Columbia.

BC Place is the home of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC of major league soccer and the BC Lions Football Club of the Canadian Football League. The stadium likewise hosts the BC Sports Hall of Fame and the Canada Sevens, a part of the World Rugby Sevens Series.

Downtown Vancouver provides the pleasures of shopping, dining, and entertainment at the CF Pacific Centre. This mall provides 66,000 square metres of commercial space, hosting more than 100 retail establishments including many high-end shops and restaurants.

Mr Lawn Installation and Landscaping Vancouver



Discover more about Gastown—a place you might find fascinating for your next adventure in BC Vancouver.