Vancouver Waterfront Park

August 22, 2019August 22, 2019

So last Sunday I got out to check out the new Vancouver Waterfront Park. I have been over there earlier but now they have it finished and plant have had chance to grow. The new fountain is finally done and it looks great. Grant St. Pier is getting good foot traffic and continue to draw weddings. Several more restaurants are open including the fish and chip place. More should be coming soon. Overall this will be a great addition to downtown Vancouver waterfront.

November 18, 2018

Vancouver Walk Route

I got out for a Sunday morning walk to work out my final route for my Fort Vancouver – Vancouver walk. I did a track on my Garmin GPS and had the route come in around 5.5 miles. There is so much to see on this route it could be a whole day event but done on the quick could be done in 3 to 4 hours. This time out I got more photos of the Ester Shore Park and made sure Firehouse Glass Studio would welcome visitors. I also found that the whole length of the new Water Front Park was open. Now I need to get the route mapped and up on the website.

The Walk begins at the Fort Vancouver Visitor Center.

Looking down the path at Officer Row.

The only house open for the public to visit.

About midway down Officer Row is the Grant house. It is now used as a restaurant.

Just off of Officer Row and leading to the Barracks is the O.O. Howard House.

Former Red Cross building and the Artillery units Barracks.

The Bastion was build late in HBC Fort Vancouver’s history to protect it from the American settlers.

These two replica HBC houses show what the Village was like.

As part of the land bride are plantings of native plant use by the Indians.

The land bridge has two viewing areas with interpretive signs. This one looks to the river when the view is not blocked by a train.

The path from the land bridge heads down to the river.

Fort Vancouver was always linked the Columbia River. With this park and Land Bridge it is once again.

The early Fort Vancouver Village was a company town. When they started to form the town of Vancouver it’s layout began from a tree that stood here.

It looks like the ribs of a wreck sailing ship that has been beached but is suppose to be monument to early explorers.

The plaza is to remember the service of veterans but the murals have made it more.

A concrete retaining wall has been covered with murals in remembrance of veterans service.

Starting down the path at the new Waterfront Park.

Viewing Platform

Looks like the new viewing deck is the new place to get married.

The Columbia River remain important for river commerce.

A smaller viewing platform is at the far end of the park.

A second section of the Waterfront park has opened. There is still an interactive water plaza to come.

Firehouse Glass is a share space for glass blowers working in soft glass.

I stopped in and was invite in to watch some glass object being made. After pulling glass from the glory hole it is work and shaped into a piece of art.

Shared studio space allows for collaboration of artist.

Still in the progress of being formed. You can watch glass blowers at work through the windows.

There are windows looking from the gallery into the hot shop.

Firehouse Glass has a small gallery where some of the work is shown.

This part of downtown was once fill with card rooms and Pawn shops. There are still a few pawn shops left.

The Academy is a piece of Vancouver history.

The Freeway has split downtown Vancouver. This bridge leads back to Fort Vancouver.

This monument is in honor to the many firsts that happened at Fort Vancouver.

This replica cannon site by the main entrance to the fort.

Central to the Vancouver Barracks it the parade field.

A row of barracks by the parade field. At one time there were more.

October 3, 2018October 3, 2018

Vancouver Waterfront Park

I did a quick run over to the new Vancouver Waterfront Park that opened this last weekend. I wanted to get some photos of the new viewing platform for my Fort Vancouver walk. The park is still being worked on but should be complete and looking nice by Spring. For now you can make your way around the construction to get to the view platform and the two new restaurants. When completed this will make a nice extension of Vancouver water front trail.

The viewing platform maybe gives you a little better view of the Columbia River but more of just a nice addition to the park. There is also suppose to be fountain and other element coming. More eateries are to be opening soon and that will be nice.

With progress comes comes other changes. Vancouver is starting to have some of Portland parking problem. They have now added new street parking pay stations like Portland at a rate of $1.25 an hour. Formally one of the fun parts of going to Vancouver was it cost next to nothing to park there. The old coin meters gave you the first 20 minutes for free and I think it was only a quarter for a couple of hours of parking. Times do change and I guess some how they needed to pay for the new park. Right now there is plenty of street parking available but if this place gets popular parking will be a problem. I did not see any plans for parking garages.