Five Frugal Things -- Day One in Vancouver

1) My husband and I took everyone's advice and explored North Vancouver's Lynn Canyon Park to traverse its famous suspension bridge. The drive there was chock-a-block, but the spectacular Lion's Gate bridge made up for it.

I had to snap a photo for my cousin "Lynn," because, c'mon . . . . they even spelled it correctly!

Be not fooled by the smile on my face, this narrow suspension bridge was supporting more humans than I felt comfortable with, especially as people walked both directions. It's hangs 50 meters above a ravine, which is the approximate height of a 15-story building.

It's in constant motion and terrifying.

I did some souvenir foraging to self regulate.

Luckily it had been a full nine days since a black bear was observed in the area.

This bridge was much more sturdy. Please enjoy that I'm sporting my recently embroidered baseball cap.

2) This was thirsty work, especially as there were 160 stairs from the canyon floor back up to the top! Luckily I'd filled my trusty reusable water bottle from the hotel gym's water dispenser. I'd spied it on my initial hotel exploration and it's my go to from here on out.

The hotel does provide free bottled water in the rooms, but I try to avoid single use plastics whenever possible.

We enjoyed our breakfast buffet apples in the car after our hike.

3) It's good that our breakfast and lunch leaned heavily into protein and fruit, as dinner was straight up junk food! Yes, we drove all the way up to Canada to dine on Costco Polish dogs and poutine!

We did choose plain seltzer instead of soda if that helps. Please enjoy that the cups say both "Go Canada" and "Allez Canada," which I didn't notice until I uploaded my photos.

I can report that the Costco poutine was straight up delicious! I've had poutine in the past and absolutely did not enjoy the "soggy French fry" mouth feel. However, these fries were extra crispy, which helped to retain their texture and the cheese curds melted really nicely. Much better, I get it now.

Our grand total was $10.61, which converts to $7.62 American dollars! Did I just win the frugal Olympics? This meal was especially inexpensive as we were initially in the neighborhood for Japanese udon noodles, but balked at paying $14 to park in a nearby structure.

5) We took another evening walk along the harbor, making sure to end the evening at the 2010 "Fire on Ice" Olympics cauldron/sculpture/thingy. I can imagine it was very dramatic with the flames.

We even made it all the way to the beginning of Wolk-Stanley Park, although we had to turn back as it was getting dark. Got our daily steps up to 14,872!

Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley 

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."

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