Vancouver Bound

TOP: The beautiful North Vancouver skyline from downtown Vancouver

2nd: Totems come in many shapes and sizes. This one reads "large man look better, swim faster than wimpy birdlike creature

3rd: Laraine drunk, again...WHAT a lush!

4th: The early arrival crew; Lumpy, Kathy, Laraine, Tom

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We arrived into Vancouver after a road trip to Phoenix thanks to USscare. Because, OBVIOUSLY that's the most direct route to fly from Rochester to Vancouver...via Arizona. So, there goes one more day of my life lost.

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In all our north america travels, Kathy and I had never yet gotten to Vancouver, but it was high on our list. We had heard that it was a beautiful city, and we had gotten as close as Penticton for the Ironman years back. We rendezvous'd with Laraine and Tom at the airport, where we were informed that Laraine had purchased extra leg room on the plane. Now, this is massively comical, as she's about 5 foot tall with her heels on....wearing a big hat....and standing on a ladder. x

We awoke Tuesday morning and started our Vancouver walkabout. First stop was the Yeoman mall, named after the basketball player. It was the heart of "old chinatown" in Richmond (a major Vancouver suburb), and an interesting area. Finally, a place where Laraine felt sizewise at home. I felt like a giant, and I can only imagine what the real Yao-Man must feel like when he walks around with his countryman. They had an exhibit for the TerraCotta warriors from China, and they were really cool (some pix in next post), displayed surrounding a large, intricate sand sculpture. Laraine checked out a chinese dress, but struggled with the size -7. I swear that the waistline was about the size of my calf. Who has a waist like that????

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We left Richmond Chinatown and went to grab the bus to downtown Vancouver. Well, THAT was a project! The city is undergoing major pre-Olympics construction, and everthing transit-wise is discombobulated. We walked to the overhead light rail, only to find out that it wasn't opening until the following monday. So we walked to the bus stop, only to find out that the bus was detoured because the light rail would take over that street's transit. So we walked to another bus stop, only to find out that this was the "asians only loading zone". Ok, I'm kidding on that one, just checking to see if you were still reading. We took the bus downtown, jumped off, and started walking about the CBD.

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Vancouver was far larger than I had expected, but it was a very pretty city. Rimmed on the north by a sound and mountains, on the west by the ocean, and on the east by the pathway to the rockies, you had magnificent vistas from almost every vantage point. It has a beautiful suspension bridge connecting Vancouver City with North Vancouver, a massive oceanside park with totems, a zoo, bike trails, and more, and the downtown is very pedestrian. Basically, everything that repbulicans hate...animals, open spaces, and walkers :-)

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We hung out at the Lennox Pub, and that's where Laraine's drinking problem first started to surface. By the end of lunch she was not one, but TWO sea-breezes to the wind, and I thought we were going to have to carry her around town. WHAT a lush! The food was excellent, as was the service, and we spent several hours there I think. We finally had to pull Laraine away from the vodka dispenser, as she was doing shots with the barkeep.

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We were to pickup the rental car at the end of the day, and when we got to the location, it turns out that it was the wrong location, we were 10 miles away, and that location had no cars left. I have to mention here that the folks at Enterprise were awesome. They actually put us all in one of their own cars and drove us to the other location to make sure that we were all set, and then refused to even take a tip! What freakin'A canadian service. I LOVE these guys!

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We loaded up the GPS for our evening travels, and that's when we realized that the GPS did not have alaska or canada maps on it, only the lower 48. OK, that could be a problem (but thankfully turned out not to be, as vancouver was very easy to navigate, and alaska only had 4 roads).
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We were exhausted by the end of the day, but not too exhausted to grab a 50th BIRTHDAY DINNER for Kathy, complete with enough candles to torch the city.

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Day one a success....on to Victoria tomorrow.

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"Mounty" Lumpy out