Vancouver Pre-Day 1

aka: travel day

Our flight was set to leave at 11 am. We were delayed before we left the house. We checked our bags, went through security and settled down at a restaraunt to wait it out. (I think security and bag checking took a whopping 20 minutes).

"RRRRiiiinnnnngggggg" blared my phone. "Hello, this American Airlines and um, by the way, you've been like 3 more hours." Or something like that.

My best friend headed back to the airport and took us back to her house. We had lunch with her and her husband and headed back to the airport. Again. Back through security. Back to the gate to wait. By the time we left we were four hours delayed.

I thought the 4 hour flight would be a big tedious, but really it wasn't too bad. I was excited when they said they'd be showing "Parental Guidance" on the screens. Then they turned on "Life of Pi." In Spanish. I crocheted a scarf and The Officer... Um, I don't know what all he did, nothing exciting! Oh, and I ran out of yarn about 4 stitches from the end. Eventually it's going to be a cowl.

The flight was beautiful!

We got to our place around 6:30 pm Canada time.* We took a few minutes to soak it all in and unpack our stuff before heading out to find a place to eat. We walked, and walked, and walked. Mainly because we saw all sorts of cool places but couldn't decide where to go! We ended up at a BBQ joint. Yup, that's right, we went all the way to Canada to eat Memphis BBQ. It was actually really good! And, I whole-heartedly agree with their sign:

Before heading back to our place we stopped off for some milk and cereal to "save money and eat in the room." Right. That happened once. And, did I mention we paid over $5 for a box of Honey Nut Cheerios? The organic milk was $9 a gallon. We went for a half gallon of the cheapest we could find!

*Note to self: The place was beautiful. For just the two of us we probably would have preferred a hotel, but the views couldn't be beat. There were a few communication hiccups with the host and there were a few little things not working in the loft (we used Airbnb for booking), but overall it was a great experience.

Vancouver - Day 1

(Ok, day 1 we traveled, so technically this is day 2.) Check out first night in Vancouver here.

As is typical in our house, I was out of bed way before The Officer. I woke up not feeling so hot so I grabbed some cereal and made my way to the couch (after I took a bath, a big girl bath all by myself). I read through an entire magazine in one sitting and watched the news about the Boston Marathon bomber being caught the night before. (If you're a  mom, you understand why these two things are worth noting.) It was a rainy day and I really wasn't feeling the motivation to move from under the covers.

Once my Knight in Shining Armor we bought some bus passes and headed out to the must-see Granville Island.*

 

We walked around the city for quite some time, making our way through the kids market (read: pricey toy store with play area, but a cool place), and many other little stops along the way.

 One of the most unique was this broom making store:

 

Granville Island is home to a cement company. We saw several unique trucks.

They also had set up an extensive marble type track outside the cement plant.

We were slowly making our way to lunch, getting hungry, but unable to pass up all the neat things to see. Like where they carve totem poles:

 

 And where you can pick noses:

We meandered into one last little shop where I asked the owner for a recommendation. He recommended the place just above his shop called the SandBar. We were already considering eating there so that sealed the deal. The man was so kind and helpful. We found this all over Vancouver. People were so nice.

We meandered around a while longer taking several pictures. We're kind of obsessed.This boat was about 150 years old:

 

We made our way to the old-school (read: it only moves if you hold down the button to the floor you're wanting) elevator and up onto the third floor patio of the SandBar.

 

If you know me at all you know I don't eat seafood so this place wasn't exactly my first pick. Would you believe I decided to order salmon? If it hadn't been such a nice restaurant I may have licked the plate clean. This was hands-down my favorite dining in Vancouver.

Did I mention the patio is adorned with heaters and BLANKETS on every chair? This is my kind of dining!

That doesn't even include the view over The Officer's shoulder:

Or the cozy arm chairs we sat in:

Here is one of the inside:

 

That tiny little corner under the bridge is where we ate. So glad we took the recommendation!

We wandered over to the market where there was fresh everything. I'm certain my children would have eaten straight from the bucket on this one:

We started scoping out souvenirs and a little something for our mamas. We didn't buy much. Vancouver is pretty pricey. I was holding out for something unique. If The Officer hadn't been with me I would have certainly bought him this "Freeloader Fork." We had a good laugh about it. I've always joked that I should have known he had no money when I met him. The first night we went out with a small group of people he didn't order and ate off my plate. He's still eating off my plate, love that guy!

I got to see an original Heidelberg press in action. Very cool for a graphic designer!

We made our way back to the Granville Island Brewery for a tour, only it was full! The Officer settled for some samples and I went straight to something I knew I'd like, a Heffeweisen a Hefeveisen, a hefferveisen. Sheesh, I had to look that one up! 

I left The Officer with the camera for a bit while I went and asked directions to a cigar shop he wanted to visit. He was wanting to find a place he could sit and have a cigar on site.

So we started the trek, and I do mean TREK. Shortly into our trek to the bus stop we realized that our bus stop was closed for construction (feels like home to me). The next bus stop was the direction of the cigar shop so we headed towards it. We walked, and we walked...

...and we walked. The bridge up in front of him says "WHY". This seemed really appropriate to me at the time. As in, WHY am I following you up this very long road to find a cigar shop? We finally found our bus stop and decided we would rather keep walking than wait. Just as we spotted the cigar shop we spotted the bus we didn't wait for whizzing by us and stopping right in front of our destination. We proceed into the cigar shop to find out that there is no smoking inside in Vancouver. Awesome. And, why did we walk all this way?

They gave us directions to a few places with heated smoking patios so he could take his cigar and go. The Hilton was highly recommended. Apparently it has a great patio. (Read: apparently this girl had no clue what a great patio was. It was tiny. And closed. And rainy. And WAY out of the way. We had another good laugh.)

After the TREK we headed back to the room and found that the rain had gone! Suddenly we could see the view from our room. So we did what do, we took more pictures. (Like I said, we're obsessed).

And we facetimed the kids while we were on wifi.

Since we missed the tour at the Granville Island Brewery we headed over to Steamworks Brewery in Gastown.

As with most places in Vancouver, the views were great. It seems like everything there is built with the view in mind. 

There was going to be a wait so we asked for a table right by the front door that was open. Based on our seating the place was pretty forgettable. However, when I made my way down to the restrooms I realized the downstairs of this place was pretty awesome! Speaking of restrooms, this shared stall gives a whole new meaning to girls going to the bathroom together.

Gastown was a neat part of Vancouver. Lots of little shops and places to eat like the other neighborhoods. But, also bricked streets and old timey buildings.

We went for our first taste of Poutine: hand-cut fries, gravy and white cheddar cheese curds. (Did I lose you at "curds". Sounded pretty gross to me, but it was actually good. In fact we ordered again in Whistler).

Again, I went with my trusty Heffe-whatever.

After Steamworks we made the cold trip to the "best smoking patio." I've already told you about that one! This concluded day one. A fun and full day. Read more about our trip here!

*(Note to self: we bought a day pass, but really the book of tickets would have made much more sense. We later bought the book and barely used any of them. Nobody checks your tickets on the train and you only have to pay one zone on the weekend days. Of all the expensive things we saw in Vancouver, public transit was not one).