Sunday, 9/1
First, let me say that we loved Vancouver! Such a beautiful city. The kids and John were trying to figure out how to move out there. Then we saw the real estate prices and quickly decided that was a pipe dream! Anyway, we all slept pretty well. Not surprisingly, we were up pretty early for the west coast. We were all up and dressed and very ready for breakfast by 8:30am. On a recommendation from the clerk at the hotel, we headed a few blocks away to a little place called Scoozi's. The breakfast menu was a bit different but everything we had was delicious. John, Rebecca and Anabelle had the eggs Benedict (Anabelle without the ham since she is mostly meat-free). I had a breakfast "deep dish" which was kind of like a cross between and omelet and quiche. Very, very tasty and it stayed hot throughout the meal. Very unusual for an egg dish! Andrew and my mom had traditional egg/bacon dishes. My mom shared with Natalie and we also got a huge cinnamon roll which was delicious (although my mom was not happy with the raisins they snuck in there!). The coffee was fantastic! Breakfast took a little while, but we enjoyed the chance to sit and start to savor our vacation!
After breakfast, we had some time before 11:30 Mass at the Cathedral. My mom was getting tired of walking so she and Natalie sat in the park across from the Cathedral. Natalie chased pigeons while my mom rested. The rest of us walked a few blocks to just check out the city.
Holy Rosary Cathedral
Chilling the park
My urban girls!
After Mass we stopped at a 7-11 for Slurpees and some snacks. For some strange reason, there are no 7-11's in Georgia although they seem to be on every corner in most other states so a Slurpee is a special treat for us! John was holding out for a bubble tea which he was happy to find right down the street. We headed back to the hotel to rest for a few minutes and decide what to do next.
Lay's Potato chips had a bunch of regional flavors over the summer. Down here in Georgia, we had "Chicken & Waffle" flavor and "Siracha" flavor. In Vancouver, Anabelle found "Loaded Pierogie" flavor! My husband's family is Slovak and pierogies are a holiday treat, his dad makes them from scratch. Delicious! The chips weren't bad, they tasted suspiciously like "Loaded Baked Potato" flavor. Andrew tried the "Ketchup" flavor, not a hit with any of us.
Pierogie = Good!
Ketchup = Bad!
We ended up deciding to head to Chinatown. First we bought two-day tickets on the Big Bus hop-on/hop-off tour. Because of the route, we decided to walk to Chinatown and explore and then pick up the bus there. My mom wasn't sure she could walk all that way so she took a cab with Natalie and Andrew and met us in Chinatown. We shopped a bit and visited the gardens.
Chinatown Gate
Free part of the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens
My mom got the three older kids little Chinese necklaces with their birth year animal and I bought Anabelle a little watercolor scroll with a panda on it. She has loved pandas since she was tiny and still sleeps with a stuffed panda her grandparents got her at the Atlanta Zoo some 13 years ago! Next we decided to get something to eat since it was getting close to 3pm. The only restaraunt we saw close by was Floata Seafood which was a very scary elevator ride up three floors. The place was huge and had a large dim sum menu. We were very excited until they told us that since it was 3pm, most of the menu was unavailable. We ended up ordering several things and enjoyed most everything. The service was terrible though. We had to ask for water several times, never got the rice we ordered, etc. But at least we weren't starving anymore!
We stopped for a few treats at the Chinese bakery on the way out.
John took Andrew and Anabelle to see the Jimi Hendrix shrine which was a few blocks away. Andrew plays guitar and saw an ad for the shrine on one of the tourist maps so he was eager to check it out. It was several blocks so too far for my mom and Rebecca really wanted to stop in a shop we had passed so we went that way instead. Sadly, Andrew returned grumpy with the news that the shrine appears to be permanently closed, or at least closed for the season.
But on the plus side, I got a really cute 2010 Olympics shirt for Natalie for $2.99! She also got a little Chinese fan that she adored and Andrew got a Vancouver baseball hat to add to his immense collection.
We headed to the Big Bus stop and in a few minutes an open topped bus arrived and we hopped on. Since it was nearing the end of the day's run, we decided to just ride the bus around the whole route and get off at the stop closest to the hotel. We got a good overview of Vancouver and thankfully the driver did not ACTUALLY hit the two pedestrians but man, it was close! He also almost took off the door of a truck. We began to realize that all the honking we were hearing might be related to his lack of driving ability!
Bubble Tea Stand! (we didn't stop here)
Views from the HOHO bus!
These guys all had life jackets on for some reason that day, when we passed them again after the cruise the jackets were off. Guess they learned to swim?
My MIL's name is Sylvia, so I took this for her!
Giant tree on top of a building
Andrew is not a fan of the candid shot.
Crossing to Granville Island
By the time we got back to the stop near the hotel, it was nearing 7pm and we were feeling bit peckish. We stopped by a couple of places in Gastown, but they only had seating outside available and it was a bit chilly for our Southern selves. We ended up just having sandwiches at Tim Horton's right by the hotel. Everything was surprisingly tasty and really hit the spot. We knew after getting on the ship the next day we wouldn't be lacking for food, so a light dinner was just fine! My mom headed back to the hotel and the rest of us took a little walk down to the corner to get some iced coffee. I had wanted to try Blenz, which seems to be a chain in Vancouver. Honestly, without sushi bars and coffee shops, Vancouver storefronts would be half vacant! We got some icy decaf coffee beverages and some very tasty gluten free cookies the barrista recommended. The coffee was good, but my iced mocha was SO sweet and rich. I actually put 2/3 of if it the room fridge and thinned it with black coffee in the room the next morning and it was STILL too sweet (and I have a sweet tooth of massive proportions!) We headed back to the hotel, got the little ones showered and settled into the hidabed and tried to get some sleep before boarding in the morning!