Vancouver weekend
This year for my birthday my mom gave us (it was for Ty's birthday too) money and a card that said it was for a night away...babysitting included. I was pretty excited, especially because at that point Hudson was sleeping very little, and a night of uninteruppted sleep (except for the twice-nightly bathroom trips...fun!!) sounded so so very sweet. I probably would have been happy with a night at the Best Western in Mission (possibly even the Diamond Head Motor Inn) if I hadn't thought of a better plan first.
Instantly I thought of the summers when we would head in to Vancouver on the West Coast Express and explore downtown on foot. We'd walk to Stanley Park and chase seagulls along the seawall. We'd stroll down Robson and find a cool soup place on Denman. Back at Waterfront station, we would try on 30 pairs of sunglasses at the kiosk there, with no intentions of purchasing, then catch a seabus to Lonsdale Quay on the north shore and giggle when the little ferry would "run over" an unfortunate, slow, or lazy duck or two. We would make this trip once a summer for quite a few years and we always looked forward to it!
I thought of our 16th birthday when my mom took my sisters and I in to the city to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights. It was the Wedgewood Hotel, a very nice hotel in downtown Vancouver. I remember I was in the middle of reading Catcher in the Rye for my english class, and spent almost every second when we were in our room (ok...besides watching Trading Spaces with Paige Davis) glued to that book. I didn't ever really go to Starbucks at that point in my life, but I remember that weekend I got hooked on eggnog lattes, made especially good when walking down to English Bay in chilly December weather.
I have other memories of Vancouver too. A class trip to Science World that began with me giving the class bully a piece of "chocolate" (it was actually laxative...four times the adult recommended dose...yes, this is bar none the most evil thing I have ever done in revenge) on the bus, and ended with the same kid curled up in a ball the whole bus ride back, and then being out of school for three days. Not such a good memory I suppose.
A really good one I have, though, is going to Symphony of Fire with the youth for a number of years. Every year in Vancouver countries from all around the world compete in a fireworks competition set to music, all from a barge floating out in the bay. The entire youth group would head in with cars, or catch the skytrain, into the downtown area, and then walk down to English Bay where we would sit on blankets, sandwiched with thousands of strangers, to watch an amazing fireworks display. Then we'd walk back, inch by inch, and shoulder to shoulder with those same strangers, all the way back to our cars, or skytrain station. As a youth group, we'd also often head in to the Vancouver Food Bank to pack food hampers for people less fortunate, and continually ensure that we had the VERY TOP SPOT for the group who packed the most boxes in a session (and there were ALOT of groups that visited). Afterwards we would be rewarded with supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory or some other interesting place in the city.
So - Vancouver is definitely a happy place for me, and it's why I chose it to be our destination for going away for a night. I thought it would be great to go away in January - it is among my least favorite months, especially around here, where the rainy days can sometimes feel endless. By chance, one of my facebook friends mentioned something about Dine Out Vancouver, a promotion they hold around the city in a number of restaurants and hotels. Hotels have special rates, and restaurants offer a special three course menu at a certain price. So I did my research, asked the baby what kind of food she would be most pleased with (note: I don't know that it's a girl, this is just so I don't have to say "it"), and booked ourselves into a downtown hotel and restaurant.
So on Friday at 5:00pm we dropped Hudson off at the grandparents (which he was just tickled about), and headed off to the city! Here are a few snapshots of our time there:
This is the only shot of the hotel room. Small but totally adequate (hardly spent any time there). I picked it partly because of that brick wall, and partly for the king bed (so nice to stretch out and feel like there's no one around you for miles!!). We didn't get any pictures of the restaurant, Provence Marinaside but it was a fantastic experience - great food, great atmosphere (loud in a good way, bustling, and happy!), altogether very, very good.
The next day on our walk to English Bay we stopped at coffee shop and thankfully it wasn't too busy, so sneaking in a timer shot was only a little awkward.
After walking along the seawall for a bit, we headed up Granville street and did a little shopping on our way to Waterfront station, where we caught the seabus to the north shore. This is a picture from the Quay looking at the downtown skyline.
One of the reasons I wanted to go to the Quay was because Nadia is heading off to Maui this week and I wanted to get her a pair of replacement sunglasses from a kiosk there (they're her favorites) for the ones that Hudson snapped back when we went to Seattle together. Here are those sunglasses:
But, alas, the sunglasses lady wasn't there (evidently sunglasses are a seasonal thing!), so I was a little disappointed I couldn't come through for my big sis on that one. But - we had a good time nonetheless. It was Australian Day at the marketplace there, so what you see in the pic above the sunglasses is a guy grilling up some Kangaroo meat. And yes, we tried it - and loved it (though I felt a little bad after the guy said, "Yep, 100% wild kangaroo. Just hoppin' around out there"...somehow I didn't want to picture my food happily frolicking around before it got a dart in the neck).
After we took the seabus back to Waterfront, we walked back up Granville because there was a restaurant there we really wanted to try - Dougie Dog! The guy that runs it was on Dragon's Den (a favorite show of ours) a couple of times, so we said that next time we were in Vancouver, we would seek it out and give it a try. Dougie Dog is a gourmet hot dog joint, where you can get anything on your dog from hot peppers to poutine. There was even a $100 hot dog on the menu! Ty ordered the original dog (which is just as it sounds...ketchup, mustard, onions), when all of a sudden Dougie himself burst out from the back and told him he wasn't allowed to order just a plain hot dog. I joined in at this point and admittedly between the two of us we kind of bullied him into ordering something a little more interesting! It was pretty good though, glad we went for the experience!
After this we walked back to our car and headed in the direction of home...but didn't get there. Instead we went to first go check out a Honda Civic we were interested in. We have decided we NEED a second car around here - just something for commuting to work and back. There are no options for either of us to take city transit to our jobs - plus now I can get out a little more now, and actually run errands before 9pm! ANYHOW - we went to meet this guy, Roger who had a '98 Civic hatchback on Autotrader - and loooooooooong story short, we went back to Vancouver yesterday to buy the car!
When we got back to my parents place on Saturday, we were excited to see Hudson and find out how he did on his little bed on their bedroom floor. Apparently he did very well - took him awhile to get to sleep, but then slept for the entire night! And he was well behaved to boot! I'm so proud when I get to hear this stuff about my little boy.
So all in all we had a great time being away in Vancouver, just the two of us...or, three of us I should say.
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