Bonjour Vancouver!

Tiki-Boo and I have arrived in Vancouver after a stinking long day of being on planes and sitting in airport terminals. We are currently spread out on our respective beds in a bit of a travel daze. Our day started at 3:50 am so that we could be stuffed onto the hotel shuttle at 5:00 with way too many other travelers. After a couple of false starts trying to find the Delta counter, we successfully checked in with our gajillion pounds of suitcases, paraded through TSA with our luggage-o-necessities, and gratefully found our gate and settled in for our 6:30 boarding time. 

The five hour flight from Dulles to Seattle was uneventful and it gave me time to watch the film about Mr. Rogers with Tom Hanks. It was an excellent movie and there may have been a few sentimental sniffles while watching it. Mum enjoyed her window seat and took some photos of some spectacular scenery on our approach to Seattle

We landed in Seattle at 10:30 pacific time for a 3 hour layover (Yikes!) Followed by a 30 minute flight to Vancouver. Short and sweet which made us very happy.

I checked my Apple Watch at the end of our journey and was astonished at the results of a day of travel and sitting on our butts. I was quite impressed with us for achieving 4.3 miles of walking in airports. All those wrong turns at the beginning of the day really paid off!

We got a taxi from the airport to the hotel with one of the friendliest drivers who shared with us his history in Canada. He moved here at the age of 9 from northern India to a town called One Hundred Mile House, British Columbia (Google it!). An incredibly remote area of Canada that must have been a huge culture and climate shock for the whole family. Mum and I enjoyed the heck out of our drive and it made the 30 minute commute go by very quickly!

We checked into the St. Regis Hotel which is super impressive. Our luggage disappeared up to our room before we even realized what was happening. Wait! What?! It’s an incredibly luxurious room and we will be sad to leave it behind tomorrow. 

By the time we got ourselves situated in our room, we realized we were incredibly hungry given that it was 8:00 e.s.t. We asked the hyper efficient doorman (who was responsible for whisking our luggage away) for recommendations for an “affordable” restaurant which apparently stumped him good and proper for a minute. He then told us about Malone’s Bar & Grill. We were a little dubious but it was close and we needed the walk. What a great place! It’s located in a rehabbed 1880’s hotel so lots of character and the service was phenomenal! Mum was a waitress in college who is always very aware of the quality of service in restaurants and she was so impressed.  They also had Happy Wine which is exactly what everyone needs! Mum was happy! I was happy! We were all happy! So many exclamation points!!!

I’m also doing my best to corrupt my 88 year old mother and had her try my pornstar martini. And yes, I typed that correctly. It received a tepid approval. I promise to persevere in my quest to corrupt her though. I have faith in myself.

It’s been an incredibly long day of travel but we are so grateful to be here and ready to set sail tomorrow for Hawaii. We are so excited and can’t wait to share our adventure with everyone 🌺