toadman

Met the misses at my office in Pioneer Square at about 3:30pm and headed for I-5 North at about 3:45pm. Traffic was not bad as we made our way past UW and up towards Lynnwood. Slowed to about 30 MPH as we got towards Everett but thinned out once we past Hwy 2 and set the ole cruise control at 70MPH lest some Smokies be out and about. We made good time and hit a slight drizzle as we passed through Bellingham. Upon reaching the border crssing at the Peace Arch we were happily met with about 7 open lanes with two or three cars in each lane. We pulled up to the shortest line and waited about 2 minutes before we were at the Customs window. The guard checked our passports and asked the customary questions of why/where and when and we were off. We hit traffic going through the Massey tunnel with cosntruction going on but ended up in downtown Vancouver about 7:30pm.

We found our way to the Westin Bayshore Marina and checked in and were given a room in the Tower with a great view from the 15th floor over looking the city and Stanley Park. The Misses was excited to see a box of chocolates in the room as was I. I headed down stairs to put the parking tab on our car as I had forgot to do so when parking at the Westin lot. Steep price on parking of CDN$18/day but it's like that at all the hotels in downtown Vancouver. Anyway, upon my return to the room the Misses tells a sad tale of the chocolates being taken by one of the hotel staff. Apparently they had been put in the wrong room! I wonder what they would have done if we had ate them? Make us regurgetate them or even worse bill us for them! Anyway, we made up for the chocolate incident later in our weekend.

We had not eaten so headed down to the hotel restaurant, Currents for some grub. I had the Halibut in a raspberry vinagrette and my wife had the salmon, can't quite remember the sauce. Both were good, though the waitress mistakenly got my order wrong and brought two salmons. She apologised and reappeared several minutes later with my Halibut.

Saturday morning was overcast and a slight drizzle had started. I watched a few sea planes fly with in feet of our room at eye level and land in Vancouver Harbor. There was a light dusting of fresh snow on Grouse Mtn and it reminded me of home in Alaska. After watching a few more planes take off and land we were off for some shopping.

We headed off to Robson street to see what was new and do some shopping. Mostly me following the wife around hoping she didn't single handedly revive the economy of Vancouver. Later in the day the sun came out and we walked over to W Broadway and had lunch at Death by Chocolate. Despite the name sake let me assure you that both of us survived and none worse for wear.

We headed back to the Westin and soaked in the hot tub for a bit and swam in the pool. We watched a few bald eagles flying over head and several sea planes flying by. The pool was fairly crowded but we enjoyed watching the kids jumping around and having a good time.

We went to dinner at a nice Japanese sushi place on Denman. (Yoshi) A short walk and the sushi and sashimi was excellent. Especially the salmon.

Afterwards we headed back to Robson and to our destination of Godiva where we selected several fine varities of truffles to make up for the chocolate incident back at the Westin the night before. We quickly forgot our cares as we imbibed our treats back at the hotel and watched the boats out in the harbor.

The return trip on Sunday was uneventful other than a 20 minute wait at the trcuk crossing in Blaine. We filled up on gas just after the border as it is about 12 cents cheaper there than in Seattle.

The Westin Bayshore was a nice hotel and we liked our view from the 15th floor room but prefer the cosier Sheraton Le Soliel.