June 27

 

 We were up at 5:30, packed our bags, and headed off to a light breakfast.  The ferry was docking today at 7 (8 Washington time) in Bellingham.  We ate oatmeal in the dining room and chatted with other passengers about how hot the cabins had been.  I had set up transport to Vancouver with Classic Limousine, the same company that we had used last year.  In 2005, we had 10 people in our party, and they had picked us up in a big passenger van.  This year we got a white stretch limo!  I am sure there were other, cheaper ways to get from Bellingham to Vancouver, but Mom's original schedule had her flying out of Vancouver at 11AM today...so we had to be there in two hours.  The only way to get there that quickly was to have private transportation.  At the last minute, here flights got re-arraigned, so that she would not be flying out until the next day.    So we really didn't need the limo service anymore, but I didn't bother to change it.

 

Traffic was light and the border crossing was ridiculously easy…the customs agent didn’t even look at our passports.  The driver dropped Mom at her hotel (Hyatt) and us at ours (Westin). Both of our rooms were ready even though it was only 11 AM.  Yes, we were in separate hotels.  It’s a long story; you really don’t want to know.  We settled in, sent some laundry out ($10 to launder a pair of jeans!!!), and caught a cab to pick up Mom and go to VanDusen Botanical Gardens.  The cabbie was a talkative Indian who had lived in Vancouver 40 years, and was driving a Prius hybrid that he loved.  We had an excellent lunch at Shaughnessy's, which we had liked last year.  The gardens were great but entailed a bit more walking than Mom imagined, so we got her a wheelchair and I pushed her around when she got tired.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

After the gardens, we took another cab back to Mom’s hotel, sat around and talked a bit, then had dinner at McDonalds.  Then Lana and I walked back to our hotel.

Our hotel  in Vancouver was the Westin Bayshore.  I scored it on Priceline.com for $125/night, and what a score it was.  The view was unbeatable.

 

 

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