5-14
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We had scored the Pacific Palisades hotel on Priceline.com for about $150 per night, not a bad price in downtown Vancouver at the beginning of the season. The hotel had been built in the 60's originally as an apartment building. Our rooms were basically one-bedroom apartments, very roomy and nicely decorated, with decent views. I was especially entertained by the "honors system" mini bar, which contained the regular stuff like snacks and booze, but had a few surprises. Massage oil, incense, and personal lubricant... |
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| Lana woke me at 6:30, calling my cell phone to tell me they were boarding. I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up, showered, and went to breakfast around 7:30. I could not get the wired internet in the room to work with my laptop (something to do with my firewall, I think), but the restaurant had both good food and a strong Wi-Fi signal. Cool decor, too. |
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I had a leisurely breakfast as I returned emails and phone calls. When Gina called about 9:30, I was still there, so she came down and had breakfast. Lana and Z would not be to the hotel until about noon, so Gina and I decided to brave the light rain that was falling and go sightseeing. We walked down to the waterfront, watching the boats, seaplanes, and people, and marveling over the HUGE construction project that would soon be the new Vancouver Convention Center.
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| Back up into town where G bought a pair of shoes, then into a little wine store right around the corner from the hotel. As I was commenting to G on the high wine prices compared to home, my phone rang, and Lana told me she was at the hotel. We met L and Z, let them in the rooms, then walked across the street to a creperie for a late lunch. |
The Sophisticated Travelers |
The French couple that owned the creperie had been there for about 4 years, and they knew what they were doing. The food was excellent.
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After lunch, I had the hotel concierge make us reservations at Lift, a restaurant on the water than Lana and I had been to in the past, then we all went for a walk down to the water. The drizzle had stopped but the skies were still grey. We walked the waterfront down into Gastown, then up into a seedy area full of drug addicts on our way back to the shopping district on Robson. A couple of folks asked for change, but most of the people in that 4-block stretch were too high to notice us. |
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We left the hotel at about 6 to walk to Lift. By this time the clouds had broken and the sun was shining brightly, sparkling off the glass towers by the water. The water was full of boats from the Stanley Park Rowing Club. This part of Vancouver is truly beautiful.
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We all live on the Gulf coast, so we know our seafood pretty well. Vancouver has EXCELLENT seafood. Lana had scallops on beds of spinach, and I had tuna laid on sushi that had been lightly fried, and sprinkled with salmon row. Yummy!
We were done with dinner at about 8, and were all tired. L & Z only had about 3.5 hours sleep the previous night, and Z looked like she was going to fall asleep at the table! We had a leisurely walk back to the hotel (about 8 blocks) and crashed.
