Travel day….my last until I’m headed home. I sleep in today, take care of some business telephone calls and begin the long process of packing (after a bit of a work out in the gym). Head out for a bite of lunch and then pick my bags up from the bellman. I roll my gear down the hill a whole two blocks, then down the ramp to the waterfront, where I check in for my water taxi 35-minute flight from Victoria harbor to Vancouver harbor. Here are the taxis lined up for boarding:
It’s been a delight to me to be in a country where “local” and “green” carry some weight:
I hang out in the terminal (no security lines here…nor security!) until we board:
and we’re off. It’s great peering out of the windows to check out all the little (and some not so little) islands along the way. We’re not flying to high, so easy to check out property, boats and the tides. Before long we’re descending into Vancouver harbor, with considerably more activity then the one I just left. Tall buildings, cargo ships, cargo loading docks, big convention centers and skyscrapers everywhere. We climb out of the plane, my bag is pulled out of one of the pontoons under the airplane, and I am rolling along once again. I kind of get my bearings, ask where Barclay road is, and head up and over a hill about 8 blocks away. I get to my bed and breakfast, named the “O Canada” house (the dude who wrote the lyrics lived there for a while) and gently refused the upgrade to the penthouse room (don’t want to trudge up 2 flights of steps every day and it’s way too big for little ole me!) and I settle in.
I head out once again, to get a snack before Steve and Lauren get in about 7:15. It just so happens that a top rated Izakaya is just a few blocks in their direction (they’re staying at a big hotel on the waterfront), so I pop in for a few bites. The menu looks so good that it takes 20 minutes to figure out what I want. No, I did not go for the pig intestine, not even the pig cheek. But I did have a great meal:
and then headed down to wait in the lobby for my friends. I was just telling the check-in desk where I’d be waiting, and turned around to see their beautiful faces coming into the lobby. yeah!
They deposited their luggage and then I took them right back to where I was (don’t know too many places yet!) and we sat and talked and ate for quite a while. Then they walked me back to my little house amongst the big buildings and we all hit the hay before our busy day tomorrow.