Vancouver by Seattle

Not content to stay at home for even one weekend, we headed off to Vancouver by way of Seattle. We flew into Seattle (because it was significantly cheaper and quicker than flying into Vancouver) and rented a car. Several stops - Five Guys for lunch, Starbucks for Craig and I, a rest area to return our coffee rental, and the boarder - extended our trip. As we were driving through the Seattle metro, I mentioned that John and I had never driven to Vancouver...we always took the train. Why we didn't even consider the train for this trip is still a mystery to me.

We had a little drama finding our hotel, because Craig's phone died and neither Bryce nor I had international data. We stopped at another hotel for directions. Craig got directions from the bellman at the hotel and I got directions on my phone from the nearby Starbucks hot-spot. We got to the hotel, which was quite lovely. Bryce posted this picture of his room to Instagram:



After dinner with Mark, Kate, and Cammi, we went to their apartment. Their apartment was handily located less than a block from our hotel. They had incredible views from there 31st floor apartment. I hope to add pictures later, but I'm sure Craig posted some to Facebook.

Mark wanted to introduce me to a Canadian classic - poutine. So after relaxing in their apartment for awhile, we headed out again. After walking about a mile, Craig asked me how far I thought this place was from their apartment. I pointed to Kate walking ahead of us and said, "She changed to Uggs, it's far." Because, you see, Kate walks EVERYWHERE in her four-inch heels. If she has changed to something flat, we are going for a hike, not a walk. Over hills and through some interesting nightlife, we got to Mark's favorite poutine place. Here we are:



It was actually much better than we expected - amazing fries, cheese curds, bacon, and gravy. Maybe it was the distance of the walk, but Craig and I devoured our small poutine in no time at all.

Friday morning, Craig, Bryce, and I went to Tim Horton's for breakfast, after a stop at Starbucks (of course). Then we went souvenir shopping. I returned to the hotel for a bit while Bryce and Craig went in search of lunch; breakfast had been more than enough for me. Then Craig and I went to tour an attraction while Kate took Bryce on the Sky Train to Mark's office. Mark had arranged for quite a presentation for Bryce at his office.

We ate too much on this trip and walked more than enough on the hills of downtown Vancouver. We went to a video game themed restaurant and toured Gas Town in Vancouver. We had too much popcorn (and not much else worth eating) at the video game place. And we saw fascinating things in Gas Town.



All too soon, we had to leave Vancouver to get back to Seattle for our flight home. But we took a few hours to show Bryce Seattle. We went to Pike's Market and I got my favorite - fresh donuts:



And we went up in the Space Needle: