Final Days in Van

To round out our stay in Vancouver I snuck in a quick out and back through Gastown (route).  The route became a bit industrial and included razor wire across balconies.  Interesting. Also a few cruise lines were disembarking which made "tourist frogger" fun, especially since they all had rolling suitcases and were in small flocks.

Unsurprisingly we started our day with breakfast at Giovane -- which is included in our Amex FHR package.  Can't get enough free breakfast. We wanted to get in some shopping and check out some galleries but our declining health didn't let us get very far.  Prior to coming on the trip Owen got croup then it seems Julie developed some sort of cold around the first day in Vancouver and by the second or third day I was coughing up a storm and feeling generally crappy along with them.  On our brief outting we stopped at the Frey Willie shop.  Last year I bought Julie a ring while in Budapest from Frey Willie (an Austrian jeweler) and it was the wrong size.  Fortunately there is one Frey Willie shop in Canada so I shipped mine to Vancouver and they sent me a new size.  Anyway, the lady even remembered me/my situation.  I grabbed a pair of shoes and after some fun trying on goofy hats we headed over to Cardero's in Coal Harbour.

Owen chilling in the change room.

The food was great as were the views.  Afterwards we called it quits and headed back to the hotel for a slower paced afternoon in the room.

Good food.

Walking in Coal Harbour.

Before dinner I headed down for a massage and more importantly some serious steam room time.  It helped, but only temporarily. In the mean time our new babysitter, Christine, had shown up and Julie headed down to the lobby for some drinks.  The lobby lounge is very happening, even on Wednesday, and reminds me of a W where they really try to make it a scene.  Live music starts at 5 every day and ends at 1.  Pretty good.  Mike and Colleen met up with us and we had a few more drinks before heading over to Black and Blue for some steak.  We even got to finally use the hotel car service.

Black and Blue is a massive 3 story steakhouse.  The steak was great and pretty much put us to bed.  Literally I fell asleep on the couch before Julie rolled Owen's crib from the bedroom to the living room.  At which point Owen began to wake up and I was stuck on the couch waiting for him to fall back asleep.

The next morning I headed over to the cruise ship terminal across the street to pick up our rental car.  Fortunately more ships were unloading and it was easy to pretend I had just got off (a requirement to rent from this location).  Not sure what to expect for a 'full-sized SUV' I got a Jeep Liberty.  Not exactly as full sized as I hoped as we have heaps of gear.  On my way back I grabbed some breakfast from Giovane and brought it up to the room to enjoy on the balcony.  We weren't able to get Julie in for a full hour massage on short notice but she did manage to squeak in a 30 minute session while Owen and I packed -- aka I packed and Owen played -- Julie had already slaved over packing all of Owen's goodies.  With the car loaded like a trophy session of Tetris we were on our way to the ferry terminal to head off to Victoria.

Breakfast on the balcony

Overall, we had a good time in Vancouver.  Being sick took most of the life out of us but we still managed to see some parts of the city and enjoy some great food. 

The crazy shrubs that everyone seems to cover their house (big or small) with.