Parents-Only Vacation, Day 5, Victoria, BC

Monday, Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC

Eager to get out of Vancouver, we were up early and drove to Tsawwassen, BC. Tsawwassen is the site of the BC ferry terminal we were riding to Vancouver Island at 10AM. Neither of us had been on a car-toting ferry, so we were excited to see what it was all about. The instructions said for us to be there 30 minutes ahead of time, and we had not made reservations ahead of time, so I was a little worried when we were approaching the terminal at 9:42AM. Not to worry, there were plenty of other slackers arriving about the same time, and we got tickets with no problems. We were directed into lane 41 with several other vehicles, and there we sat until it was time to drive aboard.

Let me tell you, there were several opportunities this trip to do people watching, and this was no exception. From our parked car we had a great view of a mud-caked SUV with two crazy-looking college kids inside. The driver clearly had ants in his pants and was in and about the vehicle several times during the 15 minutes we sat there waiting. A few Chinese fire drills, a trip to the concession stand, another to throw trash away, another to get a coffee, and then what I deem to be his personal low: spitting huge gobs of disgustingness all over the ground near the cars. I was entertained until that point, then he lost me. It doesn’t really bother me so much that he spat, but the sound effects that came along with the event were really disturbing. I made a mental note to teach G&C not to do that, at least not when in around masses of people.

OK, so back to the trip. We boarded, got out of the car and explored the ferry. Pretty nice gigs, I have to admit. Several different areas, a nice gift shop, a cafeteria, and even a playroom for kids. Our voyage was a little over an hour and a half and provided us with some nice views of the wooded islands dotting the BC/north Washington coast. Once we got to the harbor in Swartz Bay, the tip of Vancouver Island north of our destination, Victoria, BC, we drove off and headed to our hotel. This hotel was FANTASTIC! I don’t normally get too excited about hotels since we don’t spend much time at them, but this place was great. It’s called Swans hotel, and it’s a converted factory with tons of character. The hotel is named after the brewery its built above (and no, it wasn’t difficult to convinced Keith that we should stay at this hotel, it’s above a brewery, for crying out loud!), and is a nice combination of funky modern and historic. The fact that they give you vouchers to try the breweries’ beers for free was also well-received by Keith. Kudos to me for finding this place. We spent the rest of the afternoon (after a power nap) walking around the downtown area. Victoria is a cute little harbor town with tons of charm. We pretty much just meandered for a few hours while taking in the sights. Oddly, the Chinatown here is MUCH better than Vancouver. We did meet some cute locals, there were three of them:
So at this point we’d been vacationing near the ocean for a few days and I had yet to eat fish n’ chips. And that’s just not right. We found a lively Irish pub that had a 2 for one special (it pays to vacation early in the week), so we partook in delicious food and local beverages. We always joke that my parents take a lot of pictures of their food on vacation, so mom and dad, this is for you.

Keith’s drinking a Drifwood Ale or Lighthouse IPA, and I’m having some local unoaked chardonnay. And no, I was not able to eat all that food. With our bellies full, we retired to the room to enjoy the view from the little balcony.

This is the life!

Parents-Only Vacation: Day 4, North Vancouver

Day 4, North Vancouver, BC

Today we found Vancouver’s sweet spot, and that’s just a little north of the city. We’d read about a hike up Grouse Mountain that is supposed to be very popular, and since we both like hiking we thought we’d give the hike a try. So, across Lions Gate Bridge we went in search of the Grouse Grind. Along the way we found Dutch breakfast place, De PannekoekenHouse, which is pure heaven on earth if you’re an Afrikaaner. Pannekoeke! Pannekoeke for most of you will resemble crepes, except the batter is thicker and more yummy. And at De Pannekoeken House they come topped with all sorts of things, Keith went the meat route while I had apple & cheddar. It was a huge breakfast and we were feeling somewhat guilty for eating so much, but little did we know we’d be burning that all off in the next two hours. Just north from the breakfast place is the start of the hike. There were loads of people, all starting off the hike with a spring in their step. The hike is beautiful, with large trees & mosses and ferns creating a peaceful vibe. The trail itself is pretty much a stairway. From previous hikes we knew that some trails start with stairs, and then level out as it zigzags across the side of the mountain. Not this hike though. Whomever decided that instead of having the trail go back and forth, they’d rather just climb directly up the mountain. Seriously. It’s a stairway all the way up, with some smallish steps, some normal-ish, and then mostly a bunch of large double steps. With occasional boulders thrown in for good measure. At 30 minutes into the hike Keith jokingly said that he bets we’re 1/8 of the way there, and I said nooooooooo, I bet it’s more like halfway. 10 minutes later we passed the ¼ way sign. Damn. But we’re not quitters, so on we went! Took us about an hour and a half, but we finished it and didn’t even collapse when it was all said and done. We did take the airtram down because we weren’t sure our old knees would be able to handle the beating the downward hike would give.

The rest of the day was mostly spent at Stanley Park, a gorgeous urban park jutting out into a peninsula. It was a great way to wrap out an outdoorsy day.

Parents-Only Vacation: Day 3, Woodinville & Vancouver

Whoa! It’s Day 5 of the vacation and I’m a little behind on the recap.

Day 3, Woodinville, WA and Vancouver, BC

From my earlier post about Vancouver, BC, you can tell that Vancouver did not make the best impression on me. It was really due to a combination of things-dirty city, throngs of homeless people, crappy hotel & location, and a realization that Keith and I prefer being in parts of cities that don’t make us feel like we might step on a dirty syringe at any point. But, Day 3 wasn’t all bad. We started the day by heading out of Seattle to Woodinvile, WA, which is about 15 minutes north of Seattle. It’s a cute tiny little town, and it has nothing notable other than wineries and breweries. Keith at St. Michelle

We stopped at Château St. Michelle (We temporarily abandoned our stance against all large commercial operations, 'cause the tour and tasting was free. Yeah, we're that easy to win over). Since we got there relatively early, we got a private tour from Bob. Bob told us all about wine production in Washington and he let us sample some wines. St. Michelle is all over the place so you probably have seen it at the grocery stores. Decent wine, made better by knowing the history, in my opinion. And, Bob was also into cameras so he and Keith had a long and in-depth discussion about their SLR cameras while I sipped my syrah. Across the street was another maker of adult beverages-Red Hook Brewery. For a mere $1, we got a tour and a very healthy sampling round of all their beers. We were hitting the road after the tour, so we took it easy and sampled only a few brews. Good stuff, even for a non-beer drinker such as myself. See how I enjoyed? Trudi Sipping some Red Hook

The rest of the day was disappointing-we got to Vancouver, realized it’s dirty, took a long walk through what turned out to be the worst part (really a fine line between bad and good in this place) and walked past Gastown and through Chinatown. What a crappy Chinatown. Let’s just say that a few posters to the Yahoo TripAdvisor will be hearing from me regarding their rave reviews of the China Town and it’s “open air market”. If by open air market they meant a few long tables with vendors selling things from a dollar store, then sure, it’s a market. Blech. Today was also the worst day of missing the boys, and nothing makes you homesick more than missing your kids and not liking where you are. Thanks a lot, Vancouver. We did find an area of the city that has more young professionals than homeless, Yaletown. It’s clean and has lots of great restaurants and bars. We had excellent Thai food. Or, rather, I should say I had great Thai food. Keith was brave and ordered his food ‘hot’ (rather than playing it save with ‘medium’ or ‘mild’). Our tiny little Asian waitress questioned his choice twice, and gave him a knowing look, but Keith’s not one to shy away from a challenge, and insisted on ‘hot’. I won’t ruin Keith’s storytelling material, but I will say that he played with his food and sat and stared at me eating my meal (of perfect blend of flavor and spiciness) a good bit. That’s all that’s worth mentioning of that day. More about Day 4 soon!

A Letter to Vancouver

Dear City of Vancouver:

We hear you’re hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. That’s pretty ambitious of you, considering you’re somewhat of a shithole. Admittedly, we just left the cleanest city we’ve ever visited, so it’s only natural that you pale in comparison. So instead of just judging you, we thought we’d make a few suggestions to help you prepare for the thousands of people coming to enjoy what your city has to offer.

1. Put the homeless people to work. Sure, the 2008 Beijing organizers got some flack for putting their throngs of homeless to work beautifying their city, but you have to admit that it’s brilliant. During the 3-4 mile walk we took through your city, we saw more homeless people than normal folks, so there are plenty of idle hands to put to work. While you’ve got the homeless gathered for instruction, you might want to go over the basics of using a bathroom. This will cut down on the urine smell that lingers in the salty air.
2. The swarms of flies. Where are we, Calcutta?
3. Bring in more Russian girls. The natives are not the best looking people, and all the hot chicks we saw spoke Russian.
4. Put a little thought into city improvements. Is the best time to rip up the major road through town at the beginning of summer vacations?

On the positive side, you do offer a wider selection of Cadbury chocolates, so at least you’ve got that going for you. And there does seem to be a small area close to our hotel that offers something for the senses that doesn’t make me want to cover myself in a hazmat suit. Another plus.

Overall, I’d say you have potential, but you’ve let yourself go. It happens. Take a good look in the mirror, and then pull yourself together. The winter snow can only cover so much.

Sincerely,

Not Your Biggest Fans

PS. We wanted to submit pictures for evidence, but our camera is pretty bling-bling, and we were too afraid to take it out of the bag.

Parents-Only Vacation: Day 2, Seattle & Fremont

Friday, 4:37 Pacific Standard Time, Seattle

Today’s highlight was a long afternoon nap. Seriously. I love sleep, and between twin babies, working and keeping the house running, there’s never time for those. Today’s nap was made better by an activity filled morning that wore us out.
Because of the three hour time difference we woke up fairly early. First on the agenda was the Space Needle. Our hotel is only a few steep blocks away from the Seattle Center, the park area that houses the Space Needle and various other museums and attractions. We got to the Space needle just as it opened, and enjoyed the views from the top before the observation deck became crowded. The views were great! We were exploring a different part of Seattle later in the day, so it was nice to be able to see out over those areas to get our bearings.

Next up for us was a little kayaking on Lake Union. Lake Union is a natural lake just north of downtown Seattle that canals were added to connect it to the sound. Its location makes it a perfect place for a little sightseeing-from the lake you can see downtown Seattle, some of the University, the area of Fremont and of course boats, and houseboats. The houseboat used to film Sleepless in Seattle is rumored to be on the lake, we didn’t see it. We kayaked for an hour or so, and then were tired. I imagine Keith was even more tired since we were in a tandem kayak and I took several opportunities to just sit there and enjoy the view, making him paddle twice as hard. Hehehehe.

Kayaking works up an appetite, and after a quick stop at a funky little park we headed to Fremont to have some grub. Hale’s Ales & Pub was great- it’s a microbrewery that had a brewpub and had a great lunch. Fremont is a really quirky little area of Seattle and we explored it before deciding that it was naptime.

Friday, Late. Very late

We met up with an old college friend of Keith’s, and had a great time. Good food, good conversation and a fun visit to an Irish bar with live music. Tomorrow we’re heading to Canada!