On to Vancouver

Day 31 – Sunday, August 23rd

Patti is officially sick of driving and really ready to get into Vancouver where we can settle in for several days of NOT driving!

Just a 300 mile drive today. (Compared with some days of 5 or 600 miles!) The highlight was driving through Frasier River Canyon, one of the most beautiful drives this whole trip. It was a canyon that went on for miles and miles on the way down from central British Columbia to near the U.S. border and it was stupendous. Patti thought this called for a John Denver sound track and we sang along with John as we drove through exquisite scenery. Wow! It really does your heart good to see such beauty!

About an hour and a half outside of Vancouver, we spotted an ad for a lovely large gardens, The Minter Gardens. We had the time, so we stopped and were so glad that we did. This lovely 32 acre gardens was filled with great blooming flowers (it isn’t fall HERE yet), lovely green places, lush shade, and lots and lots of people out enjoying the great weather. We each shot a couple hundred photos including Patti trying some artsy shots of a variety of interesting things. And another wedding was happening there. The end of August is a popular time to get married. We agreed since that was when we got married, too.

We drove on into Vancourer, even though we were originally not supposed to arrive until the next day. We crossed our fingers that we could check into our hotel early and were glad to find we could. We had mixed feelings about the hotel. Location-wise, it is great: two blocks from Chinatown, a few blocks from Gastown (the historic district with all of the shops and restaurants), and walking distance to the harbor area.The neighborhood is a little dicey, though, and we both have felt the need to be a bit more security conscious, especially at night. The hotel was billed as being geared for the budget traveler who doesn’t need a lot of frills, and it lives up to that! A good bed and a bathroom in the room makes up for a lot. The hotel is working out fine.
We walked over to Gastown where we had a lovely dinner at a longtime Indian restaurant, a nice white linen tablecloth place. A cut above the truck stop we ate at our anniversary meal in Watson Lake a couple nights ago.

Then we walked around the area a bit, taking in the sights and strolling through very tempting galleries and stores. It is also the location of the famous steam powered clock. We also had a good look at the "sails" of Canada Place, the combination hotel, convention center, and cruise ship terminal. Patti, still out of gas, finally needed to go back to the hotel and crash so we did just that. It is striking what it feels like to be in such a bit city, with over 2 million people living in the metro area, after so much NOT being around many people these past weeks. A bit of culture shock!