Vancouver last few days

Thu 03 Feb

This morning we went down to Granville Island, a mini-waterfront area of Vancouver with shops and restaurants and very cool fresh foods market. First stop was some artisan coffee (I think this is what they call it when it is organic and tastes a little fruity) followed by a truly glorious croissant from a La Baguette. Buttery, crusty, crumbly yumminess. We then uhmmed and ah'ed a bit about what to do and eventually settled on having lunch right there. Just as well - I was starving (indecision makes me hungry) and gobbled down a pepper steak pie and a fresh bagel. Delish.

Then we drove with Toots to Granville area to help her pick out a new computer. Let me tell you, the 'extended warranty' up-sale thing is as strong here in Canada as in the UK. And the very persistent sales lady would not take no for an answer. We eventually fended her off by donning 'chugger' bibs and signing her up for a monthly direct debit of £20 per month to Help The Aged, UK.

Back at Toots' place, I removed all the pre-loaded rubbish on the machine and introduced her to the wonders of the mouse-pad and laptop use. Plus, added bonus of course, was that she can now watch the Michael McIntyre box-set DVDs we gave her as these were unplayable on her Canadian region, NTSC-only DVD-player. I also waved a magic wand and with some advanced geekery recovered most of her iTunes library from her old, dead hard-drive. Yay me.

That night we went to friend of Toots' for some sushi and teriyaki chicken (salmon for La of course). After supper we retired to their living room for a catch up and a serious Glee/So you think you can Dance session on their daughter's Wii (her choice, not mine. Really.).

Morning, noon and night. Day 19

Fri 04 Feb

Got up early and went for a run. I had learnt from my elliptical torture experience so headed outside for outdoor exercise to the more residential, treed suburban part of Burnaby. I was totally overdressed as previous days had been wet and chilly but today was positively balmy. Well, not quite, but not cold.

Much more relaxed day which we spent with Toots in her local hood, La had a mini-mani-pedi, did some shopping and continued setting up her new laptop. For lunch we had leftover Thai from a few nights ago. By this time I was starving (hill running makes me hungry) and my curry was much improved by the extra days maturing in the fridge. Delish.

That afternoon we got some DVDs from the library and ended up watching some drivel about a man in NY with 3 girlfriends, all hot. Much worse than it sounds but it did have Ali G's wife in it, innit, so not a total loss. Aaai.

Supper was at Toots' friends near Dunbar St in Vancouver. Great meal cooked by the hosts and we were entertained during the meal by another guest's tales of being sued by his tenants and counter-suing them back and physically cutting off their telephone and electricity supply when they didn't pay rent. Hilarious.

Breakfast, lunch and supper. Day 20

Sat 5 Feb

After a light breakfast, we set off for the SkyTrain station to go downtown. We were meeting my cousin and his family for brunch at the English Bay side of Stanley Park. For the first and only time on this visit to Vancouver, the bus driver was clueless (although still friendly and polite) and assured us that the restaurant we were aiming for was accessible from his last stop, near the Aquarium. Strictly speaking, this was not incorrect, but a 20 minute slow jog across the park, round lakes and the like was not really what we had in mind!

We arrived at the Fish House restaurant only 25 minutes late. My cousin, wife and son were politely waiting with their 10th glasses of OJ but we were assured the fruit scones and muffins they sampled while they waited were most excellent. By this time I was starving (jogging round lagoons makes me hungry) and I polished off 'the biggest salmon benny in Canada', with a side of crushed potatoes, in no time. Delish!

There was a lot of catching up - the last time I'd seen my cousin was when I was knee high to a grasshopper, long before wives (ours) and children (son, his). Afterwards they dropped us off back at the Aquarium where we queued and queued and queued and eventually gave up. Walked a round that side of Stanley Park a bit then public transport to Oakridge mall area to meet up with a friend of my folks'.

Instead of coffee in the mall we went for a walk to Queen Elizabeth park, where there are gorgeous views of Vancouver from the top of the rose garden looking North.

Morning, brunch and burgers. Day 21,

Sun 6 Feb

We woke, had a light breakfast, finished packing, then Toots drove us to the airport. Continued frustration over our inability to use online check-in and actually for this flight we couldn't even use the little self-help computer things in the terminal. Apparently on Alaskan Airlines you need to be American or Canadian to use this!!!! Then, when we were checking in with an attendant we were informed that checked baggage was not free on this airline. Grr. A really snotty email to our travel agent was forming in our minds.

Passing through security was harmless, but I was then given a bit of a hard time (in broken English no less) at US immigration. US bound travellers effectively enter the USA inside Vancouver airport, which is great from a time-saving point of view, but rubbish if you want to shop in the airport as you end up in a smaller, US flight only section of duty free. I was travelling on a UK passport (with a visa waiver agreement) but apparently my old SA passport with a still valid visa takes 'prejudice' over this, so the immigration officer had a bit of a rant at me about this. Funny how the New York immigration guys never knew this rule?

So by now we were in the perfect frame of mind to write said email to our travel agent and due to free WiFi in Vancouver airport (at last, something good to mention here!) our little moaning missive was soon on its way across the interweb. Justice would be ours! Then off to get some lunch before the flight (did I mention previously how overjoyed we are that US internal and Canadian flights have no complimentary meals?). By this time I was ravenous (bile and vitriol make me hungry) so we had sandwiches and coffee before boarding. Ok, I guess, but not quite Delish.

The flight to LA was just under 3 hours and we had a gorgeous view of the city as we came in to land. We made good time getting bags and our rental car (rude attendant, but could just pick any car from our booked category from the parking lot and drive out!) and GPS was perfect (thanks again to Francis) so arrived much earlier at La's cousin than expected. So we went to meet him at his friend's house where they were watching a football match.

Turned out that it was Super Bowl Sunday and this was the big match between some team and some other team and one of them won. Green Bay Packers I think. La's cousin was watching the game with some friends, pretty much all ex-pat South Africans, cigars, whisky, biltong, and egg sandwiches on platters covered in shredded lettuce. Just like the Old country, except the rules of the game are incomprehensible to normal people.

After the match, we went out for meal at the Tavern in San Vincente, Brentwood; apparently, a sometimes celeb hot-spot. But I guess they were all in rehab or drunk in front of football detritus or something because we saw no-one we knew. Maybe a glimpse of Sean Connery ;) After supper, La's cousin took us on a bit of an orientation drive through the neighbourhood: Westwood, Montana, Venice, Santa Monica, Ocean Avenue and towards Malibu.

Breakfast, rage, Lamb Shank. Day 22.