June 30th & July 1st; Vancouver – Canada Day

It has been a whirlwind over the last couple of days in Vancouver.  On Saturday we slept in and relaxed more then we had expected too.  Oogie Boogie Bash tickets went on sale for Disneyland and we wound up being in the que on the computer for about two hours.  We were successful and got our tickets for the date we wanted.  Later that afternoon the wait was only three minutes, but by then 8 of the dates (including the one we wanted) were already sold out.  So I am glad we did it.  Then we walked just a couple of blocks from the hotel to the City Bike rental company.  We rented bikes for half the day.  We took a fantastic, scenic, and active 8 mile bike ride through Vancouver, down past the pier where we started and ended our cruise from, around Stanley Park along the Sea Wall and back through town to visit a Greek resteraunt one of Megan’s new cruise friends had recommended.  It was a beautfil day.  Around 75 degrees and the sun was shining bright.  We retuned the bikes and headed back to the hotel to get ready for a nice dinner out.  Sunday morning; HAPPY CANADA DAY!! We didn’t know what it celebrated and we spent the morning learning about the significance of this date to Canadians.  There was live music, stages, and celebration all around Vancouver.  I had promised the girls we could do some shopping and the stores didn’t open until 11:00am so we got a chance to walk around and enjoy the sun again.  We did some retail therapy, grabbed a light luch at this lively resteraunt called Joe Fortes, I highly recommend it.  We enjoyed walking through some high end shops; Tiffany, Gucci, Dior and Louis Vuitton; but we resited making any purchases.  We have spent many a Christmas or post Christmas, since Don’s passing at the Fairmont in downtown San Jose.  So the smell of their products have come to represent Christmas to me, at the Fairmont in Vancouver they use the same products and it was comforting to smell them for the first time in a few years.  And they even go the extra mile in Vancouver, they printed my name on the bottles.  It was a simple but super sweet gesture on their part.  So after shopping it was back to the hotel to “pack” our treasures and make sure all the suitcases had proper weight distribution. The car picks us up at 6:00am tomorrow to take us to the airport so we will be getting up at 5:00am.  Yuck!!  It has been a most wonderful vacation away with the girls.  I give big thanks to Kevin and Jenny for watching our fur baby Murphy and allowing us this opportunity to get away.  Now we head home to get ready for house guests for the Fourth of July celebration at home and the opportunity to honor our own country and it’s independance.  Happy Fourth of July everyone.  I will post more when we embark on our next adventure to……who knows where?