Quality Hotel Airport South Richmond

... welcome passengers onto an aeroplane!

Mostly, even although we had ignorance written all over us, Canadia has come through for us in the most impressive way. Still no bloody moose ("they're north"... yes, we know... they're FAKE aren't they!! There's a LOT to see in Canada so we don't even hope to do it justice by only visiting Vancouver; however, here's a run down of what we're lovin' about the 'Couver.

BUT FIRST, and let's just get this ...

... now only 8.30am and we weren't supposed to check in 'til three. After a couple of hours sleep we restarted our day and headed in the bus to "Downtown" Vancouver. We went to harbourside and Gastown (saw the famous steam clock), a native arts gallery and looked around for quite a while - a nice city, similar to Sydney with great views over the harbour to North Vancouver and the ...

... Washing it all down with a couple of Hawaiian brews helped it all digest a bit better :) Hehe. Then, I flew to Las Vegas to meet some friends. I truly had thought I'd never go to Vegas...the idea of it was sleazy. And, being an ex-gamble-aholic, I knew I might be in some trouble!! Yet, I got there and was amazed and awed!! Yes, the sheer opulence of it all is excessive...and the cost of everything is high. And yet, you ...

... because we enjoyed our time in Stanley Park so much. The rest of the museum covered the decades in Vancouver until now. Its funny, but if you replace African Americans for Asians and change the dates by about six months...Canada has the same history as the U.S. lol. This place is great though. We had lunch at a place called the White Spot. They are all over town; they seem to just be a burger and shake joint. Lunch was ...

Heading back over to Asia now....man these long flights are killers! Watching the Olympics now at the YVR airport, they checked my bags to Hong Kong but not me! Ooops! On my own for this trip, so I treated myself to executive class stand by tickets to make it easier on ...

... it was an easy but boring drive into Vancouver. With the help of my magnificent map reading Fletcher navigated his way into downtown Vancouver. However, there was not a motel to be seen. We drove on towards the Seattle road and after much fruitless searching arrived in Richmond where near the airport we found the motels in a cluster!!. We have booked into the ...

... I'm now left to run the coffee shop alone for the evening shift, which can be quite demanding. I've been trained to roast all the different coffees from scratch, which is a skill I never expected to learn! I now have a permanent aroma of coffee following me around - the smoke gets everywhere! It's a family business and everyone I work with is very pleasant. Now that I'm finally earning a bit of cash I decided to sign up for a 6 week kayaking course to keep me busy in my ...

... up our rental car at the main terminal without any problem even thought the Priceline system indicated that we were supposed to pick it up at some obscure terminal reserved for private planes-- something I was unsuccessful at changing prior to our departure. I can now report that Priceline does work-- we paid only $21/day for a car from Avis that would normally be almost $40/day. It's great to see my parents who are ...

My stuff. Accessories: -Leatherman -Clothsline -Maglight -Tide to go -Vitamins -Nalgene Bottle -Swiss military keychain -Glasses case -Sunglasses -Moleskine planner and notebooks -Small Canadian flag -Shaving kit w/ supplies -Shower kit w/ supplies -Microfiber towel -10 boxes of contact lenses -Travel combination lock -Snorkel and Mask -First Aid kit Books -Home ...

... stop in BC was unusual to say the least, but truth be told, we really couldn't handle being away from our beloved Winnipeg for more than one night. And given that I now worked in Australian distances, day trips had to involve distances of at least 2,000 miles these days. Our West Jet journey was really pleasant! I was a big fan of the staff because they w**e all so p**ky and che**ful first thing in the morning. (I think they'd been to the Virgin Atlantic school of faux ...