I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

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Arrived in the evening via bus from Seattle as apparently schedules do not allow as many trains to connect from Seattle to Vancouver as one would like. Customs was very easy, with nary a question other than what are we doing here and then she was getting excited about our trip. Caught a cab the few kilometers to hotel, being a Sheraton and rather fancy for us, but it is what the tour provided. 23rd floor and a nice view.

Then a bus tour about town, part of the overall tour we paid for. As expected nothing great but did provide a quick overview of highlights and history of the town. Stanley Park, Granville, Gastown, chinatown, cruise ship docks were shown and all was good. Had a driver who did impressions of famous people noted along the way, Frank Sinatra, Richard Attenborough, English, Scottish, Irish, and others.

A friends daughter, who is Canadian, has a restaurant here in Vancouver, and Jeanne had made reservations. “Nero Tondo” on Powell street. It has only two servings a night 5:30 and 7:30 and only one choice on menu. We needed a walk and decided to walk the 1 1/2 hour 5 k (3 mile). Jeanne had missed the text from a friend here in Vancouver who said do not walk down Powell Street. All went well in the business tourist area where our hotel is, and through the area of Gastown, also full of tourists, but when we crossed over to the east side it the “homeless” appeared. Was not a problem as we looked on, stepped over and around, pondering how people get to that condition, but they do for a variety of reasons, but it makes one sad they do not have the life we have, or it provides a glimpse of other sides of the spectrum of life we call civilization. Jeanne said if she was alone she would have called a cab, I said if I had known of this area I would not have chosen to walk. But all good with good people watching, although for us a bit depressing. But Vancouver does have a homeless problem, but as everywhere else the powers that be like to hide it.

Dinner itself was awesome, between 10-13 courses all very small but explained in detail, all locally sourced, potatoes, eggs, seafood, vegetables. The food was all prepared in front of us from the salads, to little appetizers, mains, and desert All the plates were prepared then delivered to each table. We left quite satiated, ordering a Lyft cab for the ride home.

Sunday was a free day on our tour of Canada, and left the hotel in search of a breakfast place as only place at hotel was Starbucks, not our favorite. Seems the more expensive the hotel the less they supply breakfast. But a nice place found, then on to the light rail train station. 30 years ago Jeanne and I were here and remember the monorail about town which had been made for the world expo in the late 80’s. Unfortunately it had been removed, but our tour bus driver yesterday said the expo line was a good choice for just seeing a lot of Vancouver. Jeanne and I often will just ride a mass transit train or bus about town just to see what is out there. Today we rode to King George station, found a bathroom at Starbucks and returned.

Our friend, whom we met some years ago in the ski jumping community lives here in Vancouver with her two boys, one whom is an upcoming ski jumper who is progressing up the ranks. Her daughter just left home for college in Halifax where we end our train ride across Canada. She and the boys met us, drove us to their place, then on to a delightful hike above North Vancouver. Reservations had been made at a wonderful Italian restaurant and after a walk about the waterfront of North Vancouver. A wonderful afternoon. I told Anya our tour bus guide yesterday said he could not recommend any particular Italian restaurant, stating “just walk into one and it will be great”.

Vancouver has been good. I love the diversity. Anchorage is diverse but its diversity is hidden unless you get in the right community. Vancouver is up front, Today on the streets the languages I identified, (correctly or incorrectly who knows) were English, Spanish, Hindi, Ukrainian, Cantonese, and I suspect many others I could not recognize. The town is clean with garbage cans and people that empty those disposal areas, (at least in the tourist, business and residential areas). It is easy to get around and I never felt unsafe despite the above occurrences.

Vancouver real brother-in-law estate is expensive though, at least from a real estate perspective. Apparently average price of a 1600 square foot 3 bedroom 2 bath house is 2.3 million dollars. whew.

And today Monday we depart on the train. The tour instructions said to take a cab from hotel to train station. Looked it up and 2.4 km. Walked it easily past the football stadium where World Cup held.

One note is after Toronto we are on our own, as in no tour, the way we normally travel. But again setting up hotel got taken by Expedia. Have been burned by them many times. A friend in Vermont has decided to come visit us in Montreal, and we invited him to stay with us. I went on website and it turns out it is Expedia. For two nights we were paying $790, Expedia said to add an additional person would cost an additional $800. Nope no way. With some looking I found the phone of actual hotel and called. She was amazed at Expedia and said she hears that often. She increased our booking to 3 people and said it was $760, $30 cheaper, but we will not get money back as originally paid to Expedia. We try to be on lookout for such but difficult sometimes. One thinks I have the proper site but turns out it is a third party.

Now sitting in waiting area before loading train.