Vancouver

In honor of Chris's birthday and coming of a new baby, we decided to take a little vacation up to Vancouver, British Columbia.  It was a quick trip, we left Friday came home Saturday, but so happy.  The Dyer's were kind enough to watch Esther (thankfully Amber still hadn't had the baby) making it a true getaway and very relaxing.   Even though we talked about Esther at least hourly,  we also loved having so much time just with each other and to feel young and a bit carefree.  

Highlights of the trip:

- Staying out after 7pm! (Thank you Dyer's for watching Esther!)

- A free stay at the Westin downtown thanks to Starwood points

-The fact that Vancouver is only 2-ish hours away

-Visiting Canada for the first time (sort of embarrassing)

-Being outside all day in AMAZING weather

- Having bikes so we could ride around the city and along the seawall at Stanley Park.  Bikes are such a fun way to see a city and especially Vancouver which is very bike friendly.  There were even cyclist-specific traffic lights.  Tres cool.

-Yummy food: Lebanese, Indian, good hamburgers, and even  a gluten-free bakery for breakfast. 

-Not knowing the exchange rate and therefore assuming we were getting a great deal on our food.

-People watching.  Although it was a bit disturbing to see the amount of people, especially women, with many tattoos.  Never a good idea. 

-Admiring the cool architecture and blue-tinted glass on many, if not most, of the towers making them appear to match the surrounding sky and water.  Lovely.

- Did I mention that we LOVED riding bikes around Vancouver?   We did. 

-Watching planes come and go from a mini-airport on the water.  The terminals were a floating dock and the floatplanes somehow managed to take-off just fine even though they weren't going all that fast along the water.

-Exploring and relaxing in a new place 

-Spending so much fun/non-stressful/uninterrupted time with Chris! 

Canada Place: there was an outdoor "Canada Trail" with lots of Canadian history that mostly centered on the war of 1812.  Apparently this war that most Americans overlook was a pretty big deal for our northern neighbors. 

Summer Nights market in Chinatown.  Especially memorable was the performances (on the stage behind me in the picture) from the Happy Singers whose slogan was "We Sing to Make People Happy."  It was true, the one-notch-above-karaoke songs were very entertaining!  I will never listen to "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" the same way again.

Gastown: the once commercial center of Vancouver and now filled with restaurants and fun furniture and clothing shops.  I particularly liked the flower baskets hanging from the lamposts. 

This clock is run by steam and emits the Big Ben whistle on the hour.  It was kind of cool.

Dinner at Nuba: a tiny and very cool Lebanese restaurant we happened upon.

Lovely views from Queen Elizabeth Park 

Thanks Canada!