Vancouver Weekend

Well, let's see. I finally remembered that I actually took pictures of my little weekend trip so I guess that means I have to blog about it, right??

So we'll just do a quick little post while I'm bored at work. Good idea? Great idea!! My good friend Michele and I decided that we wanted to do a little Girl trip over Labor Day weekend (this was after it was already decided that Andy and I wouldn't be spending $1000 to go to Portland for the weekend and Andy is not a big fan of short road trip vacations - or maybe I just told myself that, because in reality I just wanted a girls weekend and that made me feel less guilty?!? Either way...)

We headed out at about 7:00 on Saturday morning and drove the 2 1/2 hours up to Vancouver, BC. I was pretty excited seeing as how I've never been to Canada. Also pretty excited that we could go somewhere cool and not have to drive forever. I can't believe how fast it went by. We didn't even get tired of conversation and have to resort to listening to the radio. I figured that was pretty good! We got the border and just slowly crept through. I really don't think we even had to stop. I didn't know what to expect with the border patrol-guy, but I didn't even really have to talk. He just asked a few random questions "What we were doing in Canada?", "How long we'd be there?", "Where we were from?"...pretty simple questions. We answered sufficiently and then we were on our way.

Canadian border flower-flag 

We had to drive another 20 or 30 miles before we hit Vancouver. We really had to watch our speed, seeing as how everywhere else but the USA uses the metric system, so the speed limit was in kilometers. Pretty interesting. Anyway...so we finally reach Vancouver and it is sooo pretty! I was amazing how bright and white and clean it looked. First order of business was to ditch the car and head over to Granville Island. Well, technically before that, we had to make our first purchases. $20.00 super fancy rings! Aren't they lovely? Now to just make sure I actually wear it...

No no no, it's not gaudy at all!

We walked down to Yaletown and headed out on this little pier and waited for the water taxi to take us to Granville Island. I really liked the island. There is a big Public Market where you can buy all kinds of foods, and some crafty things (not as much as at Pike Place Market).  

Yummy cinnamon-crispy things

I feel like all I spent my money on was food...but that's okay when you're vacation, right? It's how you experience things.... Anyway, the market had a ton of yummy food and there was this bakery with these super huge crunchy-cinnamon disc things. I really wanted to buy one, and figured I could just save it for later. But then the worker pulled out one that was broken and gave us free samples! It was amazing. And I'm so glad that I didn't buy a huge whole one for myself. It was way too sweet. A sample was all I needed.

Really hilarious street performer from New Zealand!

This little street performer was hilarious. He was from New Zealand and just made a bunch of funny/crude jokes. Haha! Michele and I were laughing a lot. And because of that...and because I was on vacation.... I gave him $5.00! I never do that...and afterward when I was wondering where all of my cash went, I really kind of regretted it. Oops...

Oh speaking of cash, I have a very embarrassing story of trying to get my cash. We ran to the ATM because we figured we would need cash to buy stuff at the market. So Michele got her cash out and pointed out how pretty it was (it was all Canadian money). It was my turn, so I put in my card and got out $60. I grabbed the receipt and then walked back to the market. Oh but when I tried to buy something...I couldn't find my cash anywhere!! Apparently, I had left the ATM without taking my cash. How brainless could I get?? So I ran back to the ATM...no cash anywhere. I asked the little shops by the ATM's and no one had turned in anything. I searched my purse, but I knew that I had not grabbed out the cash. There was this really nice lady that was helping me and just told me to say a prayer that everything will work out. I decided that I was just going to have to suck it up and get more cash out, because I was still going to need it. So I tried again...and this time, I paid better attention! There was an error and it hadn't gone through!! Wanna know why? Oh, because I was trying to use my credit card...holy cow....again, brainless! I couldn't believe that I didn't even realize that it didn't go through the first time. But man, was I relieved. And the sweet lady was still there and she said that she just said a prayer in her heart that everything would work out. What a cutie! People up there are super friendly!

Picking the nose

View of the city from the water

We hung out on the island for quite a while and then headed back to check into our hotel. We were so tired by that point. We got to our room and it was super pretty with a really nice view of downtown. And then we just crashed for a few hours while we decided where to eat. 

We made reservations at a nice Italian restaurant back toward Yaletown, but then decided against that since we were too lazy to walk very far. We asked the concierge if there was a yummy Italian place nearby and there was! Yay! We walked there and sat outside. I wish I would have taken pictures (especially to try and make it last longer since it was so darn expensive!), but I just didn't think about it. My meal alone was $60...I couldn't believe it. Oh well, it's okay if you're on vacation, right? Vacation is a good excuse for everything. After dinner we headed back to the hotel because we were both full to the brim. We watched HGTV and fell asleep at 9:00. Haha! Some crazy girls weekend we had!

The next day we were so tired and didn't make very wise decisions. We decided to get up and go to breakfast at 9:30...and at the same time thought we needed to check-out of our room...So after we had breakfast, there was literally nothing to do because everything was closed. Sunday in Vancouver was like a ghost town. We just walked around trying to kill time until things opened and kept trying to come up with something to do. But because of our expensive dinner the night before, neither of us wanted to spend any money! We decided to just get our car and drive around Stanley Park and then go to North Vancouver and stalk rich people's houses. It worked...but we were both just exhausted. After a quick lunch we decided to just head home.

Japadog! Crazy Japanese hot dogs...you can get a hot dog with Yakisoba on it. So weird!

Bridge crossing over to North Vancouver

On the bridge, I was a little scared being so high up

We decided that if we go to Vancouver again, we will definitely plan our days out better. That way, we can save money and do different things without wasting time. All in all, we had a lot of fun. But it was also a good learning experience for us. :)