Wow, it’s been a crazy week since we got back, but I wanted to get a writeup of our Pacific Northwest Trip started in hopes that I’ll actually get the whole thing posted. For those coming in late, this trip was to celebrate linnaeus‘ 40th birthday, similar to the trip we made last year to Napa Valley to celebrate my 40th birthday. The trip was a lot of fun to plan, and I was very happy to see that it fit Linnaeus’ tastes well 🙂 As with my trip, although he knew the general area where we were going, the details of where we were staying and what we’d be doing were a secret.
On Thursday, July 30, I wrapped up work at lunchtime after a particularly hectic week. takaza knocked off work early as well, and we carpooled with roho and genet down to O’Hare Airport. There we met up with mirkowuff and Linnaeus. We got checked in easily (yay for Roho’s United Premiere status which saved us all from paying baggage fees!) and our flight was only an hour late taking off. Takaza and I were able to move up to exit row seats so the four-hour flight was actually quite comfortable.
We landed at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) at around 8 PM local time. Passport control was a breeze – the Canadian immigrations agent went so far as to start help Linnaeus get through more easily since he didn’t know where we were going or what we were doing. Customs was literally nonexistent – we walked right through unimpeded. Strange, but welcome. We caught the airport shuttle to the Four Points By Sheraton Vancouver Airport in Richmond.
It was amusing to realize that my pre-trip research didn’t mention that the Four Points was in the heart of Golden Village, the home to the second-largest Asian-American community in North America. The net effect was as if we had stepped off the plane into the middle of Hong Kong – a little disorienting, to say the least! We decided to take advantage of the pan-Asian food opportunities in the area, with me, Roho, Linnaeus, and Mirko opting for sushi while Genet and Takaza chose McDonalds.
Friday morning I was awake entirely too early (though others in our group were awake before me). Eventually we assembled in the lobby and walked down to the nearest Tim Horton’s for a quick breakfast. I was surprised to find that Tim Horton’s coffee really is pretty good, considering what it is. When we got back to the hotel, everyone got packed up and we piled into two cabs to take us to downtown Vancouver.
(From here on out I’ll be peppering the story with some of the pictures that we took)
We got downtown to Canada Place, departure point for many Alaskan cruises, shortly before noon. We picked up our rental cars from National Rental Cars (we saved a bundle by picking them up downtown and dropping them off at YVR), then Takaza and Genet took their leave in one of the cars. The remaining four of us met up with frysco, who works only a block or two from Canada Place.
We took the Seabus across Burrell Inlet, the sound that separates Vancouver and North Vancouver. I’d hoped for a brisk, wind-in-your-hair fun ferry experience, but since it’s all enclosed, it was rather more like…a bus. That bobs up and down a bit. Ah well, at least we got some unique views.
Once we arrived in North Vancouver, it was off to our target for lunch: Sailor Hagar’s Brew Pub. Frysco put up with our phone geekery while we enjoyed some truly excellent beer. I enjoyed some very tasty steak bites wrapped in bacon, while Mirko had a curry bowl and Linnaeus and Roho each ordered poutine, which was horrifying yet delicious. Our waitress was very friendly and helpful and knew some easy marks beer geeks when she saw them, plying us with samples of their beer selection and various brew pub brochures. It was a very enjoyable lunch!
Walking back to the Seabus after lunch we were greeted by one of the local denizens, who was very cute (and pretty much ignored us. It goes with the breed…). Once back in Vancouver, Frysco took his leave to run by his house, and we promptly got…well, not lost, just slightly turned around 🙂 Once we got on Route 1 we found that traffic was frightfully backed up so we tried to take a few detours, leading us to explore areas of Langley we might otherwise not have seen (see? doesn’t that sound better than “lost”?).
Finally, we reached the Aldergrove border crossing into the US, and with the exception of an incredulous border guard (“How do you all know each other again?”) we passed through without incident.
Coming up next: Dinner in Bellingham! Liquid Hate! Rafting! Rafting! Rafting!