Vancouver

I'm not sure what all the fuss is over Vancouver. Sure it's gorgeous with the ocean and the mountains are closer than they are in Seattle, it's more built up and tons of glass buildings, it's more cosmopolitan, and easier to get around with their mass transit system plus the downtown area where we stayed was very walkable. Everyone had just raved about it so maybe that was the problem. But after looking at the pictures, you can see it was an easy trip on the eyes. We caught an early train and the ride itself was right along the water. Train was cool too in that we didn't have to worry about the border crossing just hit customs at the train station. We were fortunate enough to have clear sunny weather....not a raindrop in sight, didn't really think that through when planning a weekend in Canada in the winter.

Our hotel (a simple YWCA with pink floral bedding that Ryan loved:-) was right across from the Canucks hockey stadium, they're nuts over their hockey. We went to a Costco there too and their first display is of hockey sticks. We mostly did the touristy things as it was our first time there: the Harbour Centre (love the spelling, french influence I'm guessing) lookout, rented bikes along Stanley Park--6 mile loop along the water--gorgeous but freezing!, and Chinatown. We ate at a Chinese restaurant where we were the only non-Asians, I was in heaven. Except that I ordered the red hot wontons and my mouth and tongue were on fire for hours!! That and I'm not entirely sure what I ordered, oh well, it was good. It's a foodie town so we ate very well: Indian, sushi, crepes, yummy.