Cruise report--pre-cruise day

My husband and I just completed a cruise from Vancouver, BC to Seward, Alaska.  Here is the start of a report on my trip:

The taxi picked us up right on time.  What a speed demon.  I think he ran two red lights… one a light right out of our neighborhood we hate and another that made me cringe.  Oh well we got to the airport safe and sound.  At the airport everything went smoothly except for the fact that I learned you can’t put shoes on top of a laptop to run them through security, lol.

Looked out and saw a plane tail that said “Beavers” name of Oregon State’s team.  Sadly, as far as our oldest daughter and son-in-law would think, we did not take that plane.  DH (a staunch University of Oregon Duck fan) was quite glad.  The flight was relatively good and there was very little cloud cover.   We saw Mt. St. Helens and lots of other pretty sights.

Once we got to Vancouver we hit the long customs line.  It did move fairly quickly though and when we got up to the agent he had us pegged as cruisers within the first 10 seconds (and no, we did not have the luggage tags on any bags).  I figured it was most likely the single day stay listed on the customs form.

Next we had to go searching for the 7-11 or Pharma Save to get our bus passes for the Sky Train (of course we were hauling 6 bags between us now).  Finally DH told me he would just stand with them while I went off in search of the elusive location.  After asking about 3 people I got down, quickly bought them, and retraced my many steps back to DH.  Luckily we had stopped fairly close to the area to cross over to the Canada Line.  We got on the train and were on our way.  Later DH told me he realized after the fact that there was no charge for the many luggage carts we saw people pulling around the airport… and here we were each rolling two bags and carrying either our garment bag or backpack. :P

We got off at Broadway and made our way to the Holiday Inn.  Vancouver has LONG blocks!!  At least that was what they seemed like while hauling all the bags.  We arrived and found our room nearly ready and thankfully they relieved us of our luggage.  We retraced part of our steps and went and ate at the Cactus Club.  It was nice but seemed spendy when we were just looking for a quick lunch.   $15 for a burger & fries… granted it was a bacon cheddar burger but still… oh well it was nice to sit.  DH went to the restroom and said it was the fanciest one he’d ever seen.  After eating the yummy lunch we went back to the holiday inn and found our room ready.  They had upgraded us to an Executive King with a balcony (the only one on this side on the 16^th (top) floor).  We regrettably decided we’d probably rather not go to Stanley Park like we’d planned.  Hopefully we’ll be able to come back to Vancouver sometime for a shorter non-cruise vacation.

After resting for a while we got ready and headed out to our anniversary dinner.  We had a reservation at Seasons in the Park at Queen Elizabeth Park.  We went via the bus… got on the 15 like we were told to do and realized we were going away from the direction of the park.  We asked the driver after a few stops and were told we were going the wrong way.  Thankfully he was able to redirect us to the right bus and we were back on our way within ten minutes or so.  We got to the place I’d understood we were to go (33^rd & Cambie) and start walking… and walking…and walking…and walking.  I was NOT prepared for walking!  We’d dressed up for dinner and although I don’t wear heels I certainly wasn’t wearing walking shoes.  By the time we finally got in to the restaurant we were now twenty minutes late.  Thankfully they were still able to seat us right away.  Dinner was delicious.  We split a cut of bone in steak I think it was called.  It was a very generous portion of meat plus mashed potatoes and broccoli.  We also enjoyed a shrimp cocktail.  They gave us very nice, large shrimp.   They also gave us free dessert (ice cream w/chocolate sauce with little cards on them that said “congratulations” and “happy anniversary”).  The waitress was terrific.  DH joke with her the whole meal and at the end she got him good.  His favorite line is to tell them they didn’t have to bring that (in reference to the bill).  She quickly told him that she brought it to him because he had been naughty.  She had his number, lol.  Needless to say after the long walk we asked them to call us a taxi to go back.  After a short wait we were in the taxi and then back at the Holiday Inn anxiously awaiting our day tomorrow. :)