Vancouver I

Hi All
Today we flew into Vancouver on our way to board our Alaskan cruise ship on Friday. We had heard that Vancouver is a really terrific city, so we arrived two days early to verify this idea.

Continental Airlines was kind enough to upgrade both of us to business class for our four hour flight from Houston. We were served a delicious brunch of vegetable soup and a chicken wrap. We watched the movie "Leap Year" which was good light entertainment. We used our Sony noise canceling headphones instead of the earbud headphones given to us. The quality makes quite a difference. A second movie was screened, but I used the time to write some work e-mails.

We met up at the airport with a cruise buddy from our January Panama Canal cruise. He was with his new bride. We caught a cab together to the hotel.

The hotel, the Westin Bayshore is very clean and comfortable. The receptionist was friendly and efficient.

After putting our luggage into the room, I needed to spend about ninety minutes working on some specification sheets for an upcoming convention in Pittsburgh. Having got that out of the way, we were free to spend the afternoon exploring our district of Vancouver. It was raining softly but steadily, but we had brought umbrellas and rain jackets, so we were not deterred in any way. The temperature was comfortable in the mid teens centigrade.

We walked along the Seawall up to Canada Place, where the cruise ships dock. It was not very far. I was amazed to see a seaplane port in action.

We walked through the quaint touristy Gaslamp district, where we saw the world's first steam powered clock. We waited for it to "chime" the quarter hour using steam whistles. Fun!

We walked up to the Chinatown, after which we went to the Steamworks micro-brewery for a delicious lunch of beer battered fish 'n chips, a salad and some of the locally brewed dark beer. It hit the spot!

After our late lunch we strolled back to hotel, enjoying the local sight and sounds.

We planned tomorrow's full day of touring Vancouver's attractions.

Watch this space.....