So here we are, back in what we hope will be our new home. This time Vancouver is once again covered with many dark clouds, but instead of constant rain, it’s far more like Seattle rain, which has usually been light sprinkles interpersed with tantalizing patches of sunshine.
We landed and got through customs by about 3:00 Vancouver time, or 7 PM our body clock time. Pam had taken a slightly earlier plane than I did, so she picked up my bag and waited for me for about an hour and a quarter.
So, what do you do when you see a patch of blue in a week forecasted to be another monsoon? Get thee to the park, of course. We took a bus from more or less the center of town to Stanley Park, which was clearly wearing it’s spring outfit. We took a short walk and visited the edge of the aquarium, where Pam played with one of the seals, and we also saw some beautiful beluga whales, swimming like pale blue ghosts in their pond, the ponds they have at this aquarium are incredible. If you’d like to build a pond of your own, visit Swell UK to find all of the information needed to maintain one.
We are going to spend a lot of time in that park. I can see making a park visit my weekly Sunday afternoon, and look forward to the day when I can hang out there with other family (my brother, sister-in-law and niece, for a start).
Today it was also partly cloudy, so after some arrangments for an interview with a recruiter, we took the Skytrain in a large loop to the East (went as far as Surrey, the end of the line), and then back again. Pam got off at the waterfront and I came back to our hotel.
I really like this hotel, the Sandman Suites on Davie. It has nearly everything I need in a hotel, including the most important luxury: a kitchen, complete with stove, pots and pans, dishwasher, utensils and plates! It’s also in a terrific neighborhood, full of restaurants, coffee shops and stores. So breakfast was home-cooked, and there was an organic grocer and 24-hour regular grocer within a 2 block area. Two doors down was a Starbucks for coffee grounds for our coffee-maker, and next store to that was a superb bakery. Pam chose a seed bread, which they sliced thing for us. It is wonderful. We also got organic salad, strawberries and plums. Today I picked up a truly magnificent papaya and some nice tangerines and tangelos.The hotel staff has also been extremely helpful and pleasant. I can see returning here for our next trip.
Besides being thrifty and healthy, this kitchen and bedroom setup really feels like we are starting to ‘live’ here, rather than act as pure tourists. Toward that end, we treated our skytrain trip as a sort of Real Estate tour, taking notes on what neighborhoods looked good, which high-rises were going up, where there self storage places are (and where the IKEA is). If I can just line up employment, I think we can look forward to a really nice life here. After all, what’s more to life than a pretty public park, fresh coffee, good bread and a high-speed Internet connection (albeit in the ‘business centre’ near the front desk) and cheap modern furniture? Please, dear reader, don’t answer that.