Some Thoughts on Vancouver

Jeff and I went to Vancouver for the first part of  last week.  We took the  train up Monday. It was delayed a bit, but still it was really great to have a non-car travel option, even though it  took about  4 hours with all the delays to go less than  60 miles.   We got a nice VRBO condo in the Mt. Pleasant district.  Had some difficulty with all the various timed entry lock procedures which was stressful after the travel.  But once we were in, things went pretty smoothly. 

I mentioned on  Facebook that Jeff had met a couple at Gruff who used to live in the area so they gave him some good recommendations and basically we followed those. Monday night, we ate Tapas at Como?  and  went to Brassneck Brewery.  Tuesday, we got up, went to Kranky coffee  then took the19 bus  down to Stanley Park  on Tuesday. Mostly, we walked around in trees and finally found the  Totem Poles which were very cool. 

We took another bus and walked around Gastown area. Lunch was pretty good though not as great as Wednesday Lunch.  After lunch, we wandered into this large area of homeless people doing lots of drugs and many people were very deformed in body.  It was very unsettling to see the devastating conditions in which so many people are living and what a stark contrast to the beauty of the city in terms of nature and in terms of human architectural achievement.  

Tuesday night, we went to  A.J.s  Pizza with the added bonus of  5 dollar  high balls. 

 Wednesday,  we  took the 19 again and went to the acquarium.  The Sea Lions really were a highlight of the trip.   They are very interactive  one of them would swim right in front of Jeff (in underwater viewing area and just sort of acted like he could feel Jeff petting him through the glass.   I din't take any pictures because I didn't want to disturb things but it was pretty amazing to see.  Here they are in their training session.  

Then we had a great lunch on the water.  

Before we took a hour long boat ride around the harbor which was another trip highlight.  

That night we went to Farmhouse which is a farm to table italian based restaurant and had amazing pasta and  incredible blackberry sorbetto.  Probably the best I've had since Italy last summer. 

The train ride home went pretty smoothly. There was room in business class which got us through customs in an efficient manner.  However, I do think that is where I picked up COVID  because the people in front of us were coughing up a  storm. They were masked but it was a lot.  Though we were on a lot of public transport and the aquarium was uncomfortable crowded some of the time.  

  A highlight of the trip back was seeing a bunch of harbor seals in  Boundary Bay. 

We came back to a great sunset Thursday evening.   Or maybe this was Friday sunset.    

I started to feel bad yesterday afternoon, just A LOT of sneezing and  congesting.   Jeff tested negative when we got back.  Then this morning,  we got more tests. I got the two lines almost immediately. Jeff was still testing negative, but he does have symptoms.  

So hopefully I didn't give it to Dad. 

It was a good trip and  I will definitely go back on  future trips.   

Oh, somewhere in there after return, we saw DeadPool/Wolverine  which was  really quite funny  and enjoyable.   

So  now  I'm isolating in apartment.  research leave starts in earnest tomorrow.