We left Dallas right on time at 7:15, avoiding all the bad weather and flight cancellations. After a brief stop at LAX we touched down in Vancouver! It was very cloudy on the second leg of the flight so we couldn't see a lot coming in. Vancouver was an interesting landing because the airport is on an island and you have to go way out over the water, turn and come in for a landing. After we landed we went through customs (where the guy behind us was carrying a corded alarm clock, with the cord dragging behind him, not sure why), got our bags and took a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel is in the downtown area of Vancouver so it's within walking distance of pretty much everywhere we want to go.
Our first days activities included a late lunch and a walking tour of the city. We ate at a sports bar around the corner called Red Card (we had a free pizza with our hotel booking!). We had a Diavola pizza, which means spicy! It was very good though, and they had local beer, the Red Card and a Stanley Park both of which were good. It's so weird walking around here because you really don't feel like you are in America any more. Very different landscape and architecture!
Our walking tour began heading down Seymour and up to the water. We rode an elevator to the top of the lookout tower where we got a fantastic 360 view of the entire city! It was overcast all day but still beautiful!
After coming down from the tower we walked up to Canada Place and along Coal Harbor. It was absolutely beautiful! We stopped to watch seaplanes take off and land (they even have a gas station on the water!) and saw some baby seals playing. Pretty cool. The Coal Harbor Seawall is a pretty famous promenade with a park on one side and the water on the other. It ends near a marina and takes you into Stanley Park. Along the walk is a piece of art called "The Lightshed", it's a replica of the shacks that used to line the shore. On our walk it started raining so we ran into this nautical themed bar/restaurant and took a break. It was so warm and toasty inside with a really neat decor. They had local beer from the Whistler Brewing Co, and some local wine (they have quite a few winery's here). After we warmed up we headed back to the hotel intending to go back out but ended up falling asleep. We woke up around midnight, watched some Canadian tv (so similar to American tv but with very Canadian commercials and all the Olympic coverage is geared toward Canadian). We've found the sports network TSN, and the Comedy Central/BET channel MUCH.
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