Back to the Big Apple with a few stops along the way

[Matt_01]

Next I took a quick look in the museum, The Parliament building and some odd place that just does miniature models.

 

[Matt_01]

Time to say good by to Victoria and head off to Vancouver. I have not travelled on a float plane before, they pack you in and makes Y on any jet to be luxury. Also you do not need to locate the life vest it is incorporated into the seat and you have to buckle it up prior to take off (yellow strap). It was only 35 minutes and you do not fly that high so you get to sea everything. On landing they do slow very quickly however I figured that would happen when the pontoons hit the water.

 

[Matt_01]

When we arrived in Vancouver it was a bit of a hike to the hotel but MrsM decided she was happy to walk. The Vancouver hotel is not flash and we knew this prior to arrival, before booking any of the accomodation I had let the girls know they would have to stay in an IHG chain property for 3 nights during this trip so I would retain WP. They agreed but are not impressed and both have made comments, as for me it is just a standard hotel room.

The up side was while walking here we passed a number of restaurants and after check in we wandered back to a Japanese place we had passed. After a short wait we were seated and the first thing MrsM and I noticed was the menu had only one style of Japanese cuisine, next was the limited choice of options and finally looking around I think we were the only westerners in there at the time. The food was excellent and somewhat similar to eating in Japan with a slight western twist. In my experience when in Japan the more traditional restaurants tend to stick to one style and do it well.

 

[Matt_01]

We did not do much today, the girl's did what they do best when overseas shopping. Anyway we did go to Gastown and the water front.

While at the water front I noticed this cruise ship and had to take a photo given the media coverage it had 2.5 years ago in AU.

 

[Matt_01]

The art gallery is not large but nice


The girls mentioned we should have stayed at the Fairmont.
.

 

[Matt_01]

We ended up eating at a place called Bellaggio Cafe, it is quite casual and reasonably priced. We went to this place as MrsM liked the sign out front.

 

[Matt_01]

As it was not that late I just went out for a stroll.

 

[Matt_01]

Today we headed over to Granville Island, with in 10 minutes of arrival I was already trying the fruit.

 

[Matt_01]

For next 1-2 hours we just wandered around.

 

[OZDUCK]

Today we headed over to Granville Island, with in 10 minutes of arrival I was already trying the fruit.

View attachment 298570View attachment 298571View attachment 298572View attachment 298573View attachment 298574View attachment 298578View attachment 298575View attachment 298576View attachment 298579

I well remember how nice the fruit and vegies were in most places in Eastern Canada. I had the best Tomatoes I have ever tasted from a little farmers market in Toronto.

 

[Matt_01]

Time to eat again. Egg and salad for MrsM, chicken pot pie for myself. I had also decided on the raspberry tart but when getting a crepe for MissM I could not help myself and ordered the strawberry crepe with cream. MrsM informed me she would take one for the team and help out with the tart.

After lunch we jumped on the ferry and headed over to the maritime and Vancouver museum

This was an interesting site, the ferry driver went on to inform me that last November there were large storms and the highest tides in recorded history. This was a 200ft long barge that broke its mooring and was floating in the bay then we hit by a wave and thrown up onto the beach. It is so far up the beach that re-floating efforts failed and is now being cutup/ dismantled insitu and another barge is collecting the steel.

 

[Matt_01]

After returning to the market location I took a quick visit to the Granville Island Brewery and decided it was a warm day and a full map sampling was called for.

 

[ellen10]

Love Granville Island and all those delicious berries!

 

[Matt_01]

Not a lot happened today, the girls purchased thing as we walked along Robinson Rd on the way the Stanley Park and then we just walked around the seawall. In the way back to the hotel something of interest caught my eye, just cannot help myself when it comes to cars.

 

[Matt_01]

On a recommendation we when to Nightingale it was excellent. For the 3 of us it was recommended we select 5 options which was about right. We ended up with 6 as the girls thought the pepper dish was capsicum, it was small green chilli and was great, I ate most but could not get through all of it. The rest was the beet salad, carrot dish (re selection of the pepper dish), butter milk chicken, onion pizza and the pork belly. It was finalised with 2 deserts being the salted caramel pot creme and the lemon semifreddo with blueberry creme fraiche ice cream, along with a rose which Hayley thought was sweet and a sticky which I thought was about right.

 

[Matt_01]

Today was very casual, a lazy morning, visited the Science World and walked back through Yale Town.

 

[Matt_01]

Last item of the day, well almost, the next stop is YYZ. Caught the train to YVR, dropped off luggage and into the MLL which is not that flash but better than nothing. The flight is delayed and is not one I am looking forward to, 5+ hours on the redeye and in Y. I think this is the longest flight I have taken in Y since 1976 as normally anything over 3 hours I will opt for J, my first world problem.

There was something local parked on the other side.

 

[Matt_01]

So the flight YVR-YYZ initially delayed by 30 minutes, no big deal. We pushed back and just sat there for a while then the Captain announced there was an issue with one of the doors so it was back to the gate while maintenance fixed the door so departure was nearly 2 hours late. On arrival both Mrs&MissM were struggling, I do not think MrsM has travelled for longer than 3 hours in Y since the early 1990's and I know MissM has never been in Y for longer than 3 hours, combined with being a redeye it always had the potential to be a a recipe for disaster and using AJ's words they were not match fit. For those who know me and my dislike of spending greater than 2.5-3 hours in Y this is the proof it happened, and no I did not seek out of J to take a photo in Y. It was a pretty full plane and I was pinned into that K seat for the duration of the flight. I noticed the QF PS were seated in front of me

 

[Matt_01]

After arrival and collecting luggage we caught the train into town. This is another location that I am not staying in the chains and booked a 1BR suite at the One King West in the heritage part, as the girls just wanted to get into a room quickly the hotel staff asked if we would be happy to move to one of the tower rooms which are modern and the girls jumped at the opportunity. It is much better than the Holiday Inn we stayed at in Vancouver.

 

[Matt_01]

So out and around Toronto.