Girls' trip to Vancouver Part I

These condos reminded me of Sydney.

I spotted a cute house boat!

Floating Chevron.

There sure were lots of condos there.

It's a sure sign the kids are getting bigger and my nerve is growing thicker - Jen and I went on an overnight trip to Canada last weekend by ourselves, without kids clinging to our legs or arms for the whole two days!  It was one of those things I wanted to make sure I was not dreaming.  We set off around 8ish on Saturday morning as the children were eating breakfast.  Sean asked me if I were sad to leave him with his big puppy eyes.  "Of course, I will miss you" I said but there was a big "BUT" followed afterwards. "I am going to have an amazing time without you kids," I said silently with a big smile.

Vancouver, Canada is about three hours north of Seattle and the drive is easy straight route on Highway I-5. It started to rain harder as we got closer to Canada, but we weren't concerned. Moving around in rain isn't a problem if we didn't have kids to herd.  The wait wasn't long at all at the border and we rolled right into Canada without a hitch.  We were chatting away as usual and suddenly the highway ended and became a city road going through different neighborhoods.  It reminded me of the Pacific Highway in Sydney.  I looked ahead and saw the skyscrapers of Vancouver standing in distance.

We checked into the hotel first and unloaded our belongings. The hotel was European Chic as they described it and quite appropriate for our girl themed trip.  After picking my bed (we had twin beds), I realized how long it has been since I traveled with someone other than Mike.  Could be 15 years?  I need to get our more!!  After getting comfortable, we were ready to conquer the city. But first, we had to eat lunch!

We decided to walk and leave the car in the garage.  The hotel was centrally located in the safe downtown area (though later found out it was right next to a strip club from men lining up in cold) and we knew we needed to burn some calories after meals.  Jen and I decided we should eat five times on the first day and the first stop was going to be a ramen shop called "Santouka" on Robson street.   After reading much reviews on restaurants in Vancouver online, we decided we cannot miss this place since both of us are huge ramen fan.   They did not disappoint us.  It was delicious and made us feel unsatisfied with the ramen scene in Seattle.  Please someone open Santouka in Bellevue!? We walked till the end of Robson after lunch and walked along Seawall Promenade.  The harbor was beautiful and watched seaplanes take off.  Vancouver is a city with a view.  By that I mean almost all buildings in Vancouver have large gross area of outer wall made of glass.  The residents must love the view of the city and its harbor.  It reminded me of Sydney a bit.

We stopped at Tim Horton's, which I say now as I've known the name for a while.  When Jen mentioned it's name, I had no idea if it's a gym, steakhouse or car dealership.  It's a big doughnut chain in Canada sort of like Dunkin Doughnut in America.  Jen and I shared different flavored doughnut centers called Timbits and took a break from walking.  We were just getting started then.  We were on a run away train of culinary adventure and there was no stopping... to be continued.