There She Goes…

Welcome back to the adventure dear reader! Here’s a front row view to something I like to call, “customs roulette”. I came up with that phrase, so royalties to ME, but all it means is that we are stopped by Border Agents when traveling together. On my own, I rarely get pulled aside; we think it’s because David’s name is commonly flagged in their system. And even with his history of military service, security clearance & notes in the sytem..we’re stopped in assorted places. It’s happend on the way back INTO the USA from Mexico via land crossing, despite being in the Global Entry/Sentri line & now has happened upon entry into Canada. The ironic part is that we both have global entry! I’ve traveled enough to raise some red flags with the 35+ countries visited, and I even changed my name…and yet, we’re stopped because of his name. So maybe we have Global Entry-ish. I knew he needed to become a Gonzales. Heck, I would have even settled on Benzales.

We left Blue off in Riverside at Grandma & Grandpa’s house and took an Uber ride to LAX at 5am on Saturday, for a plane heading to Vancouver. Shoutout to Vaht who runs a private car service & has given us his card for picking up on the backend. I have previously visited Vancouver when I did my Around the World Adventure in 2018; so this time, David is the tour guide and we’ve rented a car to explore more of British Columbia. I’ve found some off the wall things to do in Vancouver which I’m really excited about. Stay tuned to see what we actually end up doing now that we’ve been let into Canada!

Today is Sunday and we’re in Vancouver for 2 days before driving to Whistler. This morning we drove across the bridge – new for me since I walked it last- and visited Granville Island. It’s a little island off Vancouver that has lots of local arts, food, and an indoor market. David found a lobster roll place – it wasn’t very good for him so he’s on the hunt for more seafood. I found these cute Canada slippers because I need a pair to wear around dirty hotel rooms & where else will I find these again?!

After a brief siesta, we walked through biblical levels of fly swarms to a 4.4 Google rated Italian restaurant. David laughs at my flipper hands technique which is a comical way to slap the bugs away from my mouth, but it works! 

Our waiter Simon was super friendly and really knew how to read the room, and us. I appreciated that about him. When in Vancouver, check out this place: Robba da Matti (Westend). Later learning that it’s a chain of restaurants around town; However, I can attest that they are most certainly rated higher than 4.4. 

After dinner, we stopped at the Sylvia Hotel to ask about haunted room 602. The clerk wasn’t very indulgent of us, so we went to a karaoke place Dave found to discover it was closed. With no karaoke luck, we headed back to the hotel & decided to try again on Monday. 

And today is Monday… after sleeping in, we headed to the Chinatown Storytelling Center for an 11a guided tour with local experts on the history of Chinese immigrants in Canada. The area is a little rough, but probably not unlike those first Chinese immigrants experienced in 1780s. We met a woman named Tina, whose family had been in Chinatown for over 100 years. She is so cute & shorter than me (a first!) and it was really nice to meet someone with so much rooted history. The Center was good on its own, but they opened a learning lab showcasing artifacts and historical building fronts in a special exhibit about 2 months ago. I highly recommend paying for the the guided tour that includes the learning lab and potentially meeting a local celebrity. Her photo is on the wall!

After the tour, we hurried to check out the skinniest building before our parking expired. This rich popular Asian dude had land stolen from him to make the street wider & the government said, “hahaha, you can’t build anything there.” And he said, “watch me bro.” As one should have said. So there you have the Guinness world record of the skinniest building. 

After Chinatown, one naturally goes for ramen (which is Japanese). So we found ourselves in a mall food court for 4.7 rated ramen & it was one of the best broths I have had, ever. I rate it 4.8. 

Tonight is our last night in Vancouver so Dave is singing karaoke & we’re buzzing around the Gastown area. Similar vibes to our SD Gaslamp downtown scene. Vancouver is really like a small town vibe.