Super Fun Vaca -- Day 4

I’m in Vancouver.

The one in Canada. Not the one in Washington (which I didn’t even know existed until my bloggy bestie Cathy pointed it out to me).

And Super Fun Vaca Day 4 started out like stink on a skunk.

Sunday night, on the last leg of our day o’ plane, something happened inside my ear. And I’m thinking that my ear drum might possibly have burst. Again. My right ear is all kinds of messed up, and I have had the worst trouble with it in the last couple of years. And something about that flight into Canada didn’t sit well with the ole’ auditory system. And when my ears hurt, I turn into a whiney pile of mush. So, when we got to our hotel (finally), I took my meds and hit the sack.

And woke up Monday morning in mourning. Because I realized that MY SUPER FUN IN REAL LIFE MEETING wasn’t going to happen. You see, Gretchen and I had planned to have a date. Yes. I was to meet Mrs. Jewels In Her Crown Someday herself. We both were already bummed out about some mechanical issues she was having with her family’s vehicles, and then when my ear decided to have its own mechanical breakdown, the two of us decided that it probably just wasn’t in the Plan for us yesterday. We’re both mightily bummed out, but are trusting that perhaps it was just God’s protection at work. Because amazingly enough, I began feeling better yesterday evening and her cars are back in working order. We just weren’t meant to be out and about yesterday. Praise Jesus for protection, even when we don’t understand it and it seems unfair.

So, with my plans for Day 4 thrown out the window, I was left to bum around the hotel. I napped. I played around on the computer. And I took the longest shower of my life…..because I didn’t have to worry about the hot water heater running out of water and because I didn’t have a little person yelling, “MOM! He threw me off the couch!” mid-shampoo. Blissful heaven. In fact, the most fantastic thing about this whole vaca thing might just be the ability to take longer than 0.3 seconds to shave my legs.

I had some time to poke around the room, and look what it has!

Yes. A recycling bin. In the room. (Lisa, this is NOT the place for you!) What is so sad is that I’m not sure what I’m supposed to put in it. I’m assuming paper….but I just am so eco-friendly-ignorant. That’s how they grow us down South.

And there is also bamboo growing in our bathroom. Or “washroom” as you are supposed to say up here.I do have to say that Rosie is being very well-taken care of by the Canadians. They were so thoughtful and gave Rosie her own resting place in our hotel room.

And, look. They even named a restaurant after her. Bless her pink heart.

I met the husband for lunch at a swanky hotel restaurant. I didn’t have a camera to take a picture of my lunch, which I quickly reprimanded myself for. I ordered a Caesar salad, because it was really the only thing that I understood on the menu. But I had to ask them to hold the anchovies. Not sure why anyone would want small fish on a perfectly good salad, but whatev.

After lunch, the husband was back off to a meeting about something-or-other, and I decided that since I was dressed, I would go do a little window shopping. And there wasn’t a place that ended in “Mart” in the whole lineup. Swanky, people. We’re talking faincy.

Like Tiffany’s. But they weren’t serving breakfast. I checked. The security guard there is not friendly, by the way. So much for my Southern charm.

And Armani. The security guard there also didn’t find my incessant need to smile and greet everyone that I meet (my mama trained me well, thanky) amusing.

And then Louis Vuitton.

And Coach.

And a ton of other stores that I only have read about in magazines. I felt very cosmopolitan. Although I stuck out like a sore thumb. Because people up here don’t dress like we belles do.

I spotted a sign for Tim Horton’s….which I coincidentally had just watched a documentary on just the other day. Think Krispy Kreme or Dunkin’ Donuts…Maple Leaf style. So, I stopped in and picked up a little sumthin-sumthin.

It was yummy, but the fact that the girl who checked me out didn’t even make eye contact or say “thank you” bugged me just a smidge.

While I was bemoaning the lack of good stranger manners, but using mine (of course!), I was told that I “Talk Funny.” Thank you very much, Mr. Sorey, I will keep my “y’alls” and “atchas.”

Enough culture shock for one afternoon.

Back to the hotel to do a little bit of nothing. I had good plans to straighten up the disaster zone that is to be my home for the next few days, but instead had a great chat with Tiffani. She made me feel better by speaking of pork chops. I heart that girl.

Off to dinner with the husband. And Tim and Sandra. Tim and Kirk work together, and they travel together frequently. Sandra tags along on trips like I do, so we usually end up together on these kinds of trips.

Our hotel is right in the middle of downtown Vancouver, so we headed out walking.

I wore these shoes.

Big mistake. My feet hurt now.

We found a restaurant that looked cozy and quaint. It was very nice, but I didn’t really understand much of what was on the menu. And what I could understand it, I wasn’t sure why anyone would want that kind of combination of food going down the ole’ food pipe.

I recognized the word quesadilla. And the words that accompanied were spinach.tomatoes.peppers. So I felt relatively safe.

It was okay. I would have rather had Tiffani’s butter-slathered porkchops, but I dealt.

Kirk had some tuna dish, but, y'all....it was raw! It looked like they had just taken the tuna straight from the sea, chopped it up, and plopped it on the plate. And when I found out that there were fish eggs on the plate with the raw tuna, I about lost my roasted peppers.

Thank goodness for Key Lime Pie. And I ate every bite of that.

Here we are.

I think this picture was taken pre-fish eggs….which is why I still have color in my cheeks.

And this is Tim and Sandra.

After dinner, we walked some more.

And some more.

And some more.

And my feet are killing me this morning. So much for cute shoes. Hello, flip flops, for the rest of the week.

Stay tuned for Day 5 of Super Fun Vaca.

Super Fun Vaca Day 4. Over and out.