Monday, April 23, 2012

First I have to apologize to the people that check my blog regularly because I have not posted anything new in a long time. I guess some times life is just not that exciting. Well this post is about a trip to Vancouver that Patty and I made this past weekend and how things didn't go quite as planned but we made the best of it. Friday night we caught the ferry which was surprisingly not busy. We had our GPS set and off we went to our hotel. Once we got into the city I could tell that the GPS was not taking us where I thought it should be. I thought I had booked a room further downtown and closer to the water. This place was very nice and ritzy looking and since I was pre booked we went in to register. They said they were quite busy but that they had upgraded us for free up high in a bigger room with a very nice view. The first problem was that the beds were just 2 doubles and we need more room than that and they were a little more firm than I like. Good thing was after snuggling we each had our own bed to sprawl out on.

 The next morning we headed for Ikea and stopped at the IHOP for breakfast. No complaints about breakfast it was awesome and I discovered butter pecan syrup!! OMG!!! We then headed to Ikea but because of our gabbing I missed the turn off a couple times but eventually we made it. Now we knew the IKEA was moving but it said on the internet that it was open till Sunday. First shock was that the show rooms were all closed and we couldn't go in there. Then when we went in to the other room only to find they had next to nothing in the store at all. They shouldn't have been open. I talked to one person and they said they had many complaints from customers. When we were leaving I asked to talk to a manager and explained how we came over from Vancouver Island and that our whole trip was centered around the IKEA. Ferry there and back and hotel room makes it an expensive trip. All he could do was apologize and said they had added on the web site open but with limited stock. Alot of good that did us now. We then found out through Nadine that there is another store about 25 minutes away. We went there and it is smaller than the one we were at but it was open and had stock so we shopped for a while. While we were there Patty tried to get a hold of a friend from Merritt now living close to Vancouver hoping we could meet for coffee but she had given Patty the wrong phone number. They did get to talk for a while on Sunday but too late too meet.

 We went back to the room to hang out a bit and I decided to go for a walk while Patty took a nap. I told her Id bring back a treat. I walked around and took some pictures and got us some yogurt. We then got ready to go out for supper and decided to drive to North Van instead of taking the Sea Bus. It was a short drive and we found East Side Marios pretty easy thanks to the GPS. Now came the next disappointment. The power had just came back on after being out for over 2 hours so the restaurant was not opening up. They said we could go into the bar but the food was limited but we decided to do that. The UFC fights were on and we ordered some appies. It ended up being pretty good. After eating we went for a short walk and I had my camera and took some night shots. Then it was back to the room and to bed.

 The next morning I let Patty sleep in so we couldn't go to the revolving restaurant for breakfast. They are only open till 10am. I went up and had a quick look and it was an amazing view but the restaurant only revolves at supper time. We decided to check out and find a Denny's on the way to the Ferry. You can't go wrong at Denny's that's for sure. Had a great breakfast and made it to the ferry and only had a 45 minute wait.

 All in all it was a good weekend and we had fun!

From our Balcony on the 37th floor


Our Hotel room from the street


Pictures taken outside of our hotel when I would go for snacks and drinks


Shots taken outside East Side Marios after we ate.


Panoramic View from North Vancouver and East Side Marios