Sunday, July 17, 2011

And I'm Done

My two week vacation is over. Back to work on Monday. If you were keeping track with me, I enjoyed 2 whole days of glorious life-giving sunshine in the past 16 days.

However, I have not let the lack of blue skies stop me from celebrating summer. Oh no I haven't. On Thursday, Heather and I, along with Drew and Dani, left Langley at the crack of dawn for a full day and long evening of shopping in a very soggy Seattle.  We arrived at the Outlet Mall at 10:30 am and by 1 pm we were all out of money. We had bought what we came for, and with no reason to stay, we left. After lunch we simply headed home. Actually, I could hardly wait to get home...

... Because I now have three bras. I've never had three bras at the same time that all fit me. I  have options, people. Color options. (Yes; black, white and beige are colors. Boring hues, to be sure, but still. There is variety in my undergarments now.) This is a big deal. Literally. And seriously. First thing I did when we got home was throw the old one in the garbage and put on the black one. Regardless of it's overwhelming size, black is still sexy, no matter how much fabric is involved.

With my whole evening now freed up, I called my oldest to see if he had time for dinner. He did. So I drove 45 minutes to meet him, waited 15 minutes for him to arrive, then got us a table and ordered his meal so it'd be ready when he arrived. Which he did at 7:02 pm. We had a nice visit and an enjoyable meal, when at 7:14 pm his phone beeped. "Oh. Dallas is waiting outside. He came to pick me up. Gotta go. Thanks for supper. Love you." And he was gone. I finished eating, paid the bill, and drove back home, arriving shortly after 8. Almost 3 hours on the road for a 12 minute visit. Totally worth it.

At 9:00 pm, I met a friend for tea and talk. We met on the phone. We both put on a pot of tea, in our respective kitchens, sat in comfortable chairs, and visited for two and a half hours. So fun.

Then at midnight, I facebook chatted with Clint for an hour. Because really? 12 minutes wasn't enough. I had questions. "How is this coming along?" What happened then?" "Who was that?" "How come?"

He asked that I spread the word about this upcoming event:

To view larger, click on image.

His friend, Steve Cross, is one of 40 artists that has donated hand painted pieces to be sold.
And his friend, Jacqueline Bartel will be there with her band, providing entertainment.
Good Society Denim will be there donating $ for each pair of jeans they sell.

If you're free on Friday night, why not stop by?
It's at the Beaumont Studios in the Olympic Village in Vancouver.
End of commercial.

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A few hours after our facebook chat ended it was time to get up again.
Maureen and I had plans; we were going to be tourists in Vancouver.
First stop: The Vancouver Art Gallery for the Surreal exhibition. Meh.
(However, the Walking and Falling exhibit on the top floor was fascinating. Honest.)





















(On our way into Vancouver, Maureen was mentioning an article she had recently read in the paper about the Hotel Georgia's restoration project. Apparently over $100,000,000 had been spent... She remembers her mom talking about the ballroom and celebrities, so she wondered if we could take a peak at the lobby if we happened across the hotel.)

Serendipity.
Or Divine Intervention.

The Hotel Georgia is right across the street from the Art Gallery.
So we walked over.






















Again... Wild coincidence.
We were there on Opening Day and THEY WERE GIVING TOURS.
And the next one started in 8 minutes.

























Fascinating. Above is the Ballroom. See all that fancy stuff on the walls above the doors? Was discovered after they removed layers of paneling. On the top left? They had no idea there was that minstrel's gallery was up there... it had been closed in years before.




















More info about the renovations are here, in this article. (Those opaque glass panels on the bottom of the pool? Allow people, 4 stories below in the car entrance, to look up and see shadow movement.)




















The rooms were doubled in size (meaning they went from having 320 rooms to 155 rooms.) And they were gorgeous. If you were to sit on the couch (above), or even just look straight ahead from the bed, you'd see this:



















... a flat screen high def TV with cable/satellite. This is also a computer monitor. They supply you with a cordless keyboard and free internet connection, so you can read blogs and play facebook scrabble on a huge screen. From bed. Uh huh. How fun.

Or, if updating your status is not your idea of hotel fun, you can take a bath.
In this:


















Seriously.

Double glass doors to the bathroom:


















I totes love it.
(Totes = totally)

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We were ready for a cuppa tea by then, so we wandered along Robson. Found a good people watching spot, ordered our beverages, shared a turkey panini on cranberry bread and planned our next move. There was a HMV across the street calling for me to pick up the music that would be my Summer Soundtrack of 2011. On sale: $10 each - Mumford and Sons, and Florence and the Machine.

We, like the intelligent women we are, stopped at the Tourism booth and chatted with the nice ladies about our next stop. They gave us a map, pointed and we were off...









To the waterfront.
Our plan was to walk around the NEW seawall, along Coal Harbour. We were going to walk from the new convention centre to Stanley Park. (See, in the photo above, the white sails in the middle of the pic at the very back? That's where we started. That grass roofed building on the right? Is the new convention centre. Six acres of lawn on the roof.)

Sandra met us at the waterfront station and walked with us, touching everything in sight:



















We smelled the roses,



















commented on the colours,


















sat fer a spell on the benches,










took a few pics,


















and commented on how few tourists there were in town during this, the peak tourist season. We felt like we had the city to ourselves:




















We ended our stay-cation having dinner on Commercial Drive on the roof top patio at Falconetti's East Side Grill, "the best vibe on the drive". "The Drive's Socially Creative Hang Spot." We were the oldest patrons, sharing eating space with many goodlooking young men who shared meals and table space with other goodlooking young men. It was all so fascinating. It felt like we were in a tree house.
















Just as we were finishing dinner, the rain started.
The end.




Three things I'm thankful for:

1. Perfect sighseeing weather. No, really. Seriously IDEAL.
2. Awesome, lovely, wonderful Vancouver.
3. Friends who had time off these past two weeks who could share my holiday time with me.


Shalom,

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