A Rainy Day in Vancouver

When we woke up this morning it was raining so we decided to stay in bed and read for a while. At around 10:00am we got dressed and walked across the street to the Smile Restaurant for a late breakfast and it was still raining. There were only four other people in the restaurant when we arrived. A man showed us to a booth and gave us menus, took our drink orders and left. I told Thomas that I was worried we shouldn't be here. He asked why I thought that and I told hime that the man looked like a mobster. He was wearing a dark pin stripe suit with wide lapels, a bright pink shirt with the top three buttons opened, very shiny black shoes and lots of jewelry. He returned with our coffee and my orange juice and then took our orders. After he put our order in he kept coming over and talking to us - he told us things we could do in Vancouver and told us about some restaurants and he told us about how the rain was suppose to last all weekend. He turned out to be very nice and I found myself not so worried about him maybe being a mobster. I ate my pancakes and bacon while Thomas had eggs benedict, bacon and hash browns. After eating and about three cups of coffee we went back to the hotel - Thomas read and I worked on the computer. Oh, Thomas picked up a weekly paper while we were at the restaurant and back at the room he finished reading it. Since it was a rainy and yucky day he thought it would be a good idea to see a movie. So we picked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. So we figured out the closest theater and the time we wanted to go.

We grabbed the umbrellas and we walked the eight blocks to the theater and got our tickets. We had to wait about 40 minutes because the time we wanted was sold out and we had to wait for the next showing. We grabbed some coffee and picked up a Cineplex Magazine and read while waiting for the movie. When the time got closer we went to the theater and found seats in the middle and I found myself really excited about this movie. It was incredible, it kept me transfixed the entire time and I couldn't believe when it was over. Let me tell you, I loved it. Now I love Harry Potter - the books, the movie, Daniel Radcliffe. But this particular movie has now become my favorite of the entire series. It was done so well and really captured the book. I have to say though, that I am sad that it is over. Well, I guess I will have to be happy with watching the series on DVD.

After the movie we walked around downtown for a while (the rain had stopped, but it was still very cloudy) and did a little window shopping and checked out all the public art in the area. I was a little upset because I left my camera at the hotel but it was all good. Eventually we found a restaurant that looked good - The Cactus Club Cafe. I ordered a Cactus Blonde Ale and Thomas had ice tea. For the meal I had a jd bbq burger with yam fries and Thomas had the burger with sea salted fries. The meal was good and Thomas and I had a great talk about our trip to Alaska.

We went back to the hotel after our early dinner and thought about what we could do to spend a few hours. I looked at a map and realized we were close to Canada Place, the Convention Center and the Olympic Torches. So we went on another walk. We took the road alongside our hotel and just two blocks down we found this alley with all this graffiti art. I thought it was incredible so I took quite a few pictures before we continued on. Eventually we arrived at Canada Place - this is where the ship docked to let us off. Next to this is the Convention Center. We couldn't go in because they were having special function but we could walk around outside. As we passed the center the Olympic Torches came into view. I got a few pictures of them and then saw a statue of an orca whale that looked like it was made of legos. We walked over to it and took a few pictures. We had been out walking for about two hours when we decided to go back to the hotel and rest. I got some blogging done while Thomas read. We also decided that if the day was good tomorrow we would return to Stanley Park for some more letterboxing.