D-Day

Well not actually D-Day but the day of the wedding.

I arose at an unseemly hour considering I should have been jet lagged and had a few brews the night before. Had a little disagreement with Mum over the temperature of the room. She wanted it a good 5 degrees warmer than I was comfortable with but as she was paying for the room I gave in.

I managed to drink a cup of manky coffee that the room came with before my brother and his other half dragged my sorry butt out for a hike before breakfast.

So this was my first taste of daytime Vancouver

This is the hotel

It is the Marriott Pinnacle in Downtown. Better class of hotel than my usual Premier Inn back in the UK.

The three of us took the short stroll down to the waterfront. It was a cool morning. Not unpleasant or even "bracing" just a bit refreshing.

The plan was to walk as much of the sea wall as possible (if not all) before breakfast. Eating out for breakfast is much more a North American thing. My experience of the UK is that it is something we do if we are on the move, travelling somewhere. However over the pond it is much more of a recreational experience.

The sea wall is a 13 mile footpath that skirts around the the coastal part of downtown Vancouver. In fact the Vancouver Park Board describes it as being on most visitors must do list.

Really?

It wasn't on mine.

I set off with my brother and sister in law with some trepidation. These two are Uber hikers and think nothing of cracking off 10 miles at a time. I on the other hand was out of shape and hungry, worse - i hadn't had coffee for a bit. I gave them 40 minutes and then we were going to draw lots on who got eaten first.

The first impression was of mountains. The mountains of North Vancouver tower over the city and this morning were clear of cloud - giving an unrestricted view of their peaks.

I stopped and took this pic by the float plane base. Handy as there were a lot of float planes tied up there.

We carried on further and stumbled across a marina filled with yachts of many sizes. Motor Cruisers Or Gin palaces as my Father rather bitterly used to refer to them. In the UK most motor cruisers don't get out of the marina, largely because of the prohibitive cost of the fuel but also because many are owned by idiots who shouldn't be left in charge of their own toilet let alone a boat capable of traversing the high seas at some speed.

They are rather fine vehicles and I rather fancied I spied some Sunseeker's. A UK manufacturer from near where I grew up. I have a soft spot for them for a very specific reason.

If we were watching a cheap sitcom the screen would go all shimmery at this point to signify traveling back in time to a significant moment in my past. 1993, Earls Court boat show in London. I knew 2 people who were in the business of selling yachts at that time. Nice yachts with sails and everything - the real deal not these motorised versions. Well unfortunately for me I have never enjoyed or saw the point of sailing. Diesel engines were invented so we didn't have to be at the mercy of the weather anymore!

Still, that said my mates had promised me an introduction to their Gin and Tonic stash that they plied "real" customers with so I became an advocate of wind power for an afternoon.

I would much rather have a lairy motor yacht with a couple of filthy great piston engines buried under the deck so after enjoying a ration of gin and tonic I said my farewells and went for a wander around.

The rest of the show was divided into haves and have nots. If you had the cash you could bother the builders and have a mosey round. If you were Riff Raff like my self you weren't able to get closer than 20 feet to the stand lest you breathed your filthy germs all over their lovely shiny boats. The stand in particular was for Princess. Name and Shame I say.

Sunseeker were wiser. Whilst I still wasn't able to climb aboard they had built a stand that allowed me and my fellow serfs touch and peer in portals. It was as if they recognised that today's scum were tomorrows lottery winners and you had to let them see the merchandise in case their situation ever changed. So when I win the lottery (as I surely shall) i am going straight down the Sunseeker sales room and rewarding that egalitarian attitude.

Where was I?

At the end of the marina started Stanley Park. A prominentary of land poking out into the sea. Kind of like Central Park I guess but not as big and not central. Lots of trees and stuff.

As we entered the park one of the first float plane flights came in to land. I was rather astonished at the way the pilot seemed to have pointed the nose of his (or her!) aircraft straight in the drink and then levelled out at the last minute for splash down. Had I been on that plane I think I would have been throwing my foot ware at the pilot and shouting at them to pull up for god's sake!

We were having a little recconaisance because this was where the wedding was to be later in the day.

We marched on around the sea wall path until we happened upon a statue in the water of a girl in a wet suit on a rock. The plaque on the sea wall said it had a twin of a mermaid in Copenhagen harbour. At this point i was getting very hungry and we also needed to get on so that we may have plenty of time to make ready for the big event.

We cut across the park in search of a suitable venue for breakfast.

But I will leave that for my next posting