Weekend in Vancouver

Bad blogger lately! I've been a little lazy getting this post up. I will remedy the situation now.

Bonnie and I flew out to the Lower Mainland area from Feb 29th-March 3rd to do some visiting. We arrived on Friday morning and bussed out to Yaletown where we met one of Bonnie's friends for lunch. We dropped off our suitcases at his apartment and had lunch at the Yaletown Brewing Company. It was a yummy lunch! I had forgotten how diverse and tasty the food is in Vancouver compared to Edmonton (have been eating at chain restaurants too often, I guess!). We also have a nice large pint of their microbrew lager, putting both Bonnie and I overtop on the full tummy meter. We spent the afternoon shopping on Robson and were only slightly wet from trudging around the Vancouver streets. Come dinner, we met Lauren at a nearby sushi joint and chowed down round 2 on the dirt cheap sushi we love to buy when in Vancouver.

Post-dinner, we briefly relaxed at Lauren's apartment before heading to the Rugby Club where a number of our friends stopped in to visit. After spending a couple hours visiting over some wine, Kyle met up with me and we headed back to his house for the night. I crashed on his couch around 12:30am, sadly setting my alarm for 5:30am so I could get up early for the ferry to Nanaimo the next morning.

I woke up surprisingly alert, showered and headed out with my stuff. It took me about an hour and a half to get to Horseshoe Bay, where I met mom in the coffee shop for breakfast. We hopped on the 8:30 ferry to Nanaimo, where we met Dad once we were at the other side. The drive to Port Alberni was a blur for me, since I managed to nap and catch up on some much needed sleep.

Once there, we had lunch with Granny and Grandpa Cyr, before heading over to visit with Grandpa Zimm. I got to see Grandpa Zimm's new home, which was super cute and really nice. After this, we met up with Granny and Grandpa Cyr again and went to see my Auntie Marnie, Uncle Derrick and my cousin Garrett. This was followed up with dinner at a Chinese buffet and more visiting with a different set of relatives: Uncle Larry, Shannon and my cousin Haylie. Finally, after this jam-packed day, I got to go to bed at Granny and Grandpa Cyr's place. Glorious sleep!

The next day was only slightly less busy - morning visit with Grandpa Zimm while we went over to my cousin Sammy's place. We also saw my Auntie Carol there too. I finally remember to take some pictures there! Grandpa Zimm and Auntie Carol in the couch:Sam's daughter Taylor just adored my dad and made him read to her the entire time we were there:Here is Sam with her son Justin:We also took a few pictures at Grandpa Zimm's house before heading back to Nanaimo:Once back in Vancouver, I took the bus downtown and killed some time in a coffee shop before Lauren got home and met me at her house. We ended up making dinner at her house that night, which was really nice since I'd eaten out most of the weekend. After vegging in front of the tv in the evening, I went to bed on their couch with plans to catch a cab early in the morning for the flight home. My night's sleep was quite eventful, but that's a story for another blog entry, so stay tuned.

In the morning, I got up on time and collected my stuff. I had reserved a cab for 5:20, but I didn't want it to buzz up and wake Lauren and Mike, so I went down around 5:15. The cab was already there and waiting, so I went over and hopped in. It's great that the cab was on time, early even, but I had to stop and grab Bonnie on the way to the airport (she was staying at a different friend's house) and was expecting me around 5:30. At first, I thought it would take us a few minutes to drive over to her and that she'd be ready in time, but it honestly took less than a minute to get to Bonnie's friend's house! So, we had to wait outside for about 5 minutes until she was ready. It was an awkward situation, but also funny in a way. In any case, we made it to the airport on time and finally made it back to Edmonton. Phew! What a busy weekend!