May 17th, Saturday
San Diego – Vancouver, BC (stopover in LAX)
Arrived past 5pm, an hour later for my flight was delayed leaving LAX. Nash was waiting patiently for me at the Vancouver Airport. Struck me that it had been 6 months since I last saw him in Fresno. I remember that was in November that I left home to follow my heart...
Anyway, we took a cab to get to Georgian Court in downtown – the hotel we will be staying for 6 full days. There was Gail and kuya already waiting for us. It has been 1 year and 5 months since I last saw them. Talk about reunions huh!

First stop, Swiss Chalet – Gail’s favorite chicken place, and so we had dinner there... Of course trip will not be complete without picture taking so as soon as I get a copy I will post pictures for sure! We could not do much this day for we were tired from flying, Gail and Kuya came straight from Pinas while Nash and I came from CA. We stayed up late though just talking and joking around while kuya gave us the Zzzzzzzzzzz’s.

May 18th, Sunday
6am clock goes off and in shock I blurted out words in English that made up a sentence “who set the alarm too early?!” The four of us speak our language and it was just weird funny for me to say something in straight English. I was woken up and it was instinct. Blame it on living with my Bubu... He is not Pinoy so no choice but to communicate with him in English. Plus I have no Pinoy friends here that I constantly talk to... That is how my life is here in California... Uhum.

Back to Canada, Kuya got up so early and wanted us to get ready. We were out by 10am strolling along the shopping strip headed to the Sea Bus station. It is just a ferry that will take us to another area where we can ride the transfer (bus) that will take us to the mountain foot. From there we will take the Sky Ride (huge funicular) that will take us up 3,000 feet to the top of the snowy Grouse Mountain. The ride is about 8 minutes. It was such a view and as the cart full of window glass ascends, there’s a narrator telling a little bit of the background of what you’re seeing. Then you reach the end of the ride. You see “snow capped mountains white” Oh my God! I will tell you a story bout that later on hahaha This was my first time to see and touch snow! Really really nice up there.

So we had to head back about 3pm for we have another itinerary – Stanley Park. So same thing, sky ride – transfer – sea bus then at the station kuya said we can just walk to get to the park. So we did. It was a very loooooooooooooooong walk! Anyone who knows my kuya would know he is always lying when it comes to distance. We finally get to the park and part of our day plan was to bike around. 5pm we rented the bikes, 2 regular for me and Nash then 1 tandem for Gail and kuya... Why? Because Gail did not think she can handle the regular ones for they seemed too high for her. Ended up kuya and Gail riding the regular bikes then Nash and I were stuck on the tandem. The trail was a good 3+ miles ride. Wow! We were like 1 mile left when Nash felt pain on his left side – he was having cramps and could not bike any more... And because we had the tandem I could not bike by myself and of course could not leave my brother. So we walked the bike... Took us longer but it was alright. Close to 9pm we returned the bikes and were so hungry and exhausted. Kuya again wanted to walk back to the hotel. Nash all of a sudden said “let’s take a cab and I will even pay for it!” But then we ended up walking again... Then we found a Korean Restaurant and had dinner there. It was so good that we forgot how tired we were. We over ordered though. We had:
· huge hot pot that had pork ribs and vegetables cooking on top of a camping stove
· seafood omelet
· dumpling / gyoza
· Gal Bee or Korean BBQ
· Lots of mini sides!

We got back to the hotel around 11pm. This day was the most memorable day ever. I remember back in Pinas when Channy and I went with kuya to Sagada. My son complained “Daddy, why do we wake up at night and come back at night?” All of us would wake up at 4am and then we’d come back like at 6pm. Kuya has always been the tour guide / coordinator / leader of the group. We branded him “Drill Sergeant” because he is exactly like that.
Oh I was wearing flip flops and I have never thought you can get blisters from wearing them – I guess yeah if you walked forever like we did! Grrrrrr

May 19th, Monday
Thank god for the glorious weather! Hahaha News said it will rain for 2 days! Wuhoooo. Today was family day; Gail will meet up with some of her relatives here. Plan was just to see the famous Metro Mall. Her Aunt volunteered to give us a ride for it was about 20 minute drive from the hotel. We were there for a couple of hours. Nash and I were dropped off at the hotel then they went to dinner with the other relatives. We did not do much today compared to yesterday. It was downtime.

May 20th, Tuesday
We did not plan anything for today either because we can’t do much if it’s raining. So we woke up late, still feeling muscle pain all over. We strolled along the shopping strip so kuya can exchange his dollars. Then we walked to the Science Center per Gail’s request. Then about 5pm we started heading to the restaurant where we were going to meet up with our Aunt Abel and Uncle Tito. It was a revolving restaurant called The Lookout. Very good food for its price and the view is just magnificent! Staying later to see how Vancouver looks like at night meant missing American Idol Finale performance :(

May 21st, Wednesday
Most expensive tour ever! We went to Victoria. Tour package costs $150 per head. Includes:
· Coach service pick up from the hotel
· Ferry ride to the island.
· Bus tour around Victoria – highly recommend the driver for he was very knowledgeable and well versed.
· Butchart Garden
· Parliament Capital
· Bus transpo return drop off at the hotel
· Ferry ride back to Vancouver

It was not that bad for the buck we paid for. The travel was about 3 hours, 2 hours spent on the ferry. It rained in Victoria that day so it was a little hard to get around in the gardens. We got back late like 10:30pm. We had dinner at the bar down by the hotel. It was good!

May 22nd, Thursday
I think this is the most misfortunate day. Last Tuesday we reserved a Budget rental car so we can just drive up to Whistler instead of paying $40 each for bus transpo. 7am kuya and Gail tried to pick up the car. Agent from the counter said they needed a different credit card. Here comes Nash and I to the rescue. All they wanted was $300 deposit on a credit card to secure the rental since we were from out of town. Nash presents a debit card which they could not take. We did not bring any credit card for we thought debit cards work the same. Guess not. We did not get the car. They did suggest another place – Lo Cost car rental. The 2 needed to go back to the hotel so Nash and I went to this place. We were told it was just a few blocks away. Get this. We were standing at the intersection which had 800 number on the building. The rental place address was 1150. We walked and walked and I think we passed too many intersections that it was just ridiculously farther than what we anticipated. We get to the place, it was closed. It was 8pm. We waited for 30 minutes and it did not seem it will open up soon. We decided to go to the hotel across the street and call kuya. At the lobby:
Ivy: "Hi, is there a phone we can use? "
Person at Front Desk: "You have a phone in your room."
Ivy: "Oh, I’m sorry I am not staying at this hotel. I just need a phone to call somebody."
Person at Front Desk: (unwelcome tone) "We don’t have a phone you can use."

Nash and I then realized that we don’t like Vancouver that much. Food is great. Place is awesome. Clean surroundings, fresh air. But that is it. We never pictured ourselves living here because of the people. They are not the nicest! Americans in California are friendlier I should say... First few days we were in BC, we thought we were somewhere else not in Canada. We were in Hong Kong or China – too many Asians! Not that I am being racist but trust me it was not a good sight... Couples soooo PDA like OA! Hahahaha I am not jealous, I can identify when it’s cute and when it’s too much sensuality! Right Gail?!

Anyway, we were able to get a car rental from National and we got lucky for the guy who helped us out was Pinoy. It’s a good 2-3 hour drive from where we were at. Everything got delayed because of the rental car but it worked out well. We met up with Nash’s college friend Chelly. She lives there now. According to her, she was petitioned by a relative and initially lived on the other side which was Ontario, Canada. One day she decided to move to Whistler, packed her stuff, fit it in her old car and drove across the country for 5 days. And she likes it better because of the weather. Very tiny person but huge personality! It was nice having lunch with her at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Chelly had to leave us because she had to go back to work. We did take her advice of getting on the Gondola that will take us up to the mountain where the snow was. And we got there. Funny was while we were enjoying the snow and mesmerizing the scenery, out of the blue we heard a voice singing “snow capped mountains white” Oh my god it was Gail! Hahahahahaha and when we noticed her, she said it just came out and she was not aware that she was even singing... Very funny ha! There was more snow in Whistler compared to Grouse Mountain and maybe that’s why Gail could not stop singing that verse hehe

May 23rd, Friday
And back to reality again.