Our 3 nights in Vancouver

Day 1: We spent 3 nights at the Fairmont Waterfront post cruise. This was booked through Celebrity. We arrived on Infinity & disembarked around 10 am. The cruise line transferred our luggage to the hotel. The hotel's across the street from Canada Place, so we walked. Unable to check in, we looked around the shops in the hotel, then sat to wait on our 1:30 pm Father's Day brunch. The receptionist noticed us in the lobby & brought our keys over around 1 pm. We were off to check out the room, then back down for brunch. The room was a good size, with an ample bathroom. We had a city view overlooking their garden. Beautiful view & great room. 1st impression was a good one. Next was brunch in Heron, the hotel's restaurant. This meal rivaled everything we had eaten in San Francisco & in 10 nights on the Infinity. I'm not a fan of buffets, but this one was outstanding. I had prearranged a Father/Son massage in our hotel room at 3pm. After lunch, they had their massages & I explored Gastown. Gastown is next door to the hotel & is a typical touristy area. I returned to 2 happy guys. I was exhausted from 14 days of touring, so I settled in for the night. My guys went exploring in the area & ended up back at McDonald's in the hotel for dinner. Glad I decided to skip dinner. :p One note on our luggage... It didn't arrive until after 5pm. We saw it sitting outside the hotel as early 11am. Those who had booked on their own seemed to get priority over those booked with the cruise lines. If you want your luggage earlier, take it with you to check in.

Day 2: We all slept in, so we skipped breakfast & went straight for lunch. We had clam chowder soup in the food court downstairs in the hotel. Next, we were off to Grouse Mtn. for the day. We took public transportation, which was also conveniently located in the lower level of the hotel. Since I had made a reservation at The Observatory, there was no charge for going up on the mountain. There was 2 movies to watch. 1 was on the bears, who had been relocated there & was very interesting. The other was a view of the city through an eagle's eyes. We thought this one was kinda long. There's also a lumberjack show, which was 2/3's comedy & 1/3 exhibition. IMHO the comedy really added to the show, & for free, you couldn't beat it. :D We also visited the bears for awhile, then wandered to the Chalet for our dinner reservation. The Observatory restaurant was a hit. One note... my DH ordered the salmon & we all agreed that it wasn't very good, to put it mildly. I had quail & our DS(13) had snapper, which were both delicious. This was only the beginning to a fabulous ending. We all ordered the Chocolate Fondant, which was to-die-for. The best dessert by far that we had. Believe me, that's saying a lot. We had at least 1, most times 2 or 3 per day/ for 17 days. :o We took a taxi back to the hotel. The restaurant hostess arranged it, & he was waiting for us when we exited the tram. Very convenient. After returning to the hotel, my DH & I had a nice stroll around Canada Place.

Day 3: Another late morning, & another bowl of soup in the food court. This time we had potato soup, which was even better than the clam chowder. We always sat by the windows, & were treated to a nice view of a cascading waterfall, Canada Place, & people watching. We decided to check out the underground mall, which was about 4 blocks from the hotel. Wow, this was a nice mall! We finally gave up on seeing it all, but not before I went to an ice cream stand to ask for soft serve. I had seen a gentleman carrying a soft serve ice cream dipped in chocolate. The lady at the counter had no idea what a soft serve ice cream was. That was an interesting conversation. She pointed me in the direction of a Dairy Queen, hoping they would know what I was talking about. :p They didn't call it soft serve, but since they only sell soft ice cream, I was in luck & it was yummy. Our lazy son wanted to go back to the room, so we walked him back & locked him in tightly, before wandering around Gastown to do some last minute souvenir shopping. This was a great place to accomplish just that. Just as we were finishing up, the heavens opened up & the rain began to fall. It rained the rest of the night. So much for Lumiere. :( I didn't want to go bad enough to risk a taxi ride on the wet roads. Every taxi ride up until that point, I had gotten motion sick. We chose to dine in the comfort of the hotel & ended back at Heron restaurant. We both had Alberta beef, which was wonderful. It was a perfect substitute for Lumiere. Prior to the rain, we had picked up some fudge & Ice Wine in Gastown, so this was our dessert in the room. It was a great ending to a fabulous trip.

Day 4: X had arranged for us to take Sea to Shore transportation to the airport. We decided to take a taxi van instead. The line for customs at the airport was long, but painless.

By the time we arrived in Vancouver, we were getting tired from all the touring in SF & Alaska. We didn't get to see as much of the city as we would have liked. I guess that just means we'll have to return.

A couple things I forgot to mention... We were surprised to see that cars can turn right on a red signal light, even if you have a walk sign. Make sure you check both ways, before entering the street. Also, we encountered quite a few people who were soliciting money, cigarettes, etc. However, they weren't as aggressive as those in SF. Hope this helps!