Our first full day in Vancouver started out with breakfast in a little fountain park square area before walking down through China Town and the Market Square (inhaling the delicious smalls of the Waffle Store), and down to the Harbour. We didn't do too much wandering into places because as it was Sunday, not much was open and if it was, it was too expensive, so instead, we just hit up the sights. This of course included the Empress Hotel, the Legislative Building with the huge statue of Queen Vic in front, the Bay where we thought there was a small free museum (LIES), some cool churches, CHEAP pizza for lunch, a store overflowing with Converse (including some for babies!), Miniature World (I refused to go in because I was pretty sure it would turn me back into a person from the 80s), and several awesome bookstores, including Russell books. There were two full aisles, chock full of shelves, stuffed with children's books. None of that Twilight crap- good children and teen literature. It was absolutely heavenly. And I was good and bought nothing. The day was quite nice and so we had a good combination of walking outside and keeping cover in some stores and markets. And it didn't rain once!
Our destination pre-ferry was the tiny town of Sidney, only because it is known for having 9 bookstores in a 3 block radius. Heaven for Michal? Yes indeed. My favorite was the Haunted Bookstore which was just bursting from the seams with old, new, vintage, antique, etc., books. Including a huge pile of Laurie King's. Awesome. I loved this sign too about the Anatomy of an Antiquarian Bookseller. Perfect! I also loved Beacon Books because it was quite similar. Only one was a brand new bookstore and I didn't like it as much. Also I did sneak a read at the first few pages of One of Our Thursdays Is Missing and I cannot wait for my birthday to read my own copy! I also walked through the little streets, past the Army and Navy Memorial to Beacon Park which had a gorgeous view of the harbour. I would totally live in Sidney if I could.
We arrived in time to line up for the ferry again, just as we had the day before. This ferry ride was a lot different- we weaved our way through the islands and it was just gorgeous view after gorgeous view after gorgeous view. And windy, windy, windy! I spent most of the time up on the "sun-deck" (HA) grading papers and looking up at the gorgeous views. I ended up perching for the last 15 minutes on one of the life-jacket containers, listening to Mumford and Sons and reading An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle. It was chilly but worth it!
Our destination pre-ferry was the tiny town of Sidney, only because it is known for having 9 bookstores in a 3 block radius. Heaven for Michal? Yes indeed. My favorite was the Haunted Bookstore which was just bursting from the seams with old, new, vintage, antique, etc., books. Including a huge pile of Laurie King's. Awesome. I loved this sign too about the Anatomy of an Antiquarian Bookseller. Perfect! I also loved Beacon Books because it was quite similar. Only one was a brand new bookstore and I didn't like it as much. Also I did sneak a read at the first few pages of One of Our Thursdays Is Missing and I cannot wait for my birthday to read my own copy! I also walked through the little streets, past the Army and Navy Memorial to Beacon Park which had a gorgeous view of the harbour. I would totally live in Sidney if I could.
We arrived in time to line up for the ferry again, just as we had the day before. This ferry ride was a lot different- we weaved our way through the islands and it was just gorgeous view after gorgeous view after gorgeous view. And windy, windy, windy! I spent most of the time up on the "sun-deck" (HA) grading papers and looking up at the gorgeous views. I ended up perching for the last 15 minutes on one of the life-jacket containers, listening to Mumford and Sons and reading An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle. It was chilly but worth it!
From Tsawssen (don't pronounce the T), we drove up to Vancouver and into the city. We stopped at an outlook point overlooking Fraser River which was just gorgeous, especially with the sun sparkling on the water. We drove around through UBC and then across the Burrard Bridge to downtown Vancouver. Kirbi obliged my silly whims and we drove to see St. Andrew-Wesley Cathedral. Why? Because it was the set for Supernatural Episode 13: Houses of the Holy. My first Supernatural site. I re-watched that scene on my i-pod while Kirbi was in the church next door going to the bathroom. It's OK, she loves Jesus. We wandered about for another 15-20 minutes, waiting for our meter to expire before trekking out to our hostel. Now, this is a whole new experience. The "hostel" is an old house in the middle of a random neighbourhood in Burnaby. There are four bedrooms (from what we can tell) downstairs and another four upstairs. We are sleeping on mattresses in what we can only assume is usually the living room. There are at least 9 other people here (including Rei from Japan in our room, Brian from Arizona down the hall, Mendy the manager's assistant also down the hall, and five random people downstairs). It is the most unusual and interesting hostel I have been to yet and it is so different from Ocean Island last night. But, no complaints. It's a bed and that's all I ask for. We were STARVING though so we drove over to the incredibly posh A&W for dinner. At 8:30. And I got a free soda because I was waiting for a long time for my chicken. Tomorrow we take on Vancouver!
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