Raining in Vancouver

Oh my. What a wild day we have had here in rainy Vancouver. To begin with, Katie and Stephen were landing at 11:30pm and Ubering to our AirBnB. The flight was delayed so they were going to arrive about 2am. But then, Katie texts from the plane that 45 minutes after take off the pilot comes on the intercom and tells them that something is wrong with one of the engines and they will be turning around and going back to SFO. She says they will land at 1:15am. I wake up at 1:17am. I text her “Are you okay?” No response. “Baby?” Oh my goodness. My heart is racing. Did the plane crash? She texts back at 1:25am “Yes, tough landing.” 

My mama heart is racing. Thank goodness they are safe and sound and on the ground. The flight is canceled and the airline puts them in a hotel with food vouchers. They will fly out Friday at 7:40pm which is funny enough, the connection flight that Jess and Caleb are catching from Salt Lake City. 

So back to bed. As restful as you can get after that whole fiasco. Todd and I were up about 7am and tried our damndest to make coffee with this single cup Keurig. How can something be so challenging? 

Anyway, Todd had monthly reports to do this morning for work and a Jacob had college homework since he’s still in his credential program so after breakfast Emily and I set out on a beautiful walk along the waterfront. 

We had a lovely 2.5 mile walk and enjoy the skyline, great conversation, and the abundant walking paths. After we got back, there was laundry and some laying around. A downpour started and we waited a bit before venturing out. 

Lunch was our next stop and Emily found a place online that looked good to her. Honestly, I started to look at other places because it didn’t seem like they had a diverse menu, but wow, I’m glad we went with her choice! 

The food was unbelievably delicious and their portions were huge! Who knew that fried chicken could be styled in so many different meals. Chicken and French toast, eggs Benedict, a hot chicken sandwich, and biscuits and gravy. We all shared and we stuffed ourselves. No salad was found at this establishment 😂 

We decided to head down to the waterfront and walk toward downtown Vancouver and work off some of these calories. The leisurely stroll took us along the Kitsilano Beach, and huge shoreline pool, a Maritime Museum, and a Space Centre. We enjoyed the 2 mile walk and all of the scenery. Had we stayed in downtown Vancouver, we would have missed out on visiting a lot of these quieter spaces. 

After we had hit our walking goals for the day, we were tempted to head back and sit our booty’s on the couch, but alas, we grabbed an Uber and headed to the University of British Columbia. They have a Museum of Anthropology that had caught our eye and so we decided to check it out. 

The museum was filled with native totems and artifacts of the first people who lived in this area. 

Learning a little bit while on vacation is a good thing. There were many plaques explaining the significance of the wood carvings and how they might be used for ceremonies. The last piece above shows a preacher with wings and a gun to show the promises of heaven later or violence now that the conquerors, aka immigrants pushed upon the native people. Some of it was deep…lessons to be learned perhaps. 

After another Uber we were able to park our tired bodies on couches where emails were checked, blogs were written, and spaghetti westerns were found on tv. Yes, here we are in Canada, checking out an old western called For a Few Dollars More made in 1965 with Clint Eastwood. We are still stuffed from lunch and awaiting Katie and Stephen as they were able to get on an earlier 4:55pm flight! 

We took a stroll to the local IGA and grabbed some salad, coffee pods, and much needed cantaloupe and prosciutto. Our dinner is going to be healthy!

Katie and Stephen arrived without any further hitches and they even caught an earlier flight. They feasted on our stash of delectable goodies while recanting their snafus over the last 48 hours and expressed great happiness for finally being here! 

And tomorrow we get on a boat!!!