Vancouver, BC Trip - November 2nd, 2005

My neighbor, Jigisha and I planned a trip to Vancouver, BC to do some shopping for her son's wedding in August. At the last minute, we invited my daughter-in-law, Sylvia, to join us and she gladly accepted.

We were up and at em early on Wedneday morning, the 2nd of November to start our drive to Canada.

After crossing the border, we stopped at the information station to pick up some maps and sightseeing information. We arrived at the Punjabi Market (Little India). At Main and 49th, the street comes alive with the sights and smells of the India. This five-block section of Main Street is the epicenter of commerce and culture for Vancouver's large Indo-Canadian population. An assortment of Indian restaurants, sweet shops, fabric stores, green grocers, and gold jewelers make up South Vancouver's compact Punjabi Market. Hindi pop songs blare from stores while unrecognizable veggies lining the sidewalks and beautiful silk fabrics draped in store windows are sold at bargain-bin prices.

We spent the whole afternoon going in and out of the many shops. What an education, seeing, feeling and tasting some of the many items one can purchase. Sylvia and I could not get over the many, many beautiful sari's in these shops . . . so beautiful and full of color!! We went up one street and down the other side, walking in and past many, many stores. We had been in just about every store there was in the market and were now ready to start making some decisions on what to buy. Jigisha purchased several Sari's for relatives and friends and I purchased a lovely royal blue Sari for me to wear to the wedding next August. We were just about finished with our shopping when the rain started. Out timing was just right and we were ready to take our purchases to the car and find our room at WorldMark. It was rainy and getting dark, so I knew it might be hard to find our final destination for the evening.

I was right . . . finding WorldMark proved to be a chore and very hard for us gals in a strange city at night. Sylvia got on the cell phone and called WorldMark The Canadian and asked for directions. The lady was awesome and stayed on the phone and directed us to the WorldMark until we arrived. What a super gal she was to hang in there with us.

WorldMark is located downtown, yet high above the hustle and bustle. This is the perfect place to get away from it all while staying in the middle of it all. Once we registered and found our parking space in the underground garage, we went to find our room. We had an awesome room with an awesome view. We were up on the 22nd floor with a corner room. Before unpacking, we gazed at and unwound while enjoying the colorful skyline from our floor-to-ceiling windows in the room. What an awesome view!!

We spent some time relaxing, enjoying some snacks along with a glass or two of wine, before finding a restaurant. The lady at the front dest at Worldmark suggested we try "Relish", a very nice restaurant within walking distance of WorldMark. It sounded great to us as we did not want to get back into the car and drive around in a strange city at night in the rain. We were in for a wonderful surprise! The restaurant turned out to be awesome. It was beautiful and elegant yet casual, with a fireplace for rainy days and a large patio for sunny ones. We were seated right in front of the fireplace on a cold rainy night. We could not have asked for a better table. We had a fantastic evening, enjoying the atsmophere with wine and great food.

Back at our room, we enjoyed the view from our room some more an visited before going to bed.

We woke up to dreary rainy day in Vancouver. Taking our time to checkout, we enjoyed the view some more while watching a few snow flakes fall with the rain.

We had tickets for the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver. So even with the rain, we were off to see and enjoy the Suspension Bridge, which spans 450 feet across and 230 feet above North Vancouver's spectacular Capilano River. When we arrived, we saw we weren't the only crazy people to take this tour in the rain. It was cold and wet, but we did enjoy walking across the bridge and taking in the breath-taking view of the canyon below.

After we'd had enough of the wet and cold, we decided it was time for us to return to Portland, Oregon. It was a long drive home in the rain and it would be dark before we arrived home. We all had a wonderful time and are looking forward to going to Canada again.