Vancouver, BC (Oct. 2-3)

We made a brief trip up to Vancouver just to see the city for a day. Weather was not exactly great, but thats to be expected from the Pacific Northwest this time of year. We got kind of spoiled in Seattle with nice weather, but it looks like rain for a few days here in Portland and onward. Anyways, trying a new post style with commentary and few pictures all in the same post, seeing if that can work from here on out. If you want to see what happened before this, just check out the photo album in the link below...it probably does the best job.

I think the thing that really struck me about being in Vancouver is how different it feels from the other cities up here in the Pacific Northwest. It certainly feels a lot more international with a large amount of foreign restaurants and seemingly few people speaking English on the streets in the downtown area. Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and others can be heard pretty regularly. This also makes for awesome ethnic food selection. Also the sheer number of glass clad condos and apartments downtown is pretty crazy. But it was a good, short stay. The scenery was amazing even with the clouds, and it looks like the city is surging to get ready for the 2010 Olympics.

So here are a few pictures from our time in Vancouver yesterday and the day before. Here we crossed the bridge into downtown, with all the condos in view.

Went to Guu with Garlic Izakaya...like Japanese tapas (ordered a variety of small items). We sat at a small floor table, and the atmosphere with fresh and lively.

Ubiquitous Sea Planes in the Bay

Tankers were also out in full force, with a huge seagull looming ominously