Vancouver pre-olympics

Vancouver has long been on our list of places to visit especially with its reputation for fantastic food. Our timing, just a few months before the Olympic Games has been a smart move. Flowers are in place, buildings nearly all built, windows washed and the city seems to be booming economically. Thgy should be...prices for everything seem rediculously high. Far more than the 4.5% differential in the value of our dollars...

We explore our new neighborhood and find a little wine seller shop. Prices here are incredible. A wine we buy for the Hotel Charlotte at $7 a bottle is being sold at the wine shop for $24.5o. We are unaware of any import/duty exhanges between USA and Canada, but with Canada's budding wine industry, perhaps this is exactly what has happened to boost sales of the Canadian wines.

We start the dining experience at a little place called La Bodgea, just a few blocks from where we are staying. Our host recommended it as an authentic Spanish Tapas restaurant. We agreed it was authentic, the food was fair, not outstanding, the ambiance was entertaining and refreshing.

We shared everything, a green salad, marinated artichoke hearts, seasoned shrimp, calamari and lamb shank, all small plates, but not too small. With a simple bottle of wine, the price was just under $100, tax and tip included.

The next day we spend traveling the water front with our Auqua-Ferry all day pass, $12 each. We head first from the Hornsby ferry pier to Granville Island and have a delicious breakfast, sausages, eggs, tomatoes and bagel, with Coffee, $18 tax & tip included.

We are earlier than the markets open and get on the ferry to the next stop which is called Monks, a seafood restaurant overlooking a marina and False Creek. Looks nice, but not open. They say there is a downtown area here to explore, but we don't see it and continue the walk along the shore to the next ferry pick up location. This takes us back over to the otherside and we explore a bit of Yaletown, looking for the perfect dinner destingation. The architecture of the whole town appears to be steel with floor to ceiling windowns all of the lightest teal, pale blue green color. At first it looks cheep and unkempt, like tarped boats in the nonrainy season. But as time goes on, the look begins to appeal.

Our next boat stop is ironically, the casino. We go in to see what it offers differently from what we get at our little casinon in Tuolumne. They don't have any fun video poker machines, no variations on the traditional game. Lots of pennies and some very busy blackjack tables, even though it is still morning. I try my luck at the boring video poker and win $6.50 on my $20 investment. This feels good and we cashout and head back.

We wait and wait for the ferry and none is forthcoming. Perhaps it is lunch time for them and they all take an hour off. Whatever the reason, we decide to head back to Yaletown on foot and off we go.

For to follow, must go back to bed!

Ship to shore to Groveland

So, Jack and Jeannie were in last night for with Herman and Joke and they spent the evening recapping some of our funniest trip memories and I have to buckle down and do this blog. So, that is how I am spending my day. More to follow!

Let's see, here's a brief outline:

Hovel Hotel in Darling Harbor, Sydney

When is a hotel not for overnight guests?

The Level

Clock stories

Blind Taste Testing

Looking at Bed and Breakfasts for sale in NZ

Toast

The Bag Left on the Boat saga

The second hand store

The jeweler

Decorating our stateroom

The isn't Business Class Flying grand—except for....

Oh renting a car abroad....Tasmania

Today you get a special blogged treat, an actual entry! I have so many to do, that it is going to take some time to organize everything. Traveling on a cruise does not give one much free time to stay on top of things like blogging.

So today we landed in Burnie, Tasmania, an island off Australia a days float from Melbourne. It was warm today, but I imagine tomorrow to be about 25 degrees worse as we will be in Melbourne. Perhaps that should be a stay on the boat day. I don't fancy 110 degrees!

Okay, so here we are in Burnie and we rented a car so we could drive along the coast. Odd that we would choose to do this, we have been coastal for nearly two weeks now. But that is what we did—stuffed 5 adults tipping the scales on the larger side of the scale for our heights into a Toyota something or other. The front folks seemed comfy but the back was miserable with knees not fitting, sunlight blaring on our bare necks and heads and hardly able to see. But we were stoic. VERY Stoic! And endured!

We drove to a cute little town called Stanley on an isthmus with 5 fishing boats, a marvelous little sea-creature museum, (can't think of the right word) but we got to hold the crabs, big buggers and a lobster...very cape-codesque mixed with Inverness and Drakes Beach, Scenic and Charming, a place to go for a month and write a book. Sadly, it appeared all the books have been written and the authors have gone home. Most of the place seemed vacant, many little ocean front holiday cabins and charming inns-hotels. It was perfectly sparkling clean and fresh and very inviting, but this is their high season and they appeared to have no visitors in town at all except those of us that ventured this way from the Cruise ship. This doesn't bode well for what we can expect in Groveland this coming summer for tourism, but that is a thought that can wait another week or so before I start to dwell in that direction.

Jack did a marvelous job in getting us from point to point. From what I counted we only had 5 or 6 mistakes and none of them really fatal even with driving on the wrong side of the road. All in all, a good day's journey.

The Food

The most notable thing about the food is its availability and quantity and it is always fairly good sometimes it is even GREAT. I do miss the use of seasonings and spices. Everything seems to be spiced to appeal to a massive public and I like to dine a bit more on the edge.

I will get some daily notes updated into the blog, but just wanted to get these down before we had to run again. We come into these little ports, check out the town and then look for an internet cafe to check emails. A very affordable 7 cents a minute compared to the boat at 75 cents a minute...but never enough time to get the job done. I will start posting to my lap top then when we find these cafes I will log on and publish them from there. Then I can write all night...or whatever.

Victor and I are on separate schedules. He gets up between 5:30 and 6 am and I don't want to get up before 9. I like to stay up later than him too. But we get a nap each afternoon...just like home.

Victor took a cooking class yesterday and it was so good some of the people almost missed their scheduled tours. We are going to try out the fancy dining room for my birthday. Will note back on that later.

See you soon!
Lynn

Yes we are here!

So we are here and Jack reminds me on a daily basis that I am way behind on my blogs. This is very true. Every day is so full of activities and like freshmen in their first years of high school we are signed up for all of them. I did skip the cupcake decorating class though.

As rookie cruisers (this is our very first) we are finding everything very exciting and each day is full of newness. This is also very resorty compared to what we do each day at the Hotel Charlotte. We get towel wrapped shapes on our freshly turned down beds each evening. Yesterday was a stingray shape and a scorpion before that. They even have a book you can buy to learn all the shapes. Maybe we will buy it and have a custom Hotel Charlotte shape laid out on the beds every night. I think we would only need 7 shapes, one for each day.

See you soon!

Is every one from Australia?

So, now that we are getting ready to go to Australia, seems we have a guests every night that hale from there. That's cool! I now have a list of a dozen places we must see and thing we must do. But millions of things to do before we go!