Fun weekend in Vancouver

Hubs had an opportunity to go to Vancouver for something last weekend and so we decided to make an entire weekend of it.

Since hubs worked late on Friday night we caught the early ferry over on Saturday morning. We sat in the quiet lounge and enjoyed magazines, the view and a light breakfast.

When we got over to Vancouver we caught the Sky Train to our hotel (The hotel charged a ridiculous amount of money to park a car over night so we decided to just take the sky Train).

We arrived at the Westin just before check in time. We got a great deal on the room and so we decided to upgrade and get a water view. We don't often stay in hotels, especially ones as nice as the Westin so it really was a nice treat to get away. Our room was really nice, as was our view overlooking the water! Our hotel was right downtown so we couldn't complain at hot convenient it was for what our plans were for the weekend.

We freshened up and met hubs cousin and his new wife for dinner at the Tap House pub. The food was pretty good, and they had some amazing kegs of beer brewed exclusively for the restaurant. Hubs had a flight of beer samplers to try and I tried a wine flight. It was great to catch up with hubs cousin as we hadn't seen him since we got married and we were supposed to attend his wedding the end of September but hubs and I were both sick so we couldn't make it. It was nice to finally met his new wife.

After supper, they were kind enough to drive us to the hockey arena where we had tickets to the NHL game Canucks vs Tampa Bay. Neither of us had even been to an NHL game so it was definitely a treat to experience one in person. There was a special promotion the night we went and there were scarves on each seat of the Canucks!!!

After the game we took the Sky Train back to the hotel. It stopped a few blocks before our hotel so we decided just to walk the rest of the way. It was a Saturday night and there were lots of people out from the hockey game and it being a Saturday night downtown in general. Not far from the hotel we came across Bella Gelateria, a gelato place hubs heard about through work. At this point it was 10:45 at night and there was a lineup out the door. We decided we had to stop and try the gelato as it must be good for there to be such a line. Boy, I am so glad we stopped. The gelato was amazing!!!!! If you are in the area I highly recommend you try it out. It is award winning and won awards in Italy even!!! It ended up being a great end to the night eating gelato cones on the outside patio at 11pm in the middle of October.

Hubs had something on the go early the next morning, so I was able to sleep while he did his thing. Once he was done, we decided to go to De Dutch for breakfast. I had never been and there was one not far from the hotel. (First I must give a shout out to the ridiculously comfortable beds at the Westin. I didn't want to get out of bed). We were lucky we arrived when we did because there was a huge line up not long after we were seated. The food was really good, however we found the waitress a little rude and some of the portions left a little to be desired. However, it was a much better option then the $28 breakfast buffet at the hotel, which wasn't anything fancy for the price tag.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a nap, since we had a 3pm late check out. We got up, showered, packed and decided to make our way home. We caught the Sky Train and then the bus back to the ferry. On the ferry we decided to have the buffet supper on the way home. It's $23 a person but worth it. You get a great view of the water and the food is really good. The buffet includes roast beef, pasta, soups, salad bar, misc. other items that rotate out, tea/coffee, pop, juice and water, and an amazing dessert bar including cheesecake, pies, squares, fruit, chocolate, cakes, etc. Definitely worth checking it out.

We got home around 6 pm and put on a bit of laundry and relaxed the rest of the evening. It started to rain just as we got home. We were so thankful that it didn't rain while we were in Vancouver as it was calling for rain and we did a lot of walking, so rain wouldn't have made the trip as enjoyable as it was.

Overall it was a great weekend and a great little weekend get away!!