ontheroad; Vancouver BC

Monday August 24, 2009
vancouver canada and the Quality Inn
We drive ubti Canada this Morning. We wanted to be certain that we had secured our hotel room in Vancouver baefore we left the U.S. It was difficult to secure a decent place downtown for a decent price at the last minute. There is a section here known as "downtown entertainment district" which describes an area filled with "gentleman's clubs" and I wanted to be sure not to get that area. But I went with Priceline Downtown Vancouver and we ended up with a Quality Inn in a dicey area that we could have probably gotten a better price if we had called them directly.
The parking lot is gated and requires a card to enter. Then in order to get from the hotel down to get to your car, you need a key to open the inside door to the garage. In the garage are all sorts of signs posted such as "report anyone that you see enter the garage not using a key." This has made me realize that valet parking has a tremendous advantage in terms of security. It is a good idea even if you don't like someone else driving your car.

The diwntiwn that we saw has chain stores such as Gap and Banana Republic but the buildings are older. There are some stores undergraound that you enter from a stairway going down from street level. We visited a loarge Vintage Clothing store down there. There are signs all along Robson Street(the shopping street) for Cuban cigars. Outside on the sidewalks are intermittent statues of Eagles painted by artists and financed by businesses. The idea here is rather like the painted cows that we had in the states (most notably Chicago) that will be auctioned off and the money given to charity. The charity for British Columbia is "disabled kids" and other Eagle Products are being sold to raise more money for this. For example, ther is a chocalate eagle that sells for $10.00.

The food we sampled was "big city delicious." Lunch was outside at an Italian Eatery and my Slavaki and David's salad were superb. For dinner we went for Tapas at an attractive red-checkered tablecloth place with garlic plants hanging on the walls. The food was good and the pitcher of Sangria that I ordered to go with it improved boosted the place to very verry good.