Our original flight (AA740): cancelled. The flight onto which we were immediately rebooked by my most excellent mother and travel agent (AA750): cancelled. The flight which we hope will deliver us home to the waiting embrace of 460 Sixth Street (AA766): delayed.
I feel the merry-go-round of this proneymoon slowing to a gentle stop, but does that mean the blogging has to end? We're considering continuing post-proney, through the wedding parties and possibly beyond. It's difficult to say how long our cyber-diary will continue, but for the moment we have unfinished business. So here goes.
It turns out that in the sun, Vancouver is a gorgeous city. It reminded me of Barcelona. A kind of Asian, Canadian, Pacific Northwest Barcelona. Cradled by mountains and water, the feel on the street is contained but vibrant. Amanda noticed several times that the city was glistening.
Food was the pretext for a day of walking the city. Actually, food had become the pretext for the better part of our trip. (As my mother likes to say, food is the new rock and roll. As long as food doesn't become the new sex, I'm okay.) We started yesterday at the Granville Island market. We thought it might be difficult to find, but the giant sign welcoming us also indicated that we were not the first tourists to visit the market.
After coffee at the Blue Parrot, we walked back into the city center, through Yaletown to Rodney's Oysters. Let me just say this: awesome. Rodney's bar is limited to beer, wine and what they call "caesars". I would call it the tangiest Bloody Mary ever. Amanda took one look at the bar staff and said "this is where the cool guys hang out." Whatevs. I was too wrapped up in my caesar and oysters to notice the rocker waiters shucking oysters with distracted abandon and taking our order with subtle lisps. At least they weren't glistening.
Yaletown is, as we had heard, much like the Pearl District in Portland. It's a bit like I imagine Soho in Manhattan was fifteen years ago. So depending on how you feel about cobblestone streets with beautiful people walking on them, converted loft spaces housing trendy boutiques and restaurants, you will either like or dislike Yaletown. Personally, I dig it.
We realized how walkable the city was when we passed quickly from Yaletown to Gastown for our next stop, Salt. Amanda said, "Gastown is like the lower east side of Vancouver." It makes sense, actually, since Gastown touches tummies with Chinatown. much like the LES, which pretty much IS Chinatown.
Located halfway down Blood Alley, Salt is a hip spot for meats, cheeses, condiments and wine. It's very hard to find, however, and we ended up standing on a corner, map unfolded, pointing and squinting, looking obviously lost. A relatively funky looking guy with an unidentifiable accent who introduced himself as Joel led us through the Gastown streets to the tiny alley in which Salt sits. I wasn't sure if he was a good samaritan or a transient in need of some spare change. It was a good example of the fine line that Vancouver walks. Gritty, yet Canadian. In the end, Joel extended his hand wishing us well, and never asked for a dime. I chose not to offer anything because I didn't want to offend. He could have been the mayor for all I knew.
In fact, I'd like to take just a moment to talk about funky people on our trip. From San Francisco all the way to Vancouver, we found there to be a large population of homeless, drunk, high and what I would describe as generally crazy people on the streets. Everyone I asked about this attributed it to the good weather and permissive governments along the west coast. It struck me as something people weren't talking about either because it ruined the mood, or because they had simply learned to accept it. I never really felt unsafe but it was noticable in Union Square, at the Portland Farmers Market, at the Pike Street Market in Seattle, in front of the art museum in Vancouver, and all through wine country and the Redwood Highway, the number of funky people, many with dogs, wandering amidst an otherwise healthy economy. But I digress.
Like most of the cities we visited on this trip, Vancouver was very excited about its local produce. We tasted at least a dozen dignified BC wines that have never crossed the border, and most likely never will due to their small production runs. Our waiter described the corned beef at Salt as "the best you will ever taste". Maybe it was the wine flight talking, but I agreed.
From Salt, we walked through the West End, along the foot of Stanley park and eventually to the water, before heading back to the hotel for a nap. Each neighborhood in Vancouver has a distinct feel, but they're all relatively close to one another.
For the final act of a trip that started as simply a western adventure and ended in decadent swill and indigestion, we headed to Vij's for our last supper. Vij's is Vancouver's most famous Indian restaurant, and its chef is as much a celebrity in his own right as Tojo. It's no surprise that Vij's was also featured on No Reservations earlier this year. In fact, unlike Tojos, they actually don't accept reservations and we were told the wait would be the better part of an hour and a half when we arrived at 8:30 on a Wednesday night. But the vibe was so pleasant and the reputation of the food so good, we had to stick it out. In the end, we waited an hour and it was worth it.
The experience was extremely positive, and the price point much less surreal than Tojo's. Still, I think Amanda and I both realized that the eating bonanza was coming to a close. As much as I'd love to keep it up indefinitely, it's simply not realistic. I'm not saying the proneymoon is over. In fact, we're just getting warmed up. But if you don't hear from us for a few days, just assume we're walking off some of the west coast and making room for the next installment.
We couldn't begin to rank the cities, bars, restaurants, people, views. They were all so great, even when they weren't. But, a brief thank you to Lisa, Jason, Rylie and Reese in Phoenix, Jamie, Christopher and Toby in Vegas, Poppy and Granny in Carlsbad, Terry, Michael, Sasha and Hobson in Mill Valley, Eric in San Francisco, Ryan, Mary and Ally in Portland, Jason, Beth, Harper, Danielle and Eddie, Jerry and Jen in Seattle for making us comfortable.
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