August 4-Travel Day to Vancouver

Photo from our first flight

Shot of the plane from my seat in the back

The controls.  No joke, we could see them!

Our room at the Sutton Place

Day One: Travel Day
Portland Maine to Vancouver BC

Our day began early.  How early, you ask?  3:15 am.  Yeah, that’s early!  But we had a flight to catch in Portland, which is an hour drive from our house and our flight was at 6:35.  In order to get there, check in, go through security and get to our gate we needed to be there about an hour and a half before our flight, so we had to leave the house at 3:40.

Three different alarms went off, to wake us up.  The week before our trip, I had experienced an anxiety dream about our alarm not going off and missing our flight, so we wanted to be extra sure that the dream did not come true!  So we set both alarms on my clock radio AND my alarm on my phone.  All went off, we washed up, got dressed and hopped in the car, which I had packed up the previous evening. 

There is very little traffic on the roads at 3:40 in the morning, so we made great time getting to Portland.  Our niece Jess met us at my parent’s house and drove with us to the airport.  We unloaded the bags and then she drove our car back to my parent’s house so that we would not have to pay parking fees.  (Thank you, Jess!)

We did not realize it, but our bags would not be traveling on the plane with us to Toronto and Vancouver.  It had to do with a weight and balance issue in the plane.  However, we had packed smart, and we were carrying a change of clothing and our pajamas in our backpacks, so we weren’t too worried about that.  Check in and security all went without a hitch and we waited in the airport for a bit.  While there, I saw a former student of mine and the school secretary!  Who knew I would run into people I know at 5:30 am in the Portland Jetport?

We got on our plane...and it was small.  How small?  18 seats small.  I was sitting in the next to last seat...and I could see the instruments in the cockpit.  However, I did enjoy having a window seat.  Normally, I give Dave the window seat, but the plane was so small that everyone had a window seat this time!  We had some beautiful views as we flew over the lakes, rivers and forests of the Northeast and the Adirondacks.

We landed in Toronto and walked, and walked and walked to get to customs.  We must have hit it just at the right time, because there was no one in the very large customs room.We went in, filled out our form, had our passports checked and stamped and then were on our way to security.  We quickly went through security and were at our gate before 10 am.  We got a breakfast sandwich and some water and ate that while we waited,  Our plane was delayed a little and we boarded about 20 minutes late.  This plane had TVs in the back of the seats, so I amused myself by watching a movie and some TV shows.  Dave got my attention when we started flying over the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades.  It was breathtaking!  The mountain peaks were still covered with snow, even on the fourth of August.

We landed in Vancouver a little after 1 pm (Vancouver time) and went to the Air Canada office to check on our bags.  They said they were on their way and they would deliver them to our hotel.  We then got a taxi and rode to The Sutton Place.

The city of Vancouver is beautiful, but it is most definitely a city.  Lots of traffic and some not great areas.  Our hotel is in a very nice area, but there were still some panhandlers that we saw on the streets.  We checked in, and our first impression was “elegant but not snooty.”  We headed up to our room, got settled in as much as we could and then decided we were starving and needed supper.

The concierge recommended Joey Burrard cafe, right across the street.  Dave had something called the Beach Salad  (with chicken, fruit and goat cheese) which he loved and I had a delicious maple glazed salmon with crispy mashed potatoes (mashed potatoes inside a spring roll wrapper, then topped with sour cream, cheese and bacon bits).  If it sounds amazing, that’s because it was! 

Afterward, I tried to go to the store to get some water and breakfast foods, while Dave went back to the room.  The problem was that the store was having a labor dispute and was in the middle of a lockout.  So I walked around the block and got a couple of waters from a little Asian market.  Then I went back to the room.  Dave and I were exhausted by this point.  Jest lag had really hit us, so we decided to go to sleep. (We had tried to stay up until 7 pm Vancouver time.  It wasn’t working.)  We gave one last call to see if our bags had arrived (they hadn’t) and then we got into our pajamas and went to sleep in the exceptionally comfy bed.