Welcome to Vancouver!

Vancouver - Yvonne and I arrived Wednesday night in Vancouver.

Our trip was a little adventurous. First we headed to Richmond Hill Centre Terminal (Yonge & Highway 7 near the movie theatre) to take the GO Transit Airport Express. What a trip...just over 20 minutes from Richmond Hill Centre and we are standing at the entrance to Terminal 1....how cool is that?

Anywho... we headed up three floors in the brand spanking new Terminal 1...but were a little freaked out when the Departures Board said our flight had been cancelled. So we had to wait in line in order to rebook our flight. We rebooked onto another Air Canada Flight leaving at the same time for the same destinations (Vancouver with connections to Sydney, Australia and Hong Kong) It was like they didn't want us to have the ability to express check in. So we waited for like 15 minutes in line to check in as there were only two agents on duty. ARGH!

Then we got to security. Yvonne went to one screener and zipped through. I on the other hand had to go through the heavy duty security. There was a family of four (two parents with young children). Each person had to be patted down. I got patted down too, it just seemed to take forever.

We eventually got to eat at Tim Hortons in the secure area. I have a new appreciation for the Tim Hortons in Aurora now. It seemed like we there forever before getting our food. Why is it that as soon as we waited in line, got our food, sat down, ate and were cleaning up that the line shortened to one or two people. As Christine would say "What's up with that?"

We mosied towards our gate. I stopped off at the convenience store to pick up a Toronto Star...another FIASCO! This gentleman in front of me but this ceramic frog. The only cashier on duty was determined to take her sweet time in hunting for a box elsewhere in the store. I gave up and left. I came back when Yvonne told me she needed the facilities. But then I got stuck behind three other people buying t-shirts...this threw off the single cashier. Eventually the manager came out and opened the other cash. She was quick!

We boarded without any issues. Oh, I forgot, in true Air Canada fashion, they seated Yvonne BEHIND me instead of next too me on the plane. No room to seat us next to each other? There was an empty aisle seat next to Yvonne whereas I ended up in front of her at the window seat. It wasn't too bad though, except when annoying lady in the row in front laughed at her little sitcom so the entire Boing 777 plane could hear it (yes we were on the largest plane I've ever seen. It makes a little plane at Buttonville Airport look like a flying ant). Then she tilted her seat back and I had my nose almost pressed against the video screen. It was hillarious. The lady sitting next to me was from Sydney. She had the coolest Australian accent. BLIMY! She said Air Canada seated her boyfriend like 10 rows behind her and also cancelled her flight.

We took off 15 minutes after scheduled departure time and arrived in Vancouver at 10:30 PST (Vancouver Time) or 1:30 A.M. in Toronto. We waited at least 15 minutes for our luggage to arrive on the carousel. Michelle and Mommy came and picked us up and we headed off to McDonald's on No 3 Road in Richmond for a meal before heading home. We arrived home and climbed into bed at about 4 A.M. EST (Toronto Time). To say the least Yvonne and I almost stayed up for 24 hours straight.
An interesting sight I spotted last night on the way home from the Vancouver airport, there were these lights that looked like stars hovering above the city. I thought they were stars, but it didn't make sense as below, to the left, to the right and above there was darkness...what was this select stars coming on in order to be energy efficient? No just the ski lights on Cypress Mountain. COOL!

Looking out the condo windows this morning I can see the Queensborough Bridge and the Rocky Mountains off in the distance. I would take a photo but it is a little overcast right now and we are about to leave for adventures.   More adventures and pictures coming soon. 

Watch the Vancouver Section of the Scrapbook Section of My Website.