bobmacliberty

One other thought on Vancouver. I’m fascinated by the number of sea planes and helicopters that are constantly taking off and landing. I assume this is services to some of the of the smaller towns in BC that are not otherwise easily reachable. I converted the below video from the native iPhone .mov format to the .mp4 format. Let me know if you non-Apple users are able to view it. IMG_9446.MOV

While we wait to check in for our cruise…we decided to take things easy yesterday. Micheline may have overdone things a bit at the suspension bridge park and woke up a little sore and stiff. We decided to just walk around the water front area a bit and have dinner in the hotel. There were two smaller cruise ships at the terminal yesterday. First was the Ocean Victory. On the other side of the terminal was the L’Austral. Both appear to be smaller ships focused on unique excursions, as both had many zodiac inflatable boats onboard. Taking an Antarctic cruise is definitely on my list for the future.

The bellman just picked up my luggage. So far, so good. Here’s the card that we were given at check in. I dialed 4898 and the bell desk answered almost immediately. They greeted me by name and had my room number. I don’t recall his exact words, but he also suggested $3-5 per bag. He asked me which ship we were taking. A friendly bellman knocked on our door about 5 minutes later. He double checked that all of our bags had the right tags and made sure that we had everything we needed like passports. He then gave me directions on how to get to the cruise check in area. I handed him a $20 bill and he gave the typical fake surprise look, as if to say that’s not really necessary, and then gladly took it. So I think it really is gratuity based, but I’d still be generous enough that my bags didn’t accidentally end up in the water. So far, a very professional experience.

I’ll let you know. According to the paper given to us at check in, the luggage service is gratuity based and should not be a per bag charge. Following up on a previous question that you had…we ended up having drinks and dinner in the Coal Harbour Bar at the hotel last night. The bar was lively and had a really talented woman singing and playing guitar. The food menu isn’t very extensive but it was decent. I imagine that the crowd in the bar is dependent on what’s happening in the convention center.

First reply went poof, so let’s try this again. I’ll definitely check. It would only be hearsay if a bartender told me. I’ll need visual proof by ordering a Kraken Colada, or a Kraken Miami Vice, or a Kraken Lava Flow, or all of the above.

You’ve got me truly stumped Greg in terms of what will be your favorite restaurant. I started thinking maybe Chops when you talked about your love of a good steakhouse. But no rye? Will the lack of a good rye Manhattan be enough to derail Chops? I think I’m staying with CP 150 as my guess for now.

This always blows me away. It seems like the band and the headliner have been playing together for years. To be fair, they probably back up each headliner many times so it’s not brand new to them, but still. Truly professional to be able to play music well that’s put in front of them.

Good morning from Vancouver. IT’S CRUISE DAY! For those counting, it’s day 15 of our trip. Ovation of the Seas is docked at the cruise terminal. We can’t see her from our room but Marine Traffic says that she’s there. Who am I to doubt Marine Traffic? We’ve got 3 hours before we board so we will take our time packing, and grab some breakfast (more Timmies). More to come…

Top TV show for me had to be Seinfeld. Everybody Loves Raymond is definitely under appreciated. Our favorite, that I haven’t seen mentioned, is Modern Family. The writing, especially in the early years, was amazing.

I made the difficult decision to leave my DSLR kit home for this trip and go exclusively with my 12 Pro Max. There have been a couple of times where I thought that was a mistake but I’ve been satisfied for the most part. Shooting raw with LR can deliver some great results. Maybe not blow up and hang on a wall great, but plenty good for online social media. I’m upgrading to the 14 Pro Max when I get home. I’ve read great things about the camera.

I am definitely enjoying seeing Breaking Bad characters pre-Breaking Bad. Love seeing Mike’s backstory as well. I’m surprised by the depth and of Jimmy’s character and the struggles he’s going through early in the series. Some of that shows through in Breaking Bad but at that point, it seems like Saul is fully developed. I saw a lot of comments on social media about what a great job they did with the end of the Better Call Saul series. I think it won several awards. Bob Odenkirk does a great job. I was surprised to learn that he started as a comedy writer for several shows, including SNL.

i think you’re OK as far as Beethoven is concerned 😉. Love the nifty fifty lens. I have the Canon version. Awesome for those nice bokeh shots.

For those who use YouTube TV, I just learned a couple of things. Since internet access wasnt great on our Alaska cruise, I tried to download Survivor and The Amazing Race from my YouTube TV library to my iPad. That way, I can watch them without needing an internet connection or having insufferable buffering waits. First thing I learned, you can’t download a show until a week after it was broadcast. After waiting a week to download Survivor from my Vancouver hotel, the second thing I learned is that I can’t use YouTube TV (including downloading) from Canada. Our first cruise stop is back in Seattle where I’ll be sure to download both Survivor and Amazing Race to watch on the ship. We just started watching Better Call Saul and I downloaded the first 3 seasons on Netflix before we left home. We’re into season 2 now and are hooked. I’ll download another season for the crossing.

Speak for yourself (as I know you will). I’m still in the path and greatly appreciate the humor. Welcome back John!

I love this 🤣🤣. As opposed to amateur power drinking involving many buckets of beer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Good morning from Vancouver. Today is Micheline’s birthday! Our only plans today are to go to Granville Island later this afternoon and wander for a few hours before having a birthday dinner at The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant. Micheline chose the restaurant from online reviews…hopefully it’s good. The rest of the day will almost certainly involve shopping for a yet to be determined birthday gift. Ouch. 🤣

There’s really only 2 barriers…fear and steps. If you could handle a lot of steps, you’d be fine. It’s not really that scary and it’s super safe.

And she’s headed under the Lions Gate Bridge.

Zuiderdam headed out with a slightly damp sail away.

Yes…that’s him. I’ve learned that there are a lot of memes about hurricanes in Florida. Most involve either Jim Cantore or alcohol.

We really enjoyed the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. We spent about 2.5 hours there. Warning…this is not a good place for people with mobility issues. There were a LOT of up and down stairs, in addition to some wobbly bridges. It seems like a good place for kids. They got a coloring type book with a series of challenges for kids. There are several marked points on the various trails/bridges where kids get info to put in their book. 10 year old me would love this place as much as 61 year old me. Micheline did well. We took it slow, especially going up and down stairs, and she handled it well. She’ll hopefully be 100% by Friday cruise day.

We crossed the suspension bridge again, back to the original side. We poked through the large gift shop and had a nice late lunch at the restaurant. I had a really good, and very large, bowl of seafood chowder and washed it down with a local pale ale. Delicious. We then did the main attraction on the first side called Cliffwalk. It’s a series of cantilevered walkways hanging off the side of the granite cliff. Pretty cool adventure and a nice engineering feat.

I’m a little surprised that Royal moved our departure time up 30 minutes, rather than have the original time be 3:30. It’s not like the tides are a surprise.

On the other side of the bridge were a few “adventures”. We first went on the Treetops Adventure, a series of 7 suspension bridges connected between massive old Douglass Fir trees. Also on the other side of the bridge is a long boardwalk called Nature’s Edge. There’s a lot of info about rainforests in the NW and a small place where they sometimes show the birds or raptor ridge.

We really enjoyed the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park There are several features to the park. The suspension bridge itself is the main attraction. Crossing it it like walking on the upper deck of a cruise ship in rough seas when you’ve had a little too much to drink.