I got to attend my first ever Stanley Cup Final game. I actually had two tickets, but the minute I had an extra ticket and posted as such on Facebook I knew it wouldn't last long. The game, which was game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, was pretty much a snooze fest, Nashville dominated play most of the night, holding Pittsburgh without a shot for a span of over 39 minutes. Had it been a regular season game, it would have been one I would have considered walking out of to beat the traffic, but it was the SCF after all (plus 7 Up was springing for the refreshments, free eats and drinks are always a plus when trying to lure me in).
As evidenced by my first sentence, I am currently on vacation and once again I opted to vacation in Vancouver. After my trip last year I realized there were lots of things I wanted to do but did not get the chance, so I spent some time looking for other sights and sounds I missed out on during my first visit, then I hit my big scratch off ticket (well, big for me anyway) of $5000 and set about the business of booking everything, I snagged a trip to Squamish as well as a a Seaplane ride over the city and tickets to a CFL game. That being said, the trip has not been all wine and roses this time around. Last year when I came, there was a $100 charge to my debit card, a deposit on the room I was staying in. So I figured that would be the case this year as well, and since I was using the same everything in my booking, I made sure I left over $100 in my account before flying out. So I get on my first flight, no issues whatsoever, same with the second flight. I managed the subway ride into town from the airport with no problems as well, everything is going swimmingly, I get to the hotel, the same one I stayed at last year, presented my id, they had my booking, they needed my debit card, which I gave them and they couldn't get it to work. The only thing that might be different is switching me for the old card to the chip card, not sure when that happened, but it may have been between my last booking and my current booking but because it did not work, and even though that card paid for the current booking (through Expedia, not directly through the hotel), my deposit this time was $500 in cash. So yes it pisses me off, but it is not a fight I want to have while staying in the hotel that is pissing me off, but should I come back again in a year or so, which is possible, I do love it up here, i will not be staying at the same hotel. There are plenty to choose from, and i know my way about town now pretty well, at least Vancouver proper, when you get out in the neighboring communities like Burnaby and Metrotown, not so much.
Thankfully I had most of the events I wanted to do planned and paid for in advance. I still did not kick everything off of my bucket list of things to do here, and I added some new things for the next trip, like taking BC Ferries out to Vancouver Island to spend a day checking out Victoria, but I did okay on this trip with a trip to Squamish, which has to be seen to be believed, it was that beautiful, a sea plane ride over the city, which not only was it awesome in it's own right, but the girl who sat it the back of the plane with me, all I can say is wow. She was Chinese, not that that matters one way or another, but she was all kinds of sexy punk, with the black t shirt, leather shorts, leather studded bracelets, fish net stockings, all of my guy weaknesses rolled into one. Also, while waiting for my tour bus to Squamish, I learned that there are free shuttles to both Capilano and Grouse Mountain, which made them way more accessible from the city. I also learned there are $35 day trips to Whistler, but I had too much planned to spend a day in Whistler this trip. Tomorrow i will be attending my first CFL football game, just to close out the vacation festivities. Well that and I ant to make another trip around what I call the neighborhood, which is pretty much everything within walking distance.
Since last time i was here I blogged about how much better the transit system was, only to have Pittsburgh switch to a one fare system a couple of months after I returned (and blogged about it) so I will pass along another cool idea that I ran into here (feel free to implement it at your leisure Pittsburgh). The have a program called tickets tonight in Vancouver, where you can go to a Vancouver tourism office and they have tickets to any show that night that went unsold, and you can buy them at half off. Perhaps Pittsburgh does have such a program, I don't know, I have never dealt with our tourism office, and see no need to now.
I am not looking forward to coming back, i know there will be at least a week's worth of work piled up, plus anything that got screwed up while I was away, plus I was offered a new job before I left and I am unsure of whether or not I want to take it. If I do, I will need to know a few more things there are still too many unanswered questions before making career adjustments. Rather than ramble on about things I know little about yet, how about a couple of vacation pics instead?
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