Everyone said they slept okay. The days here are really long. Sunset is at 9:09 and Sunrise is at 5:11 (about two more hours of sunlight than Orlando) and there are no blackout curtains in the apartment. I have been sleeping terribly so far this trip. I don't think I have had more than 5 hours a night, and even that is not consecutive. It's starting to catch up to me. I don't think others are sleeping much better.
We had a leisurely morning and then walked about a mile to a bike rental place near Stanley Park. We rented 6 bikes and biked all through Stanley Park. It is a beautiful green oasis, larger than Central Park. We first rode along the Seawall, stopping when anything caught our interest.
 |
| The last lighthouse keeper was named Davy Jones :) |
 |
| I really love this picture and wish that I had Luke take off his helmet. |
 |
 |
| Bikes were not allowed on the path to the tree. It was an uphill climb to get to this hollowed out 1000 year old tree. |
We had lunch and gelati (except Jack and Thomas, both of whom are sticking to no-added sugar, even on vacation). Then, we got back on the bikes and rode some more. We took a path away from the seawall to venture into the park's interior in search of Beaver lake. We ended up having to go up a pretty steep hill. I had to get off and walk my bike; apparently, I am not in Canada biking shape. I wasn't feeling too badly about this, until, in what can only be described as sitcom-like-real-life-humor, an old man walked past me, then another man rode past pulling his kid in a trailer. Anna had stayed with me and we just laughed and laughed. Eventually, we found the lake and it was beautiful.
After that, we headed back to the bike rental place. We ended up having the bikes for about 5 hours. I would estimate we rode about 10 miles. We offered the kids an Uber, but there were some stores that people wanted to check out, so we walked again, stopping at a few places along the way. We were back to the apartment around 4 and later got NY style pizza for dinner. It was good.
Tomorrow, we leave for our cruise. I enjoyed our very short stay in Canada. Vancouver is a really cool city. The architecture is interesting and the natural areas are absolutely amazing. It is also very international feeling, a lot of people seem to be bilingual with French and English and I have heard a ton of other languages as well.
Part 2, the cruise beings. Due to tides, our cruise asked people not to come to the terminal until 1:30. We had to check out at 10, which we did. Then, we went to port and dropped off our luggage. We were able to check-in and then go explore. Definitely a different process than other cruise ports. We wanted to do Flyover Canada, but the times we wanted were sold out. So, we walked around a bit and then went to a food court across the street. We had a leisurely lunch and then decided to go back to the port. At one, we got in the security line. They were telling us we would just have to wait downstairs and suggested we go get a snack or something. But, we had already done that and we opted to just get in line and wait. We went downstairs, walked through security and...onto the ship. Apparently, the people downstairs weren't talking to the people upstairs.
After boarding the ship we immediately tried to sort out our dinner reservations. I was unable to make a reservation for all 7 of us prior to the cruise. As soon as they opened, months ago, I tried making them online. I even called. I could get reservations for 4 and tried to make another reservation for the remaining 3, but no matter what we tried it would not work. The Princess reps told me I would have to take care of it once onboard. So, as soon as we boarded, we went to the dining room, they said they would take care of it and to come at 5. We did. There was no reservation. They let us sit anyway, but it was a frustrating encounter. Dinner was long, almost 2 hours, but it was fine. Prior to dinner, we had done the muster videos and explored the ship. We also registered Luke for the kids' club and the teens for the teens club. After dinner, the teens checked out the teen club. Jack and Kara stayed for a while, but Anna didn't enjoy it and came back to her room fairly early.
 |
| A new tradition? We took one of these from the Space Needle, then the cliff walk and now the cruise ship sky bridge. |
 |
| My only other picture from the day, taken from our balcony. |
No comments:
Post a Comment