We all met in the hotel lobby at 6:00 am since we had to be at the train station by 7:15.
We had the business-class seats and sat on the left side of the train since I had read it had the best views of the coast.
Ben and I photobombed his parents' selfie!
I tried to get some pictures on the way of the scenery. Not easy to do on a moving train!
My first eagle picture!
The four hour train ride went by pretty fast. Once we got off the train and got our luggage, we caught a cab to our hotel, the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront. We had king rooms with a view of the harbor. Only one room was ready so Ben and I took that one and stored everyone's luggage there so we could be on our way.
Ben's parents had an anniversary card from the hotel.
I had lots of places on my list to eat where there would be a view, but we were all hungry so we just decided to eat at the hotel. There was a little view there also so it was fine. It was just more convenient this way. I got a salmon salad and it was yummy.
Ben got to try a local beer which he loves to do on vacation.
After lunch, we got a cab to Stanley Park. We could have walked from our hotel but we would be doing a lot of walking inside the park so we thought a cab would be easier. We planned to see the Rose Garden and walk along the seawall and see the Lost Lagoon. We instructed the driver to drop us at the entrance, however, he chose to drop us off at the Aquarium instead. Which was a problem because now we didn't have a map and we didn't know how to get anywhere. I was really missing Lyft and Uber at that moment.
So Ben tried to map us to the rose garden on his phone so we could at least see that. We finally made it there but it took some doing and a lot of walking.
We made it back to the information booth after that where we spotted the horse carriage tour. Since we had hardly seen anything, I suggested we take the tour so we could at least see some of the park. This ended up being really nice and it did make a couple of stops where we could take some pictures.
At one stop, you had to choose between the skyline and the totem poles so Ben and I chose the skyline and Fran and Harvey went to see the totem poles.
More of the park:
We made it back to the Aquarium where we called a cab to take us to the hotel. We all had a rest and cleaned up before our dinner at Five Sails at Canada Place.
We took some pictures before dinner:
I chose this restaurant for Fran and Harvey's wedding anniversary dinner which was our gift to them. I emailed the restaurant to make sure they had the reservation and received a nice email back. Of course they said they couldn't guarantee a window table but we had a great table with a lovely view.
I got a salad and sea bass and Ben got the lobster bisque and then lobster as an entrée.
We got the grand marnier soufflé for dessert.
They wished Fran and Harvey happy anniversary and gave them an extra dessert. Overall, it was a lovely meal.
After dinner, we walked around Canada Place and took pictures.
It was then I got the idea to track the ship we would be leaving on the next morning and see if we could get up early enough to watch it come in. Ben got up early to make sure it was on its way and woke me up at 5:00 am so we could see it come in. I threw on some clothes and we walked down to Canada Place to watch it which was really fun! We actually just made it in time!
I also stopped on the way back and took a picture with the Olympic Cauldron.
Back in the room, Ben went to the gym and I took a soak in the tub--my legs were aching from all the walking we had done in just 3 days! In a few hours, we would be boarding the ship and heading to Alaska!
