July 2 Part 3 - Gum wall, Hangry child, Getting to Vancouver
Gum wall! If you don't know what this is,
here is the Wikipedia page. It started in 1993 and they even cleaned it off completely in 2015. Here is how it looks today.
Yes that's all gum. Yes it's gross. Yes, DD was in heaven and loved this as much as anything. For some reason she'd been obsessed with chewing gum before the trip but we never let her. Well, today was the day. I gave her gum to chew and put on the wall!
Eeewww! But fun.
Also, who takes the time to put their whole name there?
Now, we started walking towards this super Starbucks market but DD made it very clear that she was going to expire if we didn't feed her soon. Whoever invented the word hangry is a genius because that describes her perfectly. She becomes irrational and completely impossible to deal with. Since we had had such an amazing morning and I didn't necessarily feel the need to engage in anything corporate after the fun we had at the market, we scrapped Starbucks and headed for lunch.
We went to the Corner Bakery. It's a chain but one we don't have in St. Louis. I'd say it's similar to Panera but I found the food to be better and the amount of food for what you paid was also better. DD ate all her lunch and the world resumed normal rotation on its axis.
Throughout the morning, my parents had been checking in with me. Their flights were on time but they were worried about their luggage. When they'd arrived at the Albuquerque airport, there was a problem with TSA and this is how they'd had to leave their bags.
They had no idea if their luggage would make it and if we'd have to find a place for them to shop in Seattle or Vancouver. Luckily the luggage did make it though it took longer than anticipated for them to get to the car rental building at Sea Tac. My dad had reserved a full sized car thinking he'd get something big like a towncar. Instead he got a Hyundai something and there was no way our luggage would all fit in there along with all of us. We upgraded to an SUV for just a tiny bit more. Phew!
The drive to Vancouver was very easy but we did have to call the restaurant to move our dinner reservations back half an hour. Looking at the app and the road signs, we decided to just go ahead and cross at Peace Arch.
Just like at the grocery store though, we got in the shortest line and it moved the slowest.
This is also where my phone switched to Canadian coverage. I have AT&T and they offer a plan that lets you use your plan minutes and data in a wide range of countries for $10 a day. It measures a day in a 24 hour period, so I let it activate and just knew I'd need to switch to airplane mode by 4:45 the next day. An unlimited international plan for the month would be $40, so if I were gone for longer than a day or two, I'd do that instead.
The customs agent looked at my notaraized letter that said I could take my daughter out of the country and he checked all our passports. Then, we were through!
A bit more driving including a very steep bridge.
Then, Vancouver was in sight.
Google maps got us right to the Pan Pacific and we were greeted at the curb by a very helpful bell captain. He unloaded our bags and everyone else went to check in while I returned the rental car. We had used Enterprise and they have a desk right in the Pan Pacific. The return area is in the garage right below the hotel. Easy.
Once I got the car put away, I went to the front desk where they had my name and gave me my key to the room. Up to the 16th floor.
It's a good hotel that looks out for its guests.
The room was very nice with 2 queen sized beds. Most people either pay for a harbor view or luck into one. We got a city view. It wa still nice. I loved seeing the green roofs. America, take note!
Our bags arrived shortly so after a quick stretch and freshening, we started walking to dinner.
Up Next: Dinner, Canada 150, and do I sleep the night before a cruise?