Alaska and Vancouver 2010
One last breakfast aboard the ship. Smoked salmon (yum) and pancakes (good, but only just) for breakfast, then we walked the five blocks to the Hyatt in downtown Vancouver. Explored the CBD (Central Business District), Gastown, and Chinatown in the lovely morning, topped off with a stop at the market for some super delicious and cheap Ranier cherriers ($2.49/lb!). Had a snack of pei dan jook (congee), lobac quo (turnip cake), and beef cheung fun (thick rice noodles) at New Town Bakery and Restaurant. Not exactly amazing til you realized it was only $6 each. Not bad!
Said good-bye to a bunch of family after that, then plopped our exhausted selves in the 29th floor club lounge of the hotel while waiting for our rooms to be prepared. Free internet, snacks, and an awesome view were major benefits, not to mention a nice upgrade from the standard room to the Signature Suite after an additional 90 minutes, our room still wasn't ready. Crap, I don't think my next house will be anywhere close to that nice (no that I could afford it either!).
Then again, I generally don't care about having things THAT nice anyway. =Þ Mom, grandma, Aunt Lori, and cousin Tiffany appreciated it, though! They sat down on the array of couches in front of the 40" TV and proceeded to watch TV the rest of the afternoon, while I worked on the (fairly decent!) in-room desktop computer and scanner/printer (!)...
Had dinner at Hon's in Chinatown (only average; given the hype Hon's gets, it was disappointing), found the Chinatown night market (drool!! but was too full from dinner to get any pearl tea or anything ;_; ), and wandered an asian grocery store in the International Village, where they had weird rolling plastic baskets instead of big shopping carts. Also played with the giant abacus near Chinatown.