Alaska and Vancouver 2010
Everyone else left at 5:30am, whereas I got to enjoy the room for a few more hours. Said a half-asleep goodbye, then rolled over for a few more hours.
Turns out it was about an hour too long. Instead of 2 hours to wander around, maybe try to find a Taiwanese breakfast in Chinatown (however unlikely, as it looks like Vancouver is mostly Hong Kong/Cantonese)... I ended up with barely an hour to mail some post cards, explore the CBD a little more, and eat at a Canadian staple, Tim Horton's, for breakfast. Rather strange to see so many Hong Kong/Cantonese people around areas outside of Chinatown-- even the Tim Hortons in the CBD had a bunch of them!
Then ran off the the airport. Fortunately the Canada-line Skytrain and the airport itself are both pretty nice. The typical crappy airport restaurants included a surprisingly decent Japanese place, Hanami, where the sushi was distinctly better than the cruise ship (!), although it was pricey as hell. Considering it was airport food... that was ok with me.
The other different thing was going through US Customs before leaving Vancouver airport. The top floor is Canadian soil, but the bottom area of the US-departures section of the International Terminal actually has a full-on US Customs and Border Protection setup, and you officially emigrate back to the USA while still in Canada. Crazy!
Little tiny Bombadier (Canadair) CRJ700, seating 66, back to LAX. Less bumpy than the flight up at least, but man it was small. t'was good to be back though! Plus LA was finally having its own heat wave, so it was actually warming than Vancouver!