The weather in Vancouver reflected our mood; damp, grey and foggy. We got ourselves through customs, booked our cases in to the lockers at the terminal so we didn't have to lug them around, then headed out on to the streets of Vancouver one last time.
Maggie had her cute rain jacket on, with the hood up and the string pulled tight so it looked like she was wearing a wetsuit head cover. Very funny. Matthew thought she looked like a Hobbit...I didn't really see where he was coming from. We found a Starbucks, woohoo! And it had Wifi...WOOHOO! Queue the overload of Facebook updates and photos and major antisocial behaviour from the majority of the group.
Having bought a Deadliest Catch tshirt in Ketchikan, and seen the latest episodes on the TV on the ship that morning as we waited to get off, Matthew went on the Youtube hunt for the other episodes he'd missed, and watched them while Maggie, Mary and myself headed up to the Pacific Something shopping centre that we'd been in last week.
I'm completely forgetting to mention the excitement of seeing police cars and bikes on one of the streets across from Starbucks, along with dump trucks dumping snow on the street, and trees and rocks lining the sides too. I assumed they were filming something, and I was correct. It was an advert for JEEP. How exciting! So as we drank our beverages there was snow blowing on the street outside. Amazing. On the way back to the terminal we walked down the street, as it wasn't blocked off for pedestrians, and saw a fake stream flowing down the street. It was very cool. We hung about on the corner at the bottom for a while, hearing the British director make his commands, and then the JEEP driving along one street and turn up on to the snowy street, over a big snow pile, with camera gear strapped over the roof and sides. Very exciting! Hopefully we'll see it online sometime later in the year.
We waited at the terminal for our taxi to arrive. Amazed to see it pretty much empty, at 3:30pm, a far different view from what we experienced last Saturday, boarding the ship. There were only two ships boarding today and apparently the problem last week was the number of International people boarding. Yay.When our taxi arrived we were all rather shocked, and amused. The voucher had said limousine on it, but we just assumed that was their word for a booked taxi...Nooooope! A stretch Hummer pulled up in the terminal car park. Which is just as well as I don't know how 6 of us, plus our huge luggage cases, would have fit in a normal taxi. Matthew cringed. The ladies skipped. So, we rode to the airport in style :) Hilarious. It had leopard print carpets. Hilarious. It matched my carry on bag. Hilarious. I feel asleep in a Hummer. Hilarious. Okay, enough of that.
Vancouver airport is really cool, it has a big fish tank in a wall with a totem pole design above it, and a stream flowing down to it (see above) with little walkways over it. I loved it! We got some drinks and snacks at Starbucks, and I bought a ginormous plastic Starbucks cup. Amazing. Then Matthew and I watched an episode of Deadliest Catch on his phone...I only last about 20 minutes and ended up napping on the airport seats for about 45 minutes. Woo!
Calum wondered off when we first arrived, to check out the fancy lounge, for people with fancy flying cards. Unfortunately he's not allowed to take 5 guests in to these places, so instead he went back and forth a few times bringing us paninis on napkins to scoff. Quite amusing.
I'm on the final page of my journal now so I'll try to be brief (ha!) about our flights home. Our flight from Vancouver was delayed by about 40 minutes, and when we eventually got on, to our Boeing 747, which Matthew was very excited about, it turned out to be not as good as anticipated. We had less room than we had coming over. Matthew was in the middle of our 3 seats beside the window, so he could only stretch his legs under the seat. Aunty Mary was in the seat in front of him and 2 hours in to the flight she put her chair back and the TV was probably half a foot from his face...probably less! I laughed.
Okay, I better round up here. I can't believe the holiday is over. It's been an incredible two weeks and I'm so massively grateful to have been invited to go with Matthew and his family on this trip of a lifetime, it's been unbelievably amazing!
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