A fine weekend on Granville Island (photo heavy) in The Long and Winding Road

The weekend on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC with my friend T couldn’t have been better. Now it’s late morning on Memorial Day and I am sitting out on my balcony, it’s just a gorgeous day but may be too warm to be out here later on when the sun starts hitting this spot.

The drive to GI should have taken about 2-1/2 hours, not including however much time we’d wait at the border crossing, which we expected to be long, it being not just a Saturday but a holiday weekend to boot. I think we kind of screwed up because as we got closer to the border crossing we were checking the border wait times at the various points of entry (or exit, depending on your perspective) available to us, and we changed out route to go to one that had only a 40 minute wait time as opposed to a 2-1/2 hour wait time at the Peace Arch, but by changing our route we gave ourselves a longer drive to get to that crossing, and, I don’t know. I honestly am not sure where we went wrong but for the longest time my GPS was telling me we would arrive at our destination anywhere between 2 hours and 20 minutes from now, to 2 hours and two minutes. And it kept jumping back and forth between those estimates no matter how long I drove. It was crazy!! Anyway, we originally thought we’d arrive at the hotel at 12:30 and we ended up getting there at 2:55 pm. Fortunately, even though it was a long drive, much of it through heavy rain, T and I had good conversation the whole way.

We got checked in, freshened up, and headed out to walk the streets, go into the shops, and get some food and beverage. I took some pictures along the walk:

I absolutely loved this door at the blacksmith shop. I can just picture this as the entrance to a beautiful garden or something like that.

We stumbled upon a glass shop where you could not only watch a guy making things from glass, but you could actually make something yourself, with his assistance. This display caught my eye, because rainbow colors always do.

We watched a very cute (but WAY too young for me) guy helping a customer make something from glass:

Having just spent the past 6 months purging all kinds of stuff, I am mindful now of what I purchase. I see lots of things that tempt me and then I remember all the stuff I’ve just gotten rid of, and it helps me control myself. But I absolutely loved the white/clear blown glass objects that you can use as a candle holder or just a decoration. I really wanted to buy one, and they weren’t cheap, being hand blown and no two just alike. T convinced me to wait until the next day, after we’d done more shopping around, in case I saw something else I liked better. So I did wait. But the next day, I went back and bought this:

My fireplace mantle now is mostly candles and they’re all white. I absolutely love this new addition.

Eventually we made our way to the waterfront and stopped into a restaurant for a light late lunch, at a table near the windows so we could people watch. And the people watching was very good. So were the cocktails.

From there we took a 40-minute boat ride on False Creek, which was fun. We got to see the houseboats up close and personal.

The little boat we were on was like this:

And a few other pictures. from the boat:

After the boat ride we wandered around some more and ended up in a shop that sold beautiful hand made silver jewelry, and hand painted silk shawls, bolero jackets, etc. We spent a lot of time there. T ended up buying an absolutely beautiful pendant necklace, and a shawl. I was very tempted – I had tried on a couple of different bolero jackets, but being silk and hand painted, they were expensive too. They were so beautiful and versatile, but I was just hesitant to spend that much money, so I decided to sleep on it. While T was paying for her items, I looked more closely at the necklaces and realized that I really loved those too. But again, I wanted to sleep on it. Here are a row of scarves in the shop:

Eventually, we made it back to our room at the hotel (I took this picture the next morning):

The hotel has a very nice restaurant in it, the Dockside. We called to see if we could get a table – it was about 7:15 and they said they could seat us at 8:30, and that there were seats available at the bar where we could wait for our table. Say no more! We headed to the bar where we had drinks and a fabulous, attentive young waiter, and great people watching.

When we were shown to our table, we were absolutely thrilled. We had one of the best tables in the place, with a fabulous sunset view.

I was disappointed that the prime rib was sold out, but I had a wonderful beef tenderloin.

After dinner, we went back to our room and we each got ready for bed. Then, I realized I didn’t have any ice. I like to have a glass of ice water by my bedside. T agreed to go with me to look for ice. I was in a nightgown (which sort of looked like a summer dress) and T was in jammies that had striped pants and a solid shirt. Neither of us had a bra on. That meant we were very brave to venture out of our room. We laughed so hard as we pretended to be stealthily walking down the hall, hoping not to run into anyone. Then we realized that there was no ice machine on our floor (we were on the first floor which had fewer rooms than the 2nd and 3rd floors) so we went up to the 2nd floor in the elevator, still watching out for other people and still laughing and being silly. And, the whole time, we knew we probably were being seen on security cameras which made us feel even sillier. We did finally find ice and so the night was saved.

We both slept really well. Neither of us did anything that woke the other one up or caused any disturbance during the night. It helped that we were tired and the beds were SO comfy.

On Sunday morning I was awake first (no surprise) so I quietly got a shower and got ready, then it was around the time when I knew T wanted to get up so I left the bathroom door open while I dried my hair, and she had a nice gentle wakeup!

We both got ready, packed up our stuff, and then checked out – check out time was 11:00 a.m. so we knew we wouldn’t be coming back to the room but, fortunately, we could leave our car in the very limited hotel parking (parking on the entire island is very hard to find). We headed out for more walking and then ended up at a restaurant for breakfast where we could sit outside. It was so nice! This was the view from our table.

I had eggs Benedict with duck confit and it was very good. Then we shopped in the restaurant’s little shop and I got some garlic sauce, lobster pate and a couple of different flavored salts.

From there we went to the big market. I was a little disappointed because it seems that the previous times I’ve been there, there were a lot more local arts and crafts for sale. But it was still fun to wander through and I took pictures – you all might know by now that I’m attracted to anything with rainbow colors!

I took a few more pictures as we were walking around. Here there was a model, or maybe a model wannabe, having her pictures taken:

This hand carved bench was beautiful:

And then, we went back to the designer shop that had the handmade silver jewelry and the hand painted silk shawls, boleros, etc.

All through dinner the previous night, I had been eyeing T’s new necklace and just loved it. I finally decided that I had to buy one. They are all a little different, so ours are not identical, but similar. I am so thrilled with it.

And, I got a bolero. It was just too beautiful to resist, and pictures do not do it justice. I hung it over a chair to take pictures but again, you really can’t tell how gorgeous it is.

I had tried on several of them, mostly much more colorful pieces, but this one – well, it was “me”. Even T was stunned. “That’s you, you have to have that”. And she was right. Purple is one of the colors I look best in. I am just so happy that I splurged on that.

Finally, it was time for us to hit the road. On our way out of Vancouver, we stopped at a drugstore to get a few things that you can get over the counter in Canada that require a prescription in the US. This included Tylenol with codeine (comparable to Tylenol 1),. Robaxin (a mild muscle relaxer) and Voltarin (a cream with an anti-inflammatory in it which my doctor prescribed but which is MUCH more expensive in the US). There are limits in how much you can bring into the country and we were pretty sure we were over the limit, so we decided to hide them under the seat of the car and not declare them. Thus we became nervous border crossers when it came time to come back into the U .S.! The worst that would have happened is that they would have confiscated it.

We sat in line for about 40 minutes at the border crossing and were waved through so quickly, it was almost funny. The border agent actually said “Bye bye!” to us by way of letting us know we could go.

Our drive home took about 2-1/2 hours (not including the 40 minutes waiting at the border crossing) which was SO MUCH BETTER than our drive there!

All in all, it was just a wonderful, fun filled weekend, and T and I were excellent travel companions.

Once I got home and unpacked, I put the first coat of paint on the new ceiling. I completely screwed up. I intended to put a coat of drywall primer on it, then paint. Only when I got done with the first coat did I realize I’d grabbed the can of paint, not the can of drywall primer. But, it looks like it’s going to be okay. I put a second coat of paint on this morning and it looks great. And to my surprise., Matt MIGHT come by this afternoon to install the lights. He’s working today, and he texted to say that he would stop by this afternoon if he got done with his other job early enough. I hope so!!! I can’t believe that maybe my kitchen will be DONE today!! I’ll tell you, I am SO OVER all this stuff. I was telling T about how I really need to cut back and give myself some down time. And I kept to my plan. She asked me if I would like to go hear a pianist at McCaw Hall in July and I told her yes – I would love to – but I won’t. I am serious about not making any new plans for a while. Plus, I am hoping to schedule my hand surgery in July and that will force some down time.

Okay I think this entry is probably long enough – it’s certainly taken me long enough to write it and add the pictures – so I’m outa here for now. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday Monday and taking a few minutes to focus on the reason for it. I am so grateful to all of our servicemen and women – those who are serving today and those who gave their lives for our freedom. Freedoms that we take for granted but which events of the last couple of years have made some of us revisit them and realize that they should NEVER be taken for granted.

Ciao.

Last updated May 27, 2019