July 10th, Part 2
We had planned to wander around Canada Place for a bit and then head for dinner but it was 6:30pm and the place I wanted to eat at closed at 7pm on Sundays! We hopped into an Uber and headed for Davie Street!
I was born in Montréal and because of that, I have a love of what I call "Montréal food". Since I am the cook in the family, I make it fairly often and both Rob and Kira have come to love it. One of Kira's favourite foods is poutine, that kid could out-poutine anyone on the planet.
Rob's fave is my Steak & Pepperoni subs. He makes sounds while he eats his, to his daughter's disgust.
My fave is smoked meat sammies.
When I booked this trip, I knew where we would be eating already!
This place worked out for a couple of reasons. Montréal food, obviously but also it's located in a unique part of town, Davie Village. This area is the local LGBTQ+-friendly part of the West End and is adorned with rainbow flags, signs, art and more. Kira is a proud part of that community, and I am a proud, supportive momma, so I wanted to expose her to a welcoming, positive little area of this huge, diverse city.
When we walked in La Belle Patate, they had this huge Canadian Pride flag, which she absolutely fawned over.
Sadly, they were out of smoked meat for the day but I did order us some poutine to share and some steamies. Go, Habs, go!
Steamies are hot dogs with steamed buns, in case you didn't know.
Really good poutine! As close to Montréal poutine as you can get, without actually being there.
Once we were done, we walked over to Jim Deva Plaza and explored a bit.
We even learned something new!
And I found my favourite trees....palm treeeeeees!!!
I told Kira to pose in front of the bunny but she felt awkward when she saw a lady getting her hair cut right there but then the hairdresser was motioning to her to pose and gave her a thumbs up, so she felt more comfortable. She's always giving us bunny ears so this time, she's doing it to herself.
We then walked over to the Independent Grocer, basically a very small Superstore, so we could grab some water and Diet Coke for the cruise. Kira was shocked and delighted. Shocked because there were homeless people everywhere and delighted that, inside the store, on most of the ends of each aisle, were all the different pride flags.
Drinks, procured, we walked around the corner and caught an Uber back to the hotel.
This was the Uber waiting area.
We dropped off our stuff in the room and then I unpacked what we needed for the night and the next day and tried to organize our suitcases a little better. I had to shuttle everything around to make it all work. During that time, I thought I had left my reading glasses in the Uber and just as we called our driver, Rob spotted them, under the dresser. I don't know how he saw them, they were pretty hidden! Great eye, babe!
Our plan was to walk around a bit, explore and then maybe go to Fly Over Canada but Kira was not super pumped about it so we just walked around a bit instead.
Coming out of the front part of the hotel, right outside the main door, was a guy bent over doing...ummm.....starts with H and it's super addictive.
I don't think Kira realized what it was and Rob was so flabbergasted that he just kinda stood there, staring. I walked Kira past him very quickly and then I flashed Rob the evil, get-over-here-now look and he eventually walked away. The poor guy is just too nice and wants to help everyone but a little too naïve to know when to stay out of things. These are not things we see a lot of in the burbs of Calgary, ya know?
We carried on to Gastown, checked out the Steam Clock at the 30 minute mark, watched it do it's thing.
Looking back from the clock, you can see the Harbor Centre, so the walk was not far.
Walked by all of the cute touristy Canadiana shops. Most were now closed but the one that was open, as we passed by, Kira loudly exclaimed "This smells like Canada!"
I didn't know that Canada had a smell but apparently, it smells like mini-donuts and horse poop!
Just a couple of blocks away was Canada Place!
And here is where our ship would be docking in the morning. The odd thing was that this was the ONLY sailing this entire season, that the ship would be docking on this side. For all others, it docks on the other side.
We walked over to the other side, I was on a mission.
I wanted to recreate a photo of my husband's derrière that I took way back in June 1996.
Mission accomplished! Twenty-six years older but still cute
We decided to stick around for the sunset.
Next time, Fly Over, next time.
Once the sun had set, we walked all the way around, full circle.
Vancouver is such a pretty city.
Kira was anxious to get back to the hotel, she didn't love all of the beggars. She said it felt like she was in Mexico. She's not wrong.
It didn't help that her dad wanted to help them all and had a hard time saying no or passing them. It just made her feel very uncomfortable.
For those of you who will be testing at Sinclair Centre, thought I would post this photo for you.
DCL's website says it's across the street from the terminal but it's really not. I mean it's only a block away but if you're not very mobile, this is not as easy as they make it sound.
I am standing across the street from it, with my back to Canada Place.
And now with looking towards Canada Place.
Back to the hotel for us. And bonus, no drug addicts.
Tomorrow is cruise day!!!