Back in the US!

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Here's the news of the last couple of days:

Sat: Woke up to a beautiful sunny day for the wedding. Running late (as always!) I had to stop in at Mahrukh's room to help her zip her dress as she'd hurt her shoulder somehow. We zipped over to pick up Zeekid, and then headed to the church. We managed to get seats fairly close to the front, and on the aisle, hoping for decent photos. I still don't know that I got any. The ceremony was a little on the long side, but the priest had some funny anecdotes and kept things moving along. There were photos to be taken of family and friends, and I managed to get into photos of friends of both the bride and the groom. 😊 After the ceremony we headed to Steveston Wharf for lunch and some photos. It was quaint, but not super-photogenic, in my opinion. Mahrukh had trouble walking around in her heels, so she bought some flip flops. Best $8 she said she ever spent! We also headed out to a nearby park, and then to the historic fishing village area where we saw another couple getting wedding photos done. Would have been funny if we'd seen our wedding party there! The reception basically consisted of a many course dinner, with things I'd never seen or heard of before. I tried some shark-fin soup, abalone, and lobster, but I passed on the squab and the jellyfish. The cupcakes at the end of the meal were fantastic! Definitely my favourite part of the meal. The funniest thing about the reception was the way people got the couple to kiss. They had to SHOW the bride and groom "how it was done", and there were some really original kisses! One group recreated the Spiderman upside-down kiss, and another couple had the woman lifting the man off his feet to kiss him. Quite amusing!

Sun: Mahrukh, Grace (one of the bridesmaids) and I headed to Stanley Park in the morning. We had been told that 2-3 hours was probably enough for the park, but after walking around (and taking the shuttle bus partway), we discovered that we could have spent most of the day there. Oh well! It was really pretty and we had another beautiful day. They had been predicting rain for the entire day, and we didn't get a drop! Part of me wishes that we'd rented bicycles to go around the park, but another part of me is glad we didn't, when I saw some of the hills that we have to climb (or ride down at treacherous speeds!). After Stanley Park we headed for lunch, and chose McD's. Then we headed downtown where I knew some Lindy Hoppers were dancing in the street. Mahrukh and Grace encouraged me to go, and we were there for a short time. I only got one dance in, but when you're paying $1/10min. of parking, that's fine! After that we headed to Jerico Beach, where we walked in the sand, and saw shells and a (dead) crab or two that had been washed ashore. We went to Spanish Banks, but discovered it was much like Jerico Beach. By this point we were hungry again, so we found a pasta place near UBC. After dinner we went down to English Bay where there was a large Inukshuk for sunset. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a sunset. There were dark clouds near the horizon, so there wasn't much colour in the sky. I did get a few photos of a boat on the water with an orangey sky. After that we hit La Casa Gelato and met up with the happy couple for a bit there. I had Caramel Fudge ice cream this time (delicious!) and wrote down some of the other weird flavours they had. There was Balsamic Vinegar, Purple Yam, Coconut Red Rice, Black Sesame, Apple Wasabi Sorbetto, Basil Pernod, Wild Fennel, Safron, Vegemite, Wasabi, and the previously mentioned (in the comments section) Garlic, and Curry. No, I wasn't brave enough to try any of those weird flavours. I wanted samples of yummy ones!

Mon: Dropped off the rental car, and got a ride to the train station. I got on the bus, and was luckily the only one with two seats to myself. Not sure how I lucked out! We had an hour delay at the border (before they'd even let us disembark and enter customs with all our luggage) but we finally got through. I managed to take the free bus up toward my hostel, check in, and leave my heavy suitcase in the luggage room instead of lugging it up three flights of stairs. I wandered down to Olympic Statue Park, only to be completely underwhelmed. There were only 3 or 4 statues! I think they misnamed it. I also walked up to the Space Needle to get some closer shots of it, but I didn't go up the Needle as they wanted $18. A bit steep in my opinion! I walked around a bit more, got a custom T-shirt made, and had an ice cream. Have to make sure I leave something for tomorrow!

Tomorrow I'll be walking around Seattle, hitting the downtown area, a couple of parks in Chinatown, and whatever else I can find. My flight back to Buffalo leaves Seattle at 11:40pm, so I have to find stuff to do until at least 8pm. That's it! I don't think that I'll be creating any other entries for this trip, so until next time.....

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