Vancouver, BC

Vancouver, British Columbia: Things are looking up this morning... well, most things are looking up. The weather is awful, just pouring sheets of rain. We stayed "home" this morning, working the cell phones. DT phoned around locally and found a guy who will get the tire, bring it here and install it on-site! That was the easy part - the mirror is proving to be a bit of problem. As with the braces Holiday Rambler shipped us in Edmonton (and never arrived), they are shipping a new "mirror assembly". Fed-Ex Overnight. They say it takes at least 2 days to overnight to Canada because of customs, so we will wait. (We can't drive all the way home with my head out the window, acting as a human rear-view mirror.) I was on my phone to our insurance company. "Was this an accident?" (No, my husband was trying to drive off the bridge and the scaffolding stopped him.) "Were there any witnesses who stepped forward?" (No, they were laughing too hard and just continued driving down the road.)

We learned the Lion's Gate Bridge, built in the 1930's, is eating mirrors like mad during this scaffolding-phase! City buses need new mirrors by the gross. This construction is causing terrible traffic problems, but in general, Vancouver traffic is a mess every day. For some reason, that made my driver feel better and he can nearly, almost, sort-of, kinda laugh about this episode.

Those little chores taken care of, we decided to go for a drive in the monsoon in the BC2. We headed north on Marine Drive, without a map, for a scenic drive along the coast. We found a huge mall next door to the campground and a very quaint neighborhood just a few blocks a way - full of boutiques and restaurants. We continued along Marine Drive, driving through old neighborhoods with huge mansions hanging over cliffs to the sea, parks, viewpoints, scuba divers, coves, marinas and finally ended at a passenger ferry terminal. It rained so hard during our drive that the streets turned to rivers and my driver could barely see out the windscreen. We stopped for lunch at a very cute cove, with a very nice restaurant overlooking a small marina. (NOTE: restaurant has now closed.) It was a giant log building, with beamed ceilings and a huge fireplace, long bar and friendly wait staff. I had grilled asparagus in balsamic vinegar with shaved parmesan for my appetizer and for my main course I had warm potato salad and haricots vert! Just divine! DT had asparagus soup and Caprese with pesto. Also yummers. While we dined, the rain stopped and the sky lightened (we didn't see blue sky all day, however.) We "shared" a tiramisu - DT had a bite and I had the rest. I guess we were hungry... we didn't have a proper dinner last night.

Back to Goldie for a rest, because we are going out tonight! Phil and Linda arrived and we had a happy reunion. We hadn't seen them for 3 years, though Phil and I chat several times per week on-line, so we had a lot of catching-up to do. They brought us two bottles of Canadian wine, from a vineyard near their home - so we will soon be giving the Canadian wine industry a try! I baked Spanakopita (made at home, frozen, vacuum-sealed of course) for our little cocktail party. Phil has a million stories, a great sense of humor and is also a wealth of information. If you need to know anything, Phil will either know the answer or can get it for you. He is in no-way vain - just knowledgeable, and a kind soul.

We went to dinner just up the road. We decided to park the car and stroll down the street, looking at menus until we found a place to our liking. The first Italian restaurant we stumbled to - Villa Giuseppe - was to our liking! It had a brilliant menu, a good wine list and was extremely attractive... as was the owner! Ben, a very handsome gentleman from Italy seated us at the best table in the house and proceeded to charm us all evening with compliments, humor and delicious food.

Villa Giuseppe (I think this restaurant is gone now too) has the largest pepper grinder I have ever seen. We all had pepper on everything - even dessert! (Just kidding.) I swear, to be a "pepper grinder boy" at this restaurant, you need to be at least 7 feet tall. We had salads and delicious pastas: I had Fettuccini Alfredo, DT had Aglio Olio, Phil had rigatoni with roasted eggplant in a spicy tomato sauce - Linda had chicken breasts and roasted potatoes. Of course, we barely had time to eat, we were talking so much and were at the restaurant for hours - but we had another great evening with Linda and Phil. Thank you both, so much - for the wine and for driving over one hour so we could see you. 

RV Park: Capilano RV Park