Vancouver, BC - Eat and Trolley

Saturday morning, I was anxious to depart Seattle after an overnight stay to cross the border north for Hongcouver (a transformed Vancouver after the
influx of mainly Chinese from Hong Kong) getaway for the Memorial Day
weekend. Minutes past eight, the sun has climbed high, a beautiful day, no
rain and not even clouds to decorate the blue morning sky. The travel was
very uneventful until we were screeching to a halt at the Canadian border.
Too many vehicles have lined up already, a half-mile before the immigration
checkpoint. Stop, dead stop!

Excitement has turned into disappointment; believe it or not, we were
crawling to the checkpoint after an hour and fifteen minutes. A disappointment turned into hope again, we are in Canada! Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver and the second concentrated Chinese food establishment was the first destination, it was lunchtime. Checking my Palm Pilot, the recommended place for lunch was a barbeque place.

Running east to west on Westminster, I could not find the first choice of
the restaurant recommended. I turned back and before we made another turn I saw the other suggested restaurant - Kirin Seafood. That's it, no more
driving. It was the most delicious dim sum after waiting close to an hour.
The restaurant was voted to be one of the best in the greater Vancouver
area.

The big city traffic jam has not given me a break; we crawled again to the
city center (the term used for downtown in) and got to our hotel - the Grand
Hyatt at minutes past four. What a first day of waiting in the traffic, courtesy of long weekend and a nice day. It seems that everybody is out from
the late spring hideout.

Evening was filled with a stroll along the heart of the city center happening - Robson Street. I had never seen so many diverse people in one boulevard since we moved from Los Angeles, it reminds me of Old Town Pasadena, a revived part of forgotten and run down city blocks. When the stomach called for dinner, we went to another suggested restaurant - Hon's. It's very reasonable, clean and best of all it has the best barbeque pork and duck north of the border.

The night view from the 25th floor was not as spectacular as I visualized it
would be. Other high-rise buildings blocked half of the city outlined. A
section of North Vancouver was visible amongst the buildings. The night was brisk and I am ready to hit the bed.

Part of Sunday morning was dedicated to the trolley visit; I have made some
prior arrangements to see the operation of Vancouver's Historic Railway.
Remember that anything that runs on rails attracts me besides good food.
Fearing that I might not find the barn, we went early after a quick breakfast. I found the place all right other than I was an hour too early. I then dropped Pokie to Granville Island, a tourist trap complete with its
share of farmer's market.

The motormen came one by one as the time of departure came near, once they open the barn I started shooting the trolleys - with my digital camera, of course. To see trolleys almost in mint and restored condition is really a feast to me, like a kid with candies, I walk back and forth while one motorman made inspection and preparation check for the day.

At 12:33, the trolley inched its way west from Science World station to
Leg-in-Boot Station, a funny name hey? This is how the Canadian sounds. They put "hey" almost at the end of every sentence. The funny explanation I got was one day a bicyclist tried to beat the train at the railroad crossing
wearing boots. The 1.9 mile one way journey seemed too short compared to my run at Willamette Shore Trolley at 7.0 miles from Portland to Lake Oswego. It was indeed a treat for me to be able to see this trolley operation and met some of my fellow motormen and conductors.

Well, this is my account of the Vancouver trip - Eat and Trolley. I hope you
enjoy the story as I enjoy writing it as it happens using an old 486 laptop.
Have a nice and wonderful day.