Well now we’ve gone and done
it. We moved from Mexico City. Well, that didn’t seem to take us very
long. We wanted to head to some cold
country before spring was gone. After
researching several cities in Canada we landed on Vancouver. At first, we looked because it was close to a
lot of cities in the US that we wanted to be able to explore on weekend
trips. You know, like Seattle and
Portland. Places I had never been. But also, Vancouver looked great on
paper. Minutes from a beach and minutes
from skiing, parks, hiking, snow, sunshine, bar culture, good food. I mean, what was Vancouver missing? It sure looked good on paper. So sight never seen, we book three months Airbnb
in Chinatown, downtown Vancouver. We
booked a penthouse overlooking the mountains.
And we were excited for months leading up to our trip!
The trip itself was a forever
day. We awoke at 2:30 am to catch a 5:30
flight out of the City. I detest early
flights but we landed on that departure for a very good reason. Our connecting flight in San Francisco gave
us a seven hour layover. San Fran, yet another
Pacific coast city I’ve never visited, so we decided to make a day out of it. We departed and landed in San Fran on time so
we Ubered (yes it’s word) to the Vertroe
where we checked our carry ons and continued over to Fisherman’s Wharf
area. The day was cool and brisk and the
sea air was refreshing. We chose a
restaurant on the water and I tried a dish of Cioppino, a supposedly iconic
dish of the City. Filled with various
seafood, it was a bit outside of my comfort zone, but I wanted it and I’m so
glad I didn’t pass it up. It was delicious.
Spicy, rich, and comforting, it reminded me so much of the seafood gumbos I ate
so often as a child. After lunch we
walked in the misty cold on the wharf a bit more, picked up our bags and headed
back to the airport. It was an afternoon
well spent and the highlight of the day.
After the long travel day we arrived
in Vancouver around 8 pm. Immigration was
a breeze and our taxi ride to the apartment was about 30 minutes. There, the driver dumped us and our five
suitcases on the sidewalk in the middle of downtown. Our contact waited for us in the lighted
lobby of the building and let us right in even helping with our mounds of
luggage. I say mounds, but you would
actually not believe the amount of belongs we shed before leaving Mexico
City. We had gotten in the habit of
accumulating all manners of niceties and creature comforts. But now we arrived with our necessities which
consist mostly of tech and cold weather gear.
So we are here in Vancouver and
trust me, it’s glorious. Even better
than we imagined. The air is so clean
and crisp, the people are so very friendly, the food is off the charts fresh
and tasty, the scenery is beautiful, and the city is so very walkable with shops,
restaurants, and pubs in every direction. I can’t believe it took us our whole lives to
get here. We have fallen in love with
this City. Now don’t get me wrong. We still have our plans to back to Mexico
City in the summer and in Playa Del Carmen in the fall. But I must say, this Vancouver trip may just
become a yearly spring visit. Who could
blame us?
