A Series of Stop-Overs

On my way out to Asia last May, I made a series of stop-overs in Vancouver, Pender Island and Victoria.


Vancouver
It's on the number one spot in this year's list of best cities to live in. Ben and I flew out to Vancouver, got a car rental at the airport and drove out to Granville Island for lunch. We met up with Kate (Ben's younger sister) and some friends, had some beer at the Granville Brewery, and ate some delicious sushi by the dock.

The view was breathtaking. Beautiful buildings lined up the shoreline, and there were numerous boats and yachts sailing on the bay. The sun was out, and so was everybody - from the locals to the tourists, and street performers to ice cream vendors. Everybody's in high spirits. It was so nice that I didn't mind the pigeons trying to steal my sushi. It's definitely my favorite place in this city.

Walking back to the parking lot, I felt the stress from work slowly starting to leave my system...until we discovered that somebody had broken into our car and taken all of our luggage, except mine (probably due to their enormity). The stolen items included all of Ben's stuff - clothes, shoes, his camera, his new ipod, foreign currency and gifts for my parents - as well as Kate's stuff. The worst part was that she had all of her pictures from her recent Europe trip saved in her laptop.

The good news is that Ben got a job offer from a Vancouver firm that same afternoon. Karma is awesome.


Pender Island
We visited Pender Island for Ben's parents' 60/30 party (i.e. their 60th birthdays and 30-year wedding anniversary). We stayed in a cabin that overlooked the lake, where we spent some time canoeing and kayaking. In a span of 3 days, I met a million Waddingtons from across the world - the United States, Scotland, Turks and Caicos, and some other places in Europe. I tried my best to blend and mingle, but oh my goodness, I could not catch up with the accents. However, I definitely was able to catch up with their appetite for food and wine.


Victoria
Thanks to the Granville thieves, the only thing Ben had left were the clothes on his back. So we took the ferry to visit Victoria for a day of shopping. It's a very pretty place. It's right by the water, like Vancouver is, but the atmosphere is so different. You can find beautiful old buildings and fancy new restaurants all on the same block. There are lots of commercial establishments yet the place doesn't seem busy at all. Many people are strolling the streets in an "I'm in no hurry at all" pace.

We found an alley called "Waddington Alley" so I took pictures of it. If I am marrying Ben, then I would probably become a Waddington at some point in the future. And it would be cool to have an alley with my name on it.