Canadian Lasagna and a Nice Hotel View

It had been a long day flying from Philadelphia all the way to Vancouver. Because of headwinds, we stopped for fuel in Fargo and then landed three hours later in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of my favorite places in the world!

The first order of business was to get some lunch. We borrowed the crew car from Million Air to drive about ten miles south to Richmond for a yummy meal. Sorry that I can’t convert that into kilometers for you.

And yes, the crew car is a brand-new Mercedes Benz.

Have you ever seen a British Columbia license plate? Now you have! Sorry if you live in Canada, and this is your license plate. But I’m glad that you had good taste in where to eat, just like we did.

Ta da! Because nothing says long day food better than The Old Spaghetti Factory! Am I right? Wouldn’t you want some delicious pasta after flying all day?

Me, too.

I just love these restaurants. It’s a chain, so you might even have one near you. It’s worth checking out, if you do!

How often do you get to eat underneath ancient Tiffany lamps, anyway?

The menu is actually an old newspaper with stories and the history of the restaurant. It provides wonderful entertainment if you already know what you want to eat.

But I didn’t know…so let’s see what they have!

Boy oh boy! This all sounds so good! You can probably guess that this was before I made my switch to healthier decisions.

So lasagna it was!

They had me at “secret homemade recipe.”

Any restaurant that brings bread while you wait is on my favorite list. This warm, crusty bread was accompanied by salted butter and homemade herb butter. They were both delicious on this hot loaf!

But you know me…warm bread and butter is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world to eat!

I’m such a pushover today!

Though it isn’t my style for a house, the décor is just wonderful in this place. Check out that old tin ceiling! And this light fixture just adds to the ambience.

It’s a really fun restaurant. I’ve even been to a few that have a giant old trolley car in the restaurant, and additional tables are set up inside!

Pasta tastes exponentially better if eaten inside an antique trolley. It’s been scientifically proven.

Love at last. We were here around 3:30 PM local, so it didn’t take long for our lunch to arrive. The lasagna looked and smelled like heaven. And, after letting it cool for three hours, it tasted like heaven, too!

I even took half of this to the hotel in a box and ate it later for dinner. I love when one meal feeds me twice!

Soon we were heading back to the airport to return the crew car. I am really digging the lack of snow in this part of Canada. You can’t say that for the rest of the country in February!

As we made our turn back to Million Air, so did this giant floatplane. There are several floatplane airlines out of here that run people back and forth to all of the islands across the Sound. They land just south of the main airport runways on a narrow strip of water.

It’s an aqua runway!

Can you imagine commuting every day like that?

Here he is landing on the water. And that building up ahead on the left-hand side of the road is the floatplane terminal. There is a yummy restaurant inside there, too, if you’re ever near there.

You know, for your floatplane commute.

Just like every other stay on this nine-day trip, my hotel room was astronomically priced! But it was the cheapest that I could find in a notoriously-expensive town. What can you do?

Luckily, it was a very nice stay near lots of things to do. So it didn’t feel like such a bummer when I paid the bill.

Like always, I requested a high floor. In this case, it turned out to be a very good decision. The view from these giant windows was incredible! I get to enjoy it for almost three whole days!

Holy smokes. Can you believe how gorgeous that is? This was my only view of Whistler Mountain in the far distance, since the remainder of my stay would be rainy and cloudy (and cold).

Lots of gorgeous high-rise condo buildings were in this part of town, too. We are about a forty-minute drive to downtown Vancouver. The hotel is a few miles from the airport in a suburb called Richmond.

Isn’t this pretty? I spent hours looking out these windows, if you must know.

Killer social life that I have, if you must know.

Until I explored on-foot, I didn’t realize my incredibly wonderful good luck! Is that a shopping mall down there?! Eek! It is! And I am going to enjoy this stay even more now!

Typical girl. Sorry.

People-watching in Canada is even better than at home!

I think that this part of town is a China Town of sorts, since tons of stores seemed to cater to an Asian language. I picked up a few words here and there, but it probably wouldn’t be polite to repeat them in this setting.

Or ever, for that matter.

That jumbotron screen was really neat. It had these gorgeous multi-colored waves that just swept through and kept changing. It was mesmerizing!

And then, when exploring on-foot, I discovered that it wasn’t a giant screen at all, but several little colored discs that were hung and could float with the wind. It was so neat!

And I was happy that they paid for a bunch of little colored discs instead of a jumbotron.

As you can see, it was a very busy part of town. But I was so high up and had such good, thick windows that I didn’t hear any of the noise. I slept like a baby here for three nights!

In this comfy bed!

And they carted up a microwave when I asked if there was one in the room. This saved me, as I didn’t go out the next day but just cooked what I brought with me. Leftover lasagna and microwavable mac and cheese prevented me from having to eat out on Sunday!

This was a nice, big working desk that I used quite a bit as well. And I watched a little bit of HGTV and Food Network, the only two channels that I even bother with when on the road, from this giant television.

We don’t watch TV at home, so those two channels are always a treat when I’m traveling.

There was another giant television in the bedroom, too, and it was fun to eat Easter candy mac and cheese healthy food from there while enjoying such a pretty view out of the windows.

And, like I hinted above, I enjoyed some beautiful rainy storms while staying on the 9th floor. I love waking up to the sound of rain hitting the window! It was awesome!

This is about as wintery as it gets in Vancouver. And I’m so glad! After Sunday ends, I’m headed out to explore!

See even more stores in the distance? Booyah!