This morning we had breakfast at our hotel overlooking the beautiful English Bay. The hotel serves everything from a simple muffin to oatmeal, pancakes to eggs benedict and more. It was a beautiful morning with daily temperatures ranging from a low of 56 to a high of 68.

After breakfast Mark took an hour long walk along the English Bay. The paved boardwalks were filled with walkers, joggers, people exercising, walking dogs and just enjoying a summer Saturday morning. The sand and grassy hillsides were busy with young Canadian Geese looking after their chicks. Beautiful spring flowers like hydrangea are blooming all around town.

At 10:45am our friend Eugene walked over to the hotel to escort us to his and Bob’s apartment a few blocks away. Bob is a dear friend that Kent met while living in Montreal in the 1970’s and they have been friends ever since. Bob moved to Vancouver about 20 years ago from Toronto for a better client. Bob met Eugene in Hawaii in 2003.

Bob has been undergoing some chemotherapy and radiation treatments which he will complete on Monday. Eugene has been a wonderful caregiver to him and we wish him a speedy recovery.

This afternoon took Mark on another walking tour around one of the shopping streets while Kent worked on his long list of emails. The beach in front of our hotel was packed with people all afternoon and evening. Lots of people riding scooters and bicycles. Here in the west end residents can adopt parkway planters and create beautiful flower gardens where grass may once have been. Some of the gardens are just beautiful with an array of colorful flowers.

This evening our long-term friend Bryan took us to a local Italian restaurant called Robba Da Matti. Bryan is another transplant that Kent met while living in Montreal and they have remained friends for the better part of fifty years. Bryan taught accounting here at the local university but has since retired.

After returning to our hotel from dinner we walked across the street and found a bench to people watch along the edge of English Bay. The long days of June mean that the sun does not set until after 9:00pm and it is still light until nearly 10:00pm. Even at 9:00pm the waterfront is busy will all types of people enjoying the summer nights.

We have been to Alaska twice before, but I thought that it might be a familiar place for Kent to restart his travels after his heart attack last July. In August of 2007 my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and took my brother and sister-in-law, Kent and me on a seven-day Alaska cruise. Then in 2022, Kent and I took an Alaska cruise and land tour which ended up being 29 days in length. While in Dawson City in the Yukon Territory we tested positive for Covid and had to quarantine for ten days before being able to fly back to the United States.

This year, our flight on Alaska Air was scheduled to depart San Diego at 10:09am arriving in Seattle at 1:13pm. We then departed Seattle at about 3:30pm bound for Vancouver, arriving about 4:30pm. The airports were packed with families and travelers of all sorts, making it difficult to even find a chair to sit in. Even with the crowds, our flights were only delayed a short amount of time. We arrived in Vancouver shortly before 5:00pm. With the airports new automated machines, the process of getting through the customs hall was quick and efficient.

On English Bay and adjacent to Stanley Park, our hotel for the next three nights was the Sylvia Hotel. The Sylvia Hotel opened its doors on May 3, 1913 as a 77-unit apartment building. It was the tallest building in Vancouver at the time and attracted affluent tenants. Through the decades the Sylvia transitioned to shorter term accommodations while still maintaining some permanent residents. During World War II some rooms were even used to lodge English Bay’s Merchant Marine crews. In 1975 the city of Vancouver designated the Sylvia a heritage building, ensuring its survival for many years to come. Today it remains one of the few publicly accessible heritage buildings in Vancouver.

Since our last visit to the Sylvia in 2022, they have been renovating the guest rooms. Our room has a new bathroom with deep soaking tub, shower, marble floor, new vanity and toilet. The room was freshly painted with new carpeting, paint and drapes. They have done a nice job to modernize the rooms.

After we settled into our room, we met up with old time friends Ken and Will in the hotel restaurant for drinks and dinner. Will had a career with Air Canada and has known Kent since the late 70’s. Ken worked in the healthcare industry. They have been together for 25 plus years and both are now retired. Even when you don’t see good friends often, you can just pick up where you left off and it seems like no time has passed.

Vancouver began more than 10,00 years ago with territories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. The modern city, originally named Gastown, was built around a tavern near the Hastings Mill and dates back to 1867. The name Vancouver came about after a deal with the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886 when the railway expanded west. George Vancouver, who the city was named after, was a British naval officer who had explored and charted the North West Pacific Coast between 1791 and 1795. When Vancouver was incorporated in 1886, it had a population of 1,000. Vancouver is now a city of about 665,000 inhabitants, while the greater Vancouver metro area has a population of 2.6 million people. The city is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada with more than 50% of its residents belonging to a minority group.