We enjoyed breakfast in our hotel again. Mark walked for about an hour into Stanley Park and along the sea wall. About 10:00am we checked out of our hotel and took a Lyft to our home for the next ten days, the Oceania Riviera cruise ship. The ride to the ship was only about 15 minutes and it took us about 45 minutes to get through security, customs and checked in. Once onboard we enjoyed a wonderful buffet lunch in the Terrace Café. There were way too many things to choose from like a large salad bar, a pumpkin and carrot soup, burgers, roasted turkey, pasta, roasted pork, sandwiches, pizza, roast beef and more.

The 15-deck vessel accommodates 1,250 passengers when full and is an adult only cruise ship. They have 800 crew members from 52 nationalities to serve the guests. The ship blends elegance with contemporary design, including a Lalique Grand Staircase. The ship includes four specialty dining venues in addition to its main dining rooms, all day buffet, poolside grill and pizzeria. There is the Red Ginger Asian, Jacques French, the Polo Grill steak house and the Toscana Italian eatery.

The ship has a total of 15 decks, a pool, spa, fitness center, coffee bar, library and poolside ice cream bar. Our cabin was on deck 9 and featured about 300 square feet of space, a teak veranda, seating area, oversized bathroom and walk-in shower. The color scheme was very neutral shades of beige, brown, white and navy blue. The luxurious Tranquility beds feature beautiful linens.

Our cabin features a queen size bed, small sofa, a large bath with shower and tons of storage. There is also a balcony with two arm chairs and a coffee or cocktail table. We had a bottle of champagne and red wine in our cabin when we arrived to get us started on our adventure to Alaska.

Our dinner on our first night aboard was in the Red Ginger specialty dining room. The dining room is elegantly decorated in red and black and features an Asian themed menu. For a starter I had the tempura sweet potato, avocado and mushrooms. Then there was the watermelon and duck salad followed by the entrée I selected, the seven spice lamb chops. Dessert brought a coconut mousse surrounded by lady fingers. They offered many dishes and you were encouraged to order as many items as you could eat. Some larger tables ordered lots of items and sampled a large variety.

The evenings show in the main theater was a Broadway themed show featuring six vocalists from the ships show cast. They performed a variety of Broadway shows, both vintage and current.

Happy Father’s Day!

After breakfast in our hotel, we ventured out in a Lyft to China Town to visit the Dr. Sun Yai-Sen Chinese Park and Garden which our neighbor and friend Lois had told us about. Built in 1986, the Ming Dynasty-style garden-home is the first of its kind to be built outside of China. A collaborative effort of community members, the Canadian Government, and the People’s Republic of China, made this park and garden possible. They strive to bring together Chinese arts and culture through educational and public programs.

The grounds of the Chinese Garden encompass many walled garden spaces with ponds,
volcanic rocks, meandering paths and several rooms. Each room has a special purpose, like a study for brush painting, a tea room, an art studio gallery, gift shop and decorative arts. Many of the buildings and rocks were brought in from China to make the experience as authentic as possible. Next to the Chinese Garden is a free public park with gravel paths, beautiful landscaping, a pond and several shade structures.

After visiting the garden and park Mark decided to take a little walk around the neighboring streets while Kent rested in a chair on the street corner. Mark got more than he bargained for and was suddenly transported back to his college days passing skid row in Los Angeles on his way to school. In one short block there were homeless people, drug deals taking place, people urinating on the sidewalk, people drugged out in the alley while others rifled through their belongings looking for money, bone thin elderly people sleeping in wheelchairs and more. Definitely not the China Town I expected to find in Vancouver.

There was a World Cup soccer match taking place a few blocks away so many of the streets were already closed off for the day creating traffic problems. We headed back to our hotel for a rest.

In the afternoon, we took a 60-minute harbor cruise on a paddlewheel boat called the Constitution with our friend Bryan. We enjoyed the afternoon sunshine as we passed Stanley Park, the downtown skyline, the historic Gastown, North Vancouver and the North Shore Mountains.

As we walked back to our hotel from the harbor cruise, we stopped at one of Bryan’s favorite bakeries called Breka Bakery and Cafe for a sweet pick-me-up treat. Bryan enjoyed a White Chocolate scone; Kent had a cheesecake brownie crunch and Mark enjoyed a pistachio brownie crunch. All delicious!!

We enjoyed dinner in our hotel.

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.