January 1, 2019
So as a culmination to a year that had me away from home an incredible amount of the time – much of it out of the country, it was only fitting to conclude 2018 outside of the United States! Handsome Hubby and I decided to make the two and a half hour drive to Vancouver, British Columbia to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Canada. The weather at home and north had been blustery, cold and rainy this past week, yet as we crossed our Northern neighbor’s border, the sun shone boldly, the sky was as blue as could be and the brilliance of the conditions continued to flirt with us our entire three day getaway! We still had to bundle up, however, joining throngs of the rosy cheeked as we opted outdoors to enjoy the last days of December!

Since the Seahawks were playing, we made a quick drive through Stanley Park stopped for a wonderful late breakfast at Earl’s and then found a sports bar to catch the game. We had never been to Score on Davie yet I am sure we will be back as the staff was very friendly and the bar food looked amazing. We are not always in the mood for that fare, though sometimes its just the ticket. Even though we had just eaten, we still had some delicious onion rings and watched from our seat at the bar as they cranked out their Caesar drinks with incredible adornments of burgers or corndogs or cheese sandwiches – plus onion rings. According to Wikipedia, “a Caesar is a cocktail created and primarily consumed in Canada. It typically contains vodka, a caesar mix, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce, and is served with ice in a large, celery salt-rimmed glass, typically garnished with a stalk of celery and wedge of lime”. They have a $64 one that has on top of the drink, a whole, deep-fried chicken into which many wooden skewers are poked to balance a hamburger, a mac ’n cheese stuffed hotdog, onion rings, chicken wings, a pulled pork slider and a brownie with a shot of whipped cream! I know, gross, right?!?!? They look funky and fun though!!
After the game we went over to the Very Beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia and walked down some 300 stairs to the beach at Pacific Spirit Regional Park (Wreck Beach is clothing optional, in case you are interested). Everyone had clothes on and we basically turned around and walked back up since it was a “super high tide” and what little room there was to walk was boggy. Eventually we checked into our Coast Coal Harbour Hotel which is nothing special other than its great location a couple of blocks from the harbor, near Canada Place and Gas Town and minutes away from Stanley Park. Vancouver is a vibrant, varied, cultural and beautiful city with great ethnic diversity and a million things to do! One negative though is that the parking meters are in effect seven days of the week from 9:00 to 10:00! We met a very dear friend of mine who we have not seen in over a decade and her Honey for a splendid dinner at Blue Water Cafe in Yale Town. The experience was top notch from every perspective!
December 31st we waited in line to get into the Medina Cafe for breakfast and it was well worth the wait – for the waffles alone! I don’t normally eat pancakes or waffles, but we were sitting at the bar right next to the waffle prep station and they were impossible to resist! There are several toppings and we chose white chocolate pistachio and passion fruit – yum!

Really, tons of the trees are enormous and their majesty and immenseness are mind boggling! We were able to see a Douglas Fir thought to be 600 years old and some other incredibly monstrous and towering redwoods! So many of the trees had their roots growing back up the trunks and there was even one in which two faces were carved, called “Two Spirits”. All of the moss and ferns were very intoxicating to our senses to be among as well.
We are pretty lame when in comes to celebrating New Year’s Eve, choosing to have a nice dinner out and maybe catch some music. We enjoyed and early meal at Brix and Mortar, a caviar “dessert” back at Blue Water Cafe and caught some of the 9:00 fireworks on the waterfront before saying “good-bye” to 2018.

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