18 Feb Vancouver is cute

I must have said this at least 100 times on a quick weekend getaway with my friend Ryan. Last year in February we went to Cabo to beat the winter blues, but this year we went the opposite direction to Canada. I know, why would we go to Canada in February? It is close, quick, cheap, and just a 3 hour direct flight from Denver and less than 2 hours from where Ryan lives in San Francisco. The weather in Vancouver is surprisingly mild so it was tolerable and even gorgeous when we there. At any rate, cute, everything, cute – the buildings, the streets, people on bikes, the sound, the parks, the little restaurants, everything was just too cute.

If you haven’t been to Vancouver, it is just North of the US border on the West Coast. To me, it feels like a mix between San Francisco and Portland with Canadian flair. It is also the perfect mix of East and West. We will get to this under “all the food I ate in Canada.”

We arrived late on Thursday night, took a taxi into the city (there is no Uber in Vancouver), and checked into our CUTE hotel, the Loden. By the time we caught up and went to bed it was after 2am. I explicitly told Ryan I wanted to sleep in. Per usual, eye mask on, ear plugs in, night night mofos. I completely forgot I was doing my first ever Grabr pickup between 10-11am in the lobby of my hotel.

I woke up at 10:30 to Ryan gently bouncing his hand on my bed or something similar and as I opened my eyes he was like “ummm hey, I know you wanted to sleep in, but it’s like 10:30 and the Grabr guy might be here” OMG I jumped up, he was calling me at that very moment. He was in the lobby waiting, for half and hour already. I felt terrible! Ryan packed up all the Soylent this dude requested and I met him in the lobby with the goods.

This was my first Grabr and I had literally no worries but everyone around me was like “drugs, it’s all drugs.” No, this guy was super cool, gave me travel tips, and answered my basic Canadian questions throughout my trip on WhatsApp. $50 CAD later and I was stoked. I will be doing Grabr on all of my international trips going forward, it is a great way to make cash while you travel. WhitneyCoupons would be proud.

All the things I ate in Canada

When Ryan and I travel we are more about relaxing than being travel warriors, so my only desire was to basically eat. The reason being, Vancouver has an outstanding array of Asian cuisine. My list included: ramen, sushi, bubble team, Nanimo bars, and poutine. After the Grabr pickup/debacle, we got ready and walked out to the city and headed to Hokkaido on Robson st. for ramen.

I haven’t been to Japan in more than ten years so I don’t remember the ramen there, but this was the best ramen I had ever had in my life. The noodles were a rich yellow color and they tasted so fresh I had to assume they were made in-house that day. We both got the spicy pork ramen with sides of soft boiled eggs, green onions, corn, and extra spice. After downing that we headed back to the hotel but on the way we stopped for bubble tea and Naniamo bars.

Both were heavenly. My coworker told me about the bars and Ryan took the first bite and had a strange look on his face and then said it was amazing. We both went back to buy more to take home; sadly mine didn’t leave Canada, I ate it a few hours after buying it.

Lastly, you can’t go to Canada and not eat poutine, which I have done, I don’t know how I missed this local delicacy on two previous trips, but I did. We found a poutine shop, nervously parked our bikes out front without locks, and ordered. I got panicky that the medium wouldn’t be big enough…clearly they were big enough.

Poutine means ‘a mess’ in French, and it is French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. This place had extras and we each added bacon and pulled pork plus sides of chipotle and garlic mayo. This fatty carb bomb was worth every bite.

A day of biking

The hotel had free bikes so we took the liberty and rented them for 4 hours! We had to work off that poutine so we hit the city and rode ten miles around Stanley Park. Our feet were freezing, but it was a great workout, I mean not really, both of our Apple Watches said we only burned a very minimal amount of calories over those 10 miles, but I was convinced we worked really hard. Maybe that is just how your heart beats after eating French fries and gravy?

During our bike ride we stopped here to take a few photos, it was really quiet so I asked Ryan if we were whispering and he gently reminded me I had never whispered in my life, and no, nobody was whispering. I have been told I am loud, but I think I am normal. I had my hearing checked last year just to be sure, my hearing is perfect, I am just loud.

I can’t say why, but this bike ride was the highlight of the trip for me. Ryan led the way and we just laughed and joked the entire time as we cruised along the flat grounds. The never ending ice encrusted sea wall, the views, the sun, everything was just perfect. In the words of Marie Kondo, joy was sparked. I felt so full of happiness and energy; I didn’t want the ride to end, I wanted to peddle our bikes until forever.

Departure

By far the most bizarre thing I have experienced in my travels: you do U.S. immigration in the Vancouver airport. I know that sounds like it makes no sense, but you read it right. Ryan mentioned it and I found it too unreal so I looked it up, and sure enough, all travelers to the U.S. do full border control at the Vancouver international airport.

Here are a few tips – if you have Global Entry you must bring your card. I have never been asked to produce the physical card but they don’t have the automated machines so you just show your Global Entry card to get through. Next, eat before you go through U.S. immigration, I was dying for more ramen and I wishfully thought I could eat it at the airport. I had a gas station version of a sandwich on the terminal because that’s all that was there, oh and I think there is a Burger King. Finally, if you have Global Entry you can still expect speedy lines, but you might want to calculate this into your airport arrival time.

Money saving tip! If you take the Canada Line to the airport on Sunday, the cost is only $2.95 CAD.

Happy travels! Up next, spring in Paris.