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Our first proper day in Vancouver started early – at 9am when Ed woke both Pip and I up. While normally we would have all been awake by now, the late night the night before made everyone (except Ed) a little slow off the mark.

A nice breakfast by the window was enjoyed by all – Corn Flakes followed by frosted Mini Wheats for some. It didn’t take too long for us to get ready and hit the road – heading for British Columbia’s largest shopping mall, Metropolis at Metrotown.

We made the short dash from our apartment in the 5C max, but currently dry weather, to the closest underground SkyTrain station (gah that gets me everytime) where we bought 3 day-long tickets. Luckily we could utilise the Bentall Plaza underground shopping mall, and managed to escape the cool most of the way. $27 later, though, and we boarded the train, without having to validate a ticket once – hmm!

After an exciting quick ride on the SkyTrain, which did truly become a ‘sky’ train after the ‘Stadium’ station, where we would need to return tonight for the ‘haahkeey’ match. Metrotown, or Mo-Town as dubbed by Tess, was another 7 stops away, so we enjoyed the scenic SkyTrain ride – which was very quite – being Monday at about 11am.

Upon arrival at Mo-Town, we made a move to at least look in every shop on the top floor – that’s one of three levels. It took us considerable time to do this, and we made a number of stops on the way to look at things more closely. While we walked past the food court, we didn’t venture within it, as it was still relatively early – relatively.

After completing the top floor, with a number of purchases and some tickets to the game in hand, we made an effort to give the second floor down the same treatment. Unfortunately, we only managed to see half of this floor before we fell victim to the hungries, and made a b-line for the food court we had discovered earlier.

As much as yesterday proved how much we were determined to eat Hungry Jack’s/Burger King in every city we visited, today we all felt like a change. Pip went with Indian, Ed with Thai, and a Quizno’s Sub for me. While it took us a few minutes to find each other in the food court, due to poor co-ordination and a lack of communication method, we soon met up and enjoyed our lunch.

All of the walking had made everyone very tired, and so the drinks inside the ‘Everything for one dollar’ shop seemed very appetising. Too bad it didn’t work out according to the name – unfortunately, 3 $1 drinks cost us $3.36. That’s the $1 price tag, including 5% GST, 3% PST and some more for funding the refund program – what’s the point of getting money back that you already paid! Where’s the free stuff?!

We continued shopping until we couldn’t walk anymore – and we had seen every shop in the entire shopping complex. But don’t fret – we did visit SportsCheck for a brief moment, and purchased a new set of Leki poles – thanks Shell! Luckily, we didn’t repeat last year’s SportsChek episodes where we managed to lose an entire day inside that crazy time-warp of a store.

After finishing the final level, at 4:30pm, we made our way back to the SkyTrain station amongst the now very much larger crowds. Of course, being Canada, is was basically dark at 4:30pm… dark and significantly colder. We were home at the apartment at 5pm, by which time it was completely dark. The legs got a much-needed rest, and everyone relaxed for an hour or so – before we retraced our exact steps to return to the ‘General Motors Place’; home of the Vancouver Canucks.

Unfortunately for us, even at 6pm, it was not ‘quiet’ as Ed had suggested it may be, and the trains and walkways were packed with die-hard fans pushing to get to their already assigned seats. We grabbed some dinner – Jumbo hot dogs (while it may sound bad, we did opt for not having the foot-long hotdogs!) and then made our way to the seats.

Amongst 18,648 other fans, we watched the Canucks lose 3-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers. It was, however, an exciting match, with the first fight occurring just 15 seconds into the 1st Period – seeing 2 players sin-binned for 5 minutes. Unfortunately, we didn’t win any prizes in the many competitions, but enjoyed the crowd energy, and general good times that come with an ice-hockey match.

Upon leaving the GM Place, it was certainly much colder outside now, and raining. We made a quick dash amongst the rest of the fans and stood in line for the SkyTrain for 10 minutes or so as the drizzle continued. Luckily most of the crowd was going East – us going West. The ride home was uneventful, but the over-ground walk back to the hotel, now that the underground mall was closed, uncomfortable due to the wind which had picked up, and the ongoing rain.

By the time we were back in the room, it was nearly 10pm and all of the crew were completely exhausted. After half an hour or so of Skype-ing, we watched an episode or two of Scrubs and then hit the beds – except for me, who is still sitting up typing this at nearly midnight.

I have uploaded some photos, but they are really only half of what we have – and don’t include any from the travelling. Those are on the other camera, which is hidden away with the appropriate adaptors in Ed’s room – who is fast asleep. Those will have to wait. Visit the gallery page using the links above (on the OnSno.com homepage) to check them out! There’s a small taste below…

Check out the ones that are up there, keep reading the blog, and enjoy your New Year’s Eve – we still have just under 24 hours to wait!

ps – Happy Birthday Tammy!

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