Tuesday October 17, 2000

Got up in the morning and had a nice little breakfast of pastry and coffee at a nearby cafe.  We then walked to the waterfront north of the downtown and walked along it toward Stanley Park.  It was overcasted which was not surprising considering Vancouver is also known for its cloudy weather.  It was really nice to be at a place with mild temperature and fresh air after the 10 days in a hot, humid and polluted surrounding.  We spent the morning just relaxing by the waterfront before going back to Robson Street to grab a bite to eat.

We went into the Stanley Park in the afternoon and just walked around in the park.  It was a very big park so we stuck mostly to the east side of it.  Along the way we ran into some peacocks just chilling out.  I've never seen one in real life so I quickly snap a few pictures.  Then for some reason I started thinking about food.

After hours of walking along the waterfront I started to get bored and my legs were sore.  I had just about enough of the water and trees so we headed back toward downtown and went to eat at this indoor food plaza designed for tourists.  It was very empty since it's not tourist season.  Well, somebody up there decided to answer to my boredom.  It was about 10 minutes after we left the place going toward Chinatown when I realized I've left my purse at the food plaza - along with the documents I needed to come back to the U.S.!  We sprinted back to the place and checked the table we're at, it wasn't there!  I asked the cleaning lady whom I saw before and she pointed me to the service desk upstairs.  Thank goodness they had it.  The lady must've seen it left there and took it to the service desk.  I couldn't believe how lucky I was (of course I would've been luckier if I hadn't lost it in the first place!).  Afterwards I had to sit down for 15 minutes and calm down before I could function again.  If I hadn't recovered my legal documents needed to re-enter U.S., it could take months for me to get back in (the U.S. immigration service is notorious for ignoring and mistreating immigrants as well as making people go through all sorts of redtapes) If anything convinced me what a great city Vancouver is, and the people living in it, this did it.  I have my doubts that I would ever find my purse again if this had happen in New York or Boston or any of the other places that I've been to (except maybe Montreal).

After that scare I hung on to my purse like a drowning man to a log.  We walked to Chinatown, exhausted, and decided to do something relaxing - catch a movie.   We saw "Meeting the Parents" at a really nice theatre.  It seems all the best theatres I've been to have been in Canada!  Afterwards we walked back to our hotel and ended our first full day in Vancouver.