Visiting Vancouver

Moving from the ship through Canadian customs to the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver was remarkably easy. Because the Hallmans had some checked luggage, we took a taxi cab the three blocks from the port to the hotel.

It’s good to be here where we have reliable Wi-Fi again. Many of the dictation errors in my previous posts have been due to the fact that inadequate Wi-Fi connections prevented us from going back and making corrections. I know that the Alaskan town on the west coast is “Nome” not “gnome,” but talk -to-text hasn’t figured it out yet.

Both Angela and Randy were a bit under the weather, so Glenda and I decided to venture out on our own. I wanted to see a building for which a custom made Fazioli piano has been built. We were surprised to find, however, that the building is not yet finished and the piano has not yet been installed. Glenda and I decided we would just snoop around a bit and we look a coffee shop. We found an excellent place nearby called “Beyond Coffee.” We both teared up when we realized that “What a Wonderful World” was playing in the coffee shop. That song has appeared so many times in our travels in interesting places. We once heard it being played on the square in Prague. What memories it evokes! What a wonderful message it conveys! Here in Vancouver we sat down at a table and happened to be next to a Chinese-Canadian couple. The woman was crying and we were afraid something was wrong, so we asked whether everything was all right. She said, “These are tears of joy. Our son developed a very rare auto immune disease about the time he graduated from high school, and he just called to say that the doctors have finally succeeded in reversing the disease.” For several minutes we rejoiced with them.

Our kinfolks like burgers. We found a Red Robin restaurant, so we called Angela and Randy and asked them if they wanted to meet us for lunch. They came down. We had a great burger, and then Glenda and I went our separate ways. Glenda went back to a skin care store she found on Robeson Street, and I went back down to Canada Place to photograph the port we have used so often. Our ship, the Celebrity Summit, was still in port there, taking on new passengers as excited about their trip to Alaska as we had been. Now we have just returned to the hotel and all of our rooms are ready. It feels good simply to put my feet up while sharing with my friends the wonderful experiences we are having in Alaska and Canada.Читать далее