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What I wouldn't give to be holding a beer in my left hand, remote in my right, and watching the game right now.

Trip to Vancouver was nothing short of exciting, right from the start. Here's the recap.

Friday afternoon, we planned on leaving early to avoid traffic, and ended up leaving at around 4 pm, which is right in the middle of rush hour. We were on I-5 for about 2 hours going at 20 miles an hour. Then, just as traffic was speeding up a little, we find out that we're in the wrong lane, and were in fact heading towards an exit. Since the traffic was still slow, and there weren't cars directly behind us, we changed over at the last minute. Just when we thought we're on our way, a cop on the side of the road points at us, and pulls us over. We got a ticket for having our "wheels off of the road". I think we'll be fighting that one in court.

Of course, this incident offset the mood for driving, and for the rest of that drive, our driver, who shall remain nameless, 1.) almost ran a red light, and in the process, 2.) almost hit a cop car in Vancouver, and 3.) lost his bank card. Good start, some might say. But we did get a free upgrade to a mid-sized car from the rental company.

We didn't do much that night, just went to a bar, had a couple of drinks, and went back to the hostel. Only to find that the arcade downstairs doesn't close until some ridiculous hour, and was very, well, loud.

Saturday was better. We were a little tired, but ready to go places. The first sight we went to was Stanley Park. We drove, parked, walked, snapped pictures, and drove again, around the park about 3 times. The scenery was wonderful. The centre of the park is a forest with sky-scraping trees. The edge of the park borders the bay and an inlet. I was a little trigger-happy with the camera.

We went to Chinatown for lunch, and went to a garden there. There were some giant goldfish in the pond, and a turtle as well. We also saw a bonsai display, and was amazed at how miniature the trees were. The garden made me feel like I was back in China again. It was very authentic, right down to the murky water in the pond.

In the afternoon, we proceeded on Capilano street towards the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It's a bridge that spans a gorge, with a raging river beneath (well, not that raging, but it sounds better). Across the bridge is a natural wonder. There were ponds and trees and rivers and small waterfalls. The pond was so still that the reflections blended in with the background. A very zen place.

We were going to go to Grouse mountain, but decided not to, considering it was nearing 6, and we were all tired. So we went to the liquor store, bought some drinks, and went back to the hostel. At night, we wondered to some clubs, but they all had such long line ups. We eventually ended up at one which was nearly empty. But I'm not much of a club person, so I won't go in any further.

Sunday morning came and went. We drove to the UBC campus. There are some amazing houses around the campus overlooking the ocean. Their gardens were all perfectly groomed, and all had gates blocking their driveways. Our stroll on the beach saw hundreds of tiny crabs just teaming at our feet. You can't really notice them until you really try to look, and then you see that they're everywhere. UBC has a pretty big campus, but a lot of their buildings are just as bad as those in UW. Although that may be my biased opinion.

In the afternoon we finally made it to Grouse mountain. I was all ready for the 2 hour hike to the top, but alas, it was not to be. The trail was closed, and we soon found out why as we rode the skycar to the chalet. There were still 4 feet of snow in some places, and I don't think I would have made it in my shorts. We would have had an amazing view at the top, had it been clear. But the days we were there, it was always raining and cloudy. On top of the mountain was even worse. We could barely see 15 feet in front of us. But by the time we were leaving, the fog cleared up a little, and we had a splendid view of Vancouver on the ride down.

The crossings at the border were long waits, but we had no trouble getting across, even with the new terrorist warnings this weekend. Hopefull I'll have some pictures up soon. I hope they turn out well.