Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 167

A Journey to Vancouver, B.C.

My sister Friedl came to visit my husband Hal and me, and during that time Friedl and I made a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, a two-hour drive from our home in Bellevue, Washington.

My Hal had a trip to the East coast coming up for meetings, scheduled for his job with AT&T. Hal and I discussed maybe Friedl and I having a little outing too while my Hal is gone. Maybe up to Vancouver B.C. for two or three days, stay in a nice hotel, see the city, go shopping of course and sightseeing. Stanley Park, trying the tea house and going shopping in the beautiful China store, an excellent linen shop and also the tea shop for some special tea, like the fragrant green tea from India, we purchased before. I do like the linen shop. They have a big variety of serviettes I love to look at and pick some with gorgeous designs of handwork on them. The table looks much more welcoming with these, rather than just matching ones to a tablecloth.

I made reservations for Wednesday and Thursday nights, coming home on Friday and picking up my Hal at the airport on Saturday.

Today is Wednesday and a limo is picking up Hal to take him to the airport and after, Friedl and I are starting our journey to Vancouver. It is only a two-hour trip, and I am hopeful that it is not too busy at the border. We got to Vancouver around noon, and I drove directly to the Four Season’s Hotel garage and parked. Taking the elevator up to the lobby to sign in. They started serving lunch in the lobby and dining room with carts carrying several large silver Serving dishes with lids, with wonderful food. If one preferred one could order from a menu. Friedl and I went to our room first to freshen up and then joined the people in the dining room.

The interior of this hotel was awesome, Asian style furnishings and beautiful pieces of Asian art throughout. It is a gorgeous place, I am so pleased I had heard about it, and they had a vacancy for us. So far everything is memorable, only my Hal was missing. I usually do not travel without him. The drive up here, the scenery on the way was breathtaking. On the right side, looking out of the car window we enjoyed seeing the Cascade mountains and beautiful Mount Baker. On the left side is the vast Pacific Ocean, it is a beautiful area and to be fortunate enough to spend one’s life in. I always thought how lucky I was to come to the State of Washington, my Hal’s birthplace and his home.

Friedl and I enjoyed our lunch in the dining room, we tried the scampi with rice and a wonderful assortment of mushrooms, browned in clarified butter, with a tasty sauce. We ordered a glass of a very fruity and crisp white Rhone wine. Excellent!

We were ready to take on the town, walking and exploring the stores I remembered. Especially the Asian shop on Robson Street, where one can see all different color jade items. My Hal and I never missed that store, when we came to Vancouver. Tomorrow we will start out with Stanley Park. This afternoon, armed with the Visa card, we will browse in a special store, maybe some unusual, pretty item will follow us back to our hotel. We went to the “Designer shop”, with all ladies’ garments from well-known designers. We must critique the new fashions for this summer. As we entered, Friedl saw a stunning summer dress right outside the changing room. The dress was white silk, plain and the bodice was like a tuxedo shirt with fine pleats inset and covered buttons to the waist. The skirt was straight and belted by the waist with a narrow crocodile leather belt, in cream and white, and a grand, large buckle of amber color jade, a beautiful design. Friedl would look lovely in it. While my sister was trying on this dress, I asked the sales lady if I could try that awesome leather jacket, I noticed on the way in. It was short, to the waist in the softest leather and my favorite color, caramel with gold buttons. It would look perfect with my wrap around linen with silk skirt that has a closure of caramel color leather. I was encouraged by the clerk to try it and it fit perfectly, so I kept it on to show Friedl and after she admired it, it and the dress were going home with us. We were so very pleased with our finds that we no longer wanted to shop or browse. We were walking down Robson Street and passed a German café and we decided to enter and have a glass of wine with something light to eat after our substantial lunch, call it supper. This café was very nice inside. Small marble top tables and a long counter, a showcase for all the food they served. A big variety of goodies, savory ones and sweet ones. We ordered a nice, chilled Riesling, German from the Mosel Valley. It was very tasty, sweet and refreshing. We picked a platter with a variety of excellent cheeses, a little ramekin with duck pāte, dark tasty bread with sweet butter. It all went good together and was not like a big dinner. We had a lively conversation what we shall get into tomorrow.

British Columbia imports the fine chocolates from France and Germany, the kind with liqueur filling. So, we will explore that tomorrow after our nice walk-through Stanley Park and lunch at the tea house. This is really turning out to be a wonderful memory for my beloved sister and me. Tomorrow we will visit the jade shop on Robson Street, and I will be looking for something awesome for my Hal. On our last year visit they had beautiful silk kimonos for men. I am sure I will find an appropriate one that my Hal would like to wear, when he retires, for lounging in the morning for breakfast.

After a nice breakfast in the lobby of our hotel, we were on our way home. Another sunny day with breathtaking scenery all the way to Bellingham. We arrived home early and tomorrow we will drive to Sea Tac airport to greet my dear Hal. When we get home, we will have so much to tell, to show, and to tell him that we dearly missed him.