Vancouver - Day 1

Took the Amtrak train from Seattle to Vancouver this morning. I was planning to do a bit of reading and sleeping during the ride, but I basically had my nose glued to the window for most of the four hour trip. The scenery along the way was absolutely stunning. Saw thousands of birds, miles of beautiful shoreline, and interesting random sights along the way.

This was my only my second trip via Amtrak in my life (two train rides in three weeks). The first trip was three weeks ago - I took a "Northeast Regional" train from DC to NYC. Pretty comfy ride but nothing too interesting. The train on the Seattle-Vancouver ride was a very nice and roomy "Superliner" (double decker train w/ seating on the upper level). The seats on this train were similar to those used for business class airplane seating. I couldn't even touch the chair in front of me with my legs stretched out (guess I'm too short ;-). Another nice amenity was a dining car - I enjoyed a marionberry crumble and hot chocolate during the trip.

A very, very enjoyable experience. I highly recommend taking this train route sometime in your life.

Here are a few pics:

For lunch, I enjoyed a bowl of ramen and gyoza at Ramen Ezogiku. Very tasty!
Here are two pics:

For dinner, I was looking for something "light" and had a nice bosc pear and arugula salad and a bowl of corn tortilla soup at Mosaic (located inside the Hyatt Regency). No pics..

After dinner, I walked around downtown Vancouver. I love this city. It has a very diverse population, it's easy to navigate, compact, very clean, has a great public transport system...and there are people on the streets! I love seeing people on the streets - something you almost never see in Phoenix. A city just seems alive when there are people out and about.

After a nice two hour stroll, I was getting hungry and stopped by Tim Horton's (which is adjacent to the hotel) for a snack. I known Tim Horton's is HUGE is Canada but I've never tried it before. I got a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate. Both were good.