The BIG 50th Vancouver Vacation Sept/Oct 2021 - Day 10 - Last minute shopping, Joey’s & flying home

[smithlane]

Day 10 - Saturday 9th October 2021

Going home day 😢
After waking up from a glorious sleep at 8am we had an hour lounging in bed before Jim and I got up, chucked some clothes on and went in search of some breakfast.
We walked down Robson Street and went into a Starbucks as we couldn’t see much else around.

I had a sausage, egg and cheese muffin with a hot chocolate and Jim had the same but with a cappuccino.
This was surprisingly very nice!

Once done we went and did some last minute shopping.

Random pumpkins on the bus shelter 🥴

Jim went into Foot Locker to buy some trainers, Nike 270’s. He thinks he’s down with the kids by wearing the same trainers as them 😂

I then popped next door to Sephora as I saw they did Tarte makeup and I really love their Shape Tape concealer. I also picked up a starter makeup brush set for Hope. She has only recently started to wear makeup and I wanted her to have a half decent set of brushes as they’ll last her a lot longer than the cheap ones. I’ve still got my Bobbi Brown set I got given for my 18th birthday over 20 years ago!

There was a gift shop opposite where we picked up a cuddly moose for Boris and some maple syrup for our parents.

The main shop Jim wanted to look in was Arc’tryx which was next door to our last hotel The Sutton Place.

This is a fairly expensive designer outdoor/skiwear shop that is very popular in Canada but has also got a branch in London.
He found some Navy lightweight cargo style trousers, a grey zip up hoody and a t-shirt. He also treated me to a pair of joggers as I was looking at getting some to wear on the plane. In a moment of madness, I bought some leggings too.
I can’t even bring myself to tell you how much all that came to 😳

I now ushered him back to the hotel before he spent anymore!

A last few photos of the beautiful lobby area

We both got showered and dressed in our travel home clothes then by 1.30 we were ready to load the car up. Helen and Nick were waiting for us downstairs in the hotel bar, they had had a lazy morning around the hotel.
We took the suitcases down to the parking garage and I left Jim to do his thing in making sure they all fit. We had one extra suitcase to get in but like the master packer he is, he managed to get them to fit like a glove!

We now went in search of lunch and it could only be one place, Joeys! We were practically regulars by now 😂. The serving staff are all lovely and it has a good menu so it seemed the logical choice. It was also pouring down with rain so with it being only a few doors up it made total sense.

We got seated in a booth and ordered 2 Coronas for the boys and 2 Moscow Mules for the girls.
For food I had the Butter Chicken Curry which I had on our first visit here and the others all went with the Hot wings and fries, shock 😆

Our server Brooke was telling us she was heading to London in a couple of days to visit a friend then head over to Spain for a wedding. She was no stranger to Europe having visited a few years ago and had gone to 29 countries which is more than I’ve been to!

Our food soon arrived and was just as lovely as before. The others enjoyed their wings too.

We decided to go out with a bang and order dessert too.
Chocolate lava cake for me and apple pie for the others.
Ooh this was delicious! Hot molten chocolate sauce and sponge with vanilla ice cream, what’s not to love 😍

The apple pie actually looked really good too and Helen announced it was the best she’s ever had. Apparently they hand make them fresh onsite everyday.

Once we had let our food digest a bit we got the bill which was $90 per couple.

Jim kept mentioning the coat he had tried on in Arc’teryx and was umming and ahrring about getting it but I said that could be his birthday and Christmas present from me and I’d just get him something small to open on the day.
When we looked at the price on the U.K. website it was cheaper here by £50 so it made sense to just buy it now.

We now got to the car and made the sad journey towards the airport. We had loads of time still but we weren’t sure what checking in would be like as we couldn’t do it online last night.
Our flight had been delayed by an hour too which was annoying but could be worse.

We found the Car Rental Return easily and dropped off Dave with no issues. Let’s hope I don’t get an unexpected bill on my Amex!

We walked to the main terminal and joined the mile long queue for British Airways check in. They only had 3 desks open for World Traveller passengers but 3 for Priority! Don’t get me wrong, I realise they have the perk of faster check in but they could have easily spared an agent to get this line down faster.

It took about 45 minutes but once we were seen it was fairly painless as we had all our details entered on the VeriFLY app. I had to pay $100 for my extra suitcase as I expected.

We now went through security which was empty and into departures.
Well this was like a ghost town with nothing and I mean nothing open apart from Duty Free and Subway! Even in Duty Free, most of it was cordoned off and you had to ask if you wanted to see or buy anything. I bet they’re losing a tonne of money with people not impulse buying as you do in an airport.

We just found some seats and got settled in for a few hours wait. It was about 6.30 by the time we came through and with our flight not leaving until 21.25 we had plenty of time.
I just sat and typed up my notes from yesterday and popped to the small gift shop I found open to buy some magazines. I’m a sucker for interior magazines and I love the American/Canadian style homes so I always buy a few when I’m out here.

At about 8 o’clock, Helen and I went to queue up at Subway to get us all a sandwich as I knew I probably wouldn’t eat the plane food.

The queue was still a mile long even after we thought we’d let the initial rush get through. It was completely ridiculous that this was the only place open for food and the 2 poor girls serving did not stop the entire time. Even if you just wanted a tea or coffee, you had to queue up here. I can’t believe for an international airport how poor the facilities are here 😡

It took 45 minutes to get to the front, I ordered a ham and cheese toasted 6 inch for me and a foot long crispy chicken and cheese for Jim. I got 2 cookies and a Diet Pepsi, $24 altogether.

The plane was now boarding so we headed to the gate and queued up. We were row 38 which was literally the last row, it was quite nice not having anyone behind so we could recline guilt free!

It was gone half nine by the time everyone was seated so we would be even later than expected. We were still sat there not moving at 10pm but shortly after began taxiing to the runway. We then sat there for another 30 minutes and the captain came over the speaker to announce the ground crew thought we had one suitcase too many as the sheets weren’t tallying up and they suspected someone’s suitcase who wasn’t on our flight had made it onto our plane 🙄
They thought we had to go back to the hangar and unload all the bags but after 5 minutes they confirmed it was a clerical error and we could get on our way. Phew!

By 10.45 we were in the air and en route home.

Goodbye Canada

The drinks trolley came round soon after, I just got a Diet Coke. The IFE didn’t have any new films loaded and was the same crappy choice as on the way out so I just wrote some notes and read my magazines.
I could feel my eyelids getting heavy so tried to get some sleep. I actually managed about 5 hours and when I woke up we only had 1 and a half hours left!
I had completely missed dinner but breakfast came round shortly after I had woken up, this was a cheese or ham & cheese croissant with a yoghurt and bottle of water. Considerably better than the usual inedible breakfast BA serve but I still gave mine to Jim as I wasn’t hungry.

I just passed the rest of the flight time sorting through my photos, it seemed I had taken about 200 of the whale watching alone!

I do love flying in over London as it looks like a model village and I can spot the landmarks.

Jim liked spotting Battersea Power Station as that’s the current project he’s working on. You can just about see it on the right side

We landed at about 2.30pm U.K. time but it took a while to be given a gate.
They disembark 5-10 rows at a time and as we were at the back it was going to take a while to get off. A Canadian couple asked one of the cabin crew if it would be ok to quickly get off as they had a connecting flight that the check in closed in 10 minutes. This surly flight attendant took no pity on them whatsoever and told them they’d have to wait 😡. At this point it was only rows 1-5 that were allowed to leave so they wouldn’t even be in their way while they quickly made a run for it! I felt so sorry for them as they explained to us that they actually had 2 more flights to take today so missing even one would have a knock on effect. I told them to hunt down the cabin manager as this guy was so rude and clearly didn’t give a crap. I’m all for Covid measures but some common sense and empathy would be nice!
The couple eventually just got up when a few more rows had been called, we told them to just make a run for it. I really hope they made their flight, I know how stressful it can be to take an indirect flight and the worry it can cause.

Once off we had to join a mile long queue to get into the immigration hall. There had been a whole load of international flights land at once and I’m not sure Heathrow can cope with the demand at the moment.
When we eventually got in, it didn’t actually take long to get through the E Gates.

After being off the plane for nearly an hour you’d have thought our suitcases would be waiting for us right? Wrong! We had to wait another 15 mins for them to come out!
We then jumped in a black cab and by just after 4pm we were home sweet home.

Boris had been dropped off by Sylvia that morning, Hope was home from Uni for the weekend and Sam was working but got home at 5. It was so lovely to see everyone.
We got a Chinese takeaway for dinner and stayed up as late as we could as we both had work the next day 😩. Helen and Nick the lucky beggars had sensibly taken an extra days holiday.

And that there ends an incredible and unforgettable holiday to Canada. A few lows but they in no way impacted on the overall amazing time that we all had!

Up next for us is a girls only week long trip to Philadelphia and Washington DC in April with Hope and my mum as a very belated 18th birthday gift. We should have gone last Easter, but better late than never!
As this report has taken me so long to write, we are now in 2022 and actually leave in 77 days!
Stay tuned for the Pre-trip report coming soon.

Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my ramblings 😃

TTFN

[anji]

Lovely blow-out end to your holiday! Major shopping!

I've really enjoyed reading and picked up lots of tips 😀 Can't wait until September... but Florida February first! Thanks so much for taking the time to write.

[Melbatb]

Thank you for a great report! I love Canada and VI is one of my favorite places ever!

Not long until your next trip! Washington is on my to do list!

[4fromsuffolk]

Thank you for taking the trouble to do a trip report. I love reading about your adventures. Looking forward to your wedding report! Have you your dress yet? Hope Boris is feeling better xx

[Manyin]

Loved reading your fab report

[srh]

Thank you for writing such a great report, I really enjoyed it.

[pinktraceb]

Thanks for sharing your trip report with us. We went to that part of Canada 2 years ago and it brought back some happy memories 😊

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by anji

Lovely blow-out end to your holiday! Major shopping!

I've really enjoyed reading and picked up lots of tips 😀 Can't wait until September... but Florida February first! Thanks so much for taking the time to write.

See more...

Thank you so much Anji! I’m really glad it’s helped with your planning.
Very jealous of Florida next month 😍, whereabouts are you going?

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Thank you for a great report! I love Canada and VI is one of my favorite places ever!

Not long until your next trip! Washington is on my to do list!

See more...

Thank you Mel, I can see why VI is one of your favourite places! I would love to go back in the summer when it’s a tad warmer.

We can’t wait for D.C., it’s been on the bucket list for years!

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by 4fromsuffolk

Thank you for taking the trouble to do a trip report. I love reading about your adventures. Looking forward to your wedding report! Have you your dress yet? Hope Boris is feeling better xx

See more...

Thank you! It’s so lovely we can finally have adventures again, one of the worst parts of the pandemic for me was not having anything to look forward to or plan. Makes me feel extremely lucky to think that way though!

The wedding is really creeping up and I need to get my backside in gear with the planning. No dress yet as I’m determined to lose a stone before I even attempt to try a dress on 😂. I have finally at the grand age of 39, joined a gym for the first time ever 🙌

Boris is much better thank you, I’ve been meaning to update everyone on that thread so I’ll do that now