vancouver with lorena

i hate to say this, but i had a feeling having lorena with me would make vancouver less enjoyable. nothing against her, but i was loving the city so much, there was no way she would feel the same. and she didn't. right away, she knew it wouldn't compare to portland. she had just come from seattle, but it was her stop in portland right before that that made the biggest impression on her.

still, we had a great time. we slept in sunday. this was special. it was our first time sleeping together. in orlando, she still lives at home, and out of respect to her parents, will not spend the night elsewhere. which sucks for me, but i understand it. after rising, we made breakfast and then ventured out. we explored downtown and the coastline, before driving to stanley park.

lorena is a big "star wars" fan (despite only being 22), so she was excited to see "the endor forest", as i described it to her. not that it was much different than what portland had to offer. plenty of trees there too.

unfortunately, it rained all day sunday. we made the most of it, enjoying a nice hike through the woods when the rain subsided for a while. but due to the overcast, lorena never got to see the whitecaps adjacent to downtown. the tops of the mountains were hidden.

on our second day, we drove to west vancouver, which is north of stanley park. the drive was notable for the fact that we saw an atlas moving truck stuck under a bridge. i always wondered what would happen if a truck just slightly exceeded the height of the opening of a bridge. well, we saw it.

when we arrived at seawell's marina, we dressed in warm orange water suits and headed out on a boat trip to explore the islands and waterlife surrounding vancouver. this was very cool, and fortunately, by this point, the sun was emerging.

after we finished our 2 hour boat ride (on which we saw lots of seals...much to lorena's liking), we got coffee at the adjacent coffeeshop. we both tried logging on, since they said they had wireless. lorena also has a macbook like me. yeah, we joked about what a couple of dorks we are. the online access never really happened, so we finished our coffee and split. we then began our drive east towards alberta. i was sad. i didn't want to leave, and now that the sun was coming out for the next two or three days (projected anyway), it seemed a shame we were departing. but we had a schedule and that was that.

the drive through british columbia was gorgoeus. highway 1 east was completely tree-lined. lorena said it was just like driving through oregon. just amazing.

we reached kamloops, b.c. and pitched our tent. fires weren't allowed, so we had to get food elsewhere. starving by this point, we opted for taco bell. taco bell is usually gross to me, but we were both so hungry it was a more than okay way to finish the day...