Just another Friday in the Year of the Snake (or is it?)

No, NOT just another Friday. I am reminded - by the article of RED clothing that I m wearing somewhere -  to make every day of this year count!

8:30 am
A quick look outside the motel window confirms what I have dreaded: Pouring rain, not the most exciting material to work with for a fun day.

8:44 am
Certain relationship issues motivate me again to be at an undisclosed location for 2 days. After perusing Expedia for a short while, I book a room with a view. Oh, right. Rain...  This is going to be a pooper !

9:17 am
The hourly weather forecast calls for sunny breaks by 1 pm. Yeah right! But then it also calls for sunny skies tomorrow; maybe I'll actually get a view from my room with a view!

11:00 It is raining even harder now!  And some of the raindrops have structure to them when the melt on the windscreen!

11:50 Maybe this will turn out ok?  It stopped raining.

12:30 pm I am picking up Yiman for lunch at the Library, and I am happy to point to the southern sky when she gets in the car to point out the light grey-bluish spot that is manifesting there.  Kudos weatherforecast-person!

I inform Yiman that today is my treat and that I already have picked the lunch location. Yiman remains in the dark almost even after the word 'revolving' has been mentioned, but quickly gets excited once we get close to Top of Vancouver.  The glass-walled elevator on the outside of the building has lost none of its attraction: Yiman, showing that she's a Rooster and no chicken, takes in the view right from the glass walls. The restaurant at the top still offers one of the best views of Vancouver, this time aided a bit by sunny breaks! The elevator to the restaurant is free, and prices are comparable to better ground-level restaurants. The food here is actually excellent, so for all you cheap-skates:  This place has excellent food and you get the view for FREE!
The view from the viewing platform just below isn't quite as nice. It's not as much the lesser altitude that affects the view, but the size and angle of the panes of glass. Paying $15.75 to use the elevator to that viewing platform is outrageous. What is even more outrageous, is that to use one of the two tourist telescopes installed there, one has to pay an additional Dollar. Operators of the Viewing Platform, HAVE YOU NO SHAME?

2:50 pm Excellent fish main courses and inventive (and good ;-) desserts have been eliminated and having dropped off Yiman, I proceed to Robson Street in order to get the best room available by means of early check-in.  Room 3411 at the Empire Landmark again! Despite some new rain drops on the windscreen, this Friday is turning out alright. One thing the smoking floor at the Empire Landmark and the Top of Vancouver restaurant have in common: Seagulls do not circle overhead, but rather below. Something I could get used to.



You are asking for pictures after 9 am?  Phone died. Hopefully not permanently! And yes, I even picked the same brand for the new phone as the old one, in order to minimize the amount of brain work required to get used to the new one (It's a PHONE, it shouldn't require that much thinking!), but the picture tells a different story.