NW Trip '12 - Day 7

6/8/12 - Day 7: While we only got about 6 hours of sleep, we woke up with a renewed sense of excitement knowing that we would only have to spend about 4-5 hours in the car today. We didn't get to see much of Osoyoos given the rain and fog in the morning, but we were anxious to get to Vancouver anyways, so we didn't mind. We had a beautiful drive through some of Canada's wine/produce country -- the roads weren't too windy, but the mountains and greenery were stunning. We arrived at our hotel (Westin Wall Centre) around 1:00, and they were nice enough to let us check in early. After unloading and taking a quick bathroom break, we walked to the train station (about 10 minute walk). 

We took the sky train (an elevated monorail-type train) to Waterfront station, where we were told to get off if we wanted to see the main "tourist" area. We found our way downtown and located a food truck called "Fresh Local Wild" that Jon had seen on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. Overall, it was extremely good food. Cari had a fresh salad and I went with the fish and chips, salmon-style. We also got the opportunity to sit in their small one-table seating area attached to the back of the truck and chatted with the guys running the truck. They gave us a good recommendation for a dinner location, which we ended up trying, but more on that later. 

After lunch, we strolled down to the waterfront, walked around, and then walked back up through the "shopping district." The culture of people was much different here than any of the other locations we had visited thus far. We noticed lots of young, "fashionable" people, many of which were of Asian descent. Next, we located a bar and settled in with a couple of pitchers for the U.S. vs. Antigua/Barbuda men's world cup qualifying match. It was a good "reset," since I think we were all a little grumpy as a result of being indecisive with our plans (and probably moreso due to spending 24 of the past 48 hours in the car). Anyways, after we watched the U.S. win handily, we decided to walk west to Stanley Park to find our dinner location. We didn't realized exactly how far of a walk it would be, but we enjoyed being outside and seeing a new place. 

We FINALLY made it to our dinner location at the Teahouse Restaurant. We had an amazing dinner (one of the best of the whole trip). We also had a friendly server who gave us an appetizer on the house for walking all the way out there. While we watched the sun set over the water, I enjoyed a perfectly cooked tenderloin, ceasar salad, and wine picked by Jon. Cari had wild mushroom ravioli with scallops, and we shared a raspberry sorbet for dessert. We stayed for a couple hours, joking with the staff (mainly Phillip from the Philippines!). Instead of walking back, we had the restaurant call us a taxi that took us back to the nearest train station. We happened to get a GREAT taxicab driver who was incredibly entertaining. It was a great way to finish a fun night out! We took the sky train back to the station near our hotel, walked back, and passed out.