We are scheduled to fly to Vancouver today as the train leaves from there, and the trip includes a one night stay in the Pan Pacific Hotel on the Vancouver waterfront. The start of the trip did not go as planned. When I went to check in with our United flight Sunday evening I got the dreaded “we are unable to complete your request. Please call customer service”; not a good sign!  I waited quite awhile on hold for an agent who also could not find my reservation. As it turned out United had canceled our 1PM flight and rebooked us on a 3PM Air Canada flight but never told me! Thank you, United Airlines!  Luckily we found the correct reservation at Air Canada and I was able to check in without further delay. I hated losing the 2 hours but it should hopefully not affect the planned dinner reservations I had made in Vancouver!

Thankfully the trip to the Seattle airport was flawless and because it was mid day the airport was fairly quiet and security lines were quick- less than 5 minutes. Our flight left 30 minutes late but it was not an issue for us. It is only a 26 minute commuter flight from Seattle to Vancouver and you are flying low enough to really enjoy the scenery along the way. Arrival in Vancouver was no problem other than our Nexus cards could not be read by Canadian scanners so we had to use our regular passports to get through immigration. Again, there was hardly anyone there so there were no delays. A 30 minute $40 (CAD $, $29.77 US$) quickly got us to our hotel for the night, the lovely Pan Pacific Vancouver hotel located on the downtown waterfront with spectacular views of the city and surrounding mountains.

We arrived at the hotel at 5:30PM, in time to meet with the Rocky Mountaineer representative to receive our luggage tags, boarding passes and last minute instructions for our upcoming train trip. The check in process was well organized; kudos to Rocky Mountaineer.

Our travel agent, Patricia Stone, knew this was a special trip and had arranged to get us a room upgrade and special appetizers in our room for our arrival. Both were really spectacular!

I had read good things about the Pan Pacific restaurant, the Five Sails, and had made dinner reservations there. We were greeted promptly and taken to a lovely  “first row” table overlooking the busy Vancouver harbor with its busy float plane and boat traffic. Dinner was excellent.

It was still light outside after eating so we walked along the pier where the hotel was located. Part of the architecture are five large sails, so I now know how the restaurant got its name. Besides the hotel the pier hosts the cruise ship terminal and part of the Vancouver Convention center. It is quite an attraction. Near the end of the pier was the “FlyOverCanada” attraction, the concept we were familiar with as there is a similar one in Seattle. It is basically a simulator that gives you the illusion that you are flying. You are strapped in seats which then move, mimicking the motions of the movie, as though you were in an airplane- think a Walt Disney ride! It was still open so we opted to see it, as they are marvelous travelogues of the area. We were not disappointed.

Tomorrow morning we must have luggage ready to be picked up by 5:50 AM and we leave the hotel at 6:50 AM to go to the train station to begin our journey eastward. Our reunion journey begins.