A snowy Saturday

February 22

 My Saturday started early. A bit too early. I woke up around 5:30 am. Not having gotten much rest having got home at midnight and no longer could sleep. I debated going downtown to the travel expo and decided that I would go. On a little solo adventure downtown. I got ready and prepared to leave and thats when I found out that sometime during the night it decided to snow.

I drove my car to work, parking it in the warm garage before heading down town on the sky train. The streets were calm with traffic and the city quiet. I guess not many people wanted to be out in the cold snowy weather. At this point it was only flurries and more wet then dry.

I strolled slowly down to the convention centre knowing that I was too early for the travel expo so enjoyed taking some photos of the grey sky and surrounding buildings.

 The convention centre has a very large globe hanging from the ceiling in its lobby that slowly rotates. I had to go into the west side of the convention centre to get this shot. Oh world, I will travel you.

I journeyed down below the centre to the corridor that connects the West and East buildings, discovering some really cool native art that is on display as well as Olympic medals, torches and a podium from the 2010 Winter Games that were hosted in Vancouver. It was cool to see the medals up close.

The travel expo started at 10 and I was one of the first people to arrive. I was interested in checking out G Adventures and a few others. I was just attending out of curiosity. Possibly hoping I could get some ideas for trips to go on and places to see. There was a lot of booths for different companies and people buzzing about to help you find anything you were looking for. I checked out G Adventures, Contiki Holidays and was introduced to Topdeck.  I did not go into the expo planning to book a trip but found myself welcoming the idea of having a little sample of Europe before settling more into the UK.

I ended up putting a deposit down to hold my place in a 16 day adventure starting in Rome on April 9th travelling through Italy, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium to finish in London.

I left the convention centre feeling excited and nervous which seems to be the constant emotional scale I have right now. I headed down towards Gastown in search of something to eat. I debated going home or to Subway but a bit of strength pushed me out of the train station and back into the cold where I walked the few blocks to Abbott Street so I could enjoy La Casita.

I order the chicken mole enchiladas. A dish I always get. I don't want to get anything else. I know this will be good and just what I want. A lot of the places I know do not have mole enchiladas so having this was a treat. La Casita was my first Mexican restaurant, back when they started in Powell River. The food was always good but they have been replaced by a really respectable Mexican restaurant that I love as well. I usually go to La Casita with Shawn so I missed her being there with me. A tip, only get the $4.50 guacamole with your tortilla chips if you really really want it. I never asked he price when offered the delicious dip with my chips and was a bit shocked at the price on my bill.

I journeyed home at the front of the sky train car, hoping to get a good view but due to the weather, the window quickly became a blur of wetness. I was happy to get back into my car, stealing a few boxes from work before heading home to the winter wonderland that was my neighbourhood.

Later that evening I headed to metrotown to entertain myself a little in the travel book section of Metrotown before meeting up with some of my coworkers for some all you can eat sushi at Kanawa. The sushi was good, we ate a fair bit but at $25 I found the price to be a bit steep. It was nice to enjoy a meal with my coworkers outside of work.

Our meal finished and the mall closing I headed back home to my warm bed and cuddle buddy Ricky.

20 days, 4 hours.