 09:10:06 And so we awake to our final hours in the city of Vancouver. Today we fly to the East, over the Rocky Mountains and to the next phase in our little adventure. But first an early morning visit to Vancouver's Chinatown district.  09:13:00 Here we see an interesting memorial to the Chinese Canadians who fought for Canada in the wars of the 20th century.  09:14:14 A nice place to get away from the busy city is here in the Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park and Gardens.  09:15:41 I am really proud of the photos I took here in the gardens because I managed to get many of them at such an angle so that you can't see any signs of the modern western city that surrounds this little park.  09:17:26  09:18:11  09:18:42 This is a really good picture, don't you think?  09:19:13  09:20:17 I like to come here also because it reminds me of my visits to China and the gardens that I saw there.  09:21:51 If I didn't know I was in Vancouver I might be able to convince myself that I was in Suzhou or Shanghai.  09:23:33 Leaving the gardens behind us we continue along to see where we will end up for breakfast.  09:26:08  10:09:04 Ironically we end up having breakfast right across the street from Landon's house. We have lunch plans with him and Neil today before heading for the airport.  After breakfast we meet up with Landon and Neil at Neil's house.  Landon snaps a photo of me with the infamous Habanero pepper.  11:53:42 We take a shortcut through the West End and past the so-called "O Canada House". Canadians take note because this is the house in which our national anthem was written, and which is now a very nice Bed and Breakfast.  12:07:21 A short drive brings us to a fantastic lunch place in Vancouver's Kitsilano area called Moderne Burger. This is retro diner food par excellence.  12:10:22 The menu is fairly simple... but if you aren't a fan of burgers you might be in the wrong place.  12:59:05 The décor of Moderne Burger is anything but "modern". Does anyone remember ever actually seeing one of these jukeboxes in action?  Landon snaps a photo of the décor of Moderne Burger. The reflections are quite revealing in this photo. You can see Landon poised to take the picture as well me trying to stretch my shoulder into a more comfortable position to ease the excruciating pain.  Ah yes.... another terrible photo of me... regaling the others with tales of life as a pirate on the high seas. Check out my Creamsicle Milkshake! Extra thick!   I have this weird thing... I have to eat the fries before the burger. The only problem is that there are a lot of fries...  Now is that the most perfect burger you've ever seen, or what?  After a fantastic lunch we have a bit of time so we take a walk back to the car through Kitsilano and decide to visit the beach one last time.  13:20:51 This is Kitsilano Beach. In the background behind this weird construction of sticks is downtown Vancouver.  13:22:43 The large collection of trees to the left of the tall buildings downtown is Stanley Park (remember the big park we biked all the way around?).  13:23:59 Out in the bay are tankers and freighters waiting to be filled with cargo. Apparently these freighters are (surprisingly) a major source of air pollution in Vancouver.    Neil just can't get enough of my stories of my life as a pirate. He's even taking notes and asking so many questions... "Let me see if I have this straight here," he says. "You're telling me that you have to pillage but are not required to take part in the raping as well. Because I was under the impression that the two went together - raping AND pillaging. And what about singing? Pirates in movies do a lot of singing. You don't have to sing, do you?"  And so, for the last time in 2005 we wet our feet in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.  Some hippies sell some hippie goods from a big log.  Please come over and buy something! We have hemp sandals and a wide selection of beads!  13:33:57 Heading back to downtown again we pass down Kitsilano's 4th avenue, which remembers its hippy past by hanging tie-dye flags from the lamp posts.  14:20:19 After dropping Neil off and saying goodbye we're off for one final stop on the way to the airport. Well, actually it's not really on the way to the airport at all, but it's still interesting. Here we are on the campus of Vancouver's Simon Fraser University. Located just East of downtown the university sits like a "modern acropolis" atop a large hill (or small mountain, if you prefer) and provides amazing views that compensate for the fact that it's somewhat inconvenient to get all the way up here.  14:22:36 Check out this seminar room... how do you concentrate on anything anyone is saying with that view in the background?  14:28:59 Far away to the South lies the evil United States.  14:29:34  14:30:09 A lot of these buildings may look familiar as the campus is often used as a location for shooting movies and television and X-Files.  14:32:34  14:36:57 Landon didn't quite get why we wanted him to pose like this... but it was because he looked like he had angel wings.  14:38:41 An ancient step-pyramid built by the original dwellers of Mount Simon Fraser... English Literature Undergrads.  The engineering undergrads must have built this one...  14:38:54 This is a statue of Terry Fox, a former Simon Fraser student, whose Marathon of Hope (a cross-country run across Canada for Cancer research) was cut short only half-way by his death was almost exactly 25 years ago.  14:39:57 I don't know what these are, but they were kind of cool so I took a picture of them.  Check out this chick on the roof painting.   14:43:42 Maybe this building you've seen in X-Files or some other television show?  15:02:47  15:34:50 And so we're now on our way to the airport. This fence is weird... it has owls and monkeys on it.  16:36:20 Today's flight to Edmonton will be provided by Air Canada... Canada's only surviving national airline.  16:36:24 Vancouver airport has changed a lot over the years, but this bit seems to always stay the same. I cannot even count how many times I've walked (or ran) through here on my way to catch a plane to somewhere.  16:58:42 And so we push back from the terminal and we're on our way East to Edmonton.  18:45:48 Just over an hour later we land safe and sound one time zone away in the city of Edmonton with its conveniently located Tim Horton's right by the luggage carousel.  Map orientation, anyone? Oh my god it's cold here... it's like 8 degrees and there's rain all over the place. Suddenly, after a week of sunny skies, the weather becomes a concern to me again. The day after tomorrow is one of those critical good weather days and it seems that an enormous zone of winter has descended onto the province of Alberta. Thoughts of schedule changes begin to surface, but after checking with the weather channel it seems that the winter zone is going to push Southward and just out of our path as our journey continues over the next few days, staying ahead of us and out of the way. We must stick to the Nerd Schedule. It hasn't let us down yet, after all.  21:47:05 After renting a car and checking into our hotel we have just enough energy for dinner at Red Lobster. It is a bit sad to have left Vancouver and the West Coast behind us, but tomorrow we begin the next phase of this trip and there are still many cool things left to see and do. Today's Travel Information O Canada House Bed and Breakfast www.ocanadahouse.com 1114 Barclay Street Vancouver, BC V6E 1H1 (604) 688-0555 / 1-877-688-1114 Moderne Burger http://members.shaw.ca/moderneburger/home.html 2507 West Broadway Vancouver, BC (604) 739-0005 This is without a doubt one of the best places to eat in Vancouver and perhaps the best burger you will ever have. If you go for a visit venture a little bit out of downtown to Kitsilano and stop here for lunch. It's worth it. Edmonton Holiday Inn Palace 4235 Gateway Blvd Edmonton, AB (780) 438-1222 This was a nice hotel to stay at, conveniently located just at the Southern end of the city of Edmonton. It was also nice because I didn't have to pay for it because my mom had a free night's stay that I could use. Red Lobster www.redlobster.ca 
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