Huge thank you to all the DDFs who have helped with the planning or with the itinerarys they posted.
We flew from EWR to YVR Arrived sunday night with AC flight, at the national desk i asked for a van with US plates luckily they had so i just disregarded my original resevation (saved $400
)as we made our way to the hotel we stopped off at 7/11 to pick up a "speakout" prepaid sim, checked in at the sherton wall centre and called it a night
Mondaydrove to chabbad for shachris @7am got there lights were out so we head over to Sharrai T'zedek for 7:15 shachris, got back to the hotel picked up the rest of the crew and we head out to Shuk&Eat service was great food was okay.
we then made our way to UBC gardens
http://botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/ did the Greenheart TreeWalk and thats about it
from there we drove back to the hotel dropped off the car and got on the Hop on Hop off bus, at the end of the route(from where we started) i think it was stop 14 we got off and took a boat ride (one way ride is included with the bus pass across) to Granville island spent some time there walking around baught soem fruits/drinks, picked up the bus at the island stop and took it back to a stop which was 2 blocks away from the hotel, got the car and drove to Canada Place (5 min drive) and we did Flyover Canada
https://www.flyovercanada.com/ which was really fun!
after that we went to the Real Canadian Superstore picked up some snacks and breakefast for the next day, aside from having some kosher food in the international aisle like tradition soup, bamba,and cake they had a kosher fridge with CY milk,cheese, cottage cheese,and some deli. after that we rushed over to the 8:10 mincha-mariv at S"T (only minyan in town) the rabbai speaks for a couple min after mincha so we davening ended at about 8:50. dinner we ate at maple grill. great food, good price. dont forget to make a resevration.
Tuesdayat breakfast on Monday I bumped into the rabbi of chabbad and he told me shacris is at 7:30 and i should join so thats what i did I was the 10th guy.
got some fresh pastries from Shuk&Eat got back to the Hotel, ate a quick breakfast and we started our drive to Whistler Hwy 99 is just gorgeous period! kinda reminded me of Hwy 1 we did last summer (LA-SF) stopped off at Shannon Falls also really nice, the village stroll in Whistler is nice they have an frozen yogurt shop called Menchie's which has both parve and dairy options everything is clearly labeled if its kosher or not. on the way back we went a bit out of the way (aprox 10 min) to Lynn Suspension Bridge
http://lynncanyon.ca/. Dinner we ate at Sabra which was good (israeli style). after we finshed eating we walked to mincha which is a 5 min walk. at night we walked over to IGA to get some fruits&vegtables and i took Dans recommendation and got a couple bags of old dutch potato chips i gotta say they are pretty good.
Wednesday we ate breakfast in the room, drove to the ferry terminal we didnt make reservations and had no problem getting on with our car but YMMV
Victoria was Amazing! we did the gardens and Fishermans Wharf, took the 6pm ferry back (i checked online and saw the 5pm was sold out so i quickly made a resvation for the 6pm. i think everyone went back on the 5pm ours was only half full! lol) got back just in time for mincha.. Ate at Maple grill again they are the only ones open past 8pm food was once again great.
Thursdaybreakfast in the room again checked out left the car at valet. Walked to the airport( right by Canada place for our seaplane tour
https://www.harbourair.com/ a must do IMHO
after that we walked to pick up some rental bikes right at the entrance to Stanley park biked around the park(MUST DO). got back to the hotel picked up the car and drove to Omnitsky's
great food, the owner overheard us saying how similar it is to what bernstein on essex was he ran over and told us thats where he got the idea and he proceeded to personally make us his favorite sandwich and packed it up for us for the drive, we finshed eating,took some frozen meats they had there and some of his famous hotdogs.
arrived in seattle checked in at the Residence Inn Seattle University District which was built only 8 months ago everything is basicly brand new the rooms come with a big fridge/freezer a dishwasher, electric stove,and a microwave. they have a laundry room on our floor which has 1 washing mechine and 2 dryers.
thats it for Vancouver.. to be continued
