September 17 – Vancouver

Lost Lagoon

Weather – 16º, overcast, a few sprinkles

Stanley Park forest

Steps – 17,021

12 hours 27 min of daylight

Latitude – Calgary 51º, Vancouver = 49º

Soooo, today we were NOT up before 6! More like 7:30, which is not that bad considering when we got in last night. It is a VERY rare occasion that I don’t wake up sometime in the night…last night was a very rare occasion. I cannot remember the last time I went to sleep and didn’t wake up until the morning! Maybe it was Mark’s fish last night.

Lingering was the name of the game again this morning. Blogging, breakfast, and icing my foot. I still have some plantar fasciitis going on, but it’s not terrible. I

Stanley Park forest

’ve discovered putting ice in my metal water bottle is the way to go when I’m not home with my usual ice pack.

Stanley Park forest

Stanley Park is a 20 min walk from our hotel. We walked along the park’s Lost Lagoon stopping along the way to read the info plaques. The Lost Lagoon used to be part of the sea but was landlocked when the Stanley Park bridge was built. Over time it changed from salt water to fresh. We say ducks, geese, sparrows, and herons.

Then we walked deep into the forest in Stanley Park. There are groomed paths, but the forest is mainly wild. It was beautiful. We walked beside huge trees dripping with moss.

We then circled down to the beach and found a

yet more Stanley Park forest

snack shack for an ice cream. We finished our time in the park with a visit to Stanley Park Brewery. This time Chris and I both had a flight of 4 beers.

The ice cream and the big breakfast we had made neither of us interested in lunch.

Soon we were back at the hotel for some down time before dinner at the hotel’s Italian restaurant, Carlino’s. We were disappointed.

We had a hotel credit as part of our hotel package. We’ve had this kind of package before and typically use it for a couple of drinks and a snack in the hotel lobby bar. This time the credit wasn’t applicable for alcohol. Food and drinks

guess what

tend to be overpriced in hotels. We don’t usually eat at the hotel restaurants as we

moss dripping from branches

like to wander and find interesting places in interesting neighborhoods to eat and drink. Other than eating in Carlino’s there wasn’t much else to spend this credit on. Not a terrible problem to have, but kind of a bummer compared to what we expected

Food and wine were good, but the service was not so much. They were out of the wine we wanted, no problem, but the alternative they suggested was 1.5 times the price. No thank

moss like icicles

you. We settled on a bottle with an agreeable price. Mosty, they poured for us. We are very capable of pouring, but isn’t someone else pouring, part of the price of a bottle of wine?

Eventually we expressed our displeasure and were discounted %10…great, but I want to spend ALL of our credit.

We ended the evening across the street at the Paradox hotel’s Karma bar. This was a very cool spot. I LOVE a lobby bar. The comings and goings of a hotel combined with the liveliness of a bar is super unique.

Stanley Park Brewery

DJ was ‘spinning’, service was terrific, drinks were tasty (expensive but delicious), ambiance was great, and the comp truffle popcorn was a nice touch. Next time I’d gladly stay here.

The Shangri-La was good. Once in the room, things were nice. The public spaces were just so-so. There was no lobby bar (as I said, I love a lobby bar) or really any lobby to speak of. The staff we encountered were all lovely, everyone who serviced our room left notes – that

“Some Like it Hot”

was a first. But it was almost as though we were staying at an AirBnB.

Another unique thing in this hotel is the pillow menu!! Of course this is ridiculous, but if they have it, I’m taking advantage. There was mostly normal stuff – firm, soft, feather, foam. Some was a bit out of the ordinary (for my experience with pillow menus!!) was a lavender pillow. Yes, please! It was fine…I hoped for more lavender-y.

no kidding!

What this hotel doesn’t seem to have is a water bottle filler. I surely can drink out of the sink and happily do so, but more and more places are having water bottle fillers. There’s one at the gym, but it’s not super convenient. There seem to be endless bottled water left in

before I got out of bed!

the room, so I’m not going thirsty, but to just fill my own bottle seems easier.