July11,2026 Vancouver

We woke to this view from our suite. Saddest view ever.

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We walked off Symphony at 9:30…as we were exiting, a porter offered his services to help us find and fetch our luggage. Souk loaded the bags and walked us through the terminal…thankfully no customs stop required …Crystal took care of that when we sailed into Prince Rupert. We arrived at the Fairmont Waterfront at 9:50 am. There were a lot of folks in the lobby…

We checked in, enjoyed coffee and English muffins in the ARC cafe -Fairmont’s restaurant.

Our room was not ready so we decided to take a spin around Canada Place. With its cool sail- like white roof, Canada Place is a lively waterfront hub, welcoming cruise ships from all over the world. It’s a cruise terminal, convention center and gathering place. And literally right across the street from our hotel.

Craziest thing …as we are walking along we spot CJ Marvin and his beautiful partner Veronica. So of course we stop to chat. CJ takes Tim’s photo…I take one of Tim and CJ.

I barely park Timmy on a bench, take one photo and we receive a text that our room was ready. So we decamped to our room with a view.

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Some glare from the sun…believe me I’m not complaining about sunshine.

Our room is lovely and spacious…with a nice seating area. Also a Nespresso and best yet…a kettle with a great selection of teas.

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I love the AMEX Fine Hotels program…early check in…(11:30 today) late check out – 4:00 pm, welcome amenity, $100.00 hotel credit and breakfast included. What’s not to love? We’ve never really taken advantage of the late check out, but tomorrow our flight leaves at 3:00 pm, so this is wonderful.

So as I was transferring my clothes and stuffing my duffel bag to meet the helicopter weight limit, Timmy gets out his scale and gives me the bad news…28 pounds…3 pounds over. Now Tim’s bag is about 8 pounds under the 25 lb limit…8 freaking pounds! …but he claims that while he is under the limit …he really doesn’t have the “space” for any of my bulky clothes. But he thinks that the pilot will simply combine the weight of both bags and as a couple, we will be under the 50 lb limit. Whatever.

I left Timmy to watch the soccer match and set out for Gastown…on a mission to film the Whistling Steam Clock. It is one of the world’s few steam clocks …it whistles every 15 minutes and shoots a puff of steam on the hour.

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Timmy with his magic eraser made the crowd disappear.

10 seconds…can you hear the whistle?

Because I couldn’t help myself, I walked over for one last look…

Then I walked for a while along the waterfront.

Stopped at Tim Horton’s for a snack.

We watched Symphony sail away…we could just make her out above the white sails.

Oh my goodness…are we still doing mirror selfies? Of course we are.

Dinner in the hotel restaurant…I could have used the AMEX credit at the Spa…oh well. Yummy raspberry drinks to start.

I must say dinner was fabulous…My Halibut in wine steamed clams, double smoked bacon, garden herb pistou and spring peas was amazing. Timmy had Dungeness crab bucatini with fresh pasta, crab bisque, asparagus, garden chilis, and toasted seaweed. It was yummy…I’m sorry I didn’t get a good photo…those truffle fries kind of got in the way ☹️

Here’s another view of the fries. I really loved them.

Of course we had dessert…because goodness knows, we hadn’t ingested enough calories during the past 11 days.

We thought about walking across the street…that thought lasted about 3 seconds…

Back in our room, I realized that PricewaterhouseCoopers was next door …they occupy 20 floors of the building on Howe Street. #mypeople

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One last look before lights out.

Our Pacific Northwest journey continues tomorrow. We are looking forward to returning to Sonora Island. We were last there in 2024…and I’ve been trying to get us back there ever since…Bears and eagles and salmon fishing. Can’t wait.
We hope you continue to follow along 💙🦅💙