We awoke to a torrent of rain that showed no sign of relenting. After a quick breakfast of leftovers at the hotel, I dodged the raindrops while I loaded the suitcases into the car. Before nine o’clock we were on the road – heading north to the border…and home to Canada. Because of the rain, we decided to forego another visit to the Capitol Building…there’s always next trip.
We drove up to the Seattle-Tacoma area without too much issue; weather- and traffic-wise, but ran into ridiculous traffic once we hit Tacoma. Thankful for the HOV lanes, we zipped past most of the traffic jams…almost missing our exit to the 405…I happened to notice the exit at the last minute and cut over five lanes (safely) just in time to exit onto the bypass around Seattle. We continued in the HOV lanes on the 405, making great time, until it was time to exit back onto the I-5…another exit I almost missed.
By this time the rain had subsided to a light drizzle and stayed that way until Mount Vernon where we stopped for our final Walmart shop. We were prepared with our shopping lists, and we able to get most of the items we were looking for – I was especially happy to find my pizza-flavoured Combos. Mum and I also picked up our normal bottles of alcohol – tequila for me; rum for her. After gassing up the car, we were off again and heading to the border. We made it across the border with very little fuss or wait and before we knew it, we were heading towards Vancouver on Highway 99.
We made it into Vancouver around 2:30 and went straight to the hotel. After some disagreement over the price, room type and parking arrangement; we got settled…or at least as settled as we could be in a room so small. Realizing that my mood probably had a lot to do with my need for food, we headed across the street for a coffee, and were greeted by a beautiful sign…
We had a coffee and then decided to grab an early dinner at DD Mau’s (as featured on You Gotta Eat Here). We had originally wanted to go to Tomahawk BBQ in North Vancouver, but were worried about losing our parking spot at the hotel. We walked the half-mile to DD Mau’s and we happy to see that, not only was there no lineup, there was seating inside.
This was Mum’s “must-visit restaurant” of the trip so I was very glad that it worked out so well. I got an order of spring rolls (which came with a garlic aioli) and a duck bánh mì (which was ridiculously spicy, but in a good way). Mum had a chicken & spring roll noodle bowl, which she added a bit of sriracha to, in order to kick it up a notch. We were both quite happy with our selections.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and watched the Triple D marathon that is always on Friday nights. After Mum went to bed, I sat down to write this blog – it would have been done quicker if I wasn’t continually reconnecting to the hotel’s crappy low-speed WiFi. Looks like I will have something else to complain about to the front desk in the morning. For now I will make lemonade, and bid you all adieu.
Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.
L
