The next day i basically got up drunk and proceeded to watch my trip fall apart before my eyes. whatever...who says you cant show up for international flights ten minutes before it leaves. who says you cant do the things in the Todai bathroom that i do, who says you cant act gay to get the 300 cost for moving your flight around waived, who says you cant do anything? oh yeah...them. at any rate United Airlines came through for me in a pinch and got me to Vancouver. flying in was a very nice experience. i was dumbfounded at the beauty of Vancouver International, as well as everything else i saw.I was confused as on how to get to the downtown area, so i opted for the taxi method, which was CA $30 plus a five dollar tip. easy enough. but from what i saw, theres a desk that you can call your hotel from and if the property has themselves listed here, they come get you. so try that. there is also a limo service that starts at about CA $40.

Driving from the airport to the Downtown Vancouver area was beautiful. Just the industrial areas before you come to the island are clean and well kept. the real excitement for me was when we drove over Granville St. Bridge and i was able to see the main Vancouver area. its absolutely beautiful and i could see how easy it is to fall in love with the look of this city. To the right of the bridge is a part of town thats called Yaletown, from first glance, it looks like its going to be everything ive heard it is.

By this time i was getting a little nervous about my hotel, i had passed up on the Opus hotel (www.opushotel.com) in order to save a few dollars, but sometimes that backfires on me. So i left Yaletown behind and started to dread what i had done. nightmares swirled in my head of dirty beds with blacklight semen and crackheads at the continental breakfast. But then it became clear to me, there is no bad part of Vancouver. so as we rounded around Hastings street and into the Vancouver Marriot Pinnacle parking lot my worries were soon erased. At 1128 West Hastings, the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle (here) is in an outstanding location, central to the whole North end of the city. it was still dark and i couldnt tell what was where, but i knew it was the right spot, theres nothing worse than booking a hotel on the internet only to find its a miserable property in a miserable neighborhood. The total cost for the lodging and two round trip tickets from SFO to Vancouver was $1233.00 through United Vacations at www.united.com