Travel day today. On the bus by 9:30 and heading north through the Seattle fog to Vancouver, British Columbia. The fog eventually lifted, exposing lots of lush farmland. The border crossing was painless and quick — we had to go into a separate area for buses, where we had to get out and get stamped through by a Canadian border officer. I think at most each of us (all on Australian passports bar two) was with the border person for no more than 30 seconds. We were the only bus going through at the time, so there was no line either.
Our hotel couldn’t guarantee all our rooms would be ready until 4pm, so we spent three hours at the Granville Island markets. What a big place, full of arty crafty stores, fruit and vege (and other food) markets, food halls and other eating places. It was too much choice! Eventually I decided to have a smokey beef German/Polish style sausage on a bun with onions and sauerkraut (Kaisereck Deli inside the big Public Market). I took it outside to enjoy the fine weather (cloudy and cool, but no rain). While I was having my lunch I saw a young woman walk past in what appeared to be workclothes for someone working in construction. She had a leather glove in one hand, which looked a bit odd as it had a long part for the lower arm. And then I realised what it was — a falconry glove! She stood near me, put on the glove, and next thing I knew a magnificent bird swooped down and landed on her arm! She gave it a food reward, then sent it on its way again. She moved around the outside area to a couple of different locations, every so often getting the bird to come down from a roof to land on her arm. Very cool!
One other thing that was cool were the painted silos next to the markets, which are part of a working concrete plant. And even cooler? The concrete trucks with their bulbous containers painted as a strawberry or a bunch of asparagus.
After we got into our rooms (mine is WAY down the very end of a LONG hall — at least there’s no foot traffic going past, or elevator noise!), we met in the lobby to go to dinner, which was at DIVA at the Met. It was a superb meal (pork belly for appetiser, petite filet for main), topped off by an absolutely delicious Stilton cheesecake — yep, you heard that right — Stilton! the horribly smelly cheese! I was fairly skeptical about having it, but hey, why not. It was light and fluffy and slightly sweet, with just a HINT of blue cheese at the back of the throat. I don’t know who first thought of putting Stilton into a dessert, but they’re a genius — it just worked.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 