After a (very horrible) 5:00am wake-up call, Luke & I got ready & headed out the door towards downtown Portland to meet our friends & catch the 6:30am Bolt Bus towards Vancouver B.C.!!! (I also have to add that the Bolt Bus was a total of $75 for Luke and I both, round trip – cheaper than gas and way cheaper than the train!)

After countless hours on the bus (& a stop in Seattle, Bellingham & the border crossing…) we made it to the Vancouver train station between 2:30-3:00pm.  After a very quick ride on the SkyTrain, we lugged our bags through the streets of Vancouver to our hotel. We checked into our hotel in the West End & instantly got blown away by the impressive views of the city from our balcony. We got freshened up, re-grouped & then hit the streets in search of food!

We ventured over to Gastown & sipped on a few beers at Chill Winston while we all chatted about how fashionable everyone in Vancouver is. Seriously, everyone is so well put together in this town. We walked a few blocks down the road & enjoyed a group dinner at the Lamplighter. This was my favorite moment of the trip. We were all together & excited to be on vacation in such a great city 🙂

After dinner, we wandered around for a bit & found a few dive bars while we waited for our local friend, Richard to show up. The long day had finally caught up with me – so Katie & I took a cab back to the hotel to rest up for day two…