Mom and Me Adventure – Vancouver

My mom’s first international flight was pretty uneventful and that’s a good thing. We headed out of the Vancouver airport, dragging our oversized suitcases to the taxi line. Some jerk completely cut the line in front of us – nudging me out of the way with his shoulder to ensure he was one spot ahead of us. Because of my mom’s pleading look to not make a scene, I instead silently ranted about entitled males and wishing early onset impotence upon his ugly ass. (It was not nearly as satisfying as calling him out publicly for his lack of chivalry but gotta make mom happy, right? Besides, if he’s acting like that, he probably already is impotent and carrying around a lot of anger because of it.)

Had I been on this trip solo, I would have taken the train into town; but there’s no way I could ask my mom to haul her 50-pound suitcase all over the damn place. Fortunately, we hit the jackpot with our taxi driver. He played tour guide, pointing out the various highlights as we made our way downtown. About 20 minutes later, he deposited us at the Fairmont Waterfront. I threw the bellman for a loop when I reconfirmed that Gold Level checks in at the club lounge instead of the main registration desk. Look, I know my mom in her baggy oversized mens’ sweatshirt doesn’t look like the typical high roller, but her daughter was treating her to the good life on this trip.

I actually was concerned about how my mom would be treated in a fancy hotel. My mom has zero exposure to any hotels besides Days Inns. I mentioned previously in this blog – my parents did not travel much and the very few times when they did, it was budget-city all the way. She and my dad didn’t really ever go out to dinner or over to friends’ houses or anything else that social adults do. The only time my mom ever gets out of her uniform of baggy sweatshirts, oversized t-shirts, and jeans is for weddings and funerals. So it was with some trepidation that we entered the Gold Lounge for check-in.

I needn’t have worried. Malia (and yes, I am giving her a shout-out) could not have been more gracious and welcoming to both of us. Throughout our stay, she and her colleague Bailie spent time chatting with my mom and basically spoiling her every time we were in the lounge. Our room ended up having a view of the water and cruise ship terminal, although I honestly think my mom’s favorite part of the room was the rainhead shower (seriously, it was the first thing she mentioned to one of her sisters on a phone call). The Fairmont is hands-down the nicest place my mother has ever stayed; and those two ladies in the lounge made damn sure that my mom would have nothing but good things to say about our stay there.

Our first evening, we got settled into the room and I listened to my mom wax poetic for 20 minutes about the rainhead shower. Finally, I dragged her out of the room to fully scope out the Gold Lounge, which has an outdoor terrace providing beautiful views of Canada Place and downtown Vancouver. We loitered for a bit, soaking in the scenery and taking photos.

Finally, I decided to get us down to street level and go explore. We walked around the immediate area, checking out the waterfront until I could no longer ignore my growling stomach. We hit up a pub for dinner. Unbeknownst to me, my mom apparently actually cared about the NBA Finals (really, who is this woman who has never previously watched a second of any NBA game?!? Honestly, I think she was just more interested in seeing the Toronto Raptors win – you know, the whole underdog and history-making thing) and there happened to be a game on. So I had the weird experience of watching my mom voluntarily watching part of a basketball game.

To eat, my mom actually tried something that was new to her and I was pleased to see her step out of her comfort zone, even a tiny smidge. As she’s gotten older, it seems that she’s become ossified in her ways – eating the same three things over and over, flipping between the same three TV channels, and bringing up the same couple of topics on every phone call we have. I think this trip was an opportunity for her to try something slightly different every once in awhile. And that is one of the benefits from travel; it forces you to be outside of your comfort zone, giving you a reason to be adventurous, to explore different things, and to learn something new about yourself.

The next day was a Friday and unfortunately, that meant I needed to wrap up some work stuff before being offline for a week. I sent my mom to the Gold Lounge to hang out while I was on conference calls. Finally in the early afternoon, I decided it was time to actually start my vacation. I logged off and then informed my mom we were going to walk in the opposite direction we were in the night before. We took off into the city and when we passed a shopping center, my mom hesitated. “Did you want to go in”, I asked. “Yeah, just for a minute”, she replied. Well, I must have scared her about the ship’s gala nights because we ended up making our way to a department store – where we spent three freaking hours shopping and trying on clothes. Which, when you know what my mom wears 98% of the time, is actually hilarious. It’s kinda like a bald man spending 3 hours in the hair product aisle in the drugstore.

Anyway, Saturday was a beautiful sunny day – perfect for a full day of sightseeing. We both lathered up with sunscreen and set out. Although I am not normally a person who does the typical sightseeing things, my mom’s knees aren’t going to let her walk aimlessly for miles. So I opted to buy us a day-pass for the hop-on / hop-off bus. Although pricey, there are two routes in Vancouver and you get to cover some serious ground. I hustled her onto the Park Route first because I knew it would get busy in Stanley Park since it was such a pretty day. We rode the bus until the Coal Harbor stop so my mom and I could walk the waterfront path that provided gorgeous views back towards downtown. I had given my mom a new digital camera for her birthday and she took a ton of photos, playing with the zoom feature to get the perfect shot. (It really is a shame she can’t see that well because a lot of her photos are slightly out of focus, lol!)

We ended up spending a bit of time checking out the totem poles before hopping back on the bus to ride it all the way around Stanley Park, down towards Granville Island, back up towards Chinatown and into the Gastown District. I made my mom get off the bus so we could watch the steam-powered clock chime the hour (it sounds ridiculous but it’s actually pretty interesting, I promise).

Then, because we could, we jumped on the City Route trolley and rode that route end-to-end. We were in an old school trolley that was not nearly as comfortable as the bus, but the driver was way more entertaining – so that made up for the sore heinies. Having gotten our money’s worth from the Hop-On / Hop-Off tickets, I decided to treat my mom to a proper birthday dinner. I made reservations at a restaurant that wasn’t too over-the-top but would be a place that my mom would never go to ordinarily. The universe must have approved because we had an outstanding server. She was working her last shift before devoting herself to a new job but went out of her way to make our experience special. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to ride the Rocky Mountaineer train this summer, hope that you have a server who shares my first name. My mom enjoyed her “fancy” meal and I even got her to try eating steak that wasn’t cooked to the consistency of shoe leather.

On Sunday, we had breakfast in the hotel before re-packing to make the long journey across the street to the cruise ship terminal. It seemed that my mom really enjoyed herself in Vancouver and I was gratified that our trip had gotten off to such a wonderful start. But now it was time to get on board a cruise ship and start the next leg of our Mother-Daughter Adventure…