Friday, July 29, 2016
Rode UberX to SFO domestic terminal 3. United Air Canada flight. Beverages: orange juice and water. During the flight I discovered I still had a small canister of mace in my bag and SFO TSA had not caught or confiscated it. I reported the issue at Canada customs where they took it from me. Light rail to Yaletown: 8.15 Canadian dollars (CAD). Walked to Best Western Granville (1100 Granville Street). I presumed incorrectly that I was too early to check in, then thankfully and immediately got a room on the 14th floor. The room is small and very nice. The view north is mostly of home skyscrapers. Brondell Japanese toilet seat, in-room Keurig, complimentary chocolate square on the bed, and Speakman Rainstream shower fixtures are some of the nicer touches in the room. I had realized during the flight that I had forgotten to pack a charger and cable for my iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Pro, but luckily the front desk happened to have one I could borrow at no charge for the duration of my stay. Wifi is 15 Mbps down, 1 up, which I feel is better than most hotels. Each room has its own wifi access point and probably unique password, so I feel the wifi is relatively more secure than hotels where this is not the case. I rested, refreshed, unpacked, ironed the button-up shirts I had brought, checked in with others, and made plans for the rest of the day. Got excellent info from the front desk. Walked to Coast Capital savings and credit union to withdraw Canadian cash. Walked to and tried to eat at Kaboom Box but found they had just closed in order to attend a different event later that day. Instead I ate from a food truck called Manga Kiss: beef kebab wrap and two orders of watermelon juice: about 20 CAD. Bought some toiletries at London Drugs on Granville Street. Clothes shopping downtown: Hudson's Bay (aka The Bay) including Topman, Swimco, Holt Renfrew, Nordstrom, Boys'co. Of these, Hudson's Bay had the biggest sale—half off lots of Topman items, Holt Renfrew had the fewest swimsuits (I believe it was a total of eight all from the same designer), and Boys'co had the most interesting collection which included things like a puzzle piece tie and a camouflage bow tie—interesting but not my style. Everywhere I was trying to find Orlebar Brown swimsuits but no one had them in the store. (Some stores carried them but only online.) At The Bay I discovered but did not buy beautiful lapel flowers from Hook and Albert. At Holt Renfrew I discovered but did not buy the fetching Thom Browne dog bag in black leather (3325 CAD) and red-white-blue leather. I was also looking for Scotch & Soda items and found them particularly at Boys'co. A salesperson at Nordstrom notified me about the new flagship Scotch & Soda in Richmond Center. Dinner at House Special with Allen, Brian, Tadija, and Tony. Afterwards Brian left the group, Tadija went home to do some work/study, and Allen, Tony, and I got gelato at a nearby gelateria. I chose tiramisu. We hung out in Tony's new second home, a small condo on Homer Street in the same building as Clara's. Others joined as the evening progressed: Markus, Clara, RJ. The gathering was unplanned, and Tony gave me a sippy cup after I accidentally spilled a little of my drink (San Pellegrino Aranciata with SKYY vodka). Walked home probably late. Today was Canada Day, and we found that some smaller shops were closed because of it.