The Places Spontaneity Can Take You

On Saturday, Jim and I planned to lay low and take it easy as the next two weekends we’ll be traveling.  At about 3pm, we called some friends to see if they were up for pizza, wine and games night and they responded that they were on the road to Vancouver to go to Vij’s for dinner (click here for my prior Vij’s experience) and did we want to meet them?  Um . . .  YEAH!

It took Jim and I about an hour  to coordinate and confirm.  Once we had committed to the plan I found us a low overnight rate at the Sheraton Wall Centre and packed an overnight bag. 2 hours after the invitation we were off.  2 1/2 hours later we were at the border. 

“What is the purpose of your visit?” 

“Dinner.” 

“Dinner?”  

“Yes.  Dinner.” 

We made it to the hotel in time to check in, drop our bags, freshen up and head over to Vij’s to meet our friends.  True to form we had to wait for a table (Vij’s doesn’t take reservations).  As it was Saturday night the wait was 2 hours!  The genius of Vij’s pass around appetizers while you wait was fully appreciated as was the wine list.  Unfortunately we weren’t monitoring out wine intake very well (ok, at all) so by the time we were seated we were on bottle no. 4 (yep, that would be about 1 bottle per person – do not try this at home). 

For dinner, we started with our favorites:  samosas and mutton kebabs.  We followed up that deliciousness with the Rajasthani style goat Jim and I had enjoyed on our last visit, an organic chicken curry dish that was phenomenal – seriously – and lamb popsicles.  The food was excellent yet again.

After dinner we indulged and introduced our friends to a guilty pleasure we picked up while in Vancouver for the Olympics – Tim Horton’s maple creme donuts (think Boston creme with maple instead of chocolate on top).  SOOOO good.  We parted ways around midnight and headed back to our respective hotels. 

Despite – or maybe because of  – a restless night of sleep (I do not sleep well when excess alcohol has been consumed), I was up early and while Jim headed out to the gym, I worked on a project that was due at work the next day (I had tried to go to hot yoga but had the class times mixed up and so missed the class).  We ended our stay with brunch by the Vancouver Art Museum and a quick stroll down Robson.  Then it was back in the car to Seattle and a 5:15 acupuncture appointment. 

Total time in Vancouver: 18 hours. 

Things I learned: Planned right, Vancouver is a very doable overnight from Seattle (leave early to get there, return late).

Would I do it again?  ABSOLUTELY!