The Jeebs's Big Day Out

Yesterday we drove our little car (now complete with Six! Hundred! Dollar! SURPRIIIIISE! Snow Tires!) all to a Sky Train station in a far away land and rode that choo-choo to down town Vancouver.  There we walked half a dozen blocks to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre where we thought we'd be seeing the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra perform a Lord of the Rings Symphony.  (I was also super-jazzed because the Vancouver Christmas Market - originally delayed from opening due to an explosion/fire on opening day and not set to open until after our Big City Visit - was slated to open right next door to the QET.)

So!  We walked from the Sky Train station down to the Queen E and noticed the box office was still closed, despite notices stating that it would open two hours before performances.  Weird: it's already 1pm...  We decided to go grab lunch (Fatburger for the first time: HOLY MONSTROUS BURGERS, BATMAN!  O_O  They were good - and fast! - though.) to kill some time.  When we got back to the Queen E at 1:40pm, the box office *still* wasn't open.  "Are you sure we're supposed to pick the tickets up at the box office?" enquired Chebbar.  "Yes!" I declared, confidently, as I whipped out the print-out and showed it to him.  "Uh, honey?  This says it's at The Orpheum... "  "WHAT?!?  D:  "

Yeah.  I have NO IDEA how the hell I missed the fact that it was at a completely different theater - NO CLUE! And here we are, down town Vancouver with nary a smart phone between us and no way to figure out WHERE The Orpheum is, never mind how far away we are (country bumpkin tourists much?).  (And yes, I *know* we could have ASKED someone, but apparently we were both sharing the same non-direction-asking-man-brain.)  Luckily for us, a friend WITH a smart phone was also attending the symphony and he was able to tell us that we were mere blocks from the locale.  BLOCKS!

With 15 minutes to spare, we started speed walking in the correct direction.  Unfortunately, said (*cough*male*cough*) friend is also directionally challenged and had advised us to go LEFT when we should have gone RIGHT.  When we realized our mistake (now with 7-ish minutes to spare), we started hot-footing it the correct way.  Except have I mentioned I'm having some sort of BS "asthmatic reaction" to my now-defunct sinus infection?  Yeah, expensive puffer (that I'm only supposed to use morning and night, so it was at home) and all.  Needless to say, that coupled with the cold temperature was making it vereee, vereee difficult for poor little Chibi to breathe, scaring the pants off of poor little Chebbar (not literally: don't worry).

Guess what?  We made it there, picked up our tickets, found our seats, and flopped gratefully down with seconds to spare.  SECONDS!  Of course, we were both huffing and puffing like we were going to have heart attacks at any moment, but that's beside the point: obviously we were meant to see this production (and not waste a large amount of money ONE MONTH BEFORE CHRISTMAS).  Performance was wonderful!  The Orpheum is beautiful!  Hooray!  We then walked back up to the Queen E and the Christmas Market, where I bounced around like a child on Christmas morning while we stood in line...

...yeah, not quite what I had expected.  There were tons of food and drink stalls, a stage in the center for the traditional German dancers, a craft section for the kiddies, and a handful of booths of vendors selling their wares (there was also a sizeable tent filled with what looked like Christmas tree ornaments, but the line up was large and I was disappointed (and therefore cranky).  We ended up leaving within about 10 minutes.  :-s (My parents are supposed to go in the next week or two: I'm not sure whether to warn them, or let them form their own opinions.  *meep!*)

We took the Sky Train back to where we had left our trusty little chariot and went to East Side Mario's for dinner (seriously, if there's one near-ish you and you appreciate Italian cuisine and/or you're not a hater of humanity, you MUST go at least once - everyone who has gone on our recommendation has LOVED it.  Bottomless soup or (Caesar!) salad!  Never-ending fresh garlic loaf!  Cheesy "Italian" decor!).  We even got dessert to go.

Awesome day.  Just awesome (even with the almost losts and wannabe asthma attacks and killer backaches from hell).  Very happy Jeebseseseses.  :)