*Lana's Daily Fun Fact*
Vancouver is very similar to Seattle; both are very beautiful and both seemingly have a Starbucks on every corner. If you ever get the chance to visit, there are tons of shops on Robson Street (like Roots) and tourist locales in Gastown (like the Steam Clock on Water Street). Try lunch at Steamworks Brewing Co. Their fries are great!

*Dave's Daily Fun Fact*
Birds in Vancouver are just like birds in the United States: they all want to crap on me. Poor Lana was an innocent bystander. As we crossed a street, we heard "splat, splat, splat." I looked at Lana and she had some crap on her pants. I thought to myself, "Poor thing... lucky it wasn't me!" Then I noticed the crap on my Teva's and pants... then on my North Face jacket sleeve... then on my left shoulder. Needless to say, I was crapped on by birds big time. The take-home message? Don't go anywhere outdoors with me.

We woke up feeling refreshed after a long day of traveling and eager to explore downtown Vancouver. We decided to only go to places we could reach on foot; most of the areas we were interested in were within a 10 block radius anyway. We ate breakfast in an underground food court that connected our hotel with the Fairmont across the street. It was just like the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco: similar types of cuisine and all operated by Asians. After a year in Redlands, we felt right at home. Lana filled up on her usual Venti Cafe Vanilla Frappuccino and we each had a ground beef burrito with tater tots. Only a Korean-owned Mexican restaurant could come up with the gem of teaming a delicious burrito with crunchy tater tots! Pure genius!

After eating, we headed out in search of Roots and the Pacific Center Mall. I know, I know, you're thinking "All they do is shop!" And you're right. All we do is shop... and get crapped on by birds. This is when the infamous "Canadian Bird Attack" occurred and my hatred for all flying fowl boiled over. Luckily we were able to use a Crowne Plaza Hotel restroom to clean up. For some reason, the men's restroom was located almost 100m away from the women's restroom. Do we really smell that bad?

We finally made it to Roots (the only store Lana was really interested in) and purchased up quite a storm. Thank goodness for the awesome exchange rate! I think we "saved" 8 bucks or something like that. Just enough for that appendectomy I was saving up for. The Pacific Center Mall was a disappointment, although we did enjoy a refreshing peach lemonade! When we got back to our hotel room, we were happy to discover our duffel of shoes had made it from Denver. After taking a short breather, we put on more comfortable shoes and headed east to Gastown (how could we ever visit a city and pass up checking out a district named Gastown?). The area reminded us of Powell Street, complete with all the international tourists and local weirdos. The Gastown Steam Clock was an interesting attraction. Billed as the world's first steam-powered clock, it weighs over two tons and chimes out every 15 minutes with a blast of steam (much like me after a hearty burrito dinner).

You may also notice we took a lot of pictures with bears. These bears are located all over downtown Vancouver, each painted up differently. Some were really cool and some were kind of weird. Either way, it's not every day you see bears on street corners. We ate dinner at the Five Sails in our hotel, an excellent 5-star restaurant with a beautiful view. Lana had the pasta and I had the "Prime" Alberta beef. Both were delicious. As we enjoyed a beautiful sunset, we decided to call it a night and get ready for the next day.