It has been a busy month, and I find myself flying even when I'm not flying. Nicole's movie got into a film festival in Vancouver, so we made an effort to attend. The nonrev game is not for everyone and a lot of legwork (literally) to get to Vancouver from LAX. Our first priority was a SkyWest flight for United out of terminal 8. It was showing full, so as a backup we would do WestJet leaving 50 minutes later from terminal 3, the furthest point from terminal 8. In spite of this, once we found out for certain that we wouldn't get on United, we made it to the WestJet gate at Terminal 3 just as they were calling our names. Phew. We were sweaty and tired, but had seats (albeit separate). Three hours later, we landed in Vancouver.
We rented a car because if nothing else, it was a place to store our bags the next day as we went to the festival. We drove downtown in some traffic and rain, but eventually arrived at the Le Soleil. It was in a prime location close to the waterfront. After getting settled and grabbing a donut at Tim Horton's, we walked around for a bit. It was dark out already, so it felt much later than it actually was. We walked along the waterfront in light drizzle which slowly increased in its intensity. By the time we got to the Cactus Club (a popular chain restaurant in these parts) we were rather soaked. I splurged and had a steak and a beer. It was actually fairly reasonably priced. After our relaxing dinner, we walked briskly back to the hotel and snuggled in for the night.
The next day, we woke up to even more rain than the previous night. It was an umbrella kind of day. Checkout time was a reasonable 12pm rather than the standard American checkout time of 10am. Since we couldn't really do much outside, we chose to get tickets for Flyover Canada, a large-screen ride that transports you over various landmarks in Canada. Think of it like Soarin' at Disney, except Canada. In fact, it's very likely made by the same company. Instead of scents of oranges sprayed at us, we got smells of pine trees and mists from Niagara Falls. It was about 8 minutes long and probably not worth the price we paid for it, but Nicole was able to get a Canada flag pin to add to her camera bag, so it was all worth it in the end.
After all that, we checked out and drove to Surrey, the location of the film festival. We met with Nicole's composer for lunch and then went to check out the movie at the theater inside a university. It seemed to be received well, and the Indian humor seemed to really hit its mark with the primarily South Asian audience. Nicole did the obligatory schmoozing after the screening, answered a few questions, and we rushed off to the airport, grabbed some Tim Horton's and flew back on WestJet to Los Angeles, where it was 85 degrees.
It has been a busy month, and I find myself flying even when I'm not flying. Nicole's movie got into a film festival in Vancouver, so we made an effort to attend. The nonrev game is not for everyone and a lot of legwork (literally) to get to Vancouver from LAX. Our first priority was a SkyWest flight for United out of terminal 8. It was showing full, so as a backup we would do WestJet leaving 50 minutes later from terminal 3, the furthest point from terminal 8. In spite of this, once we found out for certain that we wouldn't get on United, we made it to the WestJet gate at Terminal 3 just as they were calling our names. Phew. We were sweaty and tired, but had seats (albeit separate). Three hours later, we landed in Vancouver.
