“All my bags are packed
I’m ready to go” – Leaving on a Jet Plane, by John Denver

Our bed and all our kitchen stuff got picked up yesterday afternoon, going to the guest suite of a delightful young Hispanic couple, so with nowhere to sleep we booked 2 hotel nights in Richmond prior to boarding our Swissair flight to Switzerland.

Hotels in the Greater Vancouver Area are crazily expensive; even a Days Inn rings in at almost $200CAD per night after taxes. It was really nice to have Expedia points to use for our stay, and is one of the reasons we consistently use our Expedia agent for cruises, and the app for all-inclusive vacations, hotel stays, and car rentals. All that said, the hotel itself is “okay”. As Ted says, we’re only sleeping here. On the down side, the lobby is tiny and dated, dominated by a couple of industrial style vending machines, there is carpet everywhere, and the cleaning products leave a slightly off-putting disinfectant odour behind (although that may be just to my nose, since Ted didn’t seem to notice). Fortunately there are a lot more up sides: it’s clean; the staff are friendly; there’s 24/7 coffee; the pristine bathroom has good water pressure plus really nice Dove brand soaps and shampoo; and the king sized bed is comfy.

---

The hotel is just a 4 minute walk from the Bridgeport Skytrain station, but since it was raining we went a couple of extra stops to the airport itself and took advantage of a dry ride, with a very chatty personable hotel shuttle driver. We’ll use the shuttle service again to return us to the airport for our flight out.

Knowing that we’re headed into a week of incredibly delicious and decadent food, we opted for a quick light meal and walked across the street to SubWay for their new Suprimo sandwiches, loaded with spicy Genoa salami, capicola, pepperoni, ham, and mozzarella cheese, and toasted to melty goodness before being custom garnished for us with lots of jalapeños. Then it was a football game on TV and a really early night to make up for the fact that neither of us have been sleeping well this past week leading up to our move. There’s been too much on our minds, I guess – not the least of which was worrying on behalf of our grandkids who’ll be in a new community and new school right before Christmas.

Breakfast was pretty typical budget hotel fare, with a self-serve waffle machine in addition to yogurt, bagels, fruit, and hot & cold cereals – no eggs or bacon/sausage, but we rarely eat those from a hotel breakfast bar anyway. A pleasant surprise was that the machine-dispensed coffee was better than expected.

---

So … what to do with a free day in Richmond? Something we never do except when “on vacation”: walk around an outlet mall!

Just a couple of Skytrain stops from the hotel is McArthur Glen Outlets, with 90 designer stores arranged as a pseudo-European-style “village”. We weren’t in the market to buy anything other than espresso-based coffees and maybe lunch, but strolling the shops was a way to get in some steps, and it’s a pretty place; we’ve admired the architecture of the centre each time we’ve passed it en route to the airport.

---

Despite actively planning NOT to shop, we ended up in the Icebreaker merino outlet and bought Ted five 100% merino tops, which were not only a good deal but are far more suitable for our travel lifestyle than his cotton and lycra blend tees and pullovers. The problem of no empty space in our luggage was solved by leaving behind (to be donated) an equal number of his old tops.

The outlet mall decorations were our first taste of Christmas decor this season. While much more understated than what we’ll be experiencing later this week, it was lovely nonetheless.

---

The mall actually advertises itself as the perfect place to spend a long airport layover. The planes headed for the nearby runways fly over so low that it almost seems would-be shoppers could be jettisoned directly into the promenade!

---

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching from our hotel room window as planes took off for destinations all over the globe. One more quick dinner, one more early night, and tomorrow we too will be winging our way to our next adventure.