We left on June 30th to spend the next 10 days in Vancouver British Columbia.  We landed late the night of the 30th, which was actually the morning of the 1st if we had still been in Central Time.  We stayed at the Fairmont YVR airport, which is literally IN the airport... mere steps from exiting through customs.  BEST.THING.WE.EVER.DID.  Seriously.  With a 2 year old at midnight... there is nothing worse than having to rent a car, install a car seat, and try to find your way to a hotel in the dark.  The Fairmont YVR is also a 2 year old boy's dream come true - you can see not only airplanes taking off every 2 minutes from your window, but also the SkyTrain.  They gave my little boy a coupon for milk and cookies room service.  Now that is catering!  After sleeping, we found ourselves in Canada on July 1st.  July 1st is Canada day which is like the USA's Independence Day Holiday.  We hit the celebration on Granville Island for a couple of hours, and then checked out our hotel in downtown Vancouver, the brand new Fairmont Pacific Rim.  Here is the view we had from our room on Canada Day:




We spent the next 3 days exploring downtown Vancouver.  We made it to the Vancouver Aquarium and did some exploring of Stanley Park.  We took the Seabus over to North Vancouver, and we did a little shopping.  You can't beat the view from your window being this as you wake up in the morning.  Why do I live in the midwest again?

Ahh... Vacation.  The mere sound of the word makes you think of cocktails and beaches, leisurely dinners out, and ice cream cones.  At least it does for me.  When I think of vacation, I think of food.  Sad?  Yes.  True?  Yes.  I'm not sure where it comes from, but vacation is the ultimate indulgence, and that means both in terms of accommodations, activities, and FOOD!  This does not however bode well for my insistence on eventually losing a total of 105+ pounds and getting to goal!

Last year I spent a week in Montana visiting my family.  My reward was a 6 pound gain.  I was stunned.  I thought, "How could I have let this happen?"  I blamed my family for feeding my, and pouring wine for me (you know who you are), and I knew that without their "help"  I certainly wouldn't have gained that much weight.  I vowed to never let it happen again.  I was different now. 

Along comes my next vacation.  10 days in British Columbia June 30- July 10.  I had big resolutions for this vacation.  I was going to run.  I was going to bike.  I was going to make the right choices - at least 90% of the time.  It happened... sometimes.  Sometimes, it didn't.  I had the days where I walked 5+ miles... in fact that was most days except the last 2 or so.  I had the days where I made excellent food decisions (last Monday - fruit yogurt for breakfast, salmon spinach salad for lunch with low-fat raspberry vinaigrette, and a smoked salmon brie strawberry pizza on honey whole wheat crust for dinner.  I won't mention the 2 Hefeweizen beers... they don't count, right?).  And I had days with Scones and Gelatos and Fish and Chips.  So I did it both ways.  I thought, maybe I will gain a couple of pounds, no big deal, I can handle that... wrong!  I was up to 5 pounds Sunday morning and this morning on the scale.  WTF?  Sorry, but seriously, WTF?  I was better than last vacation.  My family wasn't around.  Could it be me responsible for this?