A busy day and lunch with friends

Gosh its raining this morning and there are people walking around with umbrellas, so perhaps back to bed, but NO they cried we have things to do.
Following a breakfast in our room comprised of a nice soft roll with marmalade and a banana we had decided to check out how the layout is at the cruise port for when we drop off the car and then go to the boarding gate. We can only board after 14.00 it says on our documents but we must have the car back by midday or we will have to pay for another 24 hours which I do not want to do. The Sat Nav said about 30 minutes to the Port but what with the rain and heavy traffic it took us almost an hour to get there but we believe the SatNav took us the long way around.

Anyway before arriving at the port we went through an area clearly with ‘druggies’ and/or down-and-out’s  before we arrived at Gas Town which is quite an upmarket area to to go from one very poor area to another in less than a few yards is concerning.
Gas Town is “Lively Gastown is known for its whistling Steam Clock and mix of souvenir shops, indie art galleries and decor stores in Victorian buildings. A trendy food and drink scene includes chic cocktail lounges and restaurants serving everything from gourmet sandwiches to local seafood. Hip eateries also dot the neighboring Downtown Eastside area, while the up-and-coming Railtown district is home to edgy fashion studios.” it says on Wikipedia anyway there were lots of people waiting for the Steam Clock to start.
We arrived the Cruise Terminal Car park and located the Car Hire drop off and then parked the car  and caught the lift up to the Cruise terminal floor and asked a very friendly security guy where do they keep the baggage trolleys and for some reason they have been banned??? So what we have to do is drop Jennifer off with the Baggage whilst the driver deposits the car downstairs and leaving the drop off zone and then driving around the outside of the terminal and then re-enter the car park and drop off the car unless I get lost that is.

We then went to meet our Friends at a very nice Steak and Fish restaurant called ‘The Coast’ which is very popular as just about every table was full, where we spent about three hours having a long catch up chat as I had not Holger for many years, perhaps 15 or more and he came with his wife Sylvia and their daughter Lisa and we had a really excellent lunch. We left there about 15.30 and got stuck in some traffic due to road closures and road works and then went to Whole Foods to collect some snack food for tonight’s dinner.
Once we were back at the Hotel Jennifer spent a little while planning her shopping trip for tomorrow where we plan to go the the Richmond Outlet mall and then on to a little fishing port called Steveston and from there hope to have a cuppa with Holger and family.
And so to bed after more sushi for Noel and Jennifer is having a ham and cheese dinner, no doubt taken with a glass of Kirkland plonk