Vancouver Tourism Outing

Today was a staff event day.  Normally we work within the house and concentrate on our guests and making things as perfect as possible.  But we have to know stuff too so today was an exhibition of things about Vancouver put on by the Chef Clef D'Or (Gold Key Concierge) and Tourism Vancouver.  It is held every spring and it is where we can go to find out all the interesting bits of information we can pass on to our guests.  We have bags and bags of brochures and tickets and maps and even a flashing rubber diamond ring from a Casino.  So much to see, so much to know and so many people who are there for our guests all summer and all year long telling us what they do.

After the event we had lunch at the new Cactus Club restaurant at Canada Place / Convention Centre.  Master Chef Rob Feenie was hard at work trying new dishes, pacing the floor, seeing how the food was being appreciated and probably interviewing more staff.  We found out that this 500 seat restaurant has a staff of 300 - our waitress only knew a few of the other wait staff!  The view from our booth was stupendous.  It was of the SeaWall leading away from the Convention Centre, looking at the marina with all its beautiful yachts and sail boats (we didn't see the houseboats till our walk home along the SeaWall) and Stanley Park in the background.  Pretty amazing view.  I think the view was only rivaled by the Helicopter which flew in and landed just a hundred yards or so from the Cactus Club's front door.  The Helicopter had advertising from the Fairmont Hotel Pacific Rim so everyone was speculating about which important personality would be emerging.  When we sat down and saw our view and was greeted by a very friendly server - Tanya S - we lost all interesting in celebrity.  Lunch was very good, my favourite was the Ceviche, although I also had the Quinoa salad because I know so many guests just want a "salad" after traveling all day - well this could be the place to have it!

This evening after Sherry Service I had to get a couple things for breakfast from the corner store.  I took a couple of snaps of the flowers along the way, they are not great photos but if you can see beyond the iPhone camera with a bag of groceries hanging from my write you'll see beautiful Tulips infront of Weeks House and a Cherry Tree in full pink blossom.  It is a glorious time to be in Vancouver.