Vancouver, Canada Day 2

Perhaps you remember that a week ago I innocently mentioned my Sciatic nerve to my doctor which resulted in a quite a bit of pain in my back. As the week wore on the pain had subsided some and was more an annoyance rather than a full on issue. I had noticed that the more I walked the better it felt, so I tried to do a lot of walking. As we traveled on Sunday I had a small amount of pain, but I ignored it because I was excited to be on the road with my hubby.

Yesterday, while Mark was working I decided to head out and walk around downtown Vancouver for a while. It was raining so I inquired about an umbrella in the hotel shop and she informed me that they have umbrellas in the closet in each guest's room. My first thought was how nice that was, which was immediately followed by the thought that if they do that, it must rain an awful lot here. I headed up to our room, found the umbrella and headed out for a walk around the city. As I roamed the area I noticed that my back was feeling much better. Towards the end of my walk I found a little market on the corner near our hotel and decided to go in and buy some soup for lunch and maybe some cheese and crackers too.As I headed back to the hotel I realized I was having no pain at all. I even mentioned to Mark when he called that my back was doing much better. I was thrilled! I warmed up my soup and decided to sit on the floor and eat at the coffee table. BIG mistake, after I finished my soup, I went to stand up and TWANG, my back went out! I am now "back" to square one. Today while Mark is working, I will try another tour of the city to see if that will help the back situation any.

Last night when Mark got in from work we walked a bit looking for a place to have dinner. One thing to note if you ever decide to come to Vancouver is that there are no inexpensive places to eat. The food is delicious and the atmosphere in each place is wonderful. I am guessing that Vancouverites are big foodies and that they refuse to skimp when they go out to eat. We stopped into one place and sat at their bar for a drink and looked over their menu and decided to move on. As we walked we came across an Italian restaurant that was above a shop, (This is another thing we have seen a lot of, each street is filled with a variety of shops and then there are restaurants above them). We looked at the menu that was posted outside and decided to check it out. As we went up the stairs, it was like walking into a different world. It was a beautiful restaurant with high class waiters and an extensive expensive menu of delectable Italian cuisine. We ordered a light meal, refused the wine list and skipped dessert and still paid $70.00 for dinner. I told Mark, I did not care, because we might never be back to Vancouver and I want to enjoy our time together.

 After that we headed to our hotel and sat by the fireplace in the hotel lounge and enjoyed a drink and some conversation. At this point we both were thinking it was at least midnight, but no…it was only 8:00 PM.

I am sure my body clock is going to be very out of whack when we get home. That will fit in nicely with my out of whack back won't it? Today is a new day and I intend to find a Mall in this town. Apparently, there is one just up the street, but it is underground. That would explain why I could not find it yesterday. Back pain or no back pain, I will find the Mall today. No Sciatic is going to ruin my trip.