First Photos from Canada

Mind you, I shot most of these amidst agonizing pain. The rest, the pain was only mildly dreadful.

Classic mid-50's architecture right outside our window, beautifully contrasting with the Maple Leaf.

Gastown, the founding neighborhood of the city at the bottom of the hill from here. The clock is steam-powered and performs a tune at each hour.

The gate to Chinatown, the neighborhood just south of Gastown and just east of our hotel.

Apparently, there's a terra touristica non-grata in the couple blocks between Gastown and Chinatown - where the druggies and homeless populate. Kinda like Portland, between Pioneer Courthouse Square and the Greyhound station... well, that's the easiest grade back uphill. We went through it without realizing...

After we got back to the hotel, finally got our room, and I'd had a few quality hours with the ice pack, the three of us went downstairs to look around our own block. There's an IGA supermarket on the ground floor, and a number of excellent hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants all within a stone's throw. Looks like we're going to have some more good eating!

Our room is equipped with a full kitchen, so we picked up some basics to make our own breakfasts. We love to snoop around grocery stores wherever we go; especially moreso when outside the country.

Hey, isn't that New Brighton's own Old Dutch Potato Chips? Why yes, they're a leading brand in Canada!

You have to appreciate the honesty of a country that tells kids and parents exactly what the deal is with their breakfast cereal. No sugar-coating the truth here; erm, well, yes, precisely. Sugar-coating it is. We Americans can't handle the historical truth of what this cereal came from and what it stood for!

And to those English-only proponents, what are you afraid of? After all, General Petraeus is in charge of the NATO brigade in Afghanistan; shouldn't the Cap'n know how to talk with our allies as well? Frankly, I think it'd be a better cereal-eating experience if it were packaged in French back in the States! C'est crounchifique!