Posted by Andrew Hickey on Mar 8, 2010 in
Guest Nomad,
Travel
Polish Four Man Bobsled Team
This week’s “Guest Nomad” is Amy Pflughaupt. Amy grew up in St. Louis and travels as much as she can in her free time. On her trips, she loves finding the best local coffee and spending time near the ocean. Amy recently returned from a visit to Vancouver to check out the 2010 Winter Olympics. Here is a small recap of her trip.
The Olympics are a grand gathering centered around sports. But as travelers we should appreciate it as a nation’s opportunity to show us everything it has to offer and to teach us about what makes it unique. By doing so it might give us a reason to visit it one day.
Canada definitely took advantage of those opportunities. After spending five days there for the Winter Games late last month, I know I’ll be back again soon.
The public transportation in Vancouver is impressive. It was clean, on-time, and was well-lit with lots of security and volunteers to help you find your way. This was a critical part of making the Olympics the success they were for the Canadians, as it made it easy for spectators to get around in a timely manner and it kept more cars off the roads which cut down on gridlock and pollution.
In between attending Olympic events at Cypress Mountain, Whistler, and BC Place, we relaxed at a couple of excellent Vancouver eateries. First, we tried Lift Bar and Grill near Stanley Park. Even for lunch, it had a great wine list and a great menu. I had the salmon and capped it with a delicious glass of ice wine, the dessert drink Canada has made famous.
Later in the week, we took the advice of a local and ate dinner at the InterContinental restaurant on West Cordova, a place with great ambiance, huge televisions, and excellent sweet potato fries.
And finally, after arriving early at Whistler for the last alpine event, we stumbled upon the Southside Diner. It was a tiny place, but they’ll make one of their famous egg scrambles however you’d like it and their coffee hit the spot on a bleary-eyed morning,
Coffee is something that Vancouver takes seriously and every cup we tried at every restaurant was excellent, especially as we were running around the city, taking in the sights and trying to soak up the Olympic atmosphere as much as we could.
Commercial Drive is especially famous for its countless cafes and coffeehouses. After our last day at Whistler, we tried as many of the coffee places as we could in an hour. We were able to get to seven, a couple of the Italian places and a couple of the free trade cafes. J. J. Bean had great atmosphere and great coffee, but it was Café Calabria that had the most robust and unique tasting espresso I’ve ever tried.
After spending four years planning this trip to the Olympic Games in Vancouver, our short time there lived up to all of my expectations. The city and its people did an amazing job and welcomed all of its visitors with enthusiastic hospitality that we’ll always remember.
If anyone is thinking of planning a trip to a future Olympics and would like help in doing so, feel free to email me, it’s a bigger task than it may look! You can also follow me on Twitter!
Tags: canada, olympics, vancouver
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Feb 14, 2010 in
Travel 
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada's Gastown neighborhood. (Pictured above is a steam clock)
Tags: british columbia, canada, gastown, vancouver, vancouver 2010
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Nov 27, 2009 in
Travel
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
I am writing to you this Friday from the cozy Tarrytown House in Tarrytown, New York. Located about 25 miles outside of the Big Apple, this beautiful hotel is where I will be resting my head for the night. Tomorrow I will be heading back into the city to catch the ACES train for a ride down to Atlantic City to lose some money at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
In the meantime, the results are in for week four’s votes and the last remaining west coast hopeful city has been eliminated. That’s right, no Vancouver vacation for me in early 2010. So we are now down to five cities and it should get interesting as the amount of options gets lower and lower. The winning city will be announced January 1. You can start voting for week 5 now. Here are this weeks results:
1. New Orleans – 36%
2. Montreal - 27%
3. Chicago - 14%
4. Austin - 10%
5. Quebec City – 8%
6. Vancouver - 5%
Tags: austin, chicago, montreal, new orleans, quebec city, vancouver
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Nov 20, 2009 in
Travel
San Francisco: One of the two cities eliminated this week.
Another week of voting has come to an end and this week not one, but two cities were kicked off the island…er I mean eliminated. To just backtrack before I give the results, to show you how unpredictable this voting has become, last week’s favorite city Montreal was in dead last for six out of the last seven days. It was not until late last night that a few votes put the popular Canadian city back in the competition.
Over the last two rounds we saw one west coast city eliminated each week. San Diego was out followed by Seattle. Well the dark cloud of the left coast continues with double elimination due to the bottom cities receiving the same amount of votes. So I will have to part ways with Portland and say sayonara to San Francisco as both were the least voted on cities this week. It is now down to six cities and they are New Orleans, Quebec City, Montreal, Vancouver, Chicago, and Austin. You can start voting now for week four.
Here are the results from week three:
1. New Orleans – 27%
2. Chicago - 18%
3. Vancouver - 16%
4. Austin - 12%
5. Montreal - 10%
6. Quebec City – 7%
7. San Francisco – 5%
7. Portland, OR – 5%
Tags: austin, canada, chicago, illinois, louisiana, montreal, new orleans, oregon, portland, quebec city, san francisco, seattle, texas, vancouver, washington
Posted by Andrew Hickey on Nov 13, 2009 in
Travel 
Another week and another city gets the boot. As I mentioned on Twitter and hear in previous weeks, I am looking to go away in early 2010 and would like for you to help me out with the location.
I am calling it “send me somewhere” and I ask for a single vote each week until nine of the cities have been kicked out and one remains. That final city will be chosen and announced on January 1. For more information on the “send me somewhere” idea just click here.
Now on to this week’s results. While the Emerald City hung on by the skin of it’s teeth in the previous poll, this week Seattle fell flat and was unfortunately the city with the lowest votes.
Two weeks in and two West Coast cities eliminated. No Sleepless in Seattle moment for me I guess. Start voting now for Round 3, with eight cities left the voting should soon start to get really interesting.
1. Montreal - 26%
2. New Orleans – 23%
3. Portland, OR. – 10%
3. Vancouver - 10%
3. Chicago - 10%
6. San Francisco – 6%
6. Quebec City – 6%
6. Austin - 6%
9. Seattle - 3%
Tags: austin, chicago, montreal, new orleans, oregon, portland, quebec city, san francisco, seattle, vancouver
